RexRed

Yes Max, this is with the new audio interface but not the new mic. I am still having issues (though much less) with my mic. The new audio interface is very tight sounding. And it does not lock up Cakewalk constantly like the Roland did. Again I say, maybe it was my box was defective but that is the way it has always performed. So maybe I got a bad one from the get-go. I got by with it by just constantly rerecording lines. I much less frequently have to rerecord due to inaccurate transients. I think my mic is the final problem to fix this. Maybe it just took me a long time to really hear these problems and finally do something about it. I will be revisiting this song and I will look into more reverb and adding some more supporting embellishments. It has parallel reverb so it is just a matter of upping the fader.

I have a friend who once had staff view. Terrible terrible terrible...

Thanks Jack for the excellent suggestions, I think more fill instruments would be nice in this song. The vocals took me so long to do that I released it on ReverbNation early. I will take a look and probably indeed, add some strings and a Moog would be nice too.

Thank you Mark for the really nice comment, I am not sure if it is done yet. I hear lots of things I want to fix but it is done enough to let it out there I guess. Best to you!

Hey Bruno, my PC has 44 lanes and the audio interface is the only item on that bus. My RAM is 96gb 3000mhz but I do not have it overclocked. Thanks for your help here.

New song, let me know what you think.

Before Cakewalk we used to navigate music with a sextant and a compass and count measures with an abacus...

Another problem that is solved is Cakewalk used to lock up on me constantly. Every hour or so it would just freeze up. This was a disaster if I was live streaming a tutorial. I thought it was, well, I was not sure what it was. Maybe too much data and maybe the USB 2.0 connection. I have had this problem for years. Since I got the old interface. Before then lockups were because my PC was just junk. Well I have not had a lock up yet with this new interface. Lots of problems solved... I cannot vouch for other interfaces but this one is rock solid. I would certainly not go back to USB 2.0 I have always suspected that (maybe a data glut) for being the reason for the lockups. Something was maybe just malfunctioning in the old unit, maybe driver issues or maybe it just could not handle the data. It is nice to know it is not Cakewalk itself. I am amazed at how much I have put up with. I would sing a line wrong and it would record perfectly and I would sing a line perfectly and it would record wonky. Then and when I would forget to save for a while it would lock up. It was always when I had forgotten to save for a while. I have noticed that every once in a while Cakewalk will record a take over top of another take. This is no biggie. It does not happen often and sometimes very rarely a take will be a bit late. Usually when I punch in fast. That does not happen often either but it does happen. I am really glad I did this...

Thank you!

No, not the T-Pain sound. lol The beginning of my notes sounds spongy, not sure how to describe it otherwise. It is something over time I guess I began to hear and identify more and more. For years I just took it for granted and did not really conceptualize the problem. I just would work around it and re-sing certain spots. But it has been there all along. I don't think the circuitry in the Roland is able to produce transients and certain long-held loud notes notes well. That is my experience, maybe it is just with my box only but the problem is gone by replacing it with the Steinberg.

Well, I think the new interface solved my problem... I don't think the Quad capture was throwing enough bits at the beginning of my notes. The interface is over 10 years old, not surprised. I think the mic is partly to blame too. The mic upgrade with better circuitry will also improve transients. The mic will be coming soon. It also fixed the formant problem with formant changes not responding well to the waveforms. Maybe a driver upgrade would rescue the quad capture or maybe the chips inside just cannot handle the speed and accuracy required to reproduce waves. I need time to live with this interface but so far it seems tight. Now that the beginning of notes seem accurate I can truly hear the mic struggling to reproduce transients. Can you hear such a thing? I think I can, I know how I am supposed to sound. My mic is over 10 years old and is probably "dead"... It still has really nice tone still but it does not handle transients well at all anymore. The transients are not wonky anymore but they are distorted. The interface is recording accurately what it hears now. The mic is clearly now the problem. When people tell you there is no difference between audio interfaces... There can be a difference.

A lot of big help here!!! I need to study all of your great responses! Let me clarify a bit. The "wonkyness" I feel is amplified in Melodyne. When I try and change the pitch or formant even slightly of "some" syllables, especially the beginning syllables of words This wonky spongyness gets amplified. I can hear I the spongyness slightly in the unchanged sample but changing the pitch or formant even a tiny bit amplifies the spongyness of the sound ten fold. It seems to only happen on the beginning of some words. Especially when my voice is escalating quickly in pitch. Like "something" did not hear the beginning of the sound correctly... Like it got digitized or just not enough bits thrown at it. If I set my project to 24bit 48khz (which it is usually at) it still records spongy. It seems exactly as spongy in 44khz as 48khz. It is sort of like how the adults sound like in Charlie Brown but hissy too. There has got to be a way to get better clearer waveforms so pitch and formant work better. This is actually very horrible... I have to go back and resing many lines to fix this.

Thanks Kurt, I am not sure what to do with the drum yet, good observation. I will put more thought into it. Thanks Jack!

