John Vere

I was wondering how keyboards like Nord worked. You sure see a lot of them on stage. I assumed they were sample based players you could use custom made samples on. I’ve heard some amazing B3 coming out them.

Thanks. The problem with you tube is there is no way to update a video you have to delete it so all the links posted are all dead after I update. I have to sort out what is happening and as I said I’m long overdue for a new computer. It’s been working very hard over the last 3 years. I’m 70 years old and I might not hear what younger folks hear anymore. But that’s all the more reason to get all my songs finished as quickly as possible! I was just at a music event where Al Simmons was performing and he’s 80 now. His hands were visually shaking due to Parkinson’s but he is a powerful performer still. I have more gigs lined up for this summer than I’ve had for a long long time. Al gives me hope I can carry on for at least another 10 years. Making the You tubes was just a distraction from what I should be focusing on . I think I’m done with that, it was fun while it lasted.?

Hmm I just listened with headphones on and I do hear very faint artifacts but only a couple and very hard to notice . My Motu has done this a lot but it’s very noticeable when it happens. Usually after I have worked in Movie maker or watched a video. I have to totally reboot to get rid of it. But I always do that before I do any audio recording now out of habit. Time for a system upgrade I think.

I always proof the video after it uploads and it’s fine on my end.

Thanks for that Mark. Good to know. I have a pretty old computer so I'm still cautious about keeping projects very simple and straight forward. As I said these are backing tracks and a steady tempo is perfect as I doubt very much the punters on the dance floor give a hoot about "natural" sounding tracks ? . A natural tempo map is a great way to go for those songs you record live, be it a band or singer songwriter tunes played on acoustic guitar or a real piano. I've done that as well taking old recording of mine that were originally done with a live drummer and I re build them using drum replacer etc. Cakewalks tools are incredible for this and it's amazing to take old tracks and bring them forward with the tools for sonic improvements now on hand. I find the tempo extraction has improved over time I guess due to Melodyn upgrades.

I know exactly what you’re saying. This often happens to me for redoing a section of a song and I go to drag the timeline to create the punch in and the end point is way off screen to the right. I have to zoom out using Alt/ mouse scroll. Then the accuracy of the points is iffy so you have to zoom back in. Just thinking about this gave me an idea. USB foot switch! You can assign just about anything to a USB foot switch. I have 4 of them kicking around. So I could assign the zoom in and out to the foot switch! I’m going to go test this. Update: It didn't work. Well I got the footswitch programed to use CTR _ Right and left arrows so that works great for zooming. But I had to let go of the mouse still. I couldn't drag a clip and zoom out at the same time. I guess that's how things work. But I'm glad I programed the foot switch as I'll use that anyhow. If I can remember it's there. That Alt/ mouse scroll get used a LOT by me.

Those dozens of small tempo changes are what makes it stay synced to the grid. It’s something that can be hidden if it scares you. I can only imagine that stuff like this puts more stress on your CPU so I never keep the tempo map after I’m done with it. As I said my workflow is to recreate the song using all midi first. Then I delete the tempo map and choose the single tempo I want. Then I would start recording audio if the project is more than just a backing track. Mostly I use tempo extraction for making backing tracks. I find it faster and easier to play along with the original to come closer to the correct vibe of the song. Especially drums and bass.

I just made this video where I get to the bottom of what midi latency really is. Often people mistakenly say midi latency when it is actually audio latency they are experiencing.

Got me thinking about midi and the end result potential of creating a real musical instrument. Piano and keyboards are easy as you can play the actual instrument and with a good controller and VST instrument for playback it will capture 90% of the emotion and dynamics. Attempts over time to capture guitar have for the most part failed and have resulted in more like 40% or less accuracy. I own a few options for that. Midi guitar VST and a Roland GR50. In the end Melodyne works the best for me but still requires editing to remove artifacts created by overtones. All my bass parts I play on a real bass and convert to midi with out much fuss. Drums have come a long way and once again it depends on the quality of the controller which in this case is a set of digital drums. My $500 Yamaha kit is only slightly better than using a keyboard. A $5,000 Roland kit is up in the 90% accurate score. Then Yamaha in particular has produced some midi instruments like wind controllers and violins that seem like they are pretty convincing. But back to midi itself. Turning a note on message into a Saxophone can work if the saxophone uses a good Sample with options for various articulations of the sound. The VST instrument is probably the most important aspect of achieving convincing results of any instrument. So a good midi controller for data input will help add extra controller data as you perform. But you could also simply draw a midi note and if your good at editing and know how to add articulations and controller data you can get close to what you want. Midi is king. It allows real players a way to capture performances using many different input devices and fine tune that performance into a masterpiece. It allows a guitar player access to drums and keyboards even if they are not proficient with those instruments. It also gives non musicians a tool to try their hand at creating music. In a way it revolutionize the way we make music now. Midi 2 is just coming out after 40 years of midi 1. Things will even get better.

