John Vere

You can swap out any of the parts and use some of the better sounding VST's like the Studio Instrument collection. My tutorial on midi covers how to do this. 

http://www.cactusmusic.ca/sonar-tutorials

TTs-1 is a good starting point to see if you like the file. There are many free VST instruments out there as well. 

The minute I saw the picture of your room my reaction was, Oh oh,  That's not going to work. And as said the "treatment" you tried is only going to help a little bit.  For now forget the room and try this_ 

The idea mentioned back a few posts about building a small enclosure to put your mike in for singing would be something you could do cheap. You could use those foam things.  I think that might help vocal recordings. Mikes on guitar amps don't usually pick up the room if they are close in. But you can do the same with an amp. I used to have this big box I made so I could crank my guitar and not scare the animals.  

And just don't worry about the way your speakers sound, mix on your headphones until you can come up with a plan of attack...like moving to a house with a nice room.  

That was Scook not Juno, Juno just quoted scook.

You can use a  screen capture program, My favorite is OBS Studio which is free.  Then I edit in Vegas. Not sure how Steve is capturing. 

If you look at what people use in "real" studios" for near fields you do not see brands like Presonus or KRK. 

You do see Yamaha's, Auratone, Genelec , Meyer, JBL and others.  

Music stores tend to push certain brands and if the price is right there will be a lot of people using those brands therefore a lot of good reviews by amature users.  But you won't find that stuff in a real studio.  Not saying you need the top of the line gear to make good recordings but you do need to be aware of what it is your compromising and learn how to adjust your expectations.  I don't think you need to spend any money, You just need to know how your speakers translate to the real world. Having something like the Yamaha's just makes this easier. And they do still make very similar versions of the NSM 10 in an updated powered version  https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HS8--yamaha-hs8-8-inch-powered-studio-monitor-black   

1 hour ago, greg54 said:

And another thing I remembered....through headphones everything seems to sound fine, including the audio.   

Well this is a huge clue to me. Your monitors possibly are midrange  harsh and not accurate. I read that they sound great for hard rock but suck for acoustic and clean sounds.  What qualifies as an  accurate monitor is a subjective subject so I won't go there, but myself I own a set of Yamaha NSM 10's for this reason. 

Speaking of inaccurate, I just bought a set of  Mackie CR4.  They are boomy in the low end but I knew that before I bought them. They were very affordable, look cool and meet the rest of my requirements.  I needed real small, balanced inputs and  the volume on/off  on the front.    I don't do final mixing on them just tracking. . So I quickly got used to their inaccurate sound and I ignore it.  Possibly you need to do the same for the KRK's. 

That is why I asked you what your final mixes sound like on other systems. If they sound great, then your fussing over a detail that doesn't really matter in the end. If it bothers you, take your mixes to a music store and audition studio monitors. But bring lots of cash! 

1 hour ago, RBH said:

I would say that it might depend on what scope of editing / writing etc you needed to do offline . If it was straight up editing  - I would bounce out stems of tracks that are already complete and just edit a few offline - then transfer those couple of tracks back.

I think going for a full project transfer would be a headache - and maybe expensive to duplicate usable VSTi's.  Having  some basic midi instruments - maybe just to fill out monitoring might be a good idea. I don't know if the TSS synth covers enough ground - I've only used it for a few filler tracks. Drums would probably be the most important thing to be able to keep compatible between both DAWS.

 It is actually very easy to have 2 identical workstations.  Sure there might be  a few high end VST plug in's out there that don't allow 2 installations but most either do or use ilock type USB dongle.

If the OP is just using stock Cakewalk supplied stuff there is no issue at all.  It take a few seconds to copy over complete projects. Messing with stems would take a lot more work.

I have worked between 2 computers for a long, long time now as I remember I started this with Sonar 7.   I have never lost a project or had one go south on me. 

John the reason most of us do not trust bundle files is that there's a 1 in 100 chance they can become corrupted and then you are screwed. Project files if they become corrupted can be salvaged. Bundle files are a leftover from  bygone days when hard drives were a lot smaller and transfer speeds were slower. 

There's no reason NOT to use project folders for transfers and backups.   

I also back up each project as a MIDI file. That is the most iron clad future proof format I know of. I can still open all my original files that I made in the 80's.  And I would expect to still be able to open them 20 years from now.  For many of us midi is a large chunk of the work that goes into the backing track part of our recordings.

If your projects are all audio then you sure as heck want that Audio folder copied to back ups 100% intact.  

OK that narrows it down to what I originally expected. 

First I'll say it again- upgrading and optimizing a computer for audio has zero bearing on what get recorded. You could use an old XP 32 bit 1.5Mz with 2 GB of RAM and the sound would be identical.  ( if it didn't crash  . 

