A Tolerable Quietude

Happy new year everyone, Recently I noticed that one of the instruments in an audio export of a project just wasn't sounding as good as it did in the project mix--the automations weren't as smooth, the sound was thin, etc. After various troubleshooting, I discovered that this specific instrument (iZotope's Iris 2) does a bad job rendering faster than real-time. I solved the problem by freezing the track, with the freeze options set to "Render in real-time", then exporting the project audio. But this has got me wondering: Maybe there's been a bunch of less-obvious rendering problems in previous projects that I've missed?!! Should I use "Render in real-time" all the time, just to be sure (I see it's an option in the audio export dialog, defaulted to off)? Or is there a way I can tell definitively that a given synth or effect CAN render properly when Cakewalk speeds it up? Thanks!

Thanks Scook! Are you aware of a CAL script that will do what I'm asking as-is, or do it with minimal modification? Thanks for the AZ Lua link. That looks a little daunting, tbh, but it's no doubt less daunting than trying to write a CAL script from scratch.

Thanks Kevin! I think I can use the Velocity MFX to randomize the velocity to a value that could go down to zero, but that's not really what I'm looking for. Unless I use it with a patch that simply cuts off altogether at a certain velocity threshold. That's an interesting strategy to think about... Thanks Jon! I'm looking for something that can be applied to notes already on the track, not generated by the sequencer. If there's a way of converting a preexisting track into a Cakewalk sequencer pattern (a single pattern as long as the whole track, with varying note lengths, timings, polyphony, etc.), then what you're suggesting could potentially work.

I realize this is a pretty niche question, but I've been searching for a while and can't seem to find a solution. Is there any way in Cakewalk to set the probability that individual MIDI notes in a track will play or not? This is a built in feature of some DAWS (like Ableton's "Note Chance" and Bitwig's "Randomness Operator"). It's not built in to Cakewalk, but is there a MIDI FX plugin, CAL script, or some other way to do this in Cakewalk? I'm already aware of sequencer plugins (for example, Stochas) which let you set probabilities for notes in the sequencer. I'm looking for something that can be applied to a preexisting MIDI track in Cakewalk. Thanks!

Definitely not! If I want to do this again, I'll export and reimport the audio. Thanks again!

Thanks Skook! I think I've done this before (with Cakewalk closed) and it's worked, but I guess I've just been lucky. And thanks for the link to your CbB Tools utility! Very generous of you to make that available!

I think it's still possible to add an external audio editor like Audacity to Cakewalk. But it seems to involve messing with the Windows Registry. Here's a link to an old forum topic on how to do this. Caveat: I haven't done this myself yet with CbB, although I do remember doing this "back in the day" with Cakewalk and CoolEdit (anyone remember that?) and it worked as expected. These days if I want to use Audacity for some audio in a CbB project, I just edit the audio file in Audacity outside of Cakewalk. It would be really nice if CbB had an easy way in the UI to add an external audio editor, so that audio clips could be right clicked and edited without leaving Cakewalk. But I guess there isn't much call for this functionality.

A long buffer definitely makes it hard to record to time! What's going on here is that you have the whole section selected, so when you try to move a single note, all the selected notes move also. I've gotten in the habit of hitting Ctl-Shift-A on my keyboard every time I go to manipulate a single note on the piano roll, if I think there might be other stuff selected. Ctl-Shift-A is the shortcut to deselect everything.

This is exactly what compressors/limiters are made to do, tame and constrain the dynamic range of a signal. Since you're talking about live recording, you might consider a compressor/limiter on the mics of the worst offenders, so that the signal is reasonably constrained before it even gets to the DAW. Although there's nothing wrong with doing it "by hand" either, with automation envelopes on the volume of the tracks that need adjusting. If you've got the time and patience for it, this is arguably the best way, because you can change the dyanamics artistically as it suits the song. I would definitely not do it this way, for the reason you mention--the abrupt changes will be audible and make clicks and pops. If you want to do it by hand, automation envelopes are the way to go, so you can fade the volume up and down.

If it's a loop, you can drag it to the audio track like msmcleod suggests, then highlight the clip and press CTL-L to turn the clip into a loop. It should automatically snap to fit your project tempo when you do this.

Aaah, that seems to be it! Thanks so much to both of you for taking the time to find the solution! I was trying to recreate this behavior with Cakewalk's stock plugins, and I couldn't. But it was happening consistently with my Native Instruments plugins. The difference is, NI plugins default to enabling MIDI out. For anyone else experiencing this, I found this thread to be helpful. The solution is to pull up the Synth Rack View (Alt-9), right click the synths that are doing this, and deselect "Enable MIDI Output".

Good guess, but it's not that. I learned not to set track input to Omni the hard way early on, so I don't use that ever. I always set to a specific external input and channel. I do use drum maps however, so a common routing I use for drums is: Physical keyboard--> Midi track (sound-on-sound loop recording enabled, input echo = auto thru) --> Drum Map --> soft synth --> Audio track (record not enabled, input only coming from the audio send of the soft synth) Maybe something about using the drum map is causing this? (Edit: Probably not. I just tested the same project, but I removed the drum map from the routing and went right from the midi track to the soft synth, and it still doubled and redoubled on each pass through.) When it happens, all the doubled/tripled/etc notes go away when I stop recording. On playback, it sounds as expected, and there are no extra notes in the track's event view.

