John Vere

What I did a few years ago was create a song template which had my "band" all ready to go. I also have track templates that quickly insert a midi and a VST all ready to record. If It's a downloaded file I can insert a track template and just drag the corresponding midi track to the new VST midi track. I will be a coloured and set up with the correct sub mix buss too. Only bug to this is I sometimes end up with 2 master busses.

The Virtual Controller doesn't seem to dock but I just drag it to the bottom and plunk it along side my Tabs.

Did you try WASAPI Shared? That is supposed to work as well as ASIO4all. I myself have used WDM mode without issue a few years ago to record our band at live performances. I used my Tascam us1641 interface along side our Yamaha mixer that has stereo USB output. This gave me 16 audio tracks as well as I recorded the keyboard to a midi track. That said both devices have proper ASIO drivers that I installed. I think the issue is always going to be with anything that uses generic ASIO drivers like the Art does. So try WASAPI and then if it doesn't work try ASIO4all. I used ASIO4all on my laptop for over a year until WASAPI came out in Cakewalk. It work just fine and it never interfered with my proper ASIO drivers. It used to have issues but they have always kept developing so it's improved over time. It's just that you don't want to be doing any overdubs in those driver modes. They will be out of sync.

I don't really think there is much reason to remove them. I still have them too as I always install bare bones 8.5, X3 then Splat. I have never used V vocal ( or Melodyne) and I don't even think about them. I have used Drum Replacer a few times. But I could never get V Vocal or Melodyne to work so I just leave them be. And I must have a dozen VST instruments I never use. They too cause no issues. I just looked and I don't see Pentagon. I guess I don't check the box during my custom installs of the old versions.

I totally agree. I'm by no stretch a gear junkie. I spend most of my music budget on instruments, not hardware. I have not really ever bought any of the high end stuff, I don't think a it's at all necessary for a person like me but I do like dependable gear I can trust to work when I need it. My interfaces are all lower end and at least 6 years old. I'm a firm believer in their value when using a DAW. I had a terrible first few years because I was trying to use a stupid Sound Blaster PCI card. I soon found out about why you need a proper interface with good stable ASIO drivers. The big issue is your tracks will be out of alignment. I'd try to record bass along side a midi drum track and it was way out of time. Not only that, sometimes the time drifted. I would never go back to not using ASIO. I will use WASAPI for editing already recorded parts and mid but if you want to overdub audio you have to use ASIO. I have never wasted money on fancy mikes, I have a nice collection from doing live sound and there mostly SM 57's and 58"s. I use a Beta 58 for my vocals. I have a cheapo Audio Technica LDC but never use it. I have these CAD mini condensers I got from Musician's Friend for like $30. My mixer is a Mackie mix 8 I got for $50. All my headphones are worth under $30. I buy them at the dollar store. I have an old set of Sony's.

I use my android mobile phone (using woMic app) microphone to record my vocal. For monitoring of my cakewalk while making music/mixing, i use my in-ear earphone. Don't listen to anything I say, We are on different planets when it comes to audio. The world of recording just got flushed....

You need to just learn how cakewalk works with midi . Don't ever go by what you did in another DAW. If you open Cubase you will find things even more different. In my signature you will see a few tutorials on this subject,

You know all of those devices you listed are very sub standard as far as drivers go which will only cause you grief with Cakewalk. A proper ASIO audio interface is the heart of a good DAW system. They are not that expensive and then you can get on with creating music. Any other mode than ASIO will not sync properly when you do overdubbing. I have tested all the modes with a few different devices and only ASIO will sync properly because it can report its latency to Cakewalk. If you insist on using a different mode then you will need to manually adjust your timing offset. You can test your overdubbing by performing a loop back test. Take a midi kick drum track and bounce it to audio. Plug a short patch cable from your audio output back to your audio input. Insert a new audio track and set it to record that input. Play and record the new track. Now zoom in and see if it lines up with the original track.

My only solution would be to use different VST's. If I have a problem with a VST instrument I most certainly try others to see if the problem goes away. I realize you might have a lot of stuff assigned to the TTS-1 but it's worth the effort to at least try replacing tracks with at least the SI stuff. I have taken 12 tracks of midi GM stuff I downloaded and swapped out all the VST's plenty of times. It's what I do to create backing tracks. If there's a song I want to do I first look and see if I can find a good track off the internet. If it's so, so I just re do stuff using the original as a kind of guide to the songs arrangement. If its a good track then it's a simple matter of replacing the TTS-1 GM sounds with proper sampled instruments. I mosty am looking for good drum tracks.

