Signal Flow Reference

[maxsthaven 4]

The Signal Flow

Knowing how things flow in your DAW is essential in order to get things flowing with your music.  So many questions can be answered, so many things clarified just by viewing the signal flow.  The attached PDF is from the Sonar Reference Guide PDF on page 1071.  This PDF was created from a screen capture on my iPhone 6s Plus and might not be large enough; if not, search for Signal Flow in the documentation you have access to.

Why know this?  You may want to route something a certain way and it’s great to know where your signal is coming from and where it’s going to avoid clipping and to fix problems if something isn’t sounding quite right.

Signal Flow Quick Tip 1:  ProChannel flows from top to bottom; so to set up an analog style chain, use Tape Emulation, then Console Emulation, then your compression and EQ will be as if you were compressing/EQ’ing on that console.

Signal Flow Quick Tip 2:  If you purchase the FET compressor from Softube, you’ll have an FET compressor module availabe in ProChannel.  How sweet is that!

Hope that gets things flowing for you,

—Maximus (Rock Mojo Studio)

Signal Flow.pdf

Edited March 15, 2019 by maxsthaven
Less confusion

[martsave martin s 182]

thanks Maximus

[Noel Borthwick 3,847]

This the link to the most current Signal Flowchart for CbB.

[Jim Hurley 56]

The documentation for Cakewalk is among the best I've ever read.

 

[CJ Jacobson 104]

7 hours ago, maxsthaven said:

Signal Flow Quick Tip 1:  set the Interleave to mono when sending a clean guitar recording on to Amplitube or some other guitar emulation; unless, of course, you want it to enter the plug-in in stereo.  It’s easy to forget this.

The guitar is a mono instrument, so the track would be mono already and with the track being mono, the interleave would be mono automatically. You would not have a mono tack on a stereo track. It would enter any plugin mono, even if the effect outputs stereo.

Even if you use 2 mics to record a guitar, each mic would be recorded onto its own mono track.

[maxsthaven 4]

CbB might be different, but according to the Sonar Reference Manual the interleave affects how the signal enters the plug-ins in ProChannel, and then the FX rack.  Creatively, one could change a stereo track to mono for a mono plug-in, and vice versa.  Since you want it to enter in mono, set it to mono.  I do know what you are saying, though, but one will find that doing this creates a worthwhile input difference in a guitar emulation plug-in.  If you’re up to it, give it a try.

[Sailor55 32]

The Cakewalk Signal flow diagram is quite useful and I've referred to it often. I keep a bookmark to it, and it's definitely worth the time to study.

I have a small issue with it though. It's not clear how the ProChannel fits into the signal flow. I admit it's hard to show graphically, but I don't get how the three-way switch above and below the standard Fx bin accurately shows how Prochannel is configured.  I know from the documentation text that Prochannel may be pre or post the FX bin, but I don't think the diagram makes that very clear.  The diagram seems to suggest (sort of) that there is either the Fx bin or the Prochannel in the signal flow, but not both, and I know that's not the case.

[Noel Borthwick 3,847]

Your right it's seems to imply either or. The intent was to show the prochannel as a pluggable component before or after the effects bin in the circuit.

Perhaps we can show it as a labelled component work dotted lines. @Morten Saether may have some suggestions.

[CJ Jacobson 104]

1 hour ago, maxsthaven said:

 I do know what you are saying, though, but one will find that doing this creates a worthwhile input difference in a guitar emulation plug-in.  If you’re up to it, give it a try.

You are not understanding the concept of mono and stereo instruments and tracks.

Guitar is mono, so there is no need to change the interleave to mono. Its already set to mono. Guitar is a mono instrument. Even  when you record with 2 mics onto 2 different tracks, you still have 2 mono tracks. 

You do not record a mono signal onto a stereo track and then change the interleave to mono, as you stated above. That's backwards. You record a mono track onto a mono track, like guitar, and the interleave is already set to mono. Hence, no need to change the interleave, even when sending the guitar to a bus with stereo effects. You got it now?

 

[Sailor55 32]

It took me a while to figure out a decent way to show the signal flow configuration of ProChannel.  Here's a little drawing I came with that makes some sense. I think it shows what's really happening anyway. 

[maxsthaven 4]

Saying “you got it now?” is a bit on the rude side Jacobson, but I know what you mean: the interleave symbol shows a stereo symbol when it’s already a mono track, which can be confused as “it is stereo” and so one might think clicking the button will convert it to mono (because after clicking the button it shows a mono symbol, but that actually means “change to mono”).  The difference in clicking the interleave is that it will be made stereo (which is what you meant by backwards) and will only have a left or right channel signal, so it will sound weaker, but won’t technically be mono but a one-sided stereo.  Got it now?

[maxsthaven 4]

Never mind the last thing I said.  What happened was two-fold: The original post was supposed to say change interleave to mono when your plug-in is on a bus and your guitar signal is being output to that bus—that’s what I meant was was easy to forget and I realized my interleave symbols were not displaying properly because I am using a custom theme.  Sorry for the confusion everyone.

[maxsthaven 4]

Please listen to attached memo.  Cheers!

Maximus Memo About Post.m4a

[maxsthaven 4]

MP3 version of the above file.

Maximus Memo About Post.mp3

[tparker24 33]

On 3/15/2019 at 7:45 AM, Noel Borthwick said:

This the link to the most current Signal Flowchart for CbB.

Is there a similar chart for MIDI signal flow? 

(I've looked all over)

[User 905133 1,715]

2 hours ago, tparker24 said:

Is there a similar chart for MIDI signal flow? 

(I've looked all over)

I looked a few months ago and couldn't find it either.  I'd be very interested if it exists--either as an official document or a user contributed document. 

[tparker24 33]

On 11/11/2020 at 12:25 PM, tparker24 said:

Is there a similar chart for MIDI signal flow? 

(I've looked all over)

BUMP

[William W. Saunders, Jr. 55]

MIDI just goes one place - to the output(s) you assign it to.  Its simply digital instructions to your MIDI devices, soft-synths and MIDI-automatable units.  It doesn't get amplified or processed or messed with unless you have MIDI FX in your FX bin,  in which case it make a pit stop there and is tweaked before heading to your output.  Otherwise it doesn't go through any gain staging, busses or other manipulation.

[bvideo 45]

I reported some anomalies in the mute & solo & input echo parts of the MIDI signal flow. A signal flow chart might settle some questions, including how prerecorded material merges with live input. Also bear in mind that there are some signal flow entanglements with instrument tracks and their synth components.

Edited November 15, 2020 by bvideo
bad link?

[tparker24 33]

15 hours ago, William W. Saunders, Jr. said:

MIDI just goes one place - to the output(s) you assign it to.  Its simply digital instructions to your MIDI devices, soft-synths and MIDI-automatable units.  It doesn't get amplified or processed or messed with unless you have MIDI FX in your FX bin,  in which case it make a pit stop there and is tweaked before heading to your output.  Otherwise it doesn't go through any gain staging, busses or other manipulation.

There are also several other items involved, like: clip FX,   Key+, Vel+,  and the  new articulations maps. 

It would be very helpful to have a signal flow diagram to show the paths and the interactions.

Edited November 15, 2020 by tparker24
Added Vel+ and Key+