chuckebaby

21 hours ago, abacab said:

think that a dumbed down version of Cakewalk would be most appealing to true first time beginner music makers that have never used a DAW, and have no actual understanding of what audio or MIDI tracks are.

DAWs are complicated and can be intimidating for beginners, and I am not suggesting to cripple Cakewalk in any way.

Maybe a special basic lens and demo template would be all that is needed to dumb it down for beginners, along with some effective getting started videos that cover a few bundled  demo projects step by step, in detail.  Like with a game mode metaphor, with a choice of difficulty: Easy, Medium, or Hard.

Really like this idea A-Cab.

Personally myself, I love all the bells and whistles but a bare bones DAW might bring in users who are looking to do basic things. After so many hours, you could move to another level.

4 hours ago, CJ Jacobson said:

You mentioned you checked the AUD.ini file, but did you check in the preference menu to make sure its pointing to your audio drive?

That's what I suspect as well ^^^^

Im not sure AUD.INI even contains Save project information. Its geared towards your AI settings. My guess would be along the lines of CJ's (check preferences/Folder locations)

16 hours ago, RobertWS said:

OMG!  Are you the Craig Anderton? 

Cant tell you how many articles I have read and things I've learned and they always seem to circle back to that guy.

As Craig said, You want to hold Shift down as well as CNTRL now. This changed about 2 years ago.

It might change the clips tempo but it doesn't change the project tempo (which is what I thought you meant reading your OP.

Hope this helps and you got it sorted.

I think what it comes down to is... If Cakewalk wasn't gaining users, wasn't popular.. we all would have been evicted months ago.

I think Ming, Noel and Co. have a plan laid out. IMO, its probably going as planned and we should worry less about how popular the DAW is and worry more about our own recordings/productions. I know I am

Something like THIS for an AI and something like THIS for speakers. Although I've seen cheaper prices for the used JBL's.

What are you doing more of, Audio or midi ?

I have to be honest, I've never seen a combo speakers / with input jacks thru USB. But I know Sampson has always been on the same level as a boom box

Focusrite makes a great, cost efficient, device in the Saffire range. You can pick up a used on for under a 100 bucks. A pair of JBL LSR308's are also pretty cheap used and will give you a little better idea of what the lower spectrum sounds like through good speakers (I have a good pair of both KRK and JBL's for mixing and mastering). Tracking I use a 100 watt crown through drivers/horns.

22 hours ago, Kurre said:

Ok. To improve my reputation i would like to get us back on topic.

We should all start our posts with this ^

Seriously though, When it all boils down... We are all just a big group of friends throwing our opinions around

Newer mix definitely sounds better with less reverb more kick on the drums. What are you using for cymbals Michael ?

From 1:15 - 1:30. 

18 hours ago, Michael Martinez said:

I have no idea what you're talking about, but it sounds interesting. Do you mean that Bandlab will take an audio drum track and will "synthesize it", creating a new Midi/instrument drum track? 

The bass, Vocals and most of the piano anyway sound great. But the drum track sounds weak. But Not the kind of "weak" that can be fixed by simply making the track louder or using EQ.  Im still surprised they are real drums. I thought they were a TTS-1. By using Drum Replacer you could beef it up.

Great song. I love the harmony's. Listened to it again this morning. It really grows on you.

7 hours ago, pwalpwal said:

f a m i l i a r i t y always gets a one-up

cant say I disagree with that ^

Is ASIO4ALL showing up in the list of devices ? And if it is, is it checked off ? you might need to uncheck any previous devices showing up (if there are any).

19 hours ago, Michael Martinez said:

It's an audio track (acoustic drums).

IMO, a recorded drum kit (with microphones) will always sound better than a drum VST, However in order to do this correctly, you need to have 5 things...the Microphones, The Pre amps, A good desk Good drums and a good drummer.

When you use cheap Mic's running through a Mackie 1604, it becomes clearly evident the drum sound is weak. I Have no idea what you used im just saying this is how I would approach it...

