mettelus

It has been a while since I have touched a Lenovo laptop, but IIRC there is a proprietary software on them (at least for Win10) that overrides the Windows controls. Yours probably has something similar, so see what options are available in that before delving too deep into Windows specifically. But Glenn is spot on about airplane mode... the other is to keep the laptop plugged in and disable all sleep/hibernate functions when plugged in (I believe that was also in their app, especially battery-saving stuff).

^^^^ You only pay for the major versions, all others are free updates. The .5's have a lot of hoopla associated with them (released on the off years), but they are free updates to the version they go to. The main versions are every other year. After seeing these posts so many times, it makes me wonder if people are buying 6.5 to "upgrade" 6 now! The only software vendor I know of who intercepts that is Melda (if you buy directly from them)... everyone else seems happy if you buy 5 copies of the same thing.

PreSonus is another manufacturer to consider. Beyond just the tech specs for the interfaces, several also offer software, FX, and other goodies as Pragi mentioned. Definitely take a little time comparing specs and reading reviews (especially the negative ones) on items that you are considering.

That is the conundrum... it is being used on the Master Track itself.

Another nice utility to try is Moo0 System Monitor 1.83 (Free). The "Portable Version" is most convenient, since you can just unzip that anywhere (even a flash drive) and use it whenever you feel a need for it rather than to install anything. For your scenario, run that so you can see it (you may need to resize the Cakewalk app) while opening a project and pay attention to the [Bottleneck] and [Burdened By] fields at the top. It is a nice dashboard for all of the Windows System parameters in play at a given time, so may shed some light on what is happening (disk reads for sample loading, RAM, etc.).

You can't keep it from installing, there is no option to do so during the installation, but you can go into the registry afterwards and remove them in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO At least NVIDIA finally has the option not to install their custom audio driver, but I have not seen this option with MAGIX (it is really just ASIO4ALL anyway).

There are a couple of ways to do that, and doing it after recording (post-production) is simpler than real-time (while recording) in most cases. What you need to do in all cases is lower the guitar audio by 12 semitones (a full octave). You also want to record a clean signal (without and FX), and then apply FX to the signal after you transpose. In all cases, you want to play your guitar like it were a bass. If already recorded, you can keep things in the audio realm by selecting your clip, and then using the "Process->Transpose," set the Amount to -12 (semitones), be sure "Transpose Audio" is checked, and use a Type of either "Radius Mix - Advanced" or "Elastique Pro." You can try all of the types to see how they work, but this is probably the easiest method, although not "perfect." As you mentioned MIDI, you can also convert the guitar to MIDI (see if shift-dragging that audio onto a MIDI track converts the audio to MIDI for you) and then use that MIDI track to drive Ample Bass P Lite (free bass VST instrument you mentioned in the OP). This is a little more complex workflow, but will sound better and let you tweak things more easily after the fact, or even add/edit notes in the Piano Roll View. Side note: For bass tracks, you may find it easier to compose using the Piano Roll View only and can use the "Virtual Keyboard" to act as your MIDI input. If doing in real-time, there are pedals and guitar amp sims (that have those pedals included) that will de-tune 12 semitones down; however, few of them sound particularly good, and you are already destroying the audio prior to recording it, so you cannot do much in post-production on that other than convert to MIDI and use the VST Instrument route mentioned above.

If doing new installs or especially if loading a new machine, another thing to check is "Services." There are a lot that can either be set to Manual start (because you trigger them on open) or disabled completely (if you never want them to run at all), but many program installs set both of those categories to load into RAM on boot by default.

@azslow3 would be your best bet to see what is recoverable from the file itself, since he has written some tools to convert cwp files in the past. Just a quick side note on the "was about to crash" comment... if you know it is going to crash, it is sometimes best to just let it. The exception handlers can sometimes catch the file and crash dump as the application goes down and ask if you want to recover that file on the next app start. When you insert another operation into that cycle you can interrupt the exception sequence. Another side note with other things that can cause the crash... the number of undo steps you have specified in "Edit->History..." should have a reasonable number (I use 10) at the bottom. Unfortunately, you have to make an edit first to access the "History..." but that is simple enough. Undos consume RAM, so no need to have the default value there (I "think" it was either 100 or even 250, which is way too high). Additionally... another reason to save often (besides just to protect your file) is that it clears some of the RAM when doing so and has been noted fairly frequently as a tip to keep long sessions running smoothly.

