Tezza

Also, make sure you keep a copy of the original song you posted here so you can hear the differences. Please also do something about the long intro, it should be half what it is, the vocals are what everyone wants to hear, they should come in 2 or 4 bars after the start. You can't reinvent the wheel here, if you have a vocal in your song, that is the most important part.

The more reverb you put on, the more the vocals will disappear into the back of the mix, try to mix the vocals dry first, with no reverb, just equalization and compression. When that sounds right then try a shorter reverb like room or plate. If you want to extend the sound of her voice which might be necessary in this song and given her style, try using a short delay to do that after you have the eq and compression right, just sit the delay sound very soft in the mix. Then put a shorter reverb on that.

I thought it was just too long, the intro and the changes, the vocal melody is also clashing with the change in the bass in the second sentence of the verse, it's pushing the vocal away. It's like you have created a backing track and then forced a singer to sing over it, whether it fits or not. The reverb on her voice isn't ideal, too much and cheap wet sounding, I couldn't focus on the lyrics. You need to be a singer yourself and to sing in full voice when you are creating the melody, then any odd bits will stick out, using instruments to play the melody and thinking it will convert to a human voice doesn't work well and using half voice or the voice you hear in your head while composing also is not ideal, unless you are a very experienced song writer. Perhaps get the singer in sooner in the composition phase? and involve her in the composing part.

The Panorama is a lot more complex than the impact, they are noted for being difficult to set up on all DAW's according to the forums. I didn't have any problems with my older LX impact and I don't have any problems with my current GX Impact, they worked fine with all the DAW's I tried them on. You are handcuffed a bit if you use the setup files, alternatively, you have to use the midi control setup features of the DAW. There are limits what the setup files will do and there are also limits to what you can successfully map midi wise.

I have to monitor through the rokits or headphones and at low volume, I like to commit to what I'm playing, I find the workflow associated with too many choices the most destructive aspect of recording with a DAW. I use the pedals to get an amp sound and use the reverb (monitors only) on the audio interface to give it some space if it needs it, I might use some chorus but that is about it. For me it sounds much better than any amp sim I have tried. I play clean strat but even the light SRV type distortion from the pedal sounds way better than any amp sim I have tried. I used to try to add guitar VST effects to the recorded part after but they sound so shit I don't bother any more. And again, that's another thing to do. Guitar is pretty clean, just amp sounding pedal with some reverb and compress/eq into the mix.

I don't play heavy metal but do play some clean and very fast staccato rhythm pieces on a strat. This was why I stopped using amp sims for anything fast, they were fine for the occasional chord or even general chord play and lead solo's but when rhythm got fast and staccato, the latency made it impossible to accurately record the part as I wished. On playback, timing was off. I use pedals now mainly, with direct monitoring from the audio interface, that took care of that problem.

+1 Love this thing!

You might have to go to youtube and grab some info/demos on it from there. Sonar X series and Platinum etc and also more recent Cakewalk. I just use a youtube downloader and then watch them later on my TV while I muck about with it on the computer.

Yes, I love the ProChannel, especially the slide out, big window, parametric eq. That's great just to see whats going on tonally with the vocals and guitars, if there are any unpleasant things can find and then fix at source with a small recording before recording the main take. Because I have less time for music now, workflow is king, ProChannel does it all quickly and easily, no real need for thousands of different plugins and their accompanying and annoying authorizations, passwords and quirky incompatibilities. I was using Studio One V3 but I am preferring Cakewalk now, wasn't happy with the sound and the black interface on everything, I'm bringing those projects over into Cakewalk now. The sound of Cakewalk is much better, console emulation, saturation, tube etc all there, without having to do anything, raw sound sounds meatier to me as well, S1 doesn't have any of that or if it does, I haven't found it buried in menus and I hate adding stuff all the time. Simplicity is king! I think that unless you've been working in a professional studio for 20 years with the accompanying professional audio qualifications, then it is better to pick a few plugins and learn how to use them well rather than drown in hundreds or thousands of plugins. ProChannel rules!

