Stewart Cormack

21 hours ago, scook said:

If you elect to use Melodyne as a regular VST plug-in consider reading the Melodyne manual about how to transfer audio into the plug-in.

Bear in mind, once audio is transferred to the plug-in, unlike regular effects plug-ins, Melodyne becomes the source for audio playback.

There are three ways to use melodyne

• as a stand alone editor
• as a regular VST plug-in
• as a Region FX

The first two require the audio to be loaded into the tool/plug-in so that Melodyne can process the data.

As a Region FX, Melodyne processes the data on the fly. Refer to signal flow diagram to see where Region FX perform their processing.

Try using Melodyne as a Region FX.

Brilliant thank you very much, I tried this and it's now working perfectly. 😊

Last year I paid a small fortune to purchase Melodyne, yet somehow it isn't allowing me to use it in any way. I click on "insert audio effect" then select Melodyne, only to find the audio I've selected doesn't appear on the editing panel. Is this a cakewalk thing  or should I contact Melodyne?

On 5/30/2021 at 3:34 AM, Matt Dunn said:

This exact thing (I think) has pretty much always happened to me ever since I started using SONAR a billion years ago. This is just my hobby and I'm only an amateur, so I've never followed up on it until today -- and then I saw this post! It happens consistently and it's massively annoying.

Initially I thought it was my PC - age, RAM, or something - but now I'm using a brand new Win 10  laptop with 16Gb RAM and I was told that, as it's a "light gaming" machine, it would be more than sufficient for my purposes. But as soon as I started using Cakewalk on this new machine, the same thing happened with the very first project I opened.

I'm not very tech savvy with this stuff, so I don't know all the right terminology, but basically what happens is that I'll go back to listen to what I've just done and as soon as I start playback there's this kind of 'pop' sound, then nothing. It still plays on-screen, but the sound doesn't kick in for ages, and then continues to lag behind the on-screen playback progress. Sometimes when this happens I just stop it immediately and wait until I hear the echo (or whatever it is) of (what I assume to be) the final note in that part of the recording, which tells me (sometimes, but not always) that I'm good to go again. Then when I hit play it (sometimes but not always) starts playback as normal. But sometimes this same silence happens multiple times before it kicks back in and I can resume playback. It doesn't always result in an audio dropout dialogue either (although this also happens pretty frequently, independently of the instances I'm discussing here).

I also notice when this happens that I can't reset the playhead either. I can click and click and click at the point I want it to return to, but it just continues along with the silent playback and only kind of snaps back to where I want it when this silent freeze thing gets over itself and decides to play nicely.

Per the questions asked of the OP, yes I've had the very same thing happen with a new project where I've recorded about 15 seconds of vox with literally nothing else in the project. I've also had the same thing happen with ~15-30 seconds of recording via multiple different VSTs where there was nothing else present in the project, no changes to default settings and no FX yet added. In at least one of the VST examples I recall it dropping out the very first time I went to listen, then on and off from that point onwards.

In my current project, I turned off all FX for an extended period while I continued to work on the project, but the dropout thing continued to happen. There are two MIDI tracks with my vox, 5 MIDI tracks for a bunch of samples, and a handful of VST tracks. Is there something else I can try to address @Colin Nichollssuggestion to "Try bypassing all FX (see Mix Module)"?

I'm using an onboard audio interface (to the extent that I understand what that means — i.e. all I use is an external mic and my MIDI keyboard, both of which are plugged directly into the laptop. Hoping my interpretation is correct!)

My driver mode is WASAPI Shared. Sampling rate is 44100. Buffer settings are fixed at Fast, I can't change them. The video above suggests this is due to my soundcard?

Sincere apologies @Stewart Cormack, I feel like I've just totally hijacked your post, but from what you've said, I think we may have the same (or at least a very similar) issue.

Any feedback, suggestions or assistance greatly appreciated. 

Cheers,
Matt

Not at all! Just glad there's someone who shares a similar issue with me.

Thankfully it doesn't happen with every project I work on, the current one I'm working on has 43 tracks and most of them have multiple FX plugins, so I'm assuming that's too much for cakewalk to handle. When I bypass all FX it plays just fine, but that's not exactly practical for mixing, or even recording vocals for that matter.

On 5/29/2021 at 9:11 PM, Colin Nicholls said:

Does this happen with a new, empty project? Try creating a new project and adding one MIDI track and recording a couple of notes. Does it drop out immediately?

Try bypassing all FX (see Mix Module). Does it still drop out?