Even though you "think" you've tried everything with your mikes etc you haven't even scratched the surface on possibilities. 

Most of what you have tried is pretty basic low end gear. And very good point by Mike above about using a treated room. And from what I've read in reviews those KRK's are not an accurate monitor so are not to be trusted either.   

Your's is a classic case of "Home Studio Blues"  and all you can do is either make adjustments and changes to how your inputting with what "hardware" you have  on hand or find the weak link and replace it.  

Your blaming the wrong "hardware"  When I say Hardware I'm not talking about computers. I'm talking Mikes and Pre amps. Your font end. What you hear during tracking via headphones can also factor into what is wrong.  Example, headphones that are bass heavy and no mid range would result in mid range heavy recording EQ choices.  

Bundle is not the way  most of use would do this.  You just transfer the whole project folder(s) which should all be on a portable back up drive anyways. 

I've been working between 2 or 3 machines for years now and have never had any issues.   

As I said all your projects should be stored in a main folder and then that folder should have been backed up to an external drive for safe keeping. Make sure you date the containment folder. 

I have 3 DAW set ups right now. Main DAW is a typical i7  It has 3 Drives.  No data on C.  Working data on E and then backups on G. Then an i5 Laptop which has 2 drives same set up but no back up drive.  Both have all the same VST's and are fully licenced so projects all run smoothly on both  of these machines.   It is worth noting that most all VST's like Melodyne and AD2 allow for 2 machines.   Then the 3rd laptop is a 2008 duo core Sony with only 1 SATA drive which I use differently.   All run the latest CbB  as well as have Splat and various older versions still installed. 

Here's a step by step of how I copy from machine to machine.  

On my main DAW I use a Data Drive (E) to store all my projects.  Each song  ( project) folder is inside an ALBUM folder.  Album folders keep different types of project tidy.  -- Live Band performance,  Backing Tracks, Original Songs, Sock Monkey Album

 Old albums and inactive stuff are kept  elsewhere on backup drives .  

All are backed up to the 3rd (G) drive as well as an External drive whenever possible. I will date the new  Folder, example _ "Original Songs Feb 24 2019 " after I copied it over to the BU drives.  

When I need to use the laptop  I hook up the external drive and I copy over the latest version of the "Album" that will be worked on.   Note:  Now that Album is stored in a minimum of 4 places!  

I work on the songs and save them into that same folder and when they need to go back to my main DAW I simply Re name  the Album folder using current Date'. I then copy it to the external,  and then copy back to the E drive of the main DAW.  I could now choose to delete the older folder but I usually don't do this until my (250 GB) SSD E drive is passing 60%.  

The Laptop is used for live recording and right now is living at my partners house over the winter. He is laying down all his parts ( audio only)  to our 65 song "album" .  I am also working on some of the same songs so it will only be a matter of  copying his audio tracks once he is done back to the main DAW.  

The Sony I use in the Family room to edit and adding some additional instruments like Mandolin. Because I cannot authorize certain VST's I will just freeze synths first and save a special copy in a different folder marked as such.    But if you can it is well worth the effort to fully load up your Laptop with everything possible as this also serves as a solid back up in case your main DAW goes south.  

If not, it's a minor hassle to either ignore all the warnings about the missing stuff and then just swap them out with what's on hand. I didn't freeze some songs and therefore I didn't have AD2 on the 3rd laptop  so just swap it over to SI drum kit or even Session drummer.  I actually liked one song better with SI drum kit.. now that's weird.  

  What do your VST instruments sound like?  If they sound good then there is nothing wrong with your set up. Your just not recording through a signal path that's working for you. 

How are you monitoring?  What brand of monitors ?  If you make a CD of the recording does it still sound terrible elsewhere?  If you say your monitors sound great with VST's and pre recorded material that will rule out half of what could be wrong. 

Computer settings, software, updates etc have no bearing on how digital recordings sounds. It will record exactly what is processed at the A/D convertors.  Only item at play would be your interfaces ASIO drivers. It is possible for those to become buggered so make sure you at least download the latest and/ or re install them. 

Bad sounding audio is a hardware issue.  Either you front end is not up to it or your back end is crappy sounding.  We can easily rule out the back end if you say it's OK. 

You could try 10 different mikes and still not get the sound your after.  You could use 10 different pre amps etc.  It's a lifelong quest to gather the right gear that sounds the way you want. What works for one does not work for all.   

I was going to buy a MTK but I didn't  really need the multi channel interface.  We bought the Signature 10 just for our duo's live performances. We use backing tracks so that's all I wanted the USB for.  It's been mostly stored in a road case but I needed a 3rd DAW set up the other day and set it up. Been working flawlessly for a few weeks now and the pre amps etc are possibly the best I have on hand. I never liked my 6i6 pre's.