You don't n if you are using an audio interface or just Windows sound. If your using Windows check the mixer. Also check you master bus

I just pulled the tempo from Creedence's Cross tie walker today. It drifted from 94-99BPM. There was just one little spot that glitched and jumped to 150 due to a funky guitar riff he was using in the 3rd verse. Easy to fix if you know how. But basically I recorded the song directly from You Tube using my Loopback input and then drag it to the timeline and use percussive algorithm. Then I turn on ripple edit and drag the whole song until it lines up with the grid and leave room for a count in. Then I run the metronome and listen for any drift. It's amazing how tight the metronome stays. If there's a drift you just move a node up or down until it's right. Then I play along and build the song part by part and because it's on the grid I can quantize parts. This one was easy because it is just Bass and drums . I added a piano for the heck of it too. After I'm done I just deleted the audio and the tempo map and set the tempo at 99. It's a great way to copy the exact arrangement of cover songs and add the correct little pieces like drum fills. I had to add a better ending as it was a fade out which doesn’t work for live music . I have successfully done this for many fully mastered songs including rebuilding my own that were recorded pre DAW era. I've actually never tried audio snap method. Looks like too much work to me when I watched the videos. I think the Melodyne tempo detection has improved a lot with version 5. But the material needs to be dynamic. I don't think it will work on brick walled stuff. Needs the transients. The Creedence song worked because you can see every snare hit in the waveform.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxLhvKJGjvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c_2jZ5Qw_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2izQxY_x3Q

Yes I don't look forward to the day it dies as I use it like many people just to pre view downloaded midi files. I guess you could use the dreaded MS wavetable out of desperation. I also have a real Sound Canvas as well as my Korg 05R/w has a GM mode. And my Yamaha DTX drum module has a GM player built in. Cubase has the Halion Synth which is GM and I also have that somewhere as I own Cubase 5 on a DVD I never bother to install anymore. I think I can just install Halion and it gets licensed via the Dongle I have plugged in so I can use Wave Lab. So I have a few options. Seems the only GM synth you can purchase is the Roland Cloud version of Sound Canvas VST. If it sounds anything like my hardware version it would be a waste of money. I like the Korg much better.

I don’t think there’s a limitation as far as Cakewalk goes. It’s really more to do with how many USB ports your computer has. In the end all midi goes through USB. Nothing wrong with older keyboards they are built like tanks and yes most are repairable if you can still get the parts. What wears out are the silicone contact strips that trigger the keys. I just bought some for a 1987 Roland controller. If it’s got midi ports it’s good to go. I was looking at controllers the other day and the one I wanted the Roland A88 MK2 is $$$$$. So I’ll just keep using the old one. Only thing to be aware of is older midi gear often has more latency than newer stuff. https://youtu.be/CwJ1Ibo1wcE

I used to live in a remote area with only limited expensive bandwidth so I can sympathize. I simply worked my way around it by lugging my DAW to my brothers house in town every once in a while and updating stuff. Or I would take a USB drive there. It was a prime motivator for moving to town which I did a few years ago. Life is all about bandwidth and cellular data plans now. You can't even park your car in the city without a cell phone. It's just how civilization has evolved. The majority carry on, pay the price, and take no notice of these things. I am always amazed at how many people my age ( real old) are walking around the grocery store texting or looking stuff up on cell phones. The cell phone has totally replaced outdated entertainment like TV's now. It's where your music will be played too. But yes there are still many people in remote location who have little if any options for this wonderful connectivity most take for granted now. Canada is a huge country and we are not exactly hard done by, but only a very small percentage of it is covered by cellular service. Only towns and cities have hardwired or fiber optic internet the rest rely on a very underbuilt satellite system where you need to be very carful about downloading anything. And that pathetic service will cost you 3 or 4 times more than what you get in a populated area. Cakewalk is free and they are under no obligation to make life perfect for every possible life situation. All they ask for their free software is that we remain connected to them. So Cakewalk is not very off line compatible and they have no reason to change this. What's in it for them? Nothing. A few more users. You need to get you mind around this and not complain. Simple solution- Go to the Music store and buy a DAW in a Box with a DVD. I think Cubase still is available this way. Many DAWs once installed never need to go on line again. Pro tools even has a free version and I don't think it requires to be on line after you authorize it.

