John Vere

OK it took some poking around but I see that what you have opened is a Loop Construction View.

 I have never seen it before I guess because I don't use loops.

Thanks for posting this question, I just learned another cool feature I have never used and I can see a few things I can do with this to improve my workflow. 

Your just not opening the view properly. 

I won't open by double clicking-- I have to highlight the audio track,  right click and choose view , Loop construction-  or easier yet  Alt 7 

All the audio tracks I opened including I dragged a "loop" from the browser  just to test,  all open normally and I can view the audio wave form. 

 Looking at your screenshot you don't seem to have any tracks highlighted. And the other clue is there should be a tab in the lower left with the loops info. 

I've never seen that window before? Is it a clip audio editor?

This must be a new feature, when I double click audio clips it only highlights, This is my office computer so my version is outdated, I'll update and check back and see what I get. 

Are you using an ASIO audio interface or on board sound card? The audio driver is important for using a DAW like Cakewalk. 

A screen shot might help. Did you zoom in on the track? 

Well I'll be darned, I also have a good version of Sound Forge came with a Sony Digital turntable.. Now you have my curiosity>  

You originally said you did this no problem? Anyhow you open the Bandlab assistant. Go to the Apps Tab. go to the "Open" button and select "install add ons and you should get this screen with the options. I already have all this stuff but it still seems to proceed and reinstall them, not very sophisticated. 

Yes Midi sync is what allows different midi devices to ,, well,, ya ,, sync. 

An example would be I gan set my 1984 Roland drum machine in Midi sync mode, then tell Cakewalk to transmit midi start stop found in preferences under "Project/ midi and when I start Cakewalk the drum machine plays along in sync using Cakewalks tempo. 

I also used to use MMC to sync my Yamaha MD 8.  

my guess is you made a typo when submitting your address. 

I would try again but you'll have to use a different user name to make it work. 

Because the software is free you can even create a whole new account but will need to use an alternative email. 

I guess the OP is talking automation. I have about 6 wave editors and none of them "re-draw" waveforms. It would be interesting to hear what that sounds like. 

And Lee are you aware that the latest version of your software is available for free? X3 is real outdated and huge improvements have been made since then. 

https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk

When I've had issues like this there's been some sort of hidden data that I cannot see in Cakewalks event list. Close inspection of the track inspector might reveal something. Like try re setting the volume slider or gain and see if it moves when you start the song. Someone mentioned Ample Bass and this will often happen where it will jump to 1.6  in the GUI. I have to lower the midi track level to 64 to re set it to my pre set of 1.0. Never had to do that with other VST's.  

Tricks I've also use were to change channels ( didn't always work) or slip edit to exact first midi event  or split and delete the " empty" data before the first note. 

Instead of a Flash drive I would invest in a nice 1 or 2 TB external drive. They go on sale for around $100 and then you need not delete or compress anything. I have 4 external drives and 2 of them are only for Cakewalk back ups. I date the whole folder which will have the sub folders of each project in it. Drag and drop to the external drive and carry on. 

This seems stupid but did you re boot your system a few times after the updates? 

The focusrite Scarletts run at about 20 ms RTL at a safe buffer so I myself cannot engage the input echo without hearing a very noticeable delay.  

3 hours ago, Kenrout said:

Hi John, fell at the first hurdle, whilst looping the track, i can see the level on CW moving but getting nothing from the headphones!!

OK lets start from over and for now forget the mixer it only ( as other John has said) complicate things. 

Just hook up the Scarlett and lets get sound from Cakewalk. 

Things to check if not already done. Make sure the Scarlett is the audio device when you click on the Windows speaker icon.

Make sure in Cakewalk preferences the scarlett is the only audio device selected and you are in ASIO mode. 

Make sure the Master buss is set to output to the Scarlett and the tracks you are playing are  set to output to the Master. When you play the song the Master buss meters are moving. 

Plug headphones into the scarlett you will hear the playback.  Or plug the studio monitoring system into the rear outputs, same difference. 

Now plug in a mike or guitar and engage the direct monitor switch. You should hear both the playback and the input signal. 

I do not recommend using the Soundblaster while trying to work with Cakewalk. You have a proper audio interface , use it. Creative drivers are notoriously invasive and will cause conflicts with the Focusrite drivers. I speak from experience as I have Creative PCI sound card on my old computer. 

The only short coming of the 2i2 is the monitoring system. Most interfaces have a blend control for playback and input. They chose to only have a toggle switch so you have to lower your playback level inside the DAW which is a PITA.  Your mixer could be used to solve that issue but lets just get sound first using the interface. 

Cj- the cue mix, as it's name implies, is for monitoring only and it has no bearing on export.  I can turn my monitors right off in Cue mix and it still exports correctly. I've personally never experience any issues with export.  I don't use Cakewalk for direct MP3 because I need to master the file first in Wave Lab. Once I'm happy with the Wave file I convert using Gold Wave which is another wave editor I like. Wave Lab for some reason still wants money to unlock MP3 encoding just like Sonar used to.

Any how, I use 190 kbps as that seems just fine for where those songs are going. 

To Meld Magic- If you use a real audio interface you won't have any of those stupid settings to worry about. 

