Diana Chahine

1 hour ago, John Vere said:

Well that just confirmed what I thought. So you should get a good blend of your mike and the playback from Cakewalk somewhere in the middle. This is not going to happen if 

1- you don’t have the gain of the mike set properly 

2-you don’t have the output level from the master bus set properly 

I don't know... As far as I can tell they both are set properly, but the blend just isn't working  

7 minutes ago, John Vere said:

I don’t get that.  Normally the blend control is marked  computer and input. Turning it to computer turns the playback from your DAW. Turning up the input turns the level of the signal from the input up. I guess USB is a confusing way of saying computer or DAW. And direct is a confusing way of saying input. So it’s not your track you will hear from direct but the sound from the input ( mike or guitar). Is there a software mixer with you interface?

I agree! It is confusing!!

Here's the manual on that... maybe your expert eyes will pick up something I've got wrong? And no, to my knowledge I don't have a software mixer? Unless Cakewalk has something set up by default?

21 hours ago, John Vere said:

Your screen shot is showing track one going directly to your interface and track 2 is correctly going to the master bus. 
Did you read the instructions for the interface yet? I should tell you how to use the direct monitoring. You should not hear an echo unless you toggle the input echo. Turn that off or you will hear an echo. 
The master buss will send the all ready recorded tracks to your interface where you monitors or headphones will hear this. Your mike input will be mixed with this but read the manual for correct settings 

Hi John,

Yes, I have read the instructions, a few times, but somehow it's still not working right for me! The input echo isn't on, but I still hear that echo, from the 2nd audio track, not from the recording track.

From what I understand in the manual, the USB/Direct knob mixes the input and output so that they'll blend together. Turning the knob to the USB side will result in a louder audio output from the computer (Track 2), while turning the knob all the way to the Direct side will result in a louder result from the recorded track (track 1). Am I understanding that correctly? The problem is, that knob seems to just be a volume knob. It treats both tracks the same and never gives a preference to one or the other regardless of where I turn it too. Turning it towards the USB side increases the volume of BOTH track 1 and 2, and turning it to the Direct side decreases the volume of both...

On 1/11/2021 at 10:12 AM, scook said:

All the project templates included with Cakewalk are setup to do this.

Use one of them or get in the habit of creating a bus when starting a project and set it up as the "Default Bus" using the context menu in the bus header.

When a default bus exists, all tracks and buses will automatically default their output to the bus.

In the bundled project templates, the default bus is labelled Master. 

Would it be too much to ask for a step-by-step guide on how to do this? I'm still new to Cakewalk, so I'm just figuring things out as I go...

Here's how it's currently set up now... but as I mentioned above this is through the ASIO driver, and with both outputs set like this I do hear both tracks. However, Track 2 (with the Master output) sounds kind of tin-ny, metallic and has a bit of an echo... Also, when I adjust the USB/Direct knob on the AI, it doesn't treat the two tracks differently, and just adjusts the volume of both at once? Even if I set Track 2 to the AI output, it sounds exactly the same, and there's no change when turning the USB/Direct knob, other than changing both track volumes together.

On 1/11/2021 at 11:27 AM, bitflipper said:

But before spending money, I'd investigate the LatencyMon report further. It's telling you that there's an issue with network interrupt latency. That's a common problem with wi-fi adapters. Step one should therefore be turning off the laptop's wi-fi. That's actually standard advice for laptops in general if you want to use them for audio. 

Power management is another area to look into. USB ports are sometimes shut down after being idle for awhile, and sometimes don't come back to life without a reboot. This doesn't sound like your problem, but it won't hurt anything to disable that feature anyway. You do this through Device Manager, not your power settings. You'll find the ports under "universal serial bus controller" in the device list. Right-click on each of them and select Properties -> Power Management. There should be a checkbox that says "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". 

I have turned off Wi-fi, but that hasn't changed the LatencyMon report  

I have also made sure to change the settings on my USB ports to stay on...

On 1/11/2021 at 10:00 AM, 57Gregy said:

By setting your audio tracks to go through busses and the busses to a Master bus which is set to your audio interface's output, you would get all of your tracks to play through your headphones.

Through the ASIO driver I can kind of get this to work... by setting the audio track to a Master output, and the track I'm recording on to the AI output I do hear both tracks. However, the Master output comes out with an altered sound? It sounds kind of tin-ny and metallic? And there seems to be some echo there too... Also, when I adjust the USB/Direct knob on the AI, it doesn't treat the two tracks differently, and just adjusts the volume of both at once?

