BandLab support info

Musicman762
Hi. Long-time Cakewalk/Sonar User here...

1) Bugs!!! They all must go... It is a matter of integrity and should be any companies top priority, especially for software that has been around as long as Sonar has... and which has been under constant development (aka: Rolling Updates) since Sonar X1.

2) MIDI - Back in the day when Memory, Processing, and Storage were expensive, much was done to improve the way MIDI functioned to produce AUDIO. Now that the aforementioned is relatively cheap, it seems much of the development in the past 15 or so years has gone towards improving Audio, which is not a bad thing but I’m afraid MIDI development has been neglected. There are keyboards being manufactured now without MIDI ports, which is a shame since MIDI, from it’s conception, was supposed to be about standardization and compatibility. FINE, add a USB jack but leave the MIDI Jacks, so we have compatibility with our vintage gear! Now with MPE and IOS integration...how quickly we forget.

3) Specifically, LOGIC, or at least in the old days, before Apple, their used to be an “Environment” page where there were all these different objects you could drag and connect with your mouse...It gave you a very visual oversight as to what was going on ROUTING wise (Again, mainly for MIDI) but you could easily route a multi channel instrument and split it to various destinations and be able to actually have a good idea what is happening when you open a project you completed 6 months ago... I don’t have a MAC so I’m not sure how they are doing it today but I believe SONAR, or whatever the name is going to be, would greatly benefit...much as the Skylight Interface helped to visualize a Recording Environment, in a system where anything can be virtually routed to almost anywhere, this sort of virtual patch bay/wiring diagram I believe is a necessity. Frankly, I’m surprised nobody has thought to include this GUI. The Track/Arrangement view is not the ideal place for it and frankly, with the Patch Points and Auxillary connections, it actually clutters that screen, though the idea of adding the connection points is needed, you should be able to just drag a line from one object to another and then back again...

4) Get rid of the dead weight... Personally, the .cal scripts never did nothing for me and though the rest of the platform has been developed consistently, .cal and the instrument configurations have not been updated for several major releases. I appreciate application integration if it helps with performance, otherwise, it’s just one more place for something to go wrong and crash the whole Program...

5) Control Surfaces - This needs to be on the leading edge, with all the new generation controllers that are now available (E.G. Roli Seaboard). It would be great if someone would produce a mapping system that actually worked...or one that could be easily assembled by again dragging objects (faders, knobs, switches, buttons, etc) and assignigning them to hardware counterparts. That way you don’t have to wait for a template to be made for every one of a gazillion devices one may want to control. I’m sure that would probably require a collaborative effort but I see it as being very do-able and essential.

I could be living in a Virtual World, but that’s the way I see it...in Detail....

go start you're own company

I copied the text below from a newsletter I receive from the MIDI Manufacturers Association.  While Cakewalk had a strong relationship with Microsoft until the very end the relationship, if any, it had with the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) was not as visible.  As the MMA plans to update the MIDI specification I hope BandLab will join the association to add its voice to what features and visions it wants the standard to support.
 
Note, MIDI users can sign up for the newsletter and join the MMA for free at the association's website:  https://www.midi.org
 
Planned Major Update to MIDI Technology Attracts New Members to the MMA

The MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) announced that Ableton, Aodyo, Audio Modeling, Art and Logic, Melodics, Mind Music Labs, Native Instruments, OnSong, RnD64, and TouchKeys have joined the MMA to collaborate with other hardware and software developers on extending the power of MIDI technology. The planned update to the MIDI specification will support new levels of musical expression and make electronic instruments easier to configure and use.Standardised in 1983, MIDI 1.0 has adapted over the years to support evolving operating systems and data transmission protocols. This new initiative updates MIDI with auto-configuration, new DAW/Web integrations, extended resolution, increased expressiveness, and tighter timing -- all while maintaining a high priority on backward compatibility. This major update of MIDI will support the development of a new generation of interconnected devices, and preserve the relevance of existing MIDI 1.0 devices.“Our goal is to assemble a diverse group of companies of different sizes and business models and help them come to consensus on how to make their products interoperable using MIDI technology,” explained Tom White, President of the MMA. Any company can join the MMA to participate and keep abreast of developments of MIDI.

With Key switches / articulations becoming more prevalent in VSTi's, it would be great if the PRV could be enhanced to cope with these.
 
The sort of thing I was thinking about is:

• You'd define your key switches in a similar way to a drum-map, giving them names etc.
• The key switch area would appear between the velocity/controller view and the main PRV - like a split window (a bit like those code editors that have the split bar you can drag down to split the editor horizontally in two for the same file).
• This key switch view would be "sticky" in that it would remain visible & vertically focused on the key switch range regardless of vertical scrolling of the rest of the PRV. It could be minimised/hidden if necessary. 

So what you'd get is a normal PRV at the top, immediately below it would be a drum style key switch area, then below that you'd get your normal velocity/controller view.
 
The velocity/controller area would behave as normal - i.e. it would treat both the PRV & the key switch area as if it was a normal single PRV view. 
 

This is awesome! Thank you for this.
 
Here is my contribution:
 
1. Better VST compatibility (example: Antares Auto-Tune series).
2. More cleaner and simplified GUI. (example: less layers, lines, colors - better color scheme)
3. Simplicity continued: More streamlined software design.
4. Better hardware compatibility.
5. BUGS!!! There are so many still that distract you and hinder your workflow.
 
I think that should get some special attention aside from new features etc. 

Samuel540
...1. Better VST compatibility (example: Antares Auto-Tune series)...

 
FYI a workaround for the Antares series is to use the VST2 versions instead of VST3.
 

It would be nice to copy and paste an effect from a track fx bin to an other track fx bin mantaining the same tweakining.

lapasoa
It would be nice to copy and paste an effect from a track fx bin to an other track fx bin mantaining the same tweakining.

ctrl-drag-drop isn't it?

Yeah...It's true. I forgot it. Thanks Pwalpwal.

Very happy with all you have.  But since you asked ...
 
User customization for mackie control please.