Kalle Rantaaho

It's unclear to me whether the audio/clips are audible or silent in your case?  Clips missing waveform image can still play back normally.

I'm not sure if this applies to your case, but during the years I have more than once accidentally moved the tracks volume slider before I've switched from "Write" mode to "Read" mode of the track, thus causing a node chaos. This usually happened when the volume envelope was not visible.

When I do volume automation I most often do it with the  slider of my MIDI controller  in real time with the track playing back, not with my mouse. That produces lots of nodes.

I usually "comfort" frustrated new users with...:

You have there a program with more capabilities than the  Beatles and Rolling Stones had in the 60's and 70's in worlds leading superstudios.
Isn't it obvious that it has quite a learning curve and requires a good amount of work to get aquainted ?

If you want to start from the basics, reading the 1800 page manual alone is a  demanding job. And the number of pages tells that  it's not something you can learn overnight. I do know most users don't have the patience, though.

Four hours of strugling is nothing, if you haven't used DAWs before. After four weeks you're somewhere, but you keep learning new things for years and years.

As mentioned above, the basic tasks are done in a very similar way in different DAWs.

The standard answer to that used to be emptying the picture cache folder or  use  " Rebuild waveforms" (or what was the command exactly?) . Maybe it still is, I'm not sure.  Importing anything should not be necessary. 

I don't know about the present situation, but I remember reading lots of posts about high performance gaming video cards causing problems in DAW work.

IIRC that's due to them having their own sound circuits and all kinds of accelerators and whatever.

4 hours ago, msmcleod said:

IIRC you have to save your project as a standard cwp file before saving as a bundle.

This is because all a bundle is, is your project directory zipped up into a single file... if the project doesn't exist, it doesn't know what to zip up.

I don't think that's accurate.  If it was, you could not use bundles as a practical way of sending projects to co-workers without mailing the project+audio.

In the olden times it was normal  to use bundle files. Now their vulnerability is rather well known.

One thing to notice is, that ( IIRC) a project including Groove clips can not be saved as a bundle. Maybe there are some other limitations, too? What puzzles me in the OP is that there was no message to give a heads up for possible problems.

It's also a good routine to launch the bundle file after saving it - just to see that everything works ok (and having the cwp saved first).

The Shift-open-technique is for opening cwp-files in safe mode. I don't think it's meant to have any effect on bundle files (?). 

I don't recall anyone reporting a corrupted bundle file being fixed by anyone, unfortunately. There's been sooo many desperate posts about them during the years, but I don't think I've ever heard of  one being rescue'd. My memory may fail, of course. I wish you luck.

16 hours ago, lapasoa said:

Firefox or Chrome?  They are browsers and  each one does his job. Maybe it was about internet connection.

I changed from Firefox to Chrome a few years ago, because Firefox behaved differently  in several situations particularily on SONAR's site. No idea what was going on, and I don't remember the details anymore. I've experienced behaviour when one browser can't do something (normal everyday stuff) that the other one can on some particular site.

The fact that you're not getting "Missing audio"  message when loading the project does indicate, that the audio is not saved with the project, ie. you actually have deleted them. But what I don't understand is where did the audio disappear from the audio folder. It would require specific actions to delete them, you can't do it via the track view in CbB. Do you mess with the project audio folders as a routine deleting individual takes or such?  That would be very risky.

A looooong shot: are there dotted lines on the empty tracks?  The dotted line indicates there's data somewhere far right.

Please confirm: Are the  tracks totally blank, or are the clips there, but without waveform images? Did you audition the project to make sure the actual audio is missing, not only the waveform image?

Does SONAR recognize your Behringer (does it show in the input list)? If Behringer offers real ASIO driver  for download, that would be recommendable, as ASIO4ALL is not actually an ASIO driver.

Can you hear other computer sounds through the Behringer (Youtube or such)? If you insert a soft synth or import audio to SONAR, can you audition them?

Would you elaborate a little, please.

I don't understand the question. Malformed how? Random forms which don't match the audio?

Well, if you have an M-Audio interface with updated drivers, why would you need to buy another one? That is a soundcard. You don't need the onboard soundcard for the DAW activities.