Actually your problem is probably not solved as audio will not be in sync in any driver mode other than ASIO. You might have gotten a little closer but it is probably still late.

I have a Fast Track Pro and when I attempted to install the driver in W 10 it said it was not compatible. No big deal it's a pretty old interface I was going to use it to play music from my laptop. It was always kind of undependable and would loose connection all the time so I bought the Scarlett. It did work better when plugged in to a wall wart but that was in the USB 1.0 days so those issues might have been resolved. I haven't used it with a DAW for 12 years. It's actually a good design and has all the features I like. I have an interface from 2004 that still works fine on W7. Here's from the driver page : Windows Releases (click on a version # to download that installer) 6.1.11 Jan 19. 2016 This is the final driver release for the Fast Track Pro Qualified with Windows 7, 8, 8.1 Note that Windows 10 (or later) is not compatible and will not be qualified Fixed noise or pops/clicks when streaming with Fast Track Pro's S/PDIF output enabled

I was still using my Yamaha MD 8 track in 2005. I only used Cakewalk to play my midi sequences I composed on an Atari. I couldn't get used to the Piano roll after 15 years of using an event list midi editor in Dr T, I hated the whole thing. And all the audio was out of sync whenever I tried that feature,, It took until around 2010 before I was sort of getting Cakewalk to do something. But all software is like that. There's no escape. You either take the time to read the instructions or sit there being stupid and mad that nothing works the way YOU think it should work. Software is made by Geeks, you have to be a Geek to get it to work. If you are not a Geek, find something else to do with music. like play in a band or busk in the subway. The people who get things going faster take the time to learn using the widely available instructions. There's no way you will learn how Cakewalk works by jumping in blind.

Heck of a deal if you ask me and the rep on E bay seems real good. I'd jump on it. I found that the only VST for my Korg would cost me about $145. $10 is a steaL.

This topic got me thinking about how it would be cool to have samples from my Korg 05r/w instead of it cluttering up my workspace. Then I saw the price for Sample Robot and that’s way too much for me for the few sounds I’d really like to keep. But if you figure out what your time is worth it’s a bargain. Here is one way to do it for free. Create a project and insert a midi track. Record or draw all the notes chromatically and edit to 1/2 ? notes at a set velocity spaced 1 measure apart? Copy the track a few times and change the velocity so you have as many velocity options as needed. Set these midi tracks to output to the hardware. Mute all but one. Now insert as many audio tracks as needed and save this as a template. Now record the hardware using a track for each velocity and save as naming the project for the patch. Make sure to check the copy audio box. Option at this point is instead of saving just export the tracks as stems and name those. Delete the audio and start again with new patch. That was easy. Now the fun part. You will have to chop those exported wave files or with in the project into short clips of each note and top and tail them correctly. Probably quicker in Wave Lab than Cakewalk. I’ve made my own samples before and the most important part is topping it as close as possible to the waveform starting point. I guess in cakewalk you could do this with splitting and then drag the clip to a folder outside of cakewalk and name it. But anyway it will be a huge amount of time to sample even a few patches. I think I’ll just keep my hardware alive.

Personally I think you are risking future headaches with depending on the one synth that is now causing crashes for many of us. I guess is in a few years TTS-1 will not even be included with Cakewalk as they developers can no longer support it in any way. The Code belongs to Roland who make the Sound Canvas which is supported still as a VST. But Cakewalk team can do nothing about the TTS_1 becoming unstable. There are so many better sounding instruments available and you can do this for free if you want. Tell us what instruments you like using and we can make recommendations.