No it's the older LX standard. I am using the GX at the moment which I bought new. But the GX doesn't have all the controls, it's just the keyboard. I liked the LX keyboard but in my current setup I don't have room for it on my desk, thought I would get the GX which is much slimmer, except the keyboard is completely different, still getting used to it, LX more synth like, GX more piano like.

I didn't have to do this, neither did I have to choose the midi ins and outs in preferences, it set it up straight away. In Studio One, I had to set the midi ins and outs even when using the setup files. In any event it says in the instructions on the website what you have to do if the midi ins and outs are not set up correctly. Mixcraft required something different, manually installing a file in Mixcraft from memory. I did not use CB ACT, the point of the setup files is that you don't use the DAW's midi control setup procedure. I don't know if it's possible to use both together. In Studio One I made a midi control file for the LX and didn't use the setup files to see how that went, it did work and I was able to customize things how I wanted but Studio One's compatibility with third party controllers isn't very good, CBd is much better. S1 wouldn't color the tracks when you switch to the next bank of 8 so you could never easily see what bank you were using, S1 also has no soft takeover and the rotary controls didn't match properly. I would think if you want to use ACT to setup the keyboard then you wouldn't use the setup files. I cant recall how this worked. I am not sure when you say "the manual", what you are referring to. The procedure I used was to register the keyboard (which was secondhand) which created my Nektar account. In my Nektar account, the setup files together with the functionality and instructions were available for all different DAW's. I downloaded and installed all the setup files for each DAW and followed the instructions, It worked ok for all the DAW's I tried it on, I think in Mixcraft, I did have to select the midi ins and outs after installing the file. Something I think I remember, if you download the setup files from the Nektar website then there wasn't as much info available. You have to have an account and then there was additional information in your account that wasn't available just on the website. Not for me, the "inst" key bought up the instrument for any track that I had selected. You have to install all the setup files for each DAW on your system, then there is the issue if for some reason, the DAW does not select the correct in and out midi preferences so you have to do that yourself and the instructions for this are available as part of the instructions in your account. I think if you want to setup this level of customization then you could use the ACT and not use the setup files, I've not used the Cakewalk ACT so cannot help you there.

You shouldn't be having any problem with the Nektar Impacts compatibility with Cakewalk. Just download the keyboard set up files from the Nektar website, the Sonar ones work with Cakewalk. Run the set up files and then all functions will work as they should. I have the GX impact and the LX one as well, they work perfectly with Cakewalk using the Sonar set up files. No manual set up required.

Just don't forget to give your credit card details to that lovely Russian beauty when she asks for them Larry, less you offend her.

That is indeed a terrible situation, DAW's should never be like this. I never have problems with my DAW, sometimes I may leave it on all day and just return, do some work, thrash away and then do something else, it makes no difference if its Studio One, ProTools, Cakewalk or Mixcraft. I used to do video editing and worked out a system for that which was stable and applied the same principles to my music systems. 1. i5 or i7 intel 2. 8 - 16gig ram 3. 3 hard drives, 1 for samples, 1 for OS/apps, 1 for recordings/projects 4. No internet connection, no anti-virus 5. Disable all unused onboard motherboard devices in BIOS including audio 6. Use a dedicated audio device with renowned drivers 7. Make sure software and hardware is of the same age approximately (ie putting win 10 on some old computer) 8. Don't allow windows updates (cant anyway if its offline) 9. Use all legal software That's about it really. I think that with SSD's it might not be necessary to have 3 drives, not sure, would like to experiment with 2, don't know if it's worth it though. Seriously, you should be able to work all day without any crashes at all. I guess I also don't use many third party plugins, I have DAW and NI Komplete ultimate 10. This is what I like about Cakewalk, the prochannel, the EQ is great on that, big sliding window. When my new computer is done, I think I will put just Cakewalk and Komplete on and that will be it. Only 2 authorizations, only 2 programs to update. I'll get rid of the other plugins because I can't stand all the different authorizations and passwords and little niggly things that happen because of a clash of third party developers. I would really like it if the Cakewalk developers brought out some instruments as well, there is money in my pocket waiting to spend on that.

I am on windows 7 laptop using Firefox and have never seen any ads at all on this forum and there are none now so I have no idea what you guys are experiencing or where they are coming from. Correction: There is one at the top of the home forum page and at the top of first level topics, none on posts etc. Don't know if that was there before or is new.

