There had been this one glitch that had crept into my audio production that I had been working around for months.

In Sonar 6 certain plugin went missing from plugin menus. So we had gotten this great plugin manager but I was losing menu access to a lot of my favorite plugin instruments. I first noticed with microTonic, a synth I use a lot. I could see it in the list of installed VSTs, and I could add it to the menu editor. But in the actual menu they just weren’t showing up. Oatmeal & V-Station were two others I know of off the top of my head that went MIA. I could get to some through track templates (yea for remembering to create them), but some were apparently lost. to Sonar. I was hoping 7 would be the magic number and it would all be good. Nope.

And not only that, there were a lot of ghost plugins showing up in the Sonar plugin manager and SoundForge, listed weirdly, some of which probably dated back to when I was using the fxpansion VST wrapper.

Yet I was hesitating going back to a completely blank slate, wiping the system and buiding from scratch. Why? A lot of reasons I suppose: because it would have been tedious reinstalling all my plugins - digging out installers, updates - not to mention having to reregister a whole lot of ‘em, but also because I was just curious to see if I could figure out what was wrong.

So in frustration, I ripped all my versions of Sonar off the computer, along with a whole lot of old software. Old Project 5. All those versions of Sonar I had going back to version 2 - outta there. Gone. I didn’t touch my plugins too much, including Dimension Pro and Rapture, but I washed the registry several times with two different registry cleaners, including by hand. I was careful but thorough.

But no luck. The plugins were still not showing up in the menus and the ghost registry entries were still there.

So I started thinking of strategies to clean out my plugin folder. I knew there was a lot of detritus in there. I’m pretty good at deleting what I don’t want, but it was way too easy to tuck stuff out of the way and not really think about it. Freebies I thought might be cool, mag-ware I might have used once or twice, some of lesser SynthEdit creations. I whittled it down to just the commercial plugins and the free/donation-ware I know works and use a lot. I created a 2nd vst folder that sits right next to the current where I moved everything else. So I can still use these miscellaneous VSTs in other programs; perhaps bring some into Sonar using eXT as a plugin. I also tossed any overall folder structure (”c:\program files\audio_plugins\instruments\samplers\..”) and went with just splitting them up by developer and project (”c:\program files\audio_plugins\u-he\zebra2\..”).

Then, with the very helpful configuration information that the Plugin Manager provides, I used a block of CLSID numbers to ferret out where they were sitting in my registry. (I used Registrar Lite 5.5.1 if it’s helpful.) Just a huge block of dead info. So scappled it out. Did a complete update on XP (using the quasi-illegal post-SP2 updater).

So now my Sonar 7 is a lean, mean plugin machine.

Seriously, it’s easier sorting through them, rescanning them, changing properties, and the whole plugin manager just operates faster. Whatever your platform, whatever your host, I highly advocate getting a good handle on what’s going on in your plugin directory.

I’m not a big advocate of moderation when it comes to plugins - whatever you can afford, why not? - but there is something both cathartic and useful in really simplifying your plugin structure.

Here’s the deal. Wandered into a pawn shop - Ooo, look gear! - and stumbled upon a Korg Polysix. I would very much like to keep this instrument. I gave them $350 out the door, with 7 day full refund. And, sure enough, it’s afflicted by a well known defect with a battery leaking onto a circuit board. When it’s plugged in the lights go all wonky and it makes no sound. The analog lights seem to track okay, but anything with the digital memory is hosed.

I can try to fix myself using these very comprehensive directions:
Old Crow’s Synth Shop: Korg Polysix Upgrade/Repair Overview
(Note: this kind of site is why I love the web sometimes.)

Or I can try to find someone to fix it - I’m comfortable removing the board from the housing. And cleaning up the rest of the instrument.

I could probably find someone who would walk me through it if I had to.

But I need to figure out how much I’m willing to pay the pawn shop for a non-working Polysix.

Any thoughts on this?

Cheers for the help.

Note: Cribbed from a post I’m sure I’ll put on a few boards.

Further Note:
I knew about the battery thing before I bought it. I did leave the shop and read up on it. So I knew what I was getting into. But I figured with money back it was worth a gamble.

I’m think $50, maybe $100.

Cheers to synthmuseum.com for the advert.

Album:
Silent Alarm Remixed

Artist:
Bloc Party

Lable/Year:
Vice, 2005

How I Came by It/Why I Purchased It:
You know if I was younger by 15 years I would have loved Bloc Party. As it is, I appreciate what is tight and inventive and familiar about them but I’ve heard this band so many times by this point it’s not like they’re that original. So I never felt the need to buy the album.

But an album re-envisioned as a remixes. That sounded cool, so I got it at the New Release discount price.
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Well, what were you gonna do with that money anyway?

link via gearslutz.

Not my particular poison but people swear by it. So this seems helpful, right?

Still don’t get the name, but, whatever.

