Reporting the automated mute envelope bug in SHS4 to Cakewalk

ORIGINAL: boten

I thought it was something wrong with my setup, every time automated mute was applied it would ignore it. So yes, I think it is either a bug or an unjustifiable downgrade from HS2004. Question that has to be asked.

Since I have found someone who has also experienced this problem, let's notify Cakewalk about it. I for one can do without the workaround for something that worked flawlessly in an earlier version of the program.

I had started a thread a few weeks ago asking if it's reproducible on other people's system but got no reply. Here's the original post:

I was arranging and mixing a project and decided on two tracks to silence certain parts. I right licked in the clips pane of each track and chose Envelopes > Create Track Envelopes > Automated Mute. A yellow envelope was launch in each instance. I then created nodes and manipulated the envelopes over the parts that I wanted to mute. Played the project and everything worked as it should except when the parts were muted you're suppose to see a small yellow square pop up by the mute button on each track in the track pane. As long as the parts were being muted I figure things were okay. Saved the project, closed SHS4, and turned off my computer at the end of the session. Later, I returned to continue working on the project; launch SHS4; clicked on the name of the project file in the File Menu to bring it up. I was then greeted with a WARNING: Certain data elements contained in this file are not supported by Sonar Home and cannot be displayed. To preserve your original data, you will need to save this file under a new, different file name. Data altered or removed include: Muted clips were un-muted. I clicked OK and the project came forth. Low and behold, the automated mute envelopes that I created were gone. This thing worked perfectly in HS2004. I know there is a Mute Clip feature in Sonar 4, but it seems to me Cakewalk decided not to include that feature in SHS4 and ended up disabling the Automated Mute Envelope although you can create it. The were two workarounds to solve this problem. The first was to use the volume envelope, but I didn't want to deal with that at this stage of mixing because if I decided to alter the volume fo the track, I would have to painstakingly edit each node. The second, which I chose, was to split the clips just before the data I want to mute and slip edit them in order to silence them.

E-mail sent.

Update on my reporting this problem to Tech Support. I got an e-mail reply, but they miss the gist of the problem. I was told to first go to the Track Menu and check Show Automated Mutes. Okay, that works fine. When parts of the track are muted, the M on the yellow mute button in the Track Pane turns from black to light gray. However, the problem still exists when you save, exit SHS4, and try to re-open the project intact. The warning box still appears and the mute envelope disappears with the parts unmuted.
I had to fire-off another e-mail to Tech Support, but the annoying thing is you cannot directly reply to the e-mail sent you. I had to go again to the Tech Support page and fill out the form in order to send that second e-mail.

The warning box still appears and the mute envelope disappears with the parts unmuted.

That is exactly the point. Automated mute is possible to define in a project, however, the problem araises when you try to open a file which has automated mute.

Cakewalk: any solution for this bug?? (hoping it is a bug)

The problem is that Cakewalk is very quiet on this forum. Probably needs to be reported again to the Technical support team.

I haven't heard from them a second time as yet.

Well guys, here's an update I got from tech support today.

"This is a known issue and should be fixed in SONAR 5 and possibly
SONAR 4.4."

I'm assuming he meant Sonar HS 4.I wanted to thank him for the quick response,but you can't reply to the e-mail he sent.

Anyway,there it is for those of you interested.

Frank

Let's keep our fingers cross and hope we have a fix.

Chances are slim, if this last email is any indication.

The only sense I can make out of it is the guy actually DID mean "SONAR 5 and possibly SONAR 4.4". Sounds like he didn't realized that you're talking about "Sonar Home Studio" and not "Sonar, the expensive one" - maybe Cake's new naming scheme even has THEM confused. At least, I sincerely HOPE the guy isn't telling you to wait until next year, when they release the new version of Sonar Home Studio...

But if that's the case, there are two problems: 1) The upcoming update for Sonar is actually SONAR 4.0.4, and NOT "SONAR 4.4", and 2) Sonar doesn't have the problem, just Sonar Home Studio.

I suspect you got your email answered by a brand-new tech support guy who doesn't know his marglar from a marglar in the marglar...

Automated mute envelopes work fine in Sonar. The users would have been up in arms if it had been broken. And it is obviously broken, not disabled - if they had meant to disable it, you wouldn't even be able to draw the envelope. This problem only manifests when opening a previously-saved project - there's no way that's by design.

I guess it's possible,but in my e-mail I provided a link to this thread,and due to the fact they make you put in your product serial # in the questionaire......I don't feel he should be confused about my software.That's ASSUMING he actually bothered to follow the link to the forum from HIS companies site.

For now I'm just using volume envelopes like I used to.They work fine.I also save the original copies of tracks,so if for some reason I had to absolutely mute a part,I'd cut out and delete it that section.I guess it's not perfect,but as much as I've run into this problem for my work method,it's not too big a deal.


Frank