Robert Bone

This is a good explanation of the benefits of using M.2 2280 NVME PCIe drives, so if anybody is considering a new computer build, this info may be worth a read. I happen to have several of these drives, and they are screaming fast. https://www.pcworld.com/article/2899351/everything-you-need-to-know-about-nvme.html Bob Bone

It sounds like you Axiom controller has transposed or tuned. If you record some midi data, and then highlight that clip and click on View > Event List, you can see what midi notes were captured by the record process. Are those notes displaying properly, meaning if your notes played were C3-D3-E3-F3-G3-A-B3-C4, is that what is shown in the Event List? There is also a tiny little + and - at the bottom of every midi track's channel strip (if you highlight the midi track and make sure the Track Inspector is visible, you should see the channel strip for that midi track). Anyways, the little + and - buttons will transpose notes up or down by any value other than zero. Make sure you haven't accidentally incremented or decremented the midi notes there. If you DO see a positive or negative number there, click the + or - button to get it back to zero/blank. Hope it is one of the above, Bob Bone

I have two cats, and the kitten invariably will saunter over and begin to do battle with imaginary mice, anytime I am working in Cakewalk. She is a GENIUS at managing to step on the computer keyboard - to come up with THE most destructive sequence of keys possible, and I always am terrified she has done something that I miss seeing, that affects the project in some kind of bite me in the rear way. Bob Bone

SO - this appears to be the same sort of issue I was having with my own midi controller - (I only have a single one connected to the computer I use for recording), where Cakewalk and Sonar Platinum both saw the controller, and I could see right in front of me, that the USB cable for that midi controller to connect to the computer had not been moved to a different USB port. (it uses a port on the top of the computer chassis, and it never moved). Well, that midi controller would NOT produce any midi data within either Cakewalk or Sonar Platinum, but worked just wonderfully in stand-alone synths. I eventually figured out that one of my friends that came over for some mentoring in Cakewalk, had accidentally disconnected the USB cable, on the computer's back panel, that went to the audio interface. I had immediately seen that the power/connection light for the interface had turned off, and I directed him to plug the audio interface USB cable back into the computer. THAT is where I sometime later realized neither Cakewalk or Sonar Platinum was detecting any midi controller data. It completely had me baffled, because I KNEW the midi controller USB cable had not been moved. SO - because the audio interface had been plugged into the computer's back panel, into a DIFFERENT USB port, it caused Windows to shift its internal mapping of what devices were plugged into which USB ports, and this then severed the connection within Cakewalk and Platinum, and THAT is why the midi data was no longer being detected. My solution/work-around was to remove the check designating that midi controller as a midi Input Device in Preferences (both Cakewalk/Platinum), then hit Apply, (I think at that point I also restarted Cakewalk and then later, Platinum), and then went back into Preferences to again designate the midi controller as a Midi Input Device. Everything worked fine thereafter. VERY happy you are back in business, Bob Bone

I wonder if perhaps you have accidentally plugged in your midi controller to a different USB port, OR perhaps moved a different USB device to another USB port. This would cause Windows to internally renumber its notion of what devices are plugged into what, and it would no longer match what was internally mapped by Cakewalk when you had that/those midi device(s) plugged into their original USB ports. Just looking at the devices in Preferences, you would not see that the internal mapping of midi devices to ports had changed, but you CAN see if there were port changes that were made at some point in the past, by going into Windows Device Manager, then going into the View tab, clicking on Show Hidden Devices, and then expanding the Sound, Video, and Game Controllers category in the device 'tree' in Device Manager. If you had/have moved midi devices to any different USB ports, you would see at least 2 displays for a given device - with the entry for its currently active entry being darker in appearance than any 'ghost entries' for the same device. Those ghost entries are for whatever port it USED to be plugged into at some point in the past. I know on MY system, my friend had accidentally unplugged my USB-connected audio interface, and when he plugged it back in, he put it into a different USB port, and that caused me to pull my hair out for a WHILE, trying to figure out why no midi activity was being detected in Cakewalk, despite my seeing the device listed and checked, as a midi input device in Preferences. I had to DE-select it, I think I then restarted Cakewalk, and then selected it again as a midi input device in Preferences, and now it internally picked up the mapping by Windows, for the current USB port it was connected to, and THAT is when it started being able to detect midi activity in Cakewalk, for that midi controller. SO - just a thought, Bob Bone

I generally hit the Transpose button up or down an octave at a time - on my midi controller. If I instead do it in Cakewalk, usually I do so in the instrument, such as Kontakt, rather than adjusting the little + and - buttons on a given midi track. Easiest is to do it on the midi controller, 2nd easiest is in the loaded instrument's UI, and 3rd choice, for me, would be doing it with the + and - buttons in the midi track. Bob Bone

