John Vere

To me the word Normalize is refering to automatically adjusting peak levels not loudness. As said a million times before. Totally not the same thing. Peak level is easy to do with normalizing. Example As a starting point for complicated projects, say like a live band multitrack or a 60 track dialogue/narration recordings I will globally normalize the whole project to -6 db. As I said this is only a starting point and will often get me half way there. Loudness is a lot of work. There's no easy fix unless you are willing to pay for it and then pray the plug in doesn't create other issues. But compressors, limiters and analyzers are free and if you learn how to use them properly then you might now be most of way there. That last bit might actually require some manual editing which is a skill worth developing. By the way, what was with that -20db?? that's almost inaudible. most people work at between -14 to -6 db.

I actually have never made a video about lyric views as I found it to be sort of a useless part of Cakewalk. But what I tried which did work is I used the arranger view. You can re name each part and I typed each line of the lyrics in the boxes. Works brilliantly. Obviously I don't use the arranger track for arranging. The other thing I did is I have made music videos of a bunch of my backing tracks. They are basically my own home made Kareoke So I dropped that into the original project and if you set the zoom level just so that worked as well.

Are you using the start screen or the file menu? Only time I've not seen a recently opened project on the list, is when I open a project, play it and mess around a bit and then just close without saving because I didn't do anything I wanted to save. Therefore my conclusion is that only saved projects will show on that list.

It might be due to the recording mode you are using. Every time you record any audio Cakewalk creates a new file and gives that file a new name. Open your audio folder on a second monitor while your working on a project and watch the action. One audio track where you keep redoing parts will grow into dozens of audio files. In Overdub mode all this stays there until you Save/ close Cakewalk even if you overwrite a part because it needs to be available for UNDO. If you are using Comping mode I think they get kept even after you save and close Cakewalk. I don't use comping so cannot verify this but I think comping mode keeps everything so you can go back even after save and close. Add this to using a higher resolution like 96kHz and your hard drive will quickly fill up. If you use Save As , check the copy audio box and place that in a new location this is supposed to clean things up but I cannot verify what comping mode does, you can test it yourself. For me, an Overdub guy, the audio folder contains only files relevant to the projects audio.

Don't see it as an issue. But I do see where you are coming from. My Scarlett 6i6 has a similar list. Most people are only using the first couple of inputs as they are alone in the studio. So inserting a new audio track only requires one click to select the input. But this is even easier if you use templates. I have track and song templates that have the correct inputs selected already. If I load a guitar track template it selects mono input 1. a bass template uses 2. Vocals use 3 etc. I sometimes record live bands and will use a Tascam 1641 and I then load the song template that has all the correct inputs and tracks assigned. In less than 15 seconds I'm ready to record 14 tracks. As long as the same interface is connected and being used by Cakewalk before you load a template all is good. I used to use more hardware stuff and in those days I had a Yamaha 01v digital mixer using the SPDIF ( digital ) connection. That was mostly used for stereo equipment but I sometimes recorded 2 mikes on acoustic guitar that way and I would separate those to mono. Once again I think I made a template for it.

I find myself using only one screen as my office computer and Laptops are as such. But even my main DAW with two 28' monitors I often only use one screen because I need the second monitor for word documents, screen capture etc. What you actually realize is it's only the Multi dock that gets put there and using the "D" key solves that problem. I just released a video on how to optimize your workflow using one screen.

https://youtu.be/X-gHziqwth4?list=PL7YqVth30eGsdimFV6w1niyBN07M2uhRj

My first version of Cakewalk was around then. It came with Roland drum machines , keyboards etc. I was a Roland dealer and the sales Rep gave me a disk. It was called Guitar studio I think. I couldn't get it to sync the audio ( Sound Blaster ) but I used it for midi. I think it was 2005 I stumbled on the Cakewalk forum and started sorting things out and on advice bought a proper interface. ASIO was a new thing back then for sure and everyone was told to install asio4all which as it turns out was just as stupid as Creative Labs so called ASIO driver ( not). The M audio i bought was still suffering ASIO birth pains. I started getting somewhere with the purchase of a Tascam then a Scarlett. I would safely say more than a decade had gone past before I got this stupid stuff working properly. They are all sitting on the shelf and they all work just fine now that the ASIO drivers have finally been sorted out. And I'll add that Cakewalk has paralleled the development of better Audio drivers and is now (more or less) stable and (sort of) trouble free. Too bad I'm too old to make use of this stuff properly anyhow.