I have installed CbB on a lot of different computers and I've yet to have any issues if I just do as I said above. It might be different on different systems with different administrator privileges etc stuff happening, but I'm always working with W10 Home fully updated. I make sure windows and all my drivers are 100% before I move forward with my software.

That sould not have made a difference that any normal person would hear. I only export 16 bits if I'm making CD's and ya they sound great. But the same file exported at 24 bit will sound a tiny bit better, not worse. Something in your playback must have changed.

Without a proper audio interface and studio monitors what do you expect? Your using computer stuff with a professional DAW. Every playback system will sound different but running stuff through a $10 sound chip on a laptop into gaming speakers will definitely give mixed results. You need to invest in a good Audio interface and a set of proper studio monitors. Or suffer unreliable mixes. Audio interfaces are the heart of a computer based studio. And a good set of monitors will hopfully give you mixes that will translate to other playback systems.

The biggest improvements will be the resolution. I think TTS-1 is very low resolution so sounds flat to me. For drums I use AD2 but also use SI drums and Session Drummer depending. SI drums is a 10 fold improvement over GM kits. I still use TTS_1 for some simple Percussion and brushes. For Bass I use the free Ample P bass lite. I will also use SI bass and for acoustic bass I really like the DIm Pro offering. GM rock bass is definitely a weak point. It's so bad that a lot of files seem to use the Acoustic bass which is more passable. Piano for sure everything else is much bigger! I use the free demo version of Addictive Keys. It's missing a few octaves I don't use. I used to use True PIanos which came free with Sonar. There's also Airs Mini grand but I had issues with it changing effect settings so stopped using it. For organ I am still on a quest but the Air DB33 is the winner so far. I also use this freebie ComboV which is very 1960's. I use a lot of Whurlitzer and electric piano parts. Once again Addictive Keys MarkII is my go to. I also use Lounge Lizard and my best is Mr Tramp. Mr Tramp sounds the most authentic but it's 32 bit so I am careful how I use it. The SI electric piano is also not bad if you run it through effects. For strings I use SI strings. That said an upgrade from TTS_1 is at least use the SI stuff as it's a big jump and it's not CPU intensive at all. Very stable. For guitars I use the free version of Ample Guitar lite. I used to use Strum session which came free with Sonar but Ample seems fuller. For Horns and stuff I use Dim Pro or even better my Air Xpand stuff. Air Xpand is forever on sale and I got mine for under $30. It came with the DB33 organ , strike drums ( don't like) and a bunch of stuff that takes up a lot of hard drive space. Good thing I put it on a data drive. Xpand is a 4 part multitimbral synth. I have dozens of others and I paid very little grabbing freebies and deals over time.

I thought Roland was a big part of the very first MIDI connector stuff. My friend had a Juno with a serial connection and a box that converted it to 5 pin so he could use his Atari. I just fired up my Cubase Elements 7 and loaded a midi file. I then tried "save as" and it had no options other than a project file. So I used Export and it does show (.mid, .midi) in the extension box but you can't choose one or the other. I exported the file and it shows as a .mid file still. So this is a Mac thing I guess. And I also realized that with the 3 character extension I was wrong as in Docx. files.

You can do a lot of midi on a computer from 1984. So it's not your CPU. And the software can only do so much to second guess what it is you are after. Think about Auto fill on cell phones. Does it ever second guess what your typing 100%? I find that quantizing works fine for putting anything from 1/16th note and bigger in place. It gets tricky if there are triplets involved. Over the years I have developed a few things that I will do to keep quantizing from moving notes to the wrong place. If I have a pre made drum beat or midi track I will try different grids in PRV until it matches up with the notes. With drums the Hi Hats are the place to look. You'll soon find out if it's 16th or 8th note triplets etc. I then use that as my setting for other parts. It will still require some editing and you get good at "seeing" the wrong note placements. I find real piano parts should be left alone And even snare parts I play on my digital drum kit I will have to manually edit. Sometimes playing a bit ahead of the beat is a good thing. If I was a super good player I would not need to quantize but I'm a guitar player, not a drummer or keyboardist. An example is I always play real bass on my songs and if I convert it to midi it's right on the money.