People miss out on a few features that become important when they buy an interface. My first 2 interfaces had the Blend control on the front. When I got the Scarlett 6i6 I was surprised to find it missing and almost took it back. But reading the manual I then saw that it was now done with the Software mixer so I carried on. But I found it a PITA to have to keep opening the Mix Control while tracking, so I came up with a solution which was I used my Yamaha 01V and the SPDIF connection for tracking. I used that system for a long time. The 6i6 was just a little red box that only controlled my Monitor level. Everything else was done in the 01V. Bummer was it is only 44.1kHz. I later figured out it was real simple just to turn down the Master or any bus. They are always at unity so easy to reset. I only used the mix control once when I did a session with a 4 piece band and needed the extra headphone cue mixes. I still used the 01v and then I figured out all about those DAW 1, DAW 2 etc things you could send to the 2 headphone jacks. Focusrite have since replaced Mix Control with a new software mixer and it looks easier to figure out now.

First SAMPLING RATE Very possible that this is due to the unorthodox sample rate. Both your interfaces are entry level. My research into higher sample rates is they should be avoided by home studio set ups using entry level gear. There's nothing gained sonically and you are pushing the system much harder which can cause audio issues. 48kHz sampling rate is the most widespread format used . 44.1kHz is a dead issue as it serves no purpose these days and will cause conflicts if you try and open the internet with Cakewalk running. All the stuff on the internet is 48khz. A common myth is to use 44.1 if you still burn CD's. Nope- I burn CD's using Nero and I just drop my 48/24 wave files in there and it converts them to 44.1/16 and burns the CD. I don't even make MP3 files anymore once I discovered Sound Cloud will upload my 48/24 files. I recommend setting everything to 48. Including Windows. Audio Drive Bit Depth Do not confuse Computer bit depth with audio bit depth. Computer stuff like our VST plug ins use 32 bit and 64 bit. Audio uses 8, 16,24 and 32 bit. A CD and older interfaces used 16 bit. Most all audio interfaces use 24 bit with only a few out there might use 32 bit now. Anything that only uses 16 bit will be totally obsolete. When you install the ASIO driver for your interface you will see that as displayed in my screen shot above 3rd box down Audio Driver Bit Depth 24. You cannot change this it is set by the driver. If you look in Windows setting you will see even there it cannot be changed. It can often be changed in none ASIO modes like WASAPI. Cakewalk works using 32 bit floating point for all it's background processing. Cakewalk could care less about the Bit Depth of an audio file. A project can have only one Sample rate but can contain multiple bit depth files. Cakewalk will accept any imported audio files and will convert them to the projects SAMPLE RATE but will not change the bit depth. Therefore if you drag a 44.1/16 bit file from a CD into Cakewalk and the project is using 48kHz sample rate, the file is now 48/16. All new audio recorded will be at 24 bit depth. Because Cakewalk works at 32 bit I do all my bouncing using 32 bit depth no dithering. And this is how you can take your project and convert it to 48kHz and see if that solves other issues. Midi tracks that are not frozen are not involved, They work at any Sample rate. Open the export dialog and set everything the way I show here. Uncheck all Midi and Midi instrument tracks. NOTE: I forgot to change the Stereo to Mono. If there are a combination of stereo and mono tracks you will need to export twice, one for each type. Now delete all the original audio tracks from the project. Everything. There cannot be any hint of audio in the project. Now change the Sample rate to 48kHz ( or ?) by clicking the Sample rate box ( 48/24) in the Transport Module as shown above in my first post. This will open your interfaces control panel. Make sure the Sample rate box changes to the new rate. You might hear a click. Now drag the exported audio back to the project. It will be clearly named. Just make sure to place it correctly at the very start.

The screen shot is not what I was talking about, 48 kHz is a common Sample rate for projects, it will show here. 44.1kHz is another common sample rate too. The default sample rate can be set for new projects in audio settings shown in my screen shot. You can also set it in your audio interfaces control panel. Both your audio interfaces come with ASIO drivers, make sure you download and install the latest drivers. Make sure they are the only device you are using for Cakewalk. Check that your Master bus is set to outputs 1 & 2 for both systems. If it is not, then you will have an issue as described.

Bit depth is actually 32 inside Cakewalk. That setting is irrelevant. But the Clock rate should always be set to be the same . I find 48 is never an issue as movies are 48 etc. I switch computers all the time including going from using an audio interface to using on board audio. My guess is you have too many audio systems active and Cakewalk doesn’t know what to do with that. Uncheck all audio devices you are not using in windows sound settings. Then make the device you are using is selected in Cakewalk preferences and Apply the settings. Make sure the master bus is then using that output