Unless I'm missing something, you only need to install Cakewalk by Bandlab and start making music.  You don't mention how powerfull your PC is, so it's impossible to say, if you need a new one. 16  Gb of RAM indicates you probably have enough horsepowers.

Of course you'll need to look for some VSTs according to your needs etc. but that's another story. And also, a MIDI control keyboard is a very, very useful purchase.
With that y creating drum  or string sequencies is much easier than with a mouse or something.

Good luck with your "re-entry" !

I don't think there's any better place than this to get SONAR support.

I'm not able to answer your question. Let's hope some of the wiser ones chime in.

Thank you for confirming. That is a strange issue!

I assume none of the failing VSTs are in demo mode? It is a common thing with unlicensed VSTs that they can not be recorded. Then again, it seems that DPinga, for example, is free of charge, so it shouldn't require registration.

To start from the bottom: It is unclear to me,  how you actually produce the signal that you want to record?

Do you add notes in the piano roll with your mouse, or do you use a MIDI controller keyboard or something else? 

It is important that we know, that you know, that one can not record anything from the drum VSTi, but you create the MIDI track that feeds/plays the drum VSTi.
Clickin something in the drum VST or auditioning the samples there can not be recorded.

I wonder if you read carefully the links that Scook provided in post #2.

Yep. Sounds like an unregistered plugin to me, too.

On 6/23/2020 at 3:05 PM, James See said:

With all due respect, I think the respondents to this post are missing the point.  I have the same problem as Dusan.  In my final mix, the master level averages at -9 and peaks @ -3.  You can't go much hotter than that.  When I export the project to mp3 and play that file on my Windows media player the audio level is is just fine.  As soon as I play that same mp3 file on a different system the audio level is so low that the system has to be turned up almost to  max volume to hear the song at a normal listening level.  So while Dusan may have some recording or mixing problem as well, I do not believe that is the root of the problem he and I and what I am beginning to understand, a lot of other people are having.

If you open the exported file in CbB, how do the level readings look?

The different sides of getting a loud song are well explained in this thread.

I believe most commercial products  of  rock music and similar today are limited/compressed to louder than -1 dB, usually at least around -0.5- -0.3
How do you compress and limit your project ? The difference between -3 dB peak and -3 dB average is very audible, not to mention between  -3 and -0.3, which is huge.

If the audio level in WMP sounds fine, but much too quiet in other systems, it only means that the WMP has it's volume set loud. There is no other explanation. If the average level of the audio file is, say, -3 dB, then it is -3 dB no matter where you play it.  

As already mentioned in this thread, at the end you don't build the loudness with tracks level sliders, but with compression/limiting at master bus, after per track volume automation and some per track compression.  That way also a low level recording can be made loud. 

What I've always wanted to have is a VST or whatever, from which you could drag and drop pre-made chords to the piano roll.  Different versions for piano, guitar and maybe other instruments.  Maybe there is one?

Even if I had seen them I most likely would have ignored them  as "just some dots"  .

Sounds weird to me. Unless you've been listening background music from CD/DVD while recording .😎

Does disabling the DVD device show any change in Task Manager?

How's your display and screen resolution in your new machine compared to the old one? I think many have noticed that modern high resolution displays can be problematic wit programs that are designed for lower resolutions.

What you hear is actually not mono, but stereo. There is signal fed only to the left channel, because the microphone is a mono source.

When you record mono signal, like microphone, on a stereo track, it gets recorded on the left. Change the track to mono, then you should  hear your voice from both sides. Mono signals, like microphone and guitar, are usually recorded on a mono track.  Maybe there is an option in the interface settings to double the mono signal to  a stereo track, like Martsave above suggests, I don't know.

Having a mono track, you can use the panning normally, panning a stereo track, you usually need to use a channel tool to have full control.

How do you export? Are all tracks and buses routed to Master Bus, and Master Bus selected as export source?
Also, when you are playing back the project, are you hearing only the tracks you need to hear. It easily happens,  for example,  that you bounce a track for some reason,  but leave also the original track active, thus hearing the track doubled.

I've used SONAR/Cakewalk over twenty years and have never had any problems with export quality.  Using external audio editors is more like a workflow-preference. It does not affect the sound quality.