Alan your post is very helpful, I bought the AT 4040 mic. The new audio interface should be here tomorrow. I have used this current setup I have in lots of rooms with many different acoustic treatments. I have recorded close up and farther away and the recordings have all had the same wonky characteristics . In mostly the transients but also the formants have not been very accurate in Melodyne studio either. I have had this mic for over ten years but it has had this characteristic for as long as I can remember. Before the Roland interface I used Emu 1616m interfaces but I was using v-vocal back then too. The good old days of Cakewalk for MS DOS when the only thing between a Sure SM58 and the Fostex reel-to-reel was a Peavey mixer. Having a second interface and mic will give me something to compare. I assume the AT 4040 will not be worse than the AT 2020.

I am thinking that if my microphone has inferior correlation of highspeed transients, it also has inferior correlation of formants.

Now, you might think that I am implying that this "wonky" sound might be due to Cakewalk's ability to record samples. Well the reason why I do not believe this is the case is because the exact thing happens when I record in 44khz 16bit as when I record 48khz 24bit. So the quality issue must be present in what is being fed to Cakewalk from the AI and the microphone. I am liking this microphone. https://smile.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT4040-Cardioid-Condenser-Microphone/dp/B0002D0BQ8/ref=sr_1_9 it's 300 bucks and it takes the effort to mention this: "Transformerless circuitry virtually eliminates low frequency distortion and provides superior correlation of high speed transients" I am not sure exactly what that means but it seems that the mic I have does not have that circuitry. So logically, my AT2020 has inferior correlation of high speed transients...

Oh yea, my AT microphone is a little over 10 years old and I have used it a lot in the studio, could it have just gone dead after all of these years of use? Maybe just getting an old reliable Sure or something might fix this problem. I assume I would need a large diaphragm because I like recording intimate up close kinds of vocals. This microphone thing I fear is not going to be an easy undertaking...

I currently use a Roland Quad Capture and I am changing my audio interface. I was on the Cakewalk page on Facebook and someone recommended this: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YFH671V/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00 I bought it for three reasons though I have one possible reservation. It has not come in the mail yet. Reason 1: USB 3.0 I figured USB 3.0 might add a little more stability to Cakewalk and its occasional lockups it has. I figure the lockups can't be my PC because I have 12 Intel cores 96GB of ram and a 3090 graphics card. For years I have had occasional lockups and I think it is the Quad Capture. Reason 2: It says it has a chip inside that allows for 0 latency even with effects turned on. (this seems too good to be true.) Reason 3: (I should mention the price is very reasonable!) But the preamps are reason 3. On the issue of preamps. I use Melodyne studio a lot and on almost all songs i make the vocal tracks have very poorly recorded wave formants. The beginning of words sound (i have no other way to describe it but) "wonky". Especially the beginning of sounds seem like they were not processed accurately. I like to drift up to notes and that part gets poorly reproduced. I am hoping the preamps in this device are better than the preamps in the quad capture and that it might be the preamps and possibly the lack of responsiveness of the recording chips that are causing this wonky distortion. If this does not fix this clarity issue... Then it has to be my microphone... I use an Audio Technica 2020 microphone. Any suggestions on a really really good microphone that would reproduce my voice with perfect clarity? I am looking for an upgrade without a lot of hype and brand recognition but something on the magnitude of this upgrade I am doing with my audio interface. "New technology" that is under $1000 bucks. I will test the new audio interface out tomorrow and get back to you if it clears up this problem. If my audio is still wonky sounding then I will be looking into a new microphone. Your suggestions are very much appreciated. And, BTW, thanks to whoever it was who suggested this new audio interface on FB, I have been looking around for years for an affordable 3.0 USB interface with what seems like exactly what I needed and always came up emptyhanded until now. As soon as I saw this I bought it. My one possible reservation with trading out my audio interface is losing the "audio sensor" feature that I relied on a lot with the quad capture. I will have to set my levels manually. No big deal if everything else works without a flaw. Anyone got any experience with this Steinberg AI? Thanks in advance for any comments on this.

New song Cakewalk peeps! Hope you like it!

It is officially done.

Hey Cakewalk peeps! I added some new oohs vocals in the background, a 12 string, a banjo and a pedal steel since you last heard it they are all very subtle. I got the mandolin solo left to do and the dobro maybe.

I added harmonies last night and plan to add a mandolin and banjo. Thanks for the comments Cakewalk peeps! 💖

Thanks for the nice comments, I am so lucky to be a part of this community and to know the value of Cakewalk software. I have been using it since Cakewalk for MSDOS. The time signature is 7/4 a very odd signature and it took a while to get used to it. This song is still a work in progress it is a bit sloppy still and I will be fixing that. I am adding a mandolin solo in the solo parts and maybe a few more things here and there. David thanks for the big heart reference, I think that pretty much sums up my attitude in life. Live love to my friends and I try to find the good in things. Stay well and love and hugs! RexRed

Anyone want to guess the time signature of this song? Hope you like this song Cakewalk peeps! RR

It doesn't really do it on its own like the mouse is sending some odd data. It does it only when I am holding shift and dragging a take from one track to another.