I agree, BIOS is not something that has any bearing on how software runs, if anything a few system setting have reverted to default that you need to go and tweak but I doubt that is the issue.

When in doubt, re install the software from scratch. 

Before I update Bios I always read the list of "why".  It usually is nothing that will make my life better so it's been years since I've had to update a BIOS.

The new Sound craft boards are my favourite right now. I have the Signature 10 as my Studio B set up. So nice to leave stuff plugged in.

The reason the pre amps failed was a design flaw that some mixers have. You have the XLR jacks which are not a problem for phantom power even if a mike is none phantom.  But you also have a TRS input jack in parallel and if you plug a guitar cable in with Phantom power on it gives the pre amp a 48 volt hit where it doesn't belong. My solution was to plug those TRS inputs with Silicon. so it would not happen again.  Generally it's a good idea to always leave phantom power off until all connections are made. But the switch was very small and hidden on the back. I don't think there was a warning light either.  

As it was I generally used a Mackie 1604 mixer to feed the Yamaha via the Mackies direct outs. I also used this massive 24 ch Soundcraft board that had a million patch points, all XLR.  It was 4 feet wide! 

A screen shot might make this more clear.  

But I repeat as you seem to have missed my post. How is your Midi playback from the sound modules patched in to your system so that you can hear the output? This has not been made clear. You will not hear them if only the midi cable is connected to the 6i6. Below is what you said is your wiring. I don't see any audio cables. 

My wiring setup is:

MIDI keyboard out to MIDI in on the 6i6

MIDI out on the 6i6 to MIDI in on the Ketron SD-2 MIDI module

MIDI Thru from the SD-2 to MIDI in on the Roland JV-1010

It's funny because as far as older projects with audio goes, As time goes by I discover better ways to capture audio so re doing stuff usually leads to a better finished project. The only trouble  is  I've gone over that hump of being at my "best" as far as guitar playing goes.  As most of us geezers are aware our finger slowly let us down. Singing I just have to sneak up on that mike and catch it in a good momment. 

What was that little Feat tune  Old folks Boggie  " When your mind tells you something that your body can't fill"  

So let me know if you get it working as then there is hope!  

The OP has had 3 day's or more to respond so we still don't know if this is midi or audio or both.

 As Noel said you can apply a mix scene from an identical project.   This is the case when you have made a template and have used that template to record a band live. You will  end up with multiple projects that are all the same from song to song only the audio is different.  BUT if you add a new effect that will not show in the next song you use the mix scene with. Mix scenes do not add vsts or sub routings etc. 

But if your template was well thought out and you had added all foreseeable effects this can work. If not, make sure to save the pre set for the new effect you add and then it's easy to add it to the other songs.

It's just me.. I just don't get along with Audio snap, never have I ever gotten anything it does to work and I guess I'm just not "getting it". With me it's sort of how much time I'm willing to spend learning a feature. I'm always willing to give it a try but if it takes too long to get things working, I return to my tried and true methods.

forget it.

So where is the audio from the midi sound modules going? Remember in the other thread I described why you either need an interface with enough inputs for that audio or to use the Mackie for a sub mixer. Midi cables only carry data, not sound.

Can you open CCC and log on there?  You must have been doing that on the old computer to stay up to date and your password would have been saved by your Browser. If you used Chrome that should

If you have all of your old installers you can re build everything with that. There should be serial numbers and activation codes which you also hopefully copied down to a notepad or screenshots as well.

If you can't get at CCC then you could try the offline activation which I do believe is still working as they never killed the servers. 

The old Sonar stuff is really nothing to Bandlab, it's not their responsibility,  it is up to the individual to make sure they kept the old software and all serials etc. on file.  

My observation has been that midi controllers that came with drivers behave better than the ones that use generic drivers.

What is critical as to how this question is answered is if the project is midi or if there is audio recorded.  

If this song is only midi then drawing a tempo map will work but that will certainly make no difference to the audio.

If there is audio then you need to:

A-Record  all audio to a metronome that follows a tempo map ( easy to difficult depending ) 

B- Record all audio  with a midi backing track  that includes the tempo changes  (easy)

C-  Learn how to use Audio snap that can speed up and slow down audio that is already recorded ( Difficult and mixed results ) 

D- Play your song they way you want it on the guitar or piano and add parts without quantizing them ( easy but song might be sloppy) 

Well I'm a wimp and I took the path of least resistance. I followed directions and dropped the original into the new version and tried a few times but then the guitar parts all went weird??  So I did the right thing and poured a glass of Glenlivet  and re sang it and guess what-- it's was even better!  So there's always more than one way to do something in Cakewalk- I highly recommend the Glenlivet VST.