I have just exported a voice recording (recorded on a Zoom R8) from Cakewalk with only a boost effect added. The recording sounds fine in Cakewalk. But the exported track sounds very bad. There is lots of noise, & the voice sounds like it has been badly EQd & has a small room reverb on it. It sounds nothing like this in Cakewalk, where it is crisp, clear & with minimal noise.
I discovered today what the echo issue was on playback through VLC & WMP; it was a Realtek setting called Headphone Virtualization, which is found in the Sound Manager, section for Speakers settings.
I just have the issue now that after I export a track, it has a drop in volume/output level. When re-imported, the file waveform is visually smaller than its original counterpart.