John Vere

I'm no expert but I've read here a lot that you can completely nuke everything in there and Cakewalk will simply rebuild as needed automatically. I have never looked there before but seeing that Mabey I should!

Glad you finally figured out that MP3 files are totally obsolete. The internet has bandwidth way beyond what it was in the days needing compressed audio. All the music sites I upload to use standard Wave files at 48/24. If you make You Tube videos of your music it will be encoded to a type of MP4 file but still it will be 48 and you can choose real high bit rates like 360kbps. So these days nobody should be using 44.1 or MP3 files. This is what my export looks like for creating a Master. For uploading I change the Bit depth from 32 to 24

Is this a 2i2 3rd gen? https://focusrite.com/products/scarlett-2i2 Anyhow those as far as I can tell don't include an internal loopback feature? So what are you doing to create it?

My rule for anything to do with Live is " Always plug the audio interface and connect the Keyboard Controller ( if used) any time you turn on the laptop and before you open Cakewalk" Using 2 identical interfaces on 2 different computers may or may not work because of the dozens of variables that can exist between them. You will either just have to make sure all the imported projects are set up correctly before the gig or delve into seeking out those dozen variables and fixing them. Only to have a Windows update trash them later? Anyhow prepping for the gigs is a huge job sometimes. I like to set up my whole rig and I play and practice every song. I'll often find stuff that I don't like and fix it.

100% agreed. I think a lot of newbie audio engineers these days don't realize there's a huge danger in have all those effects available. My first studio had 1 each , a Yamaha stereo compressor, an Alesis Reverb and a Digitech delay. You had basic EQ on the mixer. And when this was on Tape you had to optimize for peak levels to avoid the noise floor. The tone and quality of the recording depended on the source and mikes used. We made very good recordings that some of which are still being listened to and enjoyed. Most of the small studios like mine had abpout $10,000 worth of gear. A real studio would be more like $100,000! Guess what. You now get the $100,000 studio free. Well ya, minus the cool monitor system and treatment. But almost everything else we paid big bucks for in those days is now ITB. To clarify I will say my approach is for recording traditional Pop, Rock, acoustic and Country music. Electronic music is absolutely open to over use of effects , that's what it is all about. But most styles of music do not need to be abused by overuse of effects. Example. I don't use any effects until I get to the mixing stage. But often while listening to mix you decide that something else is needed and so you have a fully fleshed out mix and need to track a new guitar. I will bypass all the effects to do this and guess what? sometimes everything all of a sudden sounds better! Try it. Overuse of reverb is often a good way to muddy up a mix. And squashing everything with compression makes for a flat sounding mix. And as Will said I use the effects built in to most of my VST instruments and save that as a pre set. That instrument can now be added to any song and sound perfect every time I use it. Ya, now I'm out of coffee too!

Just post your solution and all's good for future reference

All the software I use has a" Help" dropdown in the menu bar ( Hint, Hint) This is universal place to find the Look For Updates etc.

I agree with @Bass Guitar and @User 905133 The last thing this forum needs is any sort of blockades for new users with questions. Myself I have often joined a forum just to ask a question and the approval is sometimes immediate or only takes an hour or so. On the better ones I'll have my answer shortly. Otherwise I abandon that resource and keep looking. I'm a one post wonder on probably a couple dozen forums. This forum has almost been totally replaced with Facebook now. 1,000's of new users ask questions there instead of here. There are at least 5 different Sonar/Cakewalk Facebook pages that are at least as active or even more than the main forums here. For a few years I became active on a some of them and answered 100's of questions there. I would also post my Tutorial s as I released them as You Tube has that as part of the publication process. I probably gained 80% of my subscribers from there. You want a bad answer to your question-- try Facebook. The blind leading the blind mostly. Facebook sucks compared to a proper structured forum like this forum which has for the most part real good advise. I no longer support Facebook pages, I gave up. And it immediately showed in my You Tube channel as now new subscribers have almost vanished completely. I used to get 4 or 5 a day now it's like 1 a month. So that's the end of that project. It was fun and an interesting hobby but if that's the game you gotta play I'm out. I personally didn't see any spam so good job everyone.. I don't mind if the odd spam shows up. I'm not stupid and it's pretty obvious. The current system seems just fine to me. I've used it plenty of times.

