UCG Musician

Today, I restored the 18i20 to its factory settings again and was in the process of shutting down all applications before rebooting the computer. But before I did that, I thought I'd just try launching Cakewalk to see what happens. Lo and behold, it recognized the interface in ASIO mode and worked as normal. I did not switch to another USB cable or use a different port or go through the optimization steps listed in the link above. This is a puzzling issue. It could not be a problem with the interface unless it has a glitch that is corrected by resetting it. When I restore factory settings, it defaults to a 48 kHz sample rate and I change it to 44.1, which I know Cakewalk likes. It doesn't seem like this can be a Cakewalk problem because it recognizes the interface in other driver modes when it doesn't work with the ASIO driver. Perhaps it occurs when another program is running that taps the interface. For example, YouTube videos play through the 5.1 speakers. (I do know that means 6 speakers and they are connected as front left and right, rear left and right and center + sub.) I sometimes have Finale running when I'm using Cakewalk. There must be a conflict when another application uses the interface but I do not know which one it is. If I have anything new to report, I'll update the post.

I've seen posts on this before so I know I'm not alone in dealing with a problem like this. I have a Focusrite 18i20 audio interface which Cakewalk doesn't recognize in ASIO mode unless I restore the unit to its factory settings and then reboot my computer and re-launch Cakewalk. Then Cakewalk recognizes it as long as it's running. (The interface must also be re-configured for my 5.1 speaker setup.) When I'm done using Cakewalk and exit the program, the ASIO driver is not recognized when I re-launch it. I set the driver to WASAPI Exclusive and Cakewalk finds it. I'd like to know why it can find the interface and use ASIO at some times and then not at at others. Can I do something to keep ASIO recognized without having to reset the interface?

JnJuneTech, Thanks for your response. The problem is not with the audio interface or Cakewalk. The banks in the MIDI hardware are not populated as they were when I created the sequence. I purchased several libraries and installed them at various times on the Kronos 88 and in the process used several different instrument definition files. Cakewalk is working off one of the ins files, while the hardware's banks are loaded with another set of patches. I probably need to get assistance on the KORG forum, unless someone on this forum has familiarity with the intricacies of the Korg Kronos 88. It's a very complicated machine and I do not fully understand it. UCG Musician

My USB Audio interface died and I just got a new one. After hooking everything up, I tested my DAW on several sequences and discovered that the settings (banks, patches , etc.) do not correspond to those on the connected hardware (Korg Kronos 88). I suspect the problem is that the Korg's libraries are loaded into different banks than those that were in place in the original sequences. In trying to reconstruct which libraries are in which banks, I have been unable to determine if there is a way to print all the Cakewalk track settings. This would make it a lot easier to capture the information needed to pursue the Korg library situation. Unfortunately, over the years I used various libraries including the factory settings and a number of purchased libraries that must be loaded into the banks I choose. So finding the correct instrument definition file to import into Cakewalk is a huge challenge at the moment.

I'm confused about what's going on. The audio interface is hooked up and never disconnected. It is active and functioning and has an icon in the tray which displays its status, sample rate, buffer size and clock settings. Windows recognizes it and and it acts normally during a test at 24 bit depth and 44,100 Hz sample rate. When any audio (YouTube, MP3, etc.) is playing, the Focusrite meters are moving and the input and output sliders affect the sound. Today, I just closed all programs and rebooted again. When I launched Cakewalk everything (so far) is functioning normally. Cakewalk MIDI is functioning normally as well. I just took a file with MIDI tracks only, inserted an audio track and recorded the output from one of two connected MIDI devices. Everything is functioning normally. For now, I'm going to just leave Cakewalk running all the time in hops that the problem doesn't resurface. If this latest information that I posted sheds any light on the problem, please reply! To John at Cactus Music: I didn't know about your videos and am impressed with what I've seen so far.

Recently Cakewalk stopped recognizing my Focusrite Scarlett 2nd generation 18i20 audio interface: This is the error message I get. ASIO driver mode is selected and the audio interface is functioning properly. BandLab Support asked me to reinstall the Focusrite drivers, which I did. That required me to reboot the computer. After I did, Cakewalk recognized the interface for one day and then stopped recognizing it today. I do not know what's wrong and am very frustrated that I can't get anything done while this condition exists. Hopefully someone can help me get this working. I never had this problem before and I have been using Cakewalk almost since it first came out.