A lot comes down to personal preference, familiarity, and efficiency for what you are trying to do. Most tools have core features in common, if not outright identical, so it can become "six one way, half a dozen to the others" as far as usage very quickly. I got MPS6 a few months back, but Nectar 4 in particular has a massive CPU hit for its analyze function... so much so that it seems to cause audio engines to hiccup on most machines running any sort of tracking buffers. New features are becoming fewer and further between, so that upgrade train has sort of run its course for me personally. O8N2 was the biggest jump in iZotope capability IMO; not a lot to get excited about since. This comment is also the same boat I am in, so I cannot speak to FabFilter usage/performance at all. That said, I did make a joke just yesterday about upgrade trains, yada yada, and threw FF under the bus out as the first example that came to mind... synopsis was that I got the MCompleteBundle over 6 years ago, so use them as the litmus test for anything "new" I might consider... if I had bought into FF and upgraded I would have spent the same amount and been left with future paid updates coming some day anyway. As it stands, Melda has already given back rather substantially via free upgrades and new additions (over 100 plugins now) versus a handful of FF ones I "would have had" instead. Melda does have an aesthetic liability and lack of tutorials on some features that make them truly stellar, but neither of those have been an issue for me personally.

Gotcha. I have noticed a few inconsistencies with things, but rarely use any of the processes other than normalization from time to time (even that has an issue of not allowing you to type "-" in front of the number, and all values must be negative, or zero, nice "feature"). Unless you are specifically looking to find issues, things like clip gain (CTRL-left drag up/down on clips) or using a limiter and then baking it might be better alternatives. The clip gain with a mouse is probably fastest in your scenario.

OMG... I just looked at Amazon and there is a "sponsored" brand there that looks identical to Focusrite but has the name "Dacimora"... make sure the product is Focusrite!!! What actually ticks me off more with this is I specifically searched for "focusrite scarlett 3rd gen usb audio interface" and those fakes come up first. Either the Focusrite 3rd Gen Scarlett Solo or Scarlett 2i2 (a little more, but with a few more features) will do what you are asking.

Might need more clarification on this. Applying gain does just that, so the dynamic range of the track will remain intact. When you said "held consistent at -6dB," that seems more like a limiter/heavy compressor function. Unless you drive a signal into a ceiling, it will retain the fluctuations of the original.

I am glad you found the issue. Are you able to completely separate the output/monitoring and input signals without using the mixer at all, i.e., just plugging headphones and the mic into the computer itself... or better asked, to only have one of those two signal paths using the hardware mixer? Another side question is are you just recording audio from a mic, or from other line inputs (instruments) as well?

That is the GUI for the original VocalSynth, VocalSynth2 has a different GUI. I have never seen a way to re-skin 2 to look like 1. Is that what you are asking?

Another thing to check is anything (and I mean anything) that has mixing capability... DAW, VSTs, hardware, etc. I had an old hardware mixer years ago that had bleed between the channels (which was actually because the fader didn't completely zero out on one channel), so the troubleshooting on this may be more complex than just the DAW. That bleed could be coming from any of those, but pay particular attention to signal routing and every component that has a mix/monitoring function to it. If you shut the monitor chain completely off (at the DAW) does that go away? If so, you should be able to try isolating things in that signal path to see which is making it back into the input side. Even silly things like unplugging the headphones to check that connection may help. In the digital realm, crosstalk is typically more like "noise," so a signal coming back in seems more like either routing or hardware.

