Tezza

For small projects maybe, or if you are just running an amp sim and nothing else, and again depending on the power of your computer. It starts to look like an expensive option for recording music. It just sounds a bit like marketing hype to me. You cannot get around the physical reality that a CPU can only handle so much, no matter what tricks the DAW's play, and if you are also relying on the CPU for software monitoring, that increases a potential bottleneck situation, especially if you are using convolution reverbs or complex evolving synths etc. Sorry Jim, I have to agree to disagree here, it's hardware monitoring for me all the way! But that might be because I am a vocalist and you are an amp sim guitar player! Clint, I had the Presonus VSL22 for a while, it was fine but I could never get on with the VSL software for my vocals because it made them sound robotic and there seemed to be a volume drop when I used it in full VSL mode. What I remember was that I had to juggle the mixer knob between VSL and direct out (hardware monitoring) so I could get the reverb from VSL (which i turned up to max), hear the output from DAW and the latency free direct return in the headphones. This juggling act was required frequently on various interfaces I tried until I first experienced the M-Audio Ultra Pro which was the first interface I had with a DSP mixer, hardware monitoring and onboard effects. When I experienced this, it was a game changer for me, albeit with a crappy reverb and low headphone out. So then I moved away from bus power to get more amps into the unit, went through different units and have stuck with the one I have today, the UR44. If it broke I would just get another one or any interface as previously described, probably secondhand off Ebay. It's amazing to put on the headphones, sing into the mic and hear your voice back with zero latency, a little EQ, compression and rich sounding stereo reverb, with your acoustic guitar also eq'd reverbed and panned where you want, together with an easy to mix output from your DAW of drums, bass, Keys etc. All easily adjusted through the DSP mixer. Sounds like I am in a room with a full band! And all happening on a 3rd generation i5 with 8 gig ram with no glitches or pops/clicks etc, it's not even a strain on the computer. Yes you can sort of do this through software monitoring, providing you have a very low latency (and expensive) audio card, a very powerful (and expensive) computer and nice sounding plugins and you dont mind fiddling with DAW plugins to set up record but even then you might/might not get there. Just throwing this option out there, you don't need to buy the latest and greatest of everything in order to get a well functioning system for recording music. Having good mics and sounds on your computer is more important than the audio interface.

Also, that sound card is getting a little old now. Which doesn't mean anything much, providing you use it with windows xp sp2 to windows 7 sp1. I used it for sometime and also the 192. Very stable and nice sounding cards for recording, work well with these operating systems. The problem is there is no "Windows 7" driver for this card, I understand they stopped driver production at Windows 7 SP1. If you use it with any operating system after this there may be unpredictable results. Audio cards that are designed to work with Windows 7 SP1 may not work well with a fully updated installation of Windows 7 because there were many changes introduced into Windows 7 through its life. Windows 7 today would be like Windows 7 sp3.

There can be a number of reasons for this, I have seen it reported in numerous forums and having different fixes, sometimes, in some DAW's, not fixable. It might be good to know what sound card you have, and at the risk of stating the obvious, which driver you are using (ASIO I assume) and is it the latest one from the manufacturer.

I usually run mine at 1024 buffer and at 96k. Gives the DAW room to breathe. I get zero latency because I monitor through hardware. This works for vocals, acoustic guitar and electric guitar. I only change it when using VST's for bass/keyboards, then to 64 or 128, works fine. I don't pay a lot of attention to latency figures because I have found that can be deceiving. My Focusrite 2i4 was exceptionally bad here, telling me 9ms when it was more like 20ms! I rely on my ears to let me know what is acceptable. Thanks for that info, I am sort of over amp sims now though. I like the Jazz/Blues fenderish clean sound, a bouncy amp sound. Sims struggle with that, I did numerous sessions of over 60 tracks at a time testing out various sims (not the ones you mention). The best sound I came up with was from the $50.00 American Sound Joyo pedal I compared them too. There is also the workflow issue, I don't like fiddling around with ir cabs, mouse driven knobs etc. Using the pedals, I don't even look at the computer and I have real knobs to tweak if something sounds off. I personally wouldn't monitor through software, first there is the latency issue and then, when you start loading the project up with tracks, plugins and VST's, your throwing all that at the CPU as well as asking it to provide perfect latency. Monitoring through hardware means those things are not going to interfere with your zero latency, your also not going to get the horrid clicks, pops, stutters and crashes etc associated with overloading your CPU. To be honest, I don't understand the obsession with software monitoring. I must be missing something. Presonus takes the cake with it's Blue Z, Green Z and Native Z latency monitoring with it's drop out protection etc, then when you get problems you have to turn off plugins, freeze tracks and fiddle with dropout and buffers. Too complex and fiddly for me. But again, I guess it depends what you are looking for, I am not sure what Clints needs are. If you are using amp sims, then I can see the obsession with low round trip latency. But if your a solo performer looking to record vocals, guitars, keys in a small studio etc I would recommend hardware monitoring over software monitoring. An interface that has: Wall wart, not bus power Min 4 XLR's in Mic, line in and direct in (instrument) Pads, selectable HPF and phase switch on each channel DSP chip mixer (for hardware monitoring) Smokin great quality Reverb Compression and Equalization options for headphones/print to DAW Good drivers that don't lie about latency and have low latency for VST's Different manufacturers make interfaces that have some or all of the above and they can also be picked up secondhand on Ebay for not much.