I had 2 Sony DAT machines similar to the one above back in the 90's they were the preferred way to submit masters to the duplicating plants. I needed 2 because it was the only way to make backups and to properly assemble and sequence a master. ! no more splicing 2 track R to Rs. They both had digital connections, optical and SPDIF. Stupid thing was being Sony they had copy protection coded in if you used the digital connections. You could only make a first generation copy. Copied tapes could not be copied again. I sold them both to these guys who had built a home studio for their band. I think they still have them. I had switched to using Wave Lab and a PC. Before I sold them I transferred all the taped directly into my PC using my interfaces SPDIF connection. If you want to preserve the best quality then see if who ever transfers the tapes not only has a DAT machine but also has a SPDIF connector on their audio interface. The tapes are worth money so the person might be willing to re use your tapes as a partial payment for their time. And what @aidan o driscoll is saying could be true because DAT machines are like VCR tape machines so subject to dirty heads and magnetic weirdness so things can get funky if they are not maintained properly.

Well I'm a long way away from seeing any money from You tube. I refuse to do the " 10 ways to make money with You Tube" craapo. Watch Mo work the crowd and you'll see what I mean. I get a lot of positive comments and e mails from people who appreciate I don't babble for 2 - 5minutes before getting on topic but it would seem that sort of stuff makes you into a You Tube Movie star and you therefore get paid. As a long time gigging musician I guess I'm used to not getting paid. Put your hand up if you remember a movie called the "Groove Tube!" In the intro was this talking puppet and they very slowly they zoomed in... Anyway Cakewalk is not exactly a hot topic compared to things like Cute Cats or squirrel catapults.

I actually had just finished the video and while playing it back for proofing heard my self saying " Son -tin-us " every time. I had to practice saying it the way it looks but I could be dead wrong and oh well, too bad. If you want a real laugh watch # 4 and listen to how I enunciate Kotelnikov. ( a well known freebie compressor) I live in a community where there are a lot of people who originated from Russia . Funny that album cover. When it came out my friends said I look exactly like him. I even bought a Buckskin jacket which I still own and it sort of fits me! I think I sing a bit better, just think what Neil could have done with Melodyne handy.

Please remove Thanks.

I had an addiction I needed to kick. Posting on this forum. Back in November, to kick the habit, I deleted my Cakewalk Form Bookmark and that was it. No withdrawals or late night trauma. That was easy. I thought my time would be better spent actually using Cakewalk now that I had the beast fully under my control and continuing to produce videos about Cakewalk . Making those tutorials about features I had never bothered to explore before put my learning curve was at 76 degrees. I feel the videos are helping a lot more people that I was reaching here. And it was getting frustrating as the new generation are not as engaged as we old farts were so the forum made me feel like most of my answers were talking to the wind. In doing research for my videos typing in questions would often open this forum and like today I would see I had some PM's and then I also found that @Starship Krupa A member I highly respect, had tagged me in a thread. I didn't want to go off topic in the thread so figured the good ol' coffee house is a nice safe place to hide now. Here is part of his post I wish to respond to. Approaching BandLab for any kind of promo money is a good way to be disappointed. It's just not how they roll. As far as why YouTubers not being around the forum, well, unfortunately, it's apparently not even worth it for them to announce new content here, as so few hits come from this forum (or any, for that matter). That's according to @John Vere of Cactus Studios fame, who remains a stalwart forum participant. @AdK Studios is the only YouTuber who still bothers to announce new videos in the Tutorials section. It's sad. Not even XelOhh posts announcements here any more. This is so true. And say what you will about Facebook < I personally avoid it if I can, it is were all of our potential new form members are hanging out. It's a terrible format which I need not explain but that is where I post my videos when I publish them. I will have over 100 views by the end of the second day. My analytics show that it's about 40% coming from Facebook and 50% from subscribers and then 10% are keyword searches etc. There are 5 Facebook groups I post the videos to and I sneak the odd one onto Mike's page so that #6. I have to check those pages for notifications and sometimes get sucked back into the question and answer vortex. So I'm a forum lurker now and once in a while I'll check my notifications and PM's as well as I might scan through the main forum and Q&A . I see nothing has changed and people are getting top quality help. I got a nice new mike for Christmas a SM 7B and so I'm on a mission to redo 30 songs vocal tracks. I also grabbed the upgraded to Melodyne Editor and looking forward to surgically fixing a few guitar chord boners. If anyone is interested in what I'm up to this is my new playlist I started. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7YqVth30eGuFWMs-8myWkFMJBrEnPU9b