I just wanted to let you know (a little late) that I finally had a chance to tackle this issue and the technique worked. After trial and error I found that adding a delay of 100 (milliseconds, perhaps?) to each track using the digital piano got it to sync very closely with the organ. Thanks again for the advice!

Hello Scook, Thank you for pointing this out. I will try the technique and let you know how it worked. I do not have access to the instruments all the time. They're typically available only on weekends at church but as a musician I can work with the equipment during the week sometimes. Randy

Is there a way to delay the MIDI signals on a track or series of tracks by a small amount? I use two MIDI instruments simultaneously. One (a digital piano) responds to MIDI signals very quickly while the other (a MIDI organ) responds slightly more slowly. In combination they are just a tad disjointed. I tried using a delay/echo effect on one track on the digital piano to experiment but both the original MIDI played and a secondary MIDI played of the same thing at the delay increment. I guess that what it's supposed to do. Is there some method of syncing two MIDI devices that respond to signals differently?

Thnaks. I found it under "C:\Users\Randy Schmidt\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core".

I followed MSMcLeod's tutorial above and entered everything in Define Instruments. (THANK YOU!) When I go back and verify that it's there, everything is in place in Cakewalk. But when I look for the master.ins to see what it looks like there, I can't even find the latest version of the file. I "saved for next session" so I'd expect to see a currently dated file. Where does Cakewalk store this file?

SJOENS, That is very helpful. Thank you. I have most of an ins file constructed (from scratch) but I am totally confused by the "Instrument Definitions" section of the ins file. The Allen MDS-50 organ does not have banks or patches. It has 10 general presets ("pistons") that set up many different individual stops on the different divisions on the instrument (Swell, Great, Pedal, Choir, G1/G2 Pistons and Generals). It also has a large number of individual stops that are turned on or off. To use MIDI effectively on the organ, I need to send multiple NRPN messages. First, I need to turn off all the stops because as soon as Cakewalk begins a sequence it sends the piston number that corresponds to the "instrument". If the first "instrument" is "1" the organ automatically sets up all the stops associated with that preset. That is typically not what I want to use. So I have to send NRPNs to turn everything off. Then I need to send NRPNs to turn on just those stops I want. (Technically I could just start by turning off the stops I DON'T want but somehow that seems less straightforward than resetting to none and turning on what's needed.) INS files from instrument manufacturers have patches listed in the Instrument Definitions section. I don't know what those would be with the Allen organ. Also, I don't know what the correct bank select method would be. Since the organ responds to NRPNs, not controller 00 or 32 or patch numbers, it's not clear which bank select method I should indicate. Does it even matter if NRPN numbers are required anyway? I hope someone can explain this in a way that gives me a good understanding of what I need to do! UCG Musician

I use an old MIDI instrument (an Allen MDS-50 organ built in 1990 ) with Cakewalk and am constantly frustrated with the process. The organ's stops are all turned on and off through NRPNs and there are a rather large number of them. I built a table of all the NRPNs and would like to create an ins file so I don't have to constantly look up which stop I'm turning on or off. I know there is a way to assign "meanings" or names to NRPNs but I don't know how to create an ins file at all, let alone one that utilizes NRPNs. For every instrument I've used with Cakewalk I have always gotten ins files from the manufacturer or from some good person who created his own. Unfortunately, no such ins file appears to exist for an Allen MDS-50 organ. I've checked many, many resources for a decade and only recently did an Allen engineer put together a definitive NRPN list, which I then used to develop the attached pdf table. I also have this list in Excel, text and als files. Allen provided it as an als file, which apparently stands for Ableton Live Set. I opened it as a text file and also imported it into Excel for further manipulation. I created the attached pdf file from Excel. Does someone on the forum have experience creating ins files? Has anyone done so with many NRPNs? For example, how would NRPN 35 be labeled as Viola Celeste 8'? I would greatly appreciate help with this. UCG Musician Allen MDS-50 Stops & MIDI Data 2021-10-04.pdf

I'll try these options. Thank you for the help!

I want to set all my MIDI tracks to a default track height. I assumed (apparently incorrectly) that by picking one at the desired height and setting it as the default height would apply to all tracks. It doesn't happen and I can't find anything in the documentation that explains how to do it, or if that is even the purpose of "default track height". There's probably a very simple trick that I haven't found yet. It's something I would use on every project.