@Chandler pops in from here from time to time, and I am not familiar with MSuperLooper specifically. It seems you are having two issues here, 1) the loops not recording into MSuperLooper itself and 2) the loops not being seen by Cakewalk? I am not sure where MSuperLooper defaults to saving captured audio (maybe just internally in RAM), but it does have an export function (if you do not play it through an Aux Track). As far as it not recording under your situation, you might also want to reach out to Melda to ask them directly, since they are the experts on it.

I wanted to bump this one quick, because Chandler did a video when Scaler EQ came out to do basically the same thing with MDynamicEQ (currently on sale for $19 (regularly $76)). It is a little more involved to set it up with MDynamicEQ; however, this is very much worth noting since it uses functionality embedded into most Melda products that many folks either 1) do not use or 2) (more often) do not even know exist. I actually prefer videos that show this capability of the plugins over the "easy screen" overview, since the power of Melda plugins is in the editing view/multi-parameters. Unfortunately the number of tutorials covering editing view/multi-parameters rarely have "real world" examples included.

Actually docx were specifically designed to prevent that. A MS file needs to end in "m" to support macros... i.e., docm, xlsm, etc. As far as the OP, have you walked through the Quick Start tutorial on the Melda site? There are several instances where the looper will not do anything, and there are multiple ways to get it to record (a couple require the DAW transport to be in motion, and yet another doesn't start recording until bar 2). Try out the different methods in this video (also be sure the "play" button on the track you are recording to is lit up):

Boy, if they had a good set of lawyers, they could have trademarked the "subscription/membership plans versus perpetual license" long before it came into vogue! The casino aspect probably makes up for that lack of foresight and then some though.... shrewd diversification of assets there.

If those takes are really gone (i.e., you deleted them and rendered the file), check the name of the track you are working on, then see with a new cwp file if you can import an earlier version (same track name, but lower number on the end) of that track from the Project/Audio Folder. If you have not intentionally purged that folder, there should be track audio with the takes in it still there (probably the largest version of the track file in that directory). Be sure to do that search with a new cwp (project) first so that you do not mess up the work in your current project. Once you find it, you can replace the one in the actual project.

Also... two temp directories on your computer that always collect things while the machine is running, but never purge themselves on their own are: C:\Windows\Temp C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp Everything in those two directories can be safely deleted (and ones that will not are being used by open programs... just "skip" those). Also, "AppData" is a hidden directory, so to view it, you need to change search options in Windows Explorer (View->Options->Change folder and search options... then at the top of that popup... View->then check "Show hidden files, folders, and drives"). If you have never cleaned those two folders, you may have GBs worth of temporary files in them.

Can you explain this further please? I am not sure what you mean with "link loaded files like in sound one"... both "link" and "sound one" (Studio One?) are confusing me. Also at the end when you say "it will bounce" makes its seem like "it doesn't work"... "bounce" is actually a rendering option (to bake FX permanently into a sound file), so it doesn't quite make sense in that sentence. However... That said, what I "think" you are trying to do is import audio into a project but not create a copy of it (meaning you have only one copy on your computer and Cakewalk will reference (link) it "wherever it is"). If that is it, then in Edit->Preferences->File->Audio Data... uncheck "Always Copy Imported Audio Files" at the top. Bear in mind that if you do any operation on that file that will bounce (render) it, you will get a new copy in the Project/Audio Folder. Also if you ever move the original file, when you open that cwp file later on, it will make you find that referenced file first, or it will not load into the project. This is why the Project/Audio Folder structure is preferred for housekeeping reasons.

Hmmm, so if walking only, you could either be on the "Sidewalk to Hell" or "Pathway to Heaven"?

That alone would be a reason to consider using only one Kontakt instance on SP and leave it at that. Unless you have finite control over those 5 voices, you could easily load a patch preset that is close to clipping already (a lot of presets default to "fairly hot" as it is). I do not own SP either, but if you have a solution that works, I would stick to that and not waste time trying to make it do something it doesn't want to do. There are a lot of VSTs that have quirky response under select conditions; some have solutions, others have workarounds. The ones that have neither are the ones to watch out for.