Larry Jones

@Michael Fogarty With Audiosnap, yes, you can change the tempo of an audio track or group of tracks. Check out the link in my original post. Mind you, I'm not trying to have tempo changes during the track. I'm just trying to have the whole thing go at a lower speed. As I said in my many updates above, the audio tracks in my project didn't behave as expected until I bounced one (containing many clips) to a new track so it became just one clip on its own track. Then it worked, and stayed in sync.

Right off the top I'll say that you'd be far better off with an audio interface designed for this kind of work and a "real" microphone. Your computer is seeing the mic as an audio device. The mic is used as an input, but it can't be an output (for playback/monitoring), so the internal sound card is used for that. Under Edit|Preferences|Audio|Driver Settings you will probably see your internal sound card as the Playback Timing Master and your USB mic as the Record Timing Master. That should screw up your sync right there, but it's the only way it'll work at all. Maybe if you go to Edit|Preferences|Audio|Playback and Recording and change the "Driver Mode" to one of the WASAPI choices you'll get better results. Also, the mic may be a 16-bit only device, so make sure you're not recording at a different bit depth (like 24). Cakewalk is designed for use with a single, fast audio interface and if you use one your latency and sync should not be (much of) an issue. You would never, for example, have to slide a recorded track around on the timeline to get it in sync with existing tracks. I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I hope this helps.

I'm trying to slow down a project a little. I have about 40 tracks, both audio and MIDI. I'm using these instructions. But I recall reading somewhere else that I have to bounce all the tracks to clips so that they all start at zero. Can anyone tell me if this is so, or if the SONAR documentation is obsolete? I tried this once without bouncing everything to clips, and once with the pre-bounce. Both times some tracks followed the new tempo, some didn't, and some changed tempos during the track, apparently at random (the tempo map before this operation was a straight horizontal line). I think it was the MIDI tracks that followed the new tempo, which of course makes sense, but I need the audio tracks to go along. I'm only going for a slight reduction in speed, from 172bpm to ~164bpm. Is there a better way to do this? Or (more likely) can anyone tell what I'm doing wrong? UPDATE 1: Some of the audio tracks not only don't follow the new slower tempo, they actually change to a much faster tempo! UPDATE 2: I should note that none of my tracks were played or sung all the way through. They are all comped or punched, so there are a lot of clips in each track. UPDATE: 3: It is definitely only the audio tracks that aren't playing nice. All the MIDI tracks are behaving as expected. UPDATE 4 IMPORTANT: I bounced one of the audio tracks to a new track, making it all one continuous clip, starting at measure one and going all the way to the end. When I tried the tempo change again, this track followed the change. So I think this is the solution. I'll try it (tomorrow) on the rest of the audio tracks and render them and see how it sounds. I'm still open to suggestions and explanations if anyone wants to jump in.

Sorry you haven't been getting any help here. Can you tell us what PC you are using, what audio interface (or no audio interface), and how you are going about putting vocals onto your backing tracks?

I don't know if I'm allowed any followup whining on this Q&A forum, but... This didn't go well. I didn't bounce to clips, I just went through the instructions noted in my original question and changed the tempo of the project from 172bpm to 160bpm. I'll have to take more time to analyze this, but it appears that the MIDI tracks followed the change, but not the audio tracks. Also, some of the audio tracks change tempo apparently randomly at various points in the song. I think I'll try it again, this time bouncing everything to clips first. Guess I should also have a look at the tempo map, in case there's something there, although there have never been any random tempo changes in the past and the song doesn't have any intentional changes. I thought those instructions looked too good to be true.

I'm trying to slow down a project a little. I have about 40 tracks, both audio and MIDI. I'm using these instructions, But I recall reading somewhere else that I have to bounce all the tracks to clips so that they all start at zero. Can anyone tell me if this is so, or if the SONAR documentation is obsolete?

Michael, thinking out loud here as I'm a guitar player who knows very little about MIDI... You can set up your synthesizers to receive MIDI data on specific channels 1 though 16, then change which channel your keyboard is sending on, which would in turn activate sound from one of your synths. The Alesis manual should tell you how to change the channel on that, and each synth will have a different procedure for setting the MIDI channel as well. You might not be able to set up the keyboard with different MIDI channels for different sections of keys or pads, though. It might be a matter of sending on ALL MIDI channels and selecting which synth you want to be playing. Someone who knows a lot more about MIDI will be able to give you more guidance on this. Best of luck!