1 hour ago, DeeringAmps said:

First check "Power" settings in Windows. Go with the "High Performance" option; you don't want Windows powering down your USB ports.

Forget WASAPI (although the Bakers say it works fine, but I do believe its more for using the onboard audio)
Looks like the AIR wants to see (and should) a 1/4" jack on the "Cans". Your headphones are 1/8"?
get a 1/4" adapter, probably "cheap" on Amazon; or a good set of "pro" cans.
 

I actually have changed those settings... I went into the High Performance settings and was told to change the "processor power management" settings. So now the "minimum processor" and "maximum processor state" are at 100% with the "system cooling policy" as active. 

I just have those simple Sony earbud headphones, (I think it's 2.5mm?), but I could get headphones or an adapter that would work if that's the issue. Although, I would be wanting to hear the master of multiple tracks, which I don't think can happen through the interface, right? Just through the laptop?

SO, I've just bought an XLR Rode NT1 mic along with a M-Audio 192 6 Audio Interface and was excited about recording with less background noise than my previous USB mics!

But since getting it, I've had a hard time actually recording! I was using Audacity and Cakewalk previously, so I tried recording on those, ultimately gave up and downloaded Pro Tools (since it came with the AI), had even more errors, so I decided to come back to Cakewalk since I figured at least I'd know how to use it once I got rid of the errors, HA!

I'm operating on a Windows 10 (64 bit) HP laptop. I downloaded all the M-Audio drivers and had hoped I'd be all set to go!

LatencyMon told me that "One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. At least one detected problem appears to be network related. In case you are using a WLAN adapter, try disabling it to get better results. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS Setup. Check for BIOS updates." -- To which I did disable CPU throttling in the Control Panel, but not through BIOS as I don't think I have that option?

I downloaded the ASIO4ALL driver, but I can't seem to set my output settings to my laptop speaker, so I can't use that as I don't have a compatible headphone to connect to my AI, so I've been using WIndows WASAPI.

In Audacity it'll just stop recording randomly.

In Cakewalk, the errors that I will constantly get are

- Unable to open audio record device (even though no settings have changed)

- The above audio device was disconnected from your system (happens during the recording multiple times)

- Audio Engine dropout errors (I literally get SO MANY of them - 0, 14, 15, 16)\

Any and all help/tips would be appreciated!!!

7 hours ago, John Vere said:

this is one reason why I would recommend a dedicated audio interface and a proper mike and cable. It would be dead quiet and the system is designed for professional results. USB mikes are meant for podcasts and as you are finding out pour quality audio.  

I am definitely looking into getting an XLR mic with an audio interface! Do you have any recommendations? I'm not wanting to break the bank, but I do want good quality equipment...

Also, I heard that getting an external sound card might help with the background noise issues? Do you think it would?

12 minutes ago, John Vere said:

Is the gate in the effect bin of the track or the master bus?  Normally you would use a EQ with a narrow Q to get rid of hiss. That or melodynes d esser

Sorry, I don't know all the proper terminology yet... but this is what the track looks like: https://ibb.co/DgHppcJ 

12 minutes ago, John Vere said:

Is the gate in the effect bin of the track or the master bus?  Normally you would use a EQ with a narrow Q to get rid of hiss. That or melodynes d esser

Sorry, I don't know all the proper terminology yet... but this is what the track looks like: https://ibb.co/DgHppcJ 

13 minutes ago, John Vere said:

I use the Master mix default originally but changed the bit depth to 16 for CD burning.  If you go to FILE / Export it will open a dialog box. The default works perfectly for me ( other than bit depth)  as far as duplicating what I was hearing in Cakewalk.  Notice it says "entire mix" and all mix enables are checked...

Just tried that and that didn't work... Is there somewhere I need to enable presets or the Gate or something?

So, I'm pretty sure it's a setting thing, but the reason I downloaded Cakewalk in the first place was to be able to remove a background noise/hissing that's caused by my USB mic. I'm now recording using Cakewalk and there's no background noise when listening to the track back on Cakewalk, (I've used the Sonitus Gate for this specific track) however when I export it, it brings that background noise back again.

How do I export it exactly as it sounds in Cakewalk?? What should I set these settings to? https://ibb.co/680V5Nz