Help! Too Many TTS-1 Tracks

[Michael McBroom]

Another Cakewalk mystery has happened  to me.  I like to use cars and driving them as an analogy. Unlike a lot of you folks, I don't know much or understand much about what goes on "under the hood" of Cakewalk. I can probably identify the spark plugs and various filters, but beyond that, I'm pretty much lost. Nope, I'm a driver. I know how to drive Cakewalk reasonably well, I can even make some basic adjustments -- just don't ask me to troubleshoot anything when things go sideways. 

The tune in question is a rather simple Jazz Bossa with six MIDI instruments. This is an older tune I wrote a couple years ago, and I decided to take another look at it and possibly improve the mix  because I know more about the subject than I did back then.

This is one of the peculiar files where, when I loaded TTS-1, only the audio track loaded. The TTS-1 MIDI track never made it. But the tune worked fine without it back then so I didn't worry about it. But this time around, I figured I'd try to clean things up some, so I reassigned the instruments to another synth, then deleted the TTS-1 track -- from the Synth Rack window. Then I loaded TTS-1 back in again, but this time four TTS-1 audio tracks loaded -- and the one MIDI track. They're labeled CkwlkTTS11Otp1, ...Otp2, ...Opt3, and ...Otp4. I'm assuming "Otp" stands for Output. I'm totally confused -- why did these suddenly appear and what are they for? As it so happens, I do need multiple instances of TTS-1 in this tune but I don't know how to access the different "Otp" tracks. I tried loading TTS-1 again -- because I need another one at a minimum -- and five more tracks got loaded. Great. There are labeled ...TTS12Otp1, etc. So the second instance of four more tracks.

Another curious thing about these extra tracks is they followed a reduced module count I specified that was supposedly for busses. But these aren't busses -- are they?

Anyway, you know the "Insert Soft Synth Options" popup window you get when you're loading a new synth? I never change any of the parameters on this page, so I don't think there's anything going on there that might be causing this, unless I hit something by mistake and now it's remembering it.

So anyway if you could tell me how I can get back to one instance (two tracks, that is) of TTS-1 loading when I ask for it, I'd sure appreciate it. And I wouldn't mind learning what this OTP1,2,3,4 business is all about. Maybe I can use it in the future if I know how to use it.

[User 905133]

10 hours ago, Michael McBroom said:

. . .  I loaded TTS-1 back in again, but this time four TTS-1 audio tracks loaded -- and the one MIDI track. They're labeled CkwlkTTS11Otp1, ...Otp2, ...Opt3, and ...Otp4. I'm assuming "Otp" stands for Output. . . . what are they for?

What output options do you have checked in the "Insert Soft Synth Options" box? TTS-1 can have up to 4 audio outputs. So if you tell Cakewalk to install "All Synth Outputs," you should end up with 4 audio outputs for each instance of TTS-1 you insert. 

10 hours ago, Michael McBroom said:

. . . if you could tell me how I can get back to one instance (two tracks, that is) of TTS-1 loading when I ask for it, I'd sure appreciate it. 

If you want to insert a TTS-1 soft synth with two tracks (one audio track and one midi track [aka a "split instrument track"]), you can select the [  ] MIDI Source and [  ] First Synth Audio Output options.

There are other ways to get this set up.

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  Purely Optional (in case you want to explore the use of multiple outputs later on):

10 hours ago, Michael McBroom said:

. . . I wouldn't mind learning what this OTP1,2,3,4 business is all about. Maybe I can use it in the future if I know how to use it.

If you want to make use of more than one audio output, you can assign the 16 channels to any of up to 4 outputs (per instance of TTS-1).

To get to this dialog box, click on "System" [right hand column in TTS-1] and then click on "Option" in TTS-1's System Setting panel.

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by User 905133
(3) added quotations from OP; (2) to add info about assigning TTS-1 channels to up to 4 audio outputs;(1) to add a method to get a split track using the insert soft synth box options

[Michael McBroom]

Thanks so much for this. I thought it might be that popup panel. First Synth... got switched to All Synth...

And thanks much for your additional explanations.