Here’s a little improvement uncovered via the pig-pile which are the Sonar forums right now:

If you import audio via a menu (as opposed to using the Audio Browser, or dragging it in from Windows Explorer) - which is super easy because an “Import Audio/MIDI” has been added to your right-click menu - you can audition loops directly from the import dialog. Very handy.

And from the keyboard of Bob Damiano, one of the principle engineers, there are these less-heralded features:

Clips View:

* Peak markers are transparent. You can see your waveforms thru them now.
* Clip Names can be transparent. There is an INI flag to turn this on. (good excuse to read the Readme)

PRV/Inline PRV:

* Note overlap indication / hit testing improvements: When notes overlap in time, you can “see thru” them when the mouse is over them so none of the edges get totally hidden. The mouse tools will even find completely covered notes by prioritizing note edges over note middles.
* New selection mode on toolbar: When you select a note(s), any CCs within the time span of that note(s) also get selected. lets you move CCs and Notes together.

That last one is particularly useful.

That I’ll keep this going as I uncover ‘em.

Find any yet?

Edit:

Ah the motherload! After the jump a huge list of (most likely implemented changes and fixes) via Noel Borthwick, another principle engineer.

So if you haven’t visited the Read Me file or weren’t on the development team here’s some of what you might have missed:

Note: This list is not official. So don’t try to hold Cakewalk accountable for any discrepancies between this and the release version.

Complete unedited list after the jump.

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The AudioDamage plugin bonanza continues. This one is called Fluid. It is a chorus.

“A chorus” I hear you say. Shrug, right. Well apparently not. If you read this page on Chris’s analogindustries site you’ll see it’s all about a lushness of sound that you don’t hear recreated very often, and apparently mostly exists in high-end boutique gear. I mostly know it from crappy guitar pedals, so this may be a treat.

I’m just acting as a conduit for marketing at this point since I haven’t tried it. But, as with these completely reasonable prices, really, why not? I have a job. And no kids. Is it the missing quality that will give my music the sheen it so desperately cries out for. Unlikely, but I bet it sounds great on vocals.

And in the above thread Chris lets drop that the next in the trilogy will be “Vapor” and I have no idea what that will be other than to make things sound airy. I can’t imagine they’re doing an exciter.

Album:
Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts [Enhanced]

Artist:
M83

Lable/Year:
Mute, 2004

How I Came by It/Why I Purchased It:
To be honest, I think I first read about M83 on pitchfork.com. A couple of MP3 online was enough to convince me. I looked for a while to find this used and snapped it up when I did.
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Album:
For Nearby Stars

Artist:
VPN

Lable/Year:
Evil Teen, 2001

How I Came by It/Why I Purchased It:
Through an odd set of circumstances not worth going into here, I was friends with Austin and his band/siblings in my last years in NYC. Great people. Great band. I had fallen out of touch by the time this was released, but when I saw this on half.com for a sadly low price I had to pick it.
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We have acheived full-tilt hardcore geek fanboy.

Anyway, here are some things I’ve noticed right off that bat:

* The install pause to let you choose where you want to install the sample content, including the RXP (which previous choose its own sample directory and had no way for adjusting it). So, if like me, you have a drive dedicated to serving samples and other auxiliary data (impulses, multis, whatnot), you can point all the install data directly there. Smart.

* The install also gives you a complete list of every plugin, going back to some old favorites from the early Sonar days. (And notes which are 32bit.) So, that’s pretty hard to miss.

* The splash screen colors are really nice. I can stand to see that for a year.

* The default track colors are garish and unpleasant. Change them immediately!

* A lot of the enhancements are a bit under the hood - i.e. you have to actually read the “New Features” section of the manual.

* Dim Solo is a switch you throw on or off via a toolbar. Or you can assign it to a keyboard shortcut. I have a user toolbar that I pop out when I need, but I imagine I’ll set this up with a keybinding as well. You set the dim amount to one of three set levels in your options. It’s very cool.

* The MIDI tool improvements are deep. I got a bit of a hint in the hour I just looked at it, but it’s definitely gonna take me a while to incorporate them.

* I opened a monster remix project I’ve been working on and the audio engine hangs in there great. I’ll need further testing but even with this it felt more stable. This may be placebo.

*MIDI Magnifier is the shiznit. Run it over a dense drum track and watch the magic.

More to come…

Here’s my ebay money shot, NIN style.

Since the Cakewalk distribution center is my old home state of New Hampshire, and I’m less than 3 hours away, I now have the Sonar 7 upgrade.

So, very cool. I probably won’t really get to start putting it through its paces until later this weekend. And, as frightened as I am to say it, I think it’s time for me to do a complete reinstall of all my software. I’ve put it off for far too long and wonder if my OS isn’t dragging a little. We’ll see if I’m brave enough for that one.

Useless Google Map After the Jump
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