Gibson kills off Cakewalk

[Wire57]

Hi.
Thanks for being here.
I have been a Cakewalk user way back to the clean MIDI-only version Cakewalk 8, changed to Sonar 4, upgraded later to Sonar 8, then to SONAR X1, X3, and currently (still using) Sonar Professional. (Parallel to that long history, I had tried out PT LE 8.0.5 way back around 2010 (since when I am in this forum), and simultaneously Sibelius, currently active with version 8.7.2.
Upon the (addmittedly shocking) announcement that Gibson killed off Cakewalk I decided to resume working with ProTools, having the current version 12.8.2 now.
1) I'd have been happy to see that AVID would have some interest in Cakewalks SONAR. As it is not on the market anymore, I will not go for advertizing a competitor here, but I admit I love it for it's almost intutitive workflow I have grown familiar to, and which offered me fine results.
2) Consequently, please excuse me, dear members, for posting a lot of dummy questions how to get started with my new ProTools. :-/ I recall that ProTools is "speaking a very different language" from SONAR, which is also the reason why I hesitated so long to run ProTools and SONAR in the last period of time. I am almost a newbie here.
3) A second reason to swith to ProTools was for me that I am using Sibelius (8.7.2) very much currently, and I found it natural then to slowly replace my SONAR DAW to this ProTools DAW.
4) Please, can you give me the best link to a (relatively) "easy to catch" introduction to ProTools 12, really from scratch, so that I can make some progress.
5) One basic question about technics right here, please. Which kind of virtual instrument plugins does ProTools 12 run? Is this still limited to RTAS only, or ar VST instruments going well here (as even some Cakewalk-specific machines work along with Sibelius, I might dare to add)?
Thanks for informing me.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Wire57

Hi.
Thanks for being here.
I have been a Cakewalk user way back to the clean MIDI-only version Cakewalk 8, changed to Sonar 4, upgraded later to Sonar 8, then to SONAR X1, X3, and currently (still using) Sonar Professional. (Parallel to that long history, I had tried out PT LE 8.0.5 way back around 2010 (since when I am in this forum), and simultaneously Sibelius, currently active with version 8.7.2.
Upon the (addmittedly shocking) announcement that Gibson killed off Cakewalk I decided to resume working with ProTools, having the current version 12.8.2 now.
1) I'd have been happy to see that AVID would have some interest in Cakewalks SONAR. As it is not on the market anymore, I will not go for advertizing a competitor here, but I admit I love it for it's almost intutitive workflow I have grown familiar to, and which offered me fine results.
2) Consequently, please excuse me, dear members, for posting a lot of dummy questions how to get started with my new ProTools. :-/ I recall that ProTools is "speaking a very different language" from SONAR, which is also the reason why I hesitated so long to run ProTools and SONAR in the last period of time. I am almost a newbie here.
3) A second reason to swith to ProTools was for me that I am using Sibelius (8.7.2) very much currently, and I found it natural then to slowly replace my SONAR DAW to this ProTools DAW.
4) Please, can you give me the best link to a (relatively) "easy to catch" introduction to ProTools 12, really from scratch, so that I can make some progress.
5) One basic question about technics right here, please. Which kind of virtual instrument plugins does ProTools 12 run? Is this still limited to RTAS only, or ar VST instruments going well here (as even some Cakewalk-specific machines work along with Sibelius, I might dare to add)?
Thanks for informing me.

The last version of PT to support RTAS was PT10 so any plugins you currently have will have to be upgraded to have aax64 support. Not all plugins from back then may have support for aax64. PT12 uses only aax64 format plugins. PT never has and never will support vst or au format plugins. You can use them inside PT but you need something like Blue Cat Patchwork which will host the vst or au plugin inside it; Patchworks goes in an insert slot in PT like any other plugin.

BTW before we go any further au is a plugin format on Macs.