One thing I’d love to see is the sidebar track selection like PVR has.

Vary rare that this has been reported as successful. And I do believe Zoom is class compliant drivers anyway. The L 12 has 14 DAW inputs which to me seems like plenty. It depends on how many inputs the OP needs. If they only say, need 4 or 6 more inputs I would recommend purchasing a 4x4 or 6x4 audio interface that has better specs and drivers than Zoom products have. This would also be more cost effective than a $1,300 L20. Example a Tascam 16 x08 has 8 xlr inputs etc. $500. Lots of 4x4 interfaces are around $300. The new interface would then serve as the heart of the mixing and mastering stage of recording. It would have a proper ASIO driver. It would have better RTL for overdubs too. For recording sessions you have the L12 and the proper interface connected and switch to say WASAPI shared mode. When the session is over you return to ASIO mode and carry on with overdubs and mixing. Win, win.

You can’t have 2 ASIO devices connected but if they support WASAPI or WDM modes you can have multiple devices ( USB mixers) inputting to Cakewalk.

The Fast track has a control on the front called Mix. Turn to left to increase input level in monitoring. The track controls in Cakewalk have no effect on input signal. All monitoring is controlled on the Fast track front panel. If you are new to Cakewalk you might want to watch my tutorials that will explain all this and speed up your understanding of how Cakewalk works.

If you actually had deleted the CWP icon it would have been in your recycle bin

You should always start a new thread it’s confusing to high jacks old threads

In the MIX module there is a global toggle.

Exactly. Like the Roland MT32 mentioned above. It had the worst reverb in the world built in and that’s why Jeff Kofftinoff I mentioned designed the editor. It only helped a little bit so I bought the Korg 05/RW. It has real good effects. This was the era when you paid $1,500 - $4,000 for these modules or keyboards and 2 years later they were outdated. Speaking of which. A keyboard player friend just gave me her Roland MK-B200 controller and a Sound Canvas. Real dirty and covered with labels on the keyboard for all the GM drum sounds. The Sound Canvas is in perfect condition and came with the manual. Do I really need it? No, but I’m a sucker for Hardware

This is way too much for my voice. I roll off at 120Hz. But definitely I always use hi pass filters on every track. Most are below 50 Hz but it’s definitely a tool everyone should be using when mixing.

Free VST’s are a double edged sword. I always test them on my office computer first. I’ve deleted way more than I’ve kept. There’s all sorts of weirdness you might not even realize or think possible when it comes to all plug ins free or even very expensive. I can’t use some Izotope products. TTS-1 can’t be added to a half finished project . If I use the free CollaB3 organ my export takes 2x longer. List goes on and on. Seems it’s great technology that suffers from randomly variable coding with no real standards of quality. It becomes outdated as operating systems and DAW software are always being updated and not all plug ins, especially the free ones are re tested and updated as well. Cakewalk can’t do anything about TTS-1 because they apparently don’t own the code but someday it will not be included and I hope they can find a better replacement for it.

It’s always a plug in.

It’s Workspaces which is one of the few changes to Cakewalks general user interfaces. Change the workspace to Advanced. The Basic workspace is the default for some stupid reason. I have a few tutorials that would bring you up to speed if yo like. There’s a short one on using the Control Bar and one on using Workspaces