Vx-64 Vocal Strip Cakewalk
Leontina Heidgerken
One of my big complaints earlier this year was that some features from X3/Sonar Platinum had been removed from CbB and since I can no longer get into my old cakewalk account to redownload X3, those features are lost to me on my current pc. The two most important to me were the Vocal Strip (in the photo that I've attached) and the Percussion Strip (which looks very similar but is designed for working with drums.) The vocal strip is particularly valuable to me because it has an excellent De- Esser and some really cool routing capabilities.
Anyway I happened to recently load in a backed up copy of a project from four years ago in CbB and it turns it out will still load and allow you to use these plugins from within a project made on an older version of Sonar (even though there doesn't seem to be a way to put them into a brand new project) so I just figured that I would bring that up here, since to my knowledge there isn't another built-in de-esser in CbB (DO correct me if I am wrong as I would like to know.)
Also it's been almost 6 months since I've asked about this and I haven't really been keeping up with any news on the changes so if this old news and there is already a workaround for loading these plugins into a fresh project please let me know. As for right now what I did was create a template in Sonar X3 that has each of these plugs on a MIDI track, and then I just duplicate them onto fresh tracks as needed.
VX-64 Vocal Strip, which is a "swiss army knife" multi-processor oriented toward vocals that includes a de-esser, a doubler, a compressor/expander, a tube eq with saturation, a delay (with filter), and tube saturation on the input and output stages. The 5 modules can be routed in any order. Obviously these tools may be used on many sounds other than vocals. This is a very useful plug-in.
PX-64 Percussion Strip, a similar format multi-processor aimed at processing percussion tracks that includes a transient shaper, a compressor/expander, eq with "vintage" and "classic" modes, delay (with filter), and tube saturation on the input and output stages. The modules may be routed in any order. Noting the similar complement of modules to the VX-64, I assume that each is more tuned to the specific application, percussion or vocals. Again, there is tube saturation emulation on the inputs and outputs.
To be able to use them in Cakewalk, from the main menu, select Utilities/Cakewalk Plug-In Manager. Once Plug-In Manager is running, select VST Audio Effects (VST) under Plug-In Categories on the left side.
This will give you a list, in the middle pane, of enabled VST2 plug-ins. That's fine, but we are not interested in that for now. Down below, under Manage Exclusion List, click the button next to Show Excluded. This will change the list to show excluded VST2 plug-ins.
I still use the PX64 on almost every project I work on. Something about per-band tube warming in the EQ section just works better than any other tube plug-in I've ever used. I have spent a lot of money on 3rd party plugins, but this is still a go-to for me.
I think the word you're looking for is "timeless". They work great; they sound great; they look great; stable coding, not frequently updated with buggy fixes.
To me, that's the opposite of "dated". But each to his own.
Well, I think both you and Colin are right. There's no technical reason why the VX64 (one of my go-to plugs) should become obsolete - it's VST2, and that spec is etched in stone. It's also highly unlikely that Cakewalk, or other programs, will stop supporting VST2. In that respect, it's timeless.
Ok, I blindly enabled these excluded plugins just to find out that I had two copies of each enabled. I'm a long SONAR Platinum user which probably explains the copies in my preferred VST folder. What's surprising is where the formerly excluded versions are: c:\program files\Cakewalk\shared utilities\Internal\StPX64\StPX6464.DLL. Is that where Cakewalk by Bandlab installs them?
BTW, this thread reminded me reminded me that I had them and that they're still supported. I'd been avoiding them because I assumed that they were no longer supported and would soon quit working. Thanks for the reminder
The only thing I consider dated here is when I have Cakewalk open using always dark skin (Tungsten), then they are hurting my eyes while working with them. Didn't expect making an alternative dark skin for them would be so troublesome.
Cakewalk by BandLab comes with these three very nice and useful VST effects, two of them are multi-FX processors oriented toward vocals (VX-64) and percussion (PX-64), the other is a saturation processor (TL-64) with multiple controls. The VX and PX carry only Cakewalk branding, the TL also says "powered by Studio Devil).
Unfortunately, by default, they are "excluded" in the terminology of the Plug-In Manager, and in order to use them the user must use Plug-In Manager to change their status so that they show up as available in the FX racks and lists.
I concur. They're present but not enabled. A user can enable them once the user is aware of their existence. One less housekeeping task to perform after an update if the plugins are enabled by default.
I believe that it was @scook who said that some of the Style Dials depended on VX-64, PX-64, and TL-64. This makes sense because there is a transient shaper Style Dial, a de-esser, gate, saturator, and those processors are all to be found in the "-64" modules we're talking about. Nothing else native to CbB has a transient shaper besides PX-64, and while you could roll up a de-esser using the sonitus fx, it would be easier to use the one in VX-64.
I use the PX & VX, I love them. As old as they might be they still do a great job and I will continue to use them as long as possible. Mine never default to excluded after an update, I'm not sure if that is dependent on whether you have a previous version of Sonar installed or not. Hopefully they sort that out in the future though!
I love the VX and imho it's got one of the easiest to set up compressors that I know of. Together with saturation options, the little nice EQ and the delay it's a killer strip. The de-esser is pretty useful as well. I've never liked the doubler but then there's no match to actually doubling vocals by using two takes.
The only reason I've stopped using it is that I've experienced several times that, well into a project, it suddenly crashes (muting the audio or simply stopping processing) and never recovers. Perhaps that's why it comes disabled by default?
The disabled ones are older versions, yes. I looked at them once and the ones I had visible already were newer. I forget the details offhand, but it would make sense to have the newest active for all users.
In the plugin manager, it doesn't tell you the version, but if you highlight one in the plugin browser, it displays the version at the bottom of the plugin browser window. For what I have installed, they are:
IIRC, they were just point variation differences between the ones that were in the excluded list. I am not sure that there is any difference in form/function to the excluded versions, but it would take someone from Cakewalk to answer what the build difference is.
I simply click "OK" and the messages go away, CW starts up, and I can use the plug-ins without a problem, save the project, but then when re-opening CW after an exit, the messages appear again. The same process every time.
I sometimes have this issue with some other VSTs as well. I don't understand how/why CW sees incorrect CLSIDs for plugins I have not touched, not to mentioned not changed, in years, especially these ones that have been "excluded" all this time until yesterday!
Ah yes! My previous Sonar installation is in fact on a separate internal SSD drive. When originally setting up this machine I had followed, perhaps mistakenly, some advice about a separate drive for programs and I did that with a few. CbB is on the default C drive.
How reliant on the Sonar install is CbB? I know if I want to continue to use those older instruments (Rapture, Dimension, etc.) I would want to keep it, yes? Is there a way I could move pertinent elements from that Sonar (X3 Producer) install to better places on the C drive? Or is that, as I assume it is, inviting disaster and a Registry nightmere??
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