What Audio Interface are you using? External, onboard, RealTek Audio? Etc?

What driver type? ASIO? Are you using ASIO4ALL? What are the buffer settings?

No it doesn't happen with empty projects, however when I bypass all FX it plays just fine and doesn't drop out at all.

I'm using a Soundcraft Notepad-8FX audio interface, and ASIO for the driver type.

My buffer settings are 46.4msec, 2048 samples.

Every single time I press play in my cakewalk project the audio engine drops out almost immediately. This is extremely frustrating as I have no way of recording any more tracks or listening back to my mix. If someone could help me out and offer a solution to fix this, that would be much appreciated. Thanks.

11 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

You've not mentioned what audio interface you're using, so it's difficult to give you exact steps, but the gist of it is:

Some audio devices offer the choice between just the recording what's coming through the line/mic input, or the "stereo mix" - the latter being a mix of what's being played as well as your audio input. 

You need to deselect the stereo mix option, and only use the audio input.

This is done using whatever software comes with your audio device - it can't be done from within Cakewalk.

If you're using an on-board device, you can do it within Windows itself:

 

I'm using a Soundcraft Notepad 8FX audio interface, and I checked sound settings and stereo mix has already been already disabled. So the problem must lie somewhere else.

On 4/15/2021 at 9:36 PM, scook said:

Cakewalk always records the signal at the track input.

If the track is recording data from other tracks in the DAW along with the new signal coming from outside the DAW then something outside the DAW is mixing the data and sending it to the track being recorded in Cakewalk.

IOW, an external hardware mixer or a software mixer used by the audio interface is mixing the new input and the signal coming from the DAW and sending it back to the DAW.

 

WRT adjusting monitor playback level, this depends on where the signals are coming from.

When direct monitoring, there is usually a knob on the interface or a software mixer supplied with the interface to adjust the level of the direct signal and the signal coming from the DAW.

When monitoring everything through the DAW the playback levels are set in the DAW.

So what does this mean I need to do to fix it?

On 4/17/2021 at 3:40 AM, John Vere said:

This is not a cakewalk issue it is a audio interface issue 

I'm fairly certain this is a result of following your video about on board audio. I must have changed certain settings and now my interface is braindead. 

When I record a new audio track it also picks up everything I've previously recorded as well. So not only is it recording what I'm currently doing it's also recording every other track I've made in that project. Even worse still, you can barely hear what I'm playing because it gets drowned out by the previously recorded tracks. How do I fix it so it only records what I'm doing? Not looking for a massive discussion that lasts days just looking for simple instructions on what settings I need to change in order to fix the problem. 

13 hours ago, John Vere said:

My video was about on board computer audio. It was not about using an interface. If you had told us what you were using I would not have waisted time explaining about that. But I had to assume on board otherwise. I have stated the correct driver mode twice already. 

I don't know why you would assume that if I'm honest, an audio interface is fundamental for home recording lol

On 3/9/2021 at 2:04 PM, Will_Kaydo said:

LOL! No he is not. 😂 

@Stewart Cormack I finally had a listen to the sample and there's definitely too much going on the upper high mid region. There's also a lot of ringing cutting through. When this is compressed it starts to spread over the frequency area it occupies. There's a touch of reverb too much on it. Combine this with fast attack and release and a bit of heavy compression - it becomes messy.

 

Ah okay interesting, thank you very much. So I should lower the reverb and compression, and change the EQ?

On 3/8/2021 at 6:42 PM, John Vere said:

On Board sound is what we call the computers audio system. WASAPI shared or Exclusive are the driver modes you use with On Board audio. 

If you have an Audio interface then you defiantly want to use the ASIO driver that comes with it. 

Your sample sound terrible mostly due to as far as I can tell a either cheesy VST piano or the fact it has way to much reverb on it. This whole thread most of what has been said was irrelevant.  What @Will_Kaydo  said was closest to the correct answer in the end. This is nothing to do with Export settings or Sound cards.

If you don't already have it  think about purchasing an audio interface and some good studio monitors. Or some good headphones. 

I have a Soundcraft Notepad 8FX audio interface, so what driver mode settings would be best? Following your video I changed it to WASAPI shared, which sounded better but when I record audio tracks there's a delay. How do I fix the delay?

3 minutes ago, Nigel Mackay said:

Sounds like normal piano chords to me.

Something you haven't said - do other wave files you have sound ok?

For me the chords sound more aggressive than they do in cakewalk, the keys sound like they're being pressed a lot harder. Which was a problem I had before before so I drastically lowered the velocity, however that didn't make much of a difference.