David, thanks for the reply! If it should work consistently, then I'll dig in and try to figure out why it isn't for me. In my experience this works reliably with an empty track and an empty project. But in other cases (already a midi clip on the track, other tracks in the project) I've experienced: It works. Cakewalk plays prior loop passes while recording. It kinda works. Cakewalk plays prior loop passes, but the midi notes double up on the second pass through, triple up on the third pass through, etc. (Earlier passes get louder and flammed. When I stop though, it goes back to single notes.) It simply doesn't work. I can record multiple takes on a single track in loop, sound-on-sound record, but I don't hear the prior takes until I stop and restart the recording. As far as I know, I'm not doing anything exotic with the tracks. The one I'm recording on is doing "Input Echo = Auto Thru", all other tracks not involved in the recording are on "Input Echo = off". If anyone knows of a tutorial, youtube video, etc, on how to do this reliably, I'd love to see it!

I'm wondering if there's a way to enable sound-on-sound loop recording on a midi track, which will play back what I've recorded so far as I'm playing? Like what people do when they are live looping, building up the sound as they go, without stopping and restarting each time? From the documentation, it looks like the answer should be NO. This says: "Note: When loop recording in Sound on Sound mode, you will not be able to hear the prior loop passes until you stop recording. This is because takes are only committed after recording is stopped." So why am I even asking? Because, despite what the documentation says, sometimes it actually does work. With a brand new project, if I drop in an instrument track, set loop points and turn on looping, then start sound-on-sound recording, Cakewalk will play back prior loop passes, without having to stop and restart. But try it again on another track, it might or might not work.

I usually start freezing tracks when I start to notice dropouts or other signs that my system is being overtaxed. If everything sounds fine to you, then I wouldn't bother. FYI, you can see what system resources are being used in your project and how close you are to maxing them out with the performance module.

Thanks so much for the very detailed reply and info. Very helpful! I would have thought it would be easier to get this kind of behavior from buses, but I guess not. At the end of the day there's an easy workaround--just mute the bus when I want the track to solo properly. I'm alsoglad that I didn't accidentally mess up a setting somewhere! Thanks again!

Since I couldn't find this anywhere online, I've made a full drum map for Abby Road Modern Drummer by NI. It's all 82 mappings in the "Sparkle Kit", and it works quite well for the other kit in Modern Drummer ("White Kit") which is has identical mappings of almost everything, but slightly different percussion sounds. It should also be a decent starting point for the other Native Instruments Abby Road instruments as well, which generally use the same mappings, but just have fewer drum sounds. With minor modifications/deletions, you should be able to use it for any kit in any of their Abby Road drum instruments. Here it is if it's useful to you. NI Abbey Road Modern.map

Yes David, thanks. Indeed, that's exactly what I do if I'm not using the output of that bus or track in the final mix, but only using it for the sidechain. That can be a great technique to add some dynamic texture to a track! But that's not what I'm talking about here. The drum bus output will still be in the final mix, but I'm talking about soloing tracks briefly while I'm putting the song together, so I can check what a single track sounds like on its own. When I solo a track briefly while I'm working on a project to hear that track in isolation, the other tracks respect that solo and stop going out to the master. The buses also respect that solo and stop going out to the master. If a track has a send on it to a sidechain compressor, it still respects the solo and stops going out to the master (even though it still goes out the send). But for some reason a bus with a send to a sidechain compressor doesn't respect the solo, and it keeps going out to the master too.

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful replies. It still seems like a bug to me, or at least very counter intuitive behavior. I'll try to explain it this way: If I put a send on a drum track to the epiano compressor sidechain and I solo the epiano, the drum track is still sent to the epiano's compressor sidechain, but the drum track no longer goes out to the master bus while the piano is soloed. That's what I expect. When I solo the epiano I only hear the epiano, ducking as it should to drums, but I don't hear the drums themselves. If I put a send on a drum bus to the epiano sidechain and I solo the epiano, the drum bus is still sent to the epiano's compressor sidechain. So far so good. But it's also still sent to the master bus. The other buses and tracks go silent when I solo a track. But not this one. Note that I'm not soloing the bus. I'm soloing a track, but the bus with the sidechain send keeps going out to the master too. I hope that's clearer. One workaround is to solo the track I want to hear, and then mute the drum bus so it doesn't also go out to the master. But it's weird to have to do that. Or maybe an aux track will behave better than a bus for this.

I'm not sure if this is a bug in Cakewalk, or if I'm doing something wrong. I've got a project with various instrument tracks, including some drum instruments. I put a sonitus compressor on an instrument track and a send on a drum instrument track to the compressor sidechain, for some sidechain compression on the instrument. So far so good, everything works as expected. If I solo the instrument track, all I hear is the instrument track (with the volume ducking down where the drums would be sounding) but I don't hear the drum, or anything else. But since I've got more than one drum instrument, I decide to send the drums to a bus, and put a send on the bus to the instrument's compressor sidechain. This is where things get weird. Now if I solo the instrument track with the compressor sidechain coming from the drum bus, I hear the instrument, and I also hear the drums (everything else mutes). This only happens on the track that's got the compressor sidechained to the drum bus send. If I solo a different instrument in the project, everything else mutes, including the drum bus, as expected. I hope this is clear what the issue is. Is this a bug? Or is there a setting I need to adjust to make the bus behave as expected when I solo a track? I'm able to reproduce the result, and I've attached a small cakewalk file that demonstrates this using only stock cakewalk plugins. Try soloing the epiano track and you'll see what I mean. Odd Bus Solo Behavior.cwp