What ASIO drivers are you talking about? I would just try ASIO 4 ALL first to see if that works for you. It most probably will. I wouldn't get hung up on milliseconds and staring at dialog boxes, use your ears. Your problem is the realtek chip is not ordinarily suitable for multitrack recording in a DAW environment. They developed ASIO 4 ALL specifically for this purpose so you can have access to an ASIO driver for your DAW on your laptop to reduce latency. You may need to switch your recording to 16bit as well. Plenty of people use it successfully for their needs in situations just like yours. The ideal situation would be, as suggested, to get a dedicated audio device that comes with dedicated ASIO drivers. Your i5 and laptop are not the real concern here.

Yes, some of them can be terrible with velocity, the worst one I ever played was an Alesis V61. It was unplayable with random velocities all over the place. If your starting out though, I would recommend the Nektar LX 49/61 (if you want the pots/faders etc) or the Nektar GX49/61 (straight keyboard). They are well priced, you don't get aftertouch, but the keys are reliable and you have 4 different velocity settings. They also integrate completely with Cakewalk, you just download the Sonar drivers for them from the Nektar website, nothing to do, everything works EXACTLY as it should. I've got both at the moment, I liked the LX61 but too big for my setup so I got the GX61 but was surprised that the keybed was completely different to my original LX model, more piano like than synth like. Still ok, just a difference I wasn't expecting. If I were upgrading, I would probably get a slightly more synth like action (semi weighted?) with aftertouch, but still simple keyboard only, not sure, the GX is growing on me. I don't think there are many to choose from, maybe the Studio Logic 61? Unless your planning to both learn and play piano style with heavier keys then I would avoid 88 keys. I tried the Behringers (springy, tiring keys), the Korg microkeys (tiny, spongy keys) The Alesis V series (the worst keyboard I have ever played, unplayable random velocities). Also the M-audio Axiom (horrid sticky keys) and Oxygen and Novation impulse. These last 3 were difficult to set up, lots of stuffing about and depending on which DAW you are using as to how well they perform. I don't think aftertouch is essential, especially if you are starting out however, the keybeds of keyboards that have aftertouch are generally better feeling than those without. My experience has taught me that the Nektar Impact GX/LX series rules when it comes to budget midi controllers. The M-audio keystations are good as well though. An M-Audio Keystation 49 is a fantastic start out keyboard, plug it in use it, unplug it and put it away.

+1! that's what i do, or "W" as others have suggested.

odd, my Rokits have a cut out that shuts them down after 30 minutes if there is no noise going into the speaker, then if I play something through them, you can hear them cut in, first one, then the other, doesn't really bother me. I have heard that if the sound is turned down enough, they may cut out. This has never happened to me though, perhaps there is something wrong with the automatic cut out of your rokits however it is difficult to believe both of them would develop the same fault at the same time. Maybe you are one of those people where you have your sound low and they cut out. Or maybe it's the line selector you are using interfering with the automatic cut out. The BX5's don't have a cut out so they should be fine.

Personally, I would prefer to see updates every 3 to 6 months. I don't like this idea of monthly updates. Every month tinkering with the software?

Is it a laptop or desktop?

Check the cables, ie mains power cables running over the top of speaker cables etc, USB cables running over mains cables.

Why not use the prochannel in the inspector. Just press "i" on your keyboard and the inspector will appear on the left hand side of the screen, it's like another window. At the top there will be some tabs, one will be prochannel, click that one then you will see the available effects already available you can use, you can add or subtract fx.

Windows 10 with sonar X3 and an old? Audigy card. I've found DAW systems run best when your OS, audio card and DAW are all around the same age, must be a sweet spot or something. You can run windows 10 with Cakewalk, then all you need to do is update the Audigy to something more modern. The Audigy is not really a DAW editing card, it is more for gamers and for multimedia cinematic functions. I recall trying to use soundblaster cards in a DAW environment, it just seemed I was always having one issue or another, plus they don't have any XLR inputs and those little 3.5 plugs everywhere. Also, windows updates can sometimes stuff up old sound card drivers.

Your video isn't working.