@Starship Krupa Excellent rant, Now I need to make a second cup of coffee.. It's the last of my favorite beans. The grocery store told me they will no longer be offering it as they are changing to "No Name Brand" Just when life is almost perfect, some stupid company changes it for you. This is the best thing anyone has ever said about what happened. And I have a feeling our luck is not about to change at all, just different.

This confirms the device is connected. Did you check the driver status in Device manager, look under Sound Video and Game controller and open the properties. Did you download the driver from here- https://m-audio.com/support/drivers Always use a factory driver if available. Did you try not using a template? Open a Basic project and see if that works. I'm assuming you meant to say Cakewalk is not receiving midi data from the keyboard. I'm also assuming you meant to say the USB cable, or are you using the midi 5 pin output to your audio interface? That would certainly explain the issue as you would then be using your audio interface as the midi input device. But the Windows message sort of rules that out. I won't insult you by asking is you turned on input echo , but hey, you never know on the internet at what level of knowledge the person is at with Cakewalk.

First is this the keyboard ?. https://ca.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/keyboards/portable_keyboards/psr-e373/index.html#product-tabs If you already have a midi drum track then Send the Midi drum track to the Keyboard and record the audio output of the keyboard to a stereo audio track in Cakewalk. If you are trying to record the keyboards sequenced drum track as audio then you can skip that step. But take note: You can also record the keyboards midi track as midi data and edit it and send it back. Normally we tell you to use audio cables, this is an option if you own a decent audio interface. But I see that this model is also a USB audio interface, It is only 44.1 /16 which is sort of weird for Yamaha. But make sure and download the Yamaha/Steinberg ASIO driver found at above link. Follow my tutorial on proper audio set up to get this working properly in Cakewalk. Then you will select that as the input to the audio track. Your keyboard is a powerful tool to use with Cakewalk but it can be a little more complicated to set up to take advantage of all the option. You will defiantly benefit from reading the owners manual a few times to explore it's features. On the Cakewalk side I have you covered if you watch my tutorials and take some time to read the PDF user guide. This is the audio set up video - https://youtu.be/opDwsC4_llg This is the entire playlist of tutorials. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7YqVth30eGsURWrKGeu-fFyg3ETjF-Ox

Yes 100% agree. Thanks for bringing this up. The topic was about mixing within the DAW and not about live input recording. If there's one thing I always like to stress for anyone working with audio, be it live or in the box, "Gain staging is you key to successful results". You should understand it completely from top to bottom. My other favorite piece of advise is" Get a great sound before you hit the record button".

Plus 1 to what @David Baay has said. I also recommend you open your VST instruments and make sure they are not set to "Midi Output" As well as disable any Midi output ports in Midi Preferences devices. This will prevent a loopback. I cover the details in this video. Part 1 https://youtu.be/YJlI6U8Rqa0 Part II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xYGKsLHAh0

Glad you sorted it out as that old thread sort of ended with no solution. There was a lot of long time users and all of us were sort of stumped. @Kalle Rantaaho was the closest to figuring it out as all fingers pointed at some sort of internal routing issue. I have never used Offset mode so I would have to look it up to understand what it actually does. Sound like something I would defiantly use with extreme caution, like Ripple Edit. The Gain control is often overlooked. It is actually the most important setting on a channel strip. 45 years of live sound mixing teaches you that. You have 8, 12, 16, 24 channels of live inputs, You need to get a mix happening FAST. At sound check- , Mute the Mains, use headphones, you set all the faders at unity and musician, instrument, channel by channel you solo and use the input gain to put the meter where you want it. During the show you are constantly tweaking the gain keeping an eye out for peaking. Once every channel is set at the same input level the mix will be 90% balanced. Even the monitors will be easy to set. That input gain is the way to achieve a balanced mix without touching a fader. I set a basic target, nothing is to go over -6db. Average should be around -10 or -12. Vocals will need the most work and a touch of compression to catch peaks but I will also edit the track with clip gain ( actually I use Melodyne now) to get rid of those manually. It was mentioned that you would not use the gain to turn down a track because it becomes lame, and with that I absolutely agree. To a point So to clarify, turning down a track that doesn't have dynamic effects on it is harmless. What I am saying is all your tracks should be optimized and set at the target level long before you would be automating a fader. This is the Gains purpose. And yes you need to be aware of how the gain will interact with compressors. This is all part of having a workflow that keeps that signal chain in mind at all times. Remember, adding any effects can change the output of the track especially EQ. Its a balancing act of making changes and keeping an eye on that peak level. You want to hear that compressor working? Then keep the gain up and use it's output to maintain the peak. Always observe the peak readings that are found in your effects like in the Pro Channel. Don't clip anything! Keep that fader at unity as you work. Look at the console view to observe all your faders Play the song and observe each tracks peak and hold readings. They should not be exciding your target levels. I have different targets for different types of tracks. Example Keyboards @ -12. Bass and drums @ - 6. Same goes fore the buses. If they are peaking go find the hot spots and either fix them manually of use a compressor /limiter. Then you can start automation to bring stuff in and out of the mix. This step should be the last thing you do. Tip- Mix recall is your friend if you want to start over but don't want to loose the currant mix and all it's effects and automations.

