Jon, thanks for coming back.
Please excuse my ignorance. Am I right in thinking that my keyboard (midi controller) won't necessarily play all the instruments in Cakewalk but only ones that are "compatible" with it ? (which is why I can use a screen keyboard but not my microlab) - or have i got it all wrong.
I looked at all the available instruments but they all seem to be SI- Bass Guitar. SI- Drum Kit etc (the only thing with VST was VST2 Breverb 2 which i assume wasnt an instrument).
Finally (I promise, I have narrowed it down to if I disconnect my keyboard, restart Cakewalk (everything works OK with the screen keyboard) i then plug Microlab in as soon as i tick the pop up to connect it Bamm "Audio Dropout". Hope this all made sense.
Once again thanks for your help.