Back to using Sonar's plugins inside PT or any other daw. This is where it gets sticky. If the plugin is actually part of the Sonar program program itself then that plugin can't be used in any other daw. Cakewalk did do some plugins that are sold separate from the Sonar program that you may be able to use in PT if said plugin has aax64 support. I know a couple of the synths like Z3TA were released as separate plugs usable in other daws than Sonar. This is where it gets sticky - depending on how you got those plugs they may be locked to Sonar only.

As far as PT tutorials take a look at Groove 3; they're not free but they do tend to be worth the money spent. They do have sections of the tutorials available for free to give you a taste for how they look. Hint: if they look good to you you may want to spring for a yearly membership and usually around this time of year they have membership specials. Otherwise I'd say take a trip through YouTube. Can't give specific links - just search for yourself.

[Wire57]

Hi Jack,
thanks for your fast reply.
I was trying out some things and, following some of the vids in YouTube (alas, the demonstrator has a MAC, not PC, but anyway....) I found out quite a bit, enough to have courage to go on.
When assigning an instrument plugin to an instrument track, I noticed Cakewalks "Rapture Session", and "Rapture Pro", and Z3TA popping up in the list. Im my Test session, I had to find however, that 2 instances of "Rapture Pro" are clashing, that is, only one of them will create sounds, the other one remains muted, even though I set both instruments as "multitimbral". I'll have to find out about that.
But for today I am happy, I got some sounds!
It seems I will also have to check out if my MBox2 Micro (which came with my old PT LE 8 box) will still be of use, as my soundcard is being accepted as audio engine. Maybe I remobe it from the USB-hub and insert it in a single USB slot and check again.
So far for today.
Good night from good old Europe.

[Wire57]

Ok, the MBox2 Micro will remain in the sideboard. Even if I connect it to a primary USB-slot (no hub, that is), it does not show up when I check the settings. Ok, makes things easier. Every sound output through my soundcard.
Making fine progress by "playing around", finding out that the effects I add to an instrument really work. Next will be trying out how to realize sidechain effects: Instrument goes to effect 1, parallel to effect 2. (The "serial" effect chain is easier.)
Then, automatizing should be the next step. And then, mastering. (Oh, they had so nice stuff in Sonar. Got to check if some of those pop up in the list of AAX-plugins.
So I am optimistic that after some more training I will be able to work with PT as I did before with Cakewalks Sonar.

[Wire57]

@nsureit , posted 11-26-2017, 07:30 AM
thanks for this goodie, I bookmarked that link to find it. Got quite a bunch of Sonar projects I sooner or later might wish to review in PT.

[Wire57]

Thanks again, I think I'll buy that Blue Cat (currently, 2017-DEC-10, at EUR 99,-). There are short YouTube demos of how to use. Cool.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Wire57

Thanks again, I think I'll buy that Blue Cat (currently, 2017-DEC-10, at EUR 99,-). There are short YouTube demos of how to use. Cool.

Be aware that Patchwork won't run 32 bit plugins in a 64 bit host like PT. You'd need some kind of bridge program like jbridge for Windows.

[Wire57]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Be aware that Patchwork won't run 32 bit plugins in a 64 bit host like PT. You'd need some kind of bridge program like jbridge for Windows.

Thankx for this one, musicman691, seems the cat could have made me blue. They did not say that so clearly.
I'll have to look for jbridge.

B.T.W. Garritan comes fine in PT, I just had to de- and then reinstall the most recent Aria player, checking the .aax box in the installer, and update the engine in the Aria standalone before resuming my stuff in PT.
Now I have access to all my Garritans, and even better, the Aria player also loads .sfz files. 2 solutions in one strike and no additional money spent. Very cool.

[Wire57]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Be aware that Patchwork won't run 32 bit plugins in a 64 bit host like PT. You'd need some kind of bridge program like jbridge for Windows.

Getting things clearer now, musicman691. Thankx again. I need jbridge AND BlueCat.
Do you / does anyone here know, if ProTools 12 has built-in support for jBridge? Cakewalks Sonar does, so I hope so.

[Top Jimmy]

Originally Posted by Wire57

does anyone here know, if ProTools 12 has built-in support for jBridge?

It does not. If Avid doesn't support VST, it most definitely wouldn't support jbridge.




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