Cactus Music

Huge time saver for me when making backing tracks. I have over 200 now and I need them all to be exactly the same mix. I get weird glitches where even though there is no volume controller data my Ample bass will jump to a louder level than the pre set. I will catch that right away by the level in the meter.

To solve the issue of different VST's having this crazy all over the map outputs I use custom presets for the ones I use the most. I also have track templates saved where I've already tweaked them to my liking. The default levels are normally a bit loud. I think they do this because of the "Everything will sound better if it's louder" rule.

I used to use my wireless keyboard but I now use a USB footswitch. I like to hold my lyric sheets in my hand so nice to use my foot to stop start or rewind. I have W-R and spacebar programed.. I have 4 or more different brands. X Keys, https://xkeys.com/xkeys/footpedals.html solid as a rock, used for 16 years still works but I needed 1 more pedal so now use the stealth. A no name el cheapo this one I use for Cakewalkb https://www.amazon.ca/DOLITY-Programmable-Triple-Control-Switch/dp/B07D14Y2NX/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=usb+foot+pedals&qid=1570597116&sr=8-9 and one I control Power point for lyrics. https://www.amazon.ca/Homyl-Double-Control-FS2016_USB2-Computer/dp/B07G22QHWS/ref=sr_1_23?keywords=dual+usb+foot+pedals&qid=1570597716&sr=8-23 and best of them all is my Stealth system. https://stealthswitch.com/applications/stealthswitch3/ I use the Stealth for controlling my laptop at live gigs. It has a 5 pedal inputs. Super easy to program. They all work about the same and use software to program the macros. Anything is possible if it's a keyboard or mouse move. The Stealth has the best design as you can use better quality footswitches like you use for sustain or drum machines. The software is also better. The elcheapos software is kinda freeware stuff but you only have to suffer it once and the device retains those settings forever.

I have one of those Behringer USB interfaces. They used to ship free with there so called USB mixers. And ya they do not have real ASIO drivers, and asio4all is actually is a good driver to use with them,,,but,,, they have bad Latency specs no matter what driver you use. They are great for playback and I used mine for years for live performances playback without issue... but for recording seriously it's been stated here a million times--- You need a proper audio interface with good ASIO drivers . There's no point trying to use any other driver mode or on board sound cards unless you feel like fighting a loosing battle with your system. Your set up sort of worked because your USB/Midi devices had proper drivers. The midi in/out would have used those and not your audio interface crummy drivers specs.

Question from someone who has not paid much attention to PC development for a few years-- Do you need a newer MOBO to install these? My Mobo is a at least 5 years old now.

Looking at your folder location I see nothing wrong or any mess. I myself have it very much the same but with Projects are directed to the root of my Data drive. I do this so I can then open one of the 4 category folders. Same difference as yours only you only have one folder,, fine. Other difference is my Wave files go to the same data drive but a folder called "Masters" in that folder are categories as well. All the other locations are defaults. But if your missing data was stored originally in the dreaded "GlobalAudio" folder then ya,, things are doomed to be lost. I remember a long time ago when I learned that mistake ( Sonar 7) and have since stayed with per project files. I have never lost anything since. I never, ever delete anything on my computer without first backing up my data to external drives. Used to be I had huge C drives but SSD's are generally smaller, well mine are still, so I just don't store anything on them unless it's my laptop.

I totally agree with this. I know simple instrument tracks save some space but I myself have had weird issues every time I tried to use one so I stay with keeping my tracks as Audio/ VST and Midi. Also agree with Pentagon is sort of boring. But it will work fine for you as a VST and just use a midi track.

You have me a little confused as to how your actually determining this issue now. Example "notes are actually recorded before the beat, because if the midi offset that cakewalk has, but are played back on the beat". A few things are now in question. Are you just "hearing" a delay?? The way to test for latency is to do a loopback test. You re record the midi track as an audio track using the audio output of a soft synth or as in your case, a hardware synth. You can then zoom in and "see" if the tracks line up. Possibly the way you are monitoring is causing you to hear your interfaces latency. And to test, stick with a midi track where you only quantized to a higher value like 1/8 notes. Do not use input auto quantize. Use the processed version after you record.

Always my first guess is you might have auto punch in enabled later in the song.

An odd one for sure I'll try a few idea's on you So if you playback any midi track and send it to the Korg it play's back late as in comparison to playing the same track through a VST instrument. In other words if you played them both at the same time the VST would be on time and the Korg a bit behind. You could prove this but connecting the audio output of the Korg and recording it as analog and compare the note placement. Is this a Midi DIN connector or USB? Was there a midi driver? Is this a fresh project with no weird other settings other than default?

I do believe per project is the default now. I think they removed the option to toggle the feature on/off and just set it as the default which is what everyone was using anyhow. A person still has the option to do a "save as" and not copy the audio.

The Track view and the tracks themselves are all re-sizable and you can zoom to any resolution. I often stare at the kick drum midi note pattern while recording bass. Also for hits on say an ending ,,I use a lot of the screens visual feedback for cues as I'm recording. Just learn your way around the track view main screen. A second monitor is invaluable for this.

I use the free One Drive that is built into Windows. It's not very big at 0nly 5 GB but because of how I use it I still have lots of room. ( 2.4 GB ) I have over 200 backing tracks stored but they are 100% midi so take very little room. I just looked and these are using 112 MB. Until you actually record audio you can have just CWP files and there will be no other folders, just the icon. I put a lot of work into the midi tracks of my songs so these files are more dear to me than the audio which I can always do again. The system is brilliant as I work between 2 workstations and the files are always up to date. I also have these backed up in a dated folder in 3 other Back up Hard drive locations. So that's 5 Hard drives and the cloud. Note : I also back these up as midi files too. Those can be used by any DAW. Probably for a long time yet. To record audio I then open a backing track file, then "save as " to a new One drive folder and start recording. Cakewalk will automatically create an audio folder. I could not do this ( audio) at my last house which had pour internet. I'm on super fast unlimited now so this is working fine. I will keep an eye on One Drive storage and move finished songs elsewhere to clean up if I start getting full.

I use Wave Lab Elements which I paid $100 Can for years ago. I've used Wave Lab since 2001 so I'm super fast with it. Downside is the E Licence dongle or software. I bought the dongle so I could run it on both my workstation. I have a few other Wave editors which are all very good but Wave Lab is the only one I use that has one important ( to me) feature. When you open a tool, it stays open and available until closed. Most editors including Cakewalk make you re-open a tool each time you use it. Example Gain or Normalize. So if I'm running through a file killing Plosives I can open the EQ set it up to cut the low end, and then all I do is process the tiny parts that needed as I run through the file with 2 mouse moves. Highlight/ process Super fast. The best free editor I've played with is Acoustica by Acon Digital. You have to dig on the website but there is a freebie of the older Version 6.

As the man said above. A Wave editor was designed from the ground up just to edit a stereo wave file so it is optimized for working with that sort of material. And once you learn your way around which ever version you choose you could never use something like a DAW to edit a stereo file.. DAW's are for multi track and a Wave editor is for your 2 track. As said you can see and zoom in on unwanted material and delete it all with out letting go of the mouse. A method of working with audio books or spoken word is to have the narrator stop cold if they make an error, wait a few seconds and start over. The pause in the dialog is very visible when editing. You then listen to the pick up words and quickly scroll back find them and delete. All can be done in seconds especially if you have a script.