For those interested in the topic the OP carried on and found a solution. Offset mode!

I was curious. Opened a basic project added a synth, and using the virtual keyboard played a few notes. I added a Wheel lane to the controller pane and drew a pitch bend. The first attempt was blocky ( notice the lower part) so I turned off snap and I was able to draw exactly what I wanted by just holding the left mouse button as I moved it around. No fuss to muss.

It's a bit confusing and possibly not enough information about what you want and what you did? The project shown sees to be all audio tracks. So I'll assume this was a recording done without a click track? Audio, as said above, unless told to do so with Audio snap or Groove clips, does not follow the tempo map, only midi does. What you've done is created a tempo map that matches the original audio recording. This is what one would do before they record midi parts and be able to then quantize to the grid. So what is not clear, are you hoping to speed up or slow down the whole song? Or are you hoping to make the whole song play at an even perfect tempo? FYI If you have any version of Melodyne installed you can automatically create a tempo map by dragging an audio clip to the timeline,

I just use T. The tools menu pops up at mouse position.

Ok here’s some answers to how to prevent it from happening . 1- Don’t go for lunch leaving Cakewalk recording. Yes we all do this once. 2- Don’t forget to stop when recording midi parts and then hit your controller at 2 minutes after the song ended. 3- Check that your midi controller is not randomly sending controller data from the joystick. 4-Pay attention when copying and pasting where the paste has gone if it isn’t what you wanted. 5- Always check the Undo list when something you pasted didn’t seem to work. It might have landed on measure 400 6- Don’t use Ripple edit on a complex project 7- Hidden tracks? 8. Your Cat found the R key. 9- Keep projects tidy

Using the gain doesn’t change tone. That is your ears lying to you. It is common knowledge that level has an effect on how we listen. A lot of snake oil plug ins make you think that they instantly make a track sound better but it’s just louder. Possibly understanding what you are trying to achieve would help offering a workflow that would help you better. Cakewalk has many options you can use to control the level of tracks. I actually rarely end up needing volume automation. I mostly use clip gain. I will also use tools such as Process Gain, Compression, Limiters and EQ. I try and leave all my faders at unity. I use the gain to set a target peak level for each track. I will use clip gain envelope for solos or brief changes. With clip gain I can simply highlight the section at drag the whole part up or down while observing the level read out showing at the pointer. As said there are dozens and dozens of workflows available and as you are finding out what works for one person doesn’t always work for you. Example almost all compressors, limiters and EQ,s have a input and output level control you can also automate. I have never needed this but it yet one more option.

Or use the gain

It might not be the video. It can also be caused by a certain VST instrument. Are you seeing the little blue circle spinning when you press the space bar? When this happens to me I then try freezing synths until it goes away. I think you can also try muting them until you find the problem.

Did it come with an ASIO driver and did you install it and choose ASIO in the driver settings. You shouldn’t be seeing the on board audio as an option if you did.

I’m not familiar with those mikes so not sure how good they would be at rejecting background sounds. But generally dynamic mikes like the SM series are used in live performance just for that one reason alone. I guess you could test them by turning on some noise in another room and see how much is picked up when say recording a guitar or something in your studio

Yes I guess I was thanks for clarification.