Hey, @Johnbee58 and @sjoens, please do that here in the forum so I can join in! I have an LX-61+ and I'd like to make better use of it. Thanks!

Thanks for the reply! I only use it with one DAW (CbB) and it's still confusing. The implementation on different DAWs is not their fault, though. It has to do with what a DAW publisher exposes for third party programming. It is a disappointment that the controls on the Impact are not customizable. That would make it much more valuable.

That is a good video. As bad as my singing is, I really should to learn how to do this.

Wish I could help, but I've never seen this behavior. I do have a question for you, though: Do you use all the DAW control functions? I have the 61-key version of that keyboard, and I guess I'm just lazy, but I only use the transport controls. All the other hoo-ha is too confusing for me (I use it in studio only, not live). For what it's worth I think your USB hub should be OK, since it's powered.

Putting on my Spelling Police hat for a moment: These were "ads." not "adds." That is all.

Long way around in describing this, but it was a good read, so you're forgiven. Also, good to read the solution. I might need it someday.

Ha! Now I have a pop up from an online dating site that says "You have a match!" Who says these ads are not relevant? Meeting women is the whole reason I got into music in the first place.🙃 Thanks, Bandlab!

@Cactus Music In case you missed it, Johnny, it was meant as a joke.🙃

Good to know. Thanks.

The sad truth is that a dedicated audio interface with ASIO drivers is the first step toward reducing latency. The good news is that such interfaces can be had for less than $100. Meantime WASAPI is the best driver for you. Also, make sure you have not inserted processor-intensive plugins (such as phase linear compressors) anywhere in your project. In fact, turn them all off to see if that helps, than maybe you can find the culprit(s).

Is your computer a desktop or a laptop? Off-the-shelf or custom built? What is the brand? Do you know how many slots your motherboard has for RAM? If it's a desktop it's pretty easy to replace the RAM (memory). Take the case apart and look for something like these, which will be plugged into the motherboard. Don't know how you ended up with 9GB of memory, but standard best practice is to use an even number. In your case I like @razor7music's suggestion above: Get 16GB. This might mean you'll have to buy a couple of 8GB "sticks," but they are pretty affordable these days and it will make a big difference in your DAW. This is all more difficult on laptops because they're tiny and everything inside is proprietary, but either way this is a very minor bit of mechanics, and if you're not comfortable doing it yourself any PC technician can do it for you in a few minutes. Try to find a small shop, instead of some big chain store where they keep your PC for three weeks and overcharge you. EDIT: Not all RAM is the same. If you're going to do this yourself, pull out the ones that are in there and use them to make sure you get the right kind for your computer. I'm not enough of an expert to say more on this, but surely someone will be along here soon to give you more information.

What @scook is saying is you have to have at least one synth inserted into your project to play MIDI previews.

I've used Ccleaner (free version) many times. It seems to help, and it hasn't messed up my system yet. Windows registry is a fragile bird, so use at your own risk.

Steev went away a few weeks ago because he wrote something political in this forum. I guess he wasn't banned, but probably warned. I imagine he resented that.

Warning: Off-topic comment. In the 1980s LA producers went crazy over a box called The Aphex Aural Exciter. At first you couldn't buy them -- you had to rent them. Then when they became available to buy you discovered that the critical electronics inside were sealed, so you couldn't reverse engineer the product. Nobody knew exactly what they did, but somebody famous used one (Linda Ronstadt, maybe) and after that everybody had to have one. It did seem to add some kind of sheen to vocals. Eventually we figured out that it distorted certain high harmonics and added them back to the signal. I think the BBE Sonic Maximizer works like that.

I'd vote for being able to rearrange the synth rack and tabs in the multidock. I'm going to look for a "feature request" forum and see if you've already posted there.

@Johnbee58 Maybe this will shed some light: Possibly at some time in the past you have globally bypassed "bins of this type." Looks like you can undo that with a right click in a bin set to the right type of effect. Link.

I've never really paid attention to that button, but I guess it's the button that turns all effects on or off for that specific track. If it defaults to "off," I'm sure it comes on automatically when you insert a VST on the track. @Johnbee58 are you saying that FX inserted on a track are off by default and you have to toggle that button to hear an effect?