This is the first wave file I've exported from cakewalk, so I don't have any others.

On 3/7/2021 at 5:23 AM, Nigel Mackay said:

Export a short bit of the project and post it here so we can check it.

Select a few seconds on the timeline.

Song Sample.wav

On 3/6/2021 at 6:13 PM, John Vere said:

A question not asked yet is are you using on board audio?   It would seem you are. If you are using an ASIO interface troubleshooting would be different. 

 The Volume mixer really doesn't tell you anything other than the fact the application is outputting correctly to Windows sound. 

I posted screenshots of the output settings you should see Device properties/ additional device properties I explain this in the video but just in case you missed it. 

Notice the sample rate setting. Make sure this is all the same in all settings. Otherwise songs can play back slow. 

 

In audio playback and recording my driver mode was ASIO, but I changed it to WASAPI Shared following your video.

I'm still not 100% certain what on board audio is exactly, however I went through all of my settings and made sure they were the same as your screenshots.

@Nigel Mackay @John Vere I played it through VLC and unfortunately it still didn't sound right. So I clicked on Open Volume Mixer to make sure it was the same as cakewalk, and it was. I then played it on Audacity and that also didn't sound right. So I must be exporting it incorrectly?

12 hours ago, John Vere said:

That's not your audio settings thats midi! 

Oh! My bad haha

I watched the video and followed all the steps, it still doesn’t sound right when I export it as a WAV file. So I need to do further editing in Audacity to correct it?

_

49 minutes ago, John Vere said:

@Stewart Cormack

Did your watch the video? I posted it because I explain how to set up on board sound properly. I think you have enhancements on. I also explain how each on board system will be different. Groove Music is the very worst player on the planet.   Use Windows Media player or VLC. Better yet do like I do and use a Wave editor to proof mixes. 

http://www.goldwave.ca/

https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

https://www.magix.com/ca/free-download/sound-forge-pro/

 

And You can most certainly change driver modes with a project open.  You just cannot change sample rate.

I would like a screen shot of that dialog you just posted.   “(Close all projects to edit)”  

 

2 hours ago, John Vere said:

 

Sigh..when I go to the audio playback and recording tab it says “(Close all projects to edit)” beside Driver mode. And no, I’m not kidding. Cakewalk has just told me to close the project so I can edit the settings...which I can only do if the project is open😂 

Just got to laugh about it at this point, whatever higher force is up there really doesn’t want me to finish this song 😂

4 minutes ago, scook said:

I do not use any MS supplied playback software.

Have you looked t at OS settings like the one @msmcleod mentioned.

 

I did and they're set the same way he had them

21 minutes ago, scook said:

Most often this a setting in the playback software.

I do not use Groove Music but did a quick search on Google.

The app appears to have a built-in EQ available on its settings page.

I messed around with the EQ settings on Groove Music and unfortunately it didn't really fix the issue. It isn't just Groove Music it sounds that way on either, I tried listening to it on Windows media player and it was the same thing. Will I have to remix the entire song or will it sound the way it should once it's on SoundCloud/Spotify?

1 hour ago, scook said:

To narrow down the problem, one thing to try is import the exported wav into Cakewalk and see if it sounds the same as the project.

If it sounds the same then the problem lies in the playback of the exported wav.

If it does not then the problem lies in the routing or export options in the DAW.

 

 

Thanks this definitely narrowed down the problem. When I imported the exported WAV into cakewalk it sounded the same as the project. So the problem must lie in the playback. How can I remedy this?

1 hour ago, Nigel Mackay said:

Never mind your headphones, it is the route in your PC that matters. It could be that when you are editing Cakewalk uses a different audio processor to when you listen to the recording.

When you open the WAV file what plays the audio? Windows Media Player? VLC? Some fancy audio/DVD interface that you installed?

There might be EQ when you listen to the WAV file.

When I open the WAV file the audio plays through Groove Music. Would there maybe be any EQ effects as a default setting on that?

@Promidi @Hatstand @Will_Kaydo I always export it as a WAV file, and I'm fairly new to this so the technical terms might not be entirely correct, but when exported it sounds much heavier and clustered. The midi piano at the beginning sounds as though someone's banging a drum in time with every chord. Plus the entire mix in general sounds much messier and you can't hear the instrumentals as clearly. I'm listening through studio headphones on the default windows media player so maybe that does have something to do with it but I can't be sure. Any thoughts on what I can do to fix it so it sounds the same as it does in cakewalk?