No use re-recording drum tracks, that's too much time and effort (unless its going to Mr. Geffen). Ive been sent many tracks over the years to mix and each one requires something different always, sometimes there are the same old tricks but always independent from one another.

I've re-routed pre existing drums through 1073's to get a better sound, when that fails, I use samples. Samples will get you there and lucky for you Sonar/Bandlab has Drum replacer which works very well for those instances (I used to use Audio snap).

I have even gone as far as sound stacking drums - Low kick for boom ! Mid kick for a break through ! Hi kick for the thud ! You need to be careful as too many layers will turn to mush if not EQ'd properly. Remember Drum frequency's will hog up room that may interact with the vocals, so the vocals themselves will end up sitting in the mix much more professionally once drums are done correctly.

19 hours ago, synkrotron said:

Perhaps you could put me right on any points that might be misleading Michael.

No I cant, you've got this covered perfectly. You are one of the people on this forum I respect and often agree with, just as I do with your earlier assessment.

Great job. Bass sounds great. Drums are a little bit low in the mix. A great drum sound and a great drum level will make a huge impact.

What are you using for a drum VST ?

29 minutes ago, jeo49 said:

I'm glad that you had a good experience.  Mine has not been quite as smooth.

Have you tried uninstalling the drivers to the Focusrite and reinstalling them on a different USB port ? Its critical to use the same USB port you used when installing the drivers to (it asks to plug the device in before completing the driver install).

I wore a USB port out once from constant plugging/unplugging. Took me forever to figure out what was causing it.

51 minutes ago, Byron Dickens said:

Why in God's name would you downgrade a Focusrite to a SoundBlaster?

I have to agree with these sentiments. I use a Focusrite 18i8 and it has been rock solid through Sonar and Bandlab (using Melodyne as well but there has been an issue with Melodyne 4.2 so im using a previous version).

Have you created a custom theme ? Possibly changing the number color the same as the timeline color ?

Which version of Sonar Platinum ?

7 hours ago, John Nelson said:

To visualize by means of a waveform... is highly unorthodox, not something mixers typically do.

And in the end the advice is always to use your ears and not your eyes.

While I totally agree with you....

Sometimes It's nice to have a waveform visual in real-time, Just as Audio tracks give their visual in real-time when recorded.

6 hours ago, msmcleod said:

Serial devices that actually work in Windows 10 might be a challenge

Im still using Windows 8.1 if that makes any difference.

7 hours ago, Frans van den Berge said:

This is the back of a Mackie HDR2496. It has ethernet and you can connect a mouse and a keyboard. Together with your daw it can share it's harddisk. So you can grab the audio files from it. The D8B will take full controll over the HDR2496 . It may serve you. Allso to flip the whole system if you ever decide to upgrade. 

The d8b is very similar, has a mouse, keyboard, hard disk. how is this one different ?

@Frans van den Berge That link you posted about the serial cable is great. might be the way to go. Thanks for your help Frans.

27 minutes ago, Frans van den Berge said:

What cards does the D8B have?

the same cards as shown in the photo you posted.

I actually have a nice Focusrite interface, so audio is not necessary. Just want to use the midi/as a controller.

Cakewalks 1 click copy/paste is Holding CNTRL while clicking on/and dragging a clip to another location. Always been one of my favo's.

6 hours ago, Jordan Cooperman said:

Any other thoughts ?

Is Bounce to clips greyed out on the menu or does it allow you to select it and nothing happens ?

This might help too...

http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/2544032

This seems to be the thing people struggle with (including myself for a long time). It all starts with the recording. A good recording (sonically) will produce a good foundation. Compression and EQ should be applied to the foundation before lift off (Export). The export is then brought back in to Cakewalk and treated slightly different. Its a totally different game than trying to get a good foundation. Its about putting the roof on.

The problem with slapping a "one size fits all" limiter on your master bus during Export is your going to have issues once you start to push it.

You need to focus on the energy that's sucking up valuable frequency's. The only real way to do that is with multiband compression.