For whatever the worth, I use an HDMI driver for my TV, to play Windows sounds, when I am using my audio interface with Sonar/Cakewalk, and, I regularly have a friend bring his computer by for me to help him with stuff, and he brings his chassis and his Fire Studio from Presonus, and that Fire Wire audio interface has no problems having the HDMI driver for the TV running, and playing Windows sounds, while we are happily working in Cakewalk on his computer (which is using his Presonus Fire Studio interface), so I am not sure that is causing your issues. Bob Bone

Do you hear the instrument play, when the midi track is in focus (select the midi track by clicking on the track number, and be default, Sonar/Cakewalk should produce audible sound coming through the audio track(s) associated with the audio output from the synth. Is the midi Input for the midi track set to None (Omni)? (suggest using None/Omni). Are the notes pressed on the midi controller within the playable range of the synth's loaded instrument? Is the midi controller plugged into a different USB port on the computer, by chance? (The above are just some guesses - my blood sugar is a bit low at the moment, so I will have to think things over, when I can think better after my blood sugar stabilizes). Bob Bone

Is it possible that Windows also has access to your audio interface, for system sounds and such? What is set for your Windows sound playback device, if you either hover your mouse over, or click on, the little speaker icon down in the Windows System Tray at the bottom right of your computer display screen? Bob Bone

None of the hard drives were damaged. I pulled all 8 of them, and while I couldn't test the two M.2 2280 NVME PCIe drives in my spare desktop (it does not have the motherboard support for them), the other 6 drives (four 2 TB solid-state and two 2 TB 7200 HDD) were all just fine, and just to be sure I backed them all up and ran diagnostics on them - no errors and all data readable. I now have the replacement motherboard for the main desktop that took the hit installed, and in about an hour will be booting into BIOS for the 1st time with the new motherboard, and that will tell me at least whether or not those 2 M.2 drives are still detectable by the BIOS. If so, they are most likely just fine, and if not, then I will cry a lot, because those were quite pricey when I got them last year. Anyways, to address your question - your motherboard has to have hardware support for the M.2 drives, so if you don't have it on the motherboard, you won't be able to add it. Next motherboard though, I suggest you definitely look for M.2 connectors on the motherboard, because they are screaming fast. I also belatedly learned about how wonderful also having hardware support for Thunderbolt 3 is, because the laptop that I was able to get, (Alienware 17 R5) came with both M.2 support and Thunderbolt support, and I also picked up a Thunderbolt 3 audio interface to use with quick mobile recording sessions, and also when I play my keyboards out live. The reason I said 'belatedly', is that once I realized how insanely fast the Thunderbolt 3 protocol can transmit data (like up to 40 GB/sec or something like that), I immediately craved getting it for the monster desktop that is my main recording computer. (the one getting repaired). SO, it turns out that the Thunderbolt 3 hardware is only licensed for Intel motherboards, and NOT for AMD - my main desktop has an AMD Ryzen 1950x Thread Ripper CPU, etc., so in the 1st place, the AMD-based motherboard for that computer would have had to have the Thunderbolt 3 support built into it from the start, even if I were to buy a brand new AMD-based motherboard, there AREN'T any that have that Thunderbolt 3 support anyways, so I would have to have gotten both an Intel-based motherboard with the Thunderbolt 3 header/support, and an Intel CPU, so since my Ryzen is in great shape, that will have to wait until my next full computer build, at which point I will make sure to do a better job of homework, prior to selecting components. Sorry if I ended up boring you with any of the above - the recap is this - I HIGHLY recommend your next computer build include a motherboard with BOTH M.2 support AND Thunderbolt 3 support - and even though that seems to mean going with the higher priced Intel-based motherboard and CPU, the insane performance will be well worth it, and you will be insanely happy going that route. (you would also need to eventually pick up an audio interface with Thunderbolt 3 support too - not cheap, depending on inputs/outputs and features - the little one I got for the laptop is a UAD Apollo Arrow, 2 mic/line ins and 4 outs and that ran $499 I believe but the more expansive units can run up to $2k-$3k or more - that said, you could always use your current audio interface while saving up for one of the big-daddy version Thunderbolt 3 interfaces, OR pick up an Apollo Arrow like I did, and use that for projects where you don't need a lot of inputs, and use your USB-connected audio interface instead, for larger numbers of inputs - assuming yours has 8. If only 2, than the $499 Apollo Arrow would be a speedy replacement to an equivalent USB interface ). Bob Bone