True Larry Jones, they used to supply the full .exe file every update, now only when you first install you get it, then it's just updates, that's what I meant in my first post. So I guess it doesn't answer izikko's wish to download the full installer. The updates can only be installed over the previous generation as well. Apparently you cannot install say update 5 over an installation with update 3 on it, it has to have update 4. Exactly what happens if you do this, I don't know. I might find out since I have forgotten what update I last installed on my offline computer!

At first, when cakewalk was installing an update it first installed a full .exe file temporarily in AppData on your computer. When that was completed, the dialogue pops up regarding the installation and then the .exe file in AppData is launched. After installation this .exe file is removed from AppData. Now it only installs an update file .exe in AppData, however, the file is still installed to your hard drive before it is launched. If you want to see it, you have to go to C drive--->Users--->Your name--->AppData--->Roaming--->Bandlab Assistant and you have to go there before you launch the installation (respond to the dialogue box). If you cannot see the AppData file, you need to enable "show hidden files" in windows. You can then copy this file from Appdata to another place and you can simply click it to launch the update. This is how I update my offline computer.

I found that using an interface with a DSP chip and onboard effects solved my latency problems. Of course, it depends what you are using the DAW for. For guitar, I tried amp sims but latency destroyed that idea, I also didn't like the sound. My computer is old, 4th generation i5, 8gig ram. Now I use pedals to get the sound and run it into my Steinberg UR44 where I can route it out direct to the headphone while recording, no latency, I can also add reverb to my headphones, since I don't use pedals for that and add it in afterwards from the DAW. I can also use a HPF and some equalization/compression, through the UR44 before it hits the DAW, used sparingly it's great. For keyboards/drums, I use a nektar midi keyboard controller and Kontakt/Komplete and other VST's. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid the latency with this setup. However, I have found the Steinberg drivers to be the best so far out of what I've tried on my system so I have no complaints. Don't really notice it, whereas i did notice it on the other audio interfaces i tried. For vocals/harmonies, same as guitar, record straight in add compression or equalization to suit and any reverb in the phones, output through the DSP chip and no latency. I could never get the ease of use and sound I wanted from USB powered interfaces. I prefer the wall wart powered, DSP mixer and effects chip type interfaces (generally, if they have a DSP chip, they need external power). But again, it depends what you are doing with the DAW. This is the best setup I have found for my uses but it may not suit others. It's also not that expensive to set up. More money for mics, guitars/pedals and VST's.

I would prefer not to be using my full real name on forums, I signed in through Bandlab. Unfortunately, I also seem to be unable to delete a post once it has been posted here. Are there any options to change these things here? thanks. Edit: Nevermind, worked it out! But still cannot delete a post once posted, is this the way it is supposed to work?

That's what I did Tony, they had a special on at groove 3 so i got the "sonar explained" and "sonar advanced" tutorials. They were in tended for what you guys affectionately refer to as SPLAT. There's some differences but overall quite good. I also found that I was a member of Lynda.com as a result of joining my library and they had one for sonar X2 that I also grabbed. I like video tutorials as long as they are good quality, I just run them on the TV, turn on the computer, fire up Cakewalk and away we go. I have also got some off youtube but this is a bit hit and miss regarding the quality of the teaching, audio and video. I'll give the ones suggested here a look. I will also put in a vote for a PDF help file. The online system is of no use to me, my DAW is offline. When I am using Cakewalk and i forget a particular thing, I have to stumble along without it or shuffle through videos to find an explanation. Not ideal.