How I have always done this without issue is Ctrl A to select all. then go to -

Tracks / Select track outputs/ Then select the audio buss 

That interface is even older than my M Audio Fast track pro. On the M Audio web site they clearly state that the driver may or may not work with W 10. For me the interface works fine on one PC but will not install on another.  You need an up to date audio interface no matter which DAW you choose. Look on Sweetwater for starters if your in the States.. 

And back in the Windows XP days the M audio interfaces had the worst drivers ( so did Tascam). So for the very beginning the OP has been fighting the bad driver issue. Things have changed and USB audio interfaces all seem to work fine as long as they are newer and have proper W10 ASIO drivers. Old model drivers are sometimes updated but not recommended if you want solid stability and good performance.  

By default my track templates all have that compressor and the EQ inserted to pre channel. They are turned off.  Then it's a very quick move to solo a track, open pro channel and turn them on and tweak. If you want a quicker fix than that , you should take up a new hobbie  

In my case it was not an upgrade, just a registration and serial direct with them. I get e mails all the time about upgrades but I'm more than happy with the version I have. Mostly I like to use the chorus and compressor pedals on acoustic guitar tracks. I still prefer my real guitar pedals and amp for electric. I need to play into the sound, can't stand playing dry and my system has too much latency to use the sims live. 

OK so I looked at your mixer and what might work is the following

You'll need to use to short patch cables and connect the Main outputs to the 1/2 inputs of the 2i2.  This is not ideal as those inputs are made for low out put mikes etc so be careful to keep the levels low while you experiment. These will send whatever you have in the mixer to the DAW. If your recording vocal and guitar at the same time you will need to pan those hard left and right. 

Then for monitoring  plug the output 1/2 of the 2i2 into the 2 track inputs. Hopefully you have a cable that can do this. It would need to be 2 RCA to 1/4" cables. There are also adaptors available but best to purchase the correct cable. 

Now by using the Control room /headphone levels you'll hear the DAW playback and what ever you have plugged into the mixer. Make sure to only engage the " 2 track to Control room" button. If you engage the 2 track to mains it will loop back to the DAW and feedback. I think you'll have to turn up the " phones/cntl room level found next to the mains volume.

That said there is not a big advantage to using the mixer as it has limited connectivity. 

Sorry I made a error which I will correct,  I said Right input for input 1 when it is the opposite. The way most interface show as inputs is using this as example.

Left - name of interface- mic input 1 =  Input 1

Right - name of interface-mic input 1 = Input 2 

Stereo - Name of interface - mic input 1 = Stereo both inputs used, this also automatically creates a stereo recording in your track. 

If you have more than 2 inputs it would carry on using only odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7 etc. 

So 1 is for inputs 1 and 2,   3 is for inputs 3 and 4 and so on.  

In the past Scarlett 2i2 and solo's didn't use the mix control software, not clear about the 3rd gen. 

But I have the 6i6 and they work the same. I have also set a friend up with a Solo. This example we will use a guitar and vocal set up. 

Make sure you have the very latest driver.

Use ASIO only do not use any other driver mode for overdub recording or timing will be off. 

You need to plug the 1/2 outputs into your studio monitor system. If you don't have studio monitors get some.  Computer speakers will not give you accurate mixes.

In a pinch you can plug computer speakers into the headphone jack using an adaptor. 

Use the direct monitoring option other wise you will hear a small delay due to system latency.

Plug in a guitar to input 1 set it for instrument ( depending on guitars system) . Set the input gain below where it peaks. You don't want to ever see it peaking. This is the level for your recordings. Your DAW's level and volume controls have no bearing on recorded levels. 

First plug in some headphones and adjust the level to hear guitar.

Open Cakewalk and from start screen select New project and the 4 track option. 

Set track 1 input to LEFT input 1

Set DAW to record standby and observe meter to check it is not peaking, record a few minutes or a song. 

Playback what you have the sound will automatically go to your 1/2 outputs and your headphones when you use this template and you have selected the Scarlett as you only in/out in preferences.  

Now plug a mike into input 2 and set levels as above. 

Set track 2 input for RIGHT input 1 set in record standby check meters while sing loudly. 

Now  play the song  while practicing your singing. You should hear the playback in either the headphones or the monitors ( 1/2 out)  as well as your voice. If the playback is too loud with the 2i2 your stuck with turning down the master buss or the guitar track ( or creating a headphone buss) . Most interfaces have a input/computer adjustment control but the 2i2 is lacking this important feature. 

This should have everything working properly. 

You can make up for it's short comings by using a mixer but the mixer needs to be configured so you can monitor playback without it be re directed back into the recording output. Tell me which mixer your using and I could help with that too. 

Steves answer is what happens 99% of the times you will have your issue. Way down the time line there is an auto punch active and only that section can be recorded to. Otherwise I cannot think of anything else other than I hate instrument tracks so would try recording to a real midi track to see if that works. Add a midi track and set the output to the VST your using. That has worked for me for 20 years  

Back when Roland ditched us Overload gave Sonar owners a full unlock serial if you send them a screen shot of your Sonar Splat serial found in Help/ About tab. I thought that was very nice of them. So maybe it will depend on if you took that step.