Back when folks were just starting to go 64-bit, and there were sometimes hundreds of 32-bit plugins on individual systems, MANY folks had horribly frequent crashes, myself included, and most folks have since either completely or nearly completely, shifted to all plugins being 64-bit, at which point the crashes stopped. Most larger commercial plugins became offered in 64-bit versions, mostly as free updates, and things have been pretty much smooth sailing ever since, except for a small number of plugins just folks, myself included, just don't want to give up using, despite being 32-bit. I would expect you have checked, but worth asking - have you checked to see if there are 64-bit versions of the 32-bit plugins you are having issues with? Many times, even if a particular plugin does not come in a 64-bit version, there are usually multiple similar plugins that DO come in a 64-bit version, so that might be another choice, if you don't find a Focusrite update resolving your issues. Jbridge DOES offer a free trial, and if that resolves your issues, I think it ran $20 when I bought it (years back). I use it for a couple of specific plugins - an RMI Piano and an ARP Pro Soloist emulation. Bob Bone

For whatever the worth, I was fortunate to have been able to pick up 2 M.2 2280 NVME PCIe drives for my main desktop, so the boot drive is M.2, and the other M.2 is used for my Native Instruments sample libraries. Both drives happen to be 2 TB, and my boot drive is indeed kept lean an mean. My user folders reside on a different drive, which happens to be a 2TB 7,200 HDD. I have several additional 2 TB SSD's as well, and altogether, there are 8 hard drives on this computer. My optical drive is external, rarely used, and uses USB 3.0 Bob Bone

You are correct - for your system, there are no WiFi driver interference issues. Many many folks, however, even with newer systems, DO experience WiFi driver interference. The advice I gave should have explained this fact, and that IF one is experiencing interference and WiFi drivers are present, then it is worth trying to turn off or disable the WiFi to see if it clears up the issues, along with the notion that WiFi is perhaps not present on many desktop systems, though newer ones often include hardware support for it. I happen to have spent the past week trying to rebuild my monster desktop computer, which suffered a lightning strike that fried the motherboard and other electric components, even though I had everything plugged in a UPS with surge protection. The lightning hit about 30 feet behind the rear wall of my house, and cooked several devices, despite the surge protection from a heavy duty UPS - but because of the Ethernet and coax cables coming through the ground and walls, the juice fried stuff by getting in THAT path. I have been a tad distracted while still trying to assist folks. Apologies. Bob Bone

One of the beauties of working in Cakewalk, is that there are generally multiple ways to approach things, so that folks can work out what works best for their ways of looking at it all. I am a keyboard player, primarily, so I usually take some time to set up a new loaded synth and preset and audio tracks etc., but I do also sometimes insert one of several track templates for different synths, to quickly get me in business with some sound to play or record something bouncing around in my head. (I have a variety of track templates I set up for this, with single midi tracks for: Piano, Bass, Rhodes, Organ, Piano/Strings, and a couple of leads. I also have a couple of track templates to bring in multiple midi tracks and instruments, such as one that has: Piano, Bass, Organ, Drums). Regardless, I would approach arming one of those tracks the same way I would any track - arm for record when ready to record, and disarm when done recording. But, that is just my approach, and it is a big planet, with room for folks to do as they choose.

I manually control my backup processes. I have used backup software in the past, but don't bother with it anymore, as it is pretty simple to do them manually. Bob Bone

Does the UI open if you single-click on the midi icon on a midi track where the midi output for the track is assigned to the instrument whose UI you seek to open? Bob Bone

On your computer, you can go into Windows Device Manager, and disable the WiFi drivers there. You can always enable them again if you want to use WiFi from your computer. Disabling the drivers for WiFi on your computer will not affect the actual WiFi functionality on the modem/router. It would only disable the WiFi drivers on your computer. Many laptops have a function key (on the keyboard, where you would usually hold a Fn key down while also pressing the key for the WiFi) or a hardware switch somewhere on the laptop, to turn on or off the WiFi, but on a desktop computer, that is usually not the case, and going into Device Manager would be where to go to disable the WiFi drivers. Bob Bone

You mentioned some VST sounds are distorted - can you please list some of the plugins/sounds where this is occurring? It seems rather odd that only 'some' sounds would be distorted, if there was some sort of general issue with either the Focusrite or Cakewalk. Additionally, for the plugins that have sounds that are messed up, if any of those can be run in stand-alone fashion, outside of Cakewalk, with the stand-alone plugin settings set to use ASIO driver mode and the Focusrite, with an ASIO Buffer Size of - perhaps - 128 samples, are the sounds still messed up? Lastly, in your Cakewalk project, where the sounds are currently messed up, are there any effects loaded into the project? If so, which ones? Also, if there are effects loaded into that project, try testing the sounds with the effects temporarily bypassed (hit 'E' on your computer keyboard to toggle On/Off the bypassing of audio effects), and post back on if that made the sounds better. (Hit 'E' again to engage the effects again, when done testing). IF the sounds are heard correctly with the effects bypassed, then you have one or more effects that require a larger ASIO Buffer Size, and are most likely meant for mixing/mastering, and not for use during recording. Bob Bone

I happen to always take a quick look to make sure ONLY the target track has record armed, prior to moving to record on a different track, and whenever I save a project, I always make sure NO track has been left armed for record. Bob Bone

In any case, independently of compression, the basic idea is to backup the data representing a complete project, and that means saving the project folder for your song. When you create and save a project in Cakewalk, and use the default option of a per-project Audio sub-folder, Cakewalk will create a main folder for the project, such as "Bob's Next Big Hit Song", and it will save the actual project within that folder, with the name "Bob's Next Big Hit Song.cwp" (which is a Cakewalk project file), and it will also have created a sub-folder called Audio, into which any audio files related to the project will be saved. SO, an individual Cakewalk project will consist of: a project folder, and within that folder will be an Audio sub-folder, and the Cakewalk project file itself, with a cwp file extension. You want to copy that main project folder to the cloud, for each song project you want to back up. I hope that makes sense, and don't forget to buy my next big hit song, when I happen to create one..... Bob Bone

I concur with the combination of the above, and also the setting of the Power Plan to Performance. I would add that having at least 2 hard drives, (one boot drive and at least one data drive), is important for performance, and ideally, at least one additional drive for sample libraries, so a boot drive, data drive (Cakewalk Content, Cakewalk Projects and user libraries), and at least one drive for sample libraries. If possible, I also suggest placing sample libraries on a solid-state drive, and the use of a solid-state drive for the boot drive (or if available on your system, using an M.2 2280 NVME PCIe drive for the boot drive). Edited to add one small tweak to the WiFi comment - WiFi would only need to be turned off or temporarily disabled during any Cakewalk session. When not in Cakewalk working on things, having WiFi is fine. Bob Bone

Just to let you know you aren't alone in the world - I DID take a look at this, but apparently I need a whole lot more coffee, because I couldn't figure out how to sync it either - I will try to circle back and look at it some more. Bob Bone

Generally, you would need to select your midi track and its associated audio track(s), and then start the export process, setting export options as appropriate for what kind of output file you want to create. (If just exporting the audio for one track, or less than the entire mix, then you want to click on a Source of Track, rather than Entire Mix). The default is to export audio as a broadcast wave file - at your project's sample rate, and a bit depth of 32, I believe. If you wanted to export for CD quality/format, you would export at a sample rate of 44.1 k and 16-bit depth, and if you had created the project with a higher sample rate, then you would want to use one of the Dithering options. Nobody can really help you, unless you explain exactly what issue(s) you are having with the export process - my above comments are a wild stab at helping you, but to give you detailed assistance, we really need to understand what you are struggling with. Bob Bone

I have a modified path where Session Drummer looks for its content, and on my system, that is: C:\Program Files\VST64\Cakewalk\Session Drummer 3 If you were to carefully run REGEDIT, and look at: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\Session Drummer 3 You would see the following paths (remember though mine is slightly modified from the default): Contents Folder C:\Program Files\VST64\Cakewalk\Session Drummer 3 Documentation Folder C:\Program Files\VST64\Cakewalk\Session Drummer 3\Documentation Resources Folder C:\Program Files\VST64\Cakewalk\Session Drummer 3\Resources So - you could either carefully edit the Contents Folder path info in REGEDIT, to change it to point to where the content is actually residing on your hard drive(s), OR, you could move the Session Drummer 3 content from wherever you have it on your hard drive(s) and put it into the folder specified in the registry Contents Folder path. Hope the above helps, Bob Bone

Well, when you insert a midi track, Cakewalk will default the midi output routing to whatever is 1st in the list of choices it presents, so that if I had inserted an instance of Kontakt right away - in the project, then inserted an instance of Absynth, and then inserted another midi track, Cakewalk will set the midi output routing for that new midi track to go to the Kontakt instance. SO - if that is happening to you, then when you add new midi tracks, just make sure to review and adjust the midi output routing for those new midi tracks, so that they are routed to the synth instances you desire. Hope that helps - if something else is going on with your project, please take another stab at explaining the issues, and I will try again. Bob Bone