John Vere

Boy it’s pretty rare to find others who used Mini Disk. I had a Sony player as well as one of the Disk man’s. The disk man had USB and that was a bonus as you could now transfer the songs to disk using the software instead of what I originally had to do which was recorded in real time. It was certainly a good way to get rid of over 100 lbs of gear. The mini disk replaced the Atari and it’s huge monitor. Then I had a GR50, MT32, Korg 05/RW and a rack full of stuff. But I missed the foot controller, the lyrics on file start and midi control of my effects. I used the mini disk for probably 6 years with out issue. I still have about 20 disks, 2 Sony players, 2 Disk mans, as well as a Yamaha MD 8 which I also used as a player and mixing board back then. I actually sold my MD8 10 years ago. Then a few months ago this bass player friend of mine gave me his. Mint condition he never used it. Still in box with a full box of unused Data disks. regular mini disks work but only in stereo. I started using a Laptop in 2004 about when I also started using Cakewalk. But I initially dumped the mini disk tracks into it and converted them to MP3 using the Sony software. When I needed a new track I’d fumble around with Cakewalk. Then I also had all my original midi files and eventually those all have been reworked using better quality sounds. My latest idea is working on a video of each song. I’m finding I get foggy on lyrics these days. So because WinAmp can have videos mixed with audio files in the playlist I make a video with lyrics and even chords and cues. It’s takin me over 20 years to figure that out. Duh! So only thing missing since the Atari days is midi in the playback stream.

One post wonder. Aug 23.

This series will get you sorted out starting with #1 that sets up audio

Tutorials #28 & #29 have details of using the export dialogue. There most definitely is a choice for mono.

Not at my computer but I do believe it’s in the control bar where you choose note duration some where on the left

Not sure what you are doing but I have never had a mono track become stereo when drag and drop from browser to the track pane. I do this a lot. Are you sure you exported as a mono file? And if you cut the end of clip off you can retrieve it by slip editing the end. Just grab the end and drag it to the left. Cakewalk keeps the original audio as one file in the project audio folder. All the editing is just referenced to that track. But if you use save as it will only copy what was present at that time.

Is there a reason you want to use the pro channel ? I always put my compressor in the track effects bin. I prefer to use specific compressors and in the bin they are visible in console view

It’s all about choices. 1- destructive or none destructive editing. 2- methods that alter the sound and methods that won’t. Lately I’ve been using a destructive method -Melodyne. I can deal with not only pitch but timing and amplitude. When done the vocal track is pretty even through out. Then I still push them gently through a compressor to bring them forward.

Good catch. So my answer should have been if you use the New insert dialogue using the + icon that is found in the top / left of the track pane you can choose your input device. This choice will remain in place until you close the project. The other thing that you can do is uncheck all midi input options in preferences except the controller / device you want to use. The down side of this is the new tracks will default to All inputs which generally is fine unless you have instruments with midi output enabled. But otherwise your sole connection will input midi data to the track. I would like to see a change to the way midi input is handled. There’s been lots of issues caused by this. It would make more sense to me that your keyboard controller is set by default in midi preferences. Or at least per project.

Easy troubleshooting tip for midi input: In the tracks input box select the Virtual Keyboard. If that works then select your Keyboard controller. If that doesn’t work then make sure your using Omni. You keyboard controller will be on the list of input options if it’s set up properly. If it isn’t on the list then check in Preferences Midi devices. And so on Tutorial #2 has details

That is very interesting. I’ve never heard of the Virtual Jukebox and now I’m going to see if I can still find it. It seems there was more software written for live performance back in the 90’s and now I guess live performance is a lost art. All the software it’s designed for DJ’s. I own a bunch of different foot switch’s and by far the best quality is the Stealth. https://stealthswitch3.com/ All of them can be programmed to send any keystrokes so example Win amp starts with the B key etc. I have one set up for Cakewalk with Spacebar, R and W.

I guess that’s why a lot of people freeze stuff. I haven’t been doing that much but your issue is example of a good reason for (me and you) starting a habit of freezing at least the special sounds. A piano or bass is easy to replace but one little tweak of a big fat poly synth and its all wrong.

Seems to me to be a plug in I would avoid and move on to ones that work. That’s just me. I have a huge collection of plug ins that gave me issues in the excluded folder now.

Cakewalk uses the VST instrument that is at the top of your synth rack. So always insert that synth first. Sadly you can’t re order the synth rack. You may also have uncheck any midi outputs in preferences unless you’re using hardware synths

I’ve been using backing tracks since midi arrived back in the early 80’s. I found the most bulletproof system has been creating my tracks with midi and good quality VST instruments using Cakewalk and then mixing them to a 44.1/24 wave file. Why use MP3? I sing and play guitar so I only need bass, drums and keyboards on the backing tracks. I have a system of mixing them so they are all exactly the same levels for all the songs. I then use a small very basic laptop and Win Amp as a player. I use Win Amp because it can be set to stop at end of the song. Like @Pathfinder I use a USB foot switch to control playback so my hand never leave my guitar. I have never had any issues with this set up. My band fits in a briefcase. I toyed with using Cakewalk as the playback system but it was just way more work and I found it slow between songs. I also would loose the hands off system I now use. Only advantage of using a Sequencer live is it can then also control lights and effects.

Basically what you want doesn't exist outside of the software you seem to like using. Why not just use that? And in my world still the best way to learn to sing is to take vocal lessons that will teach you how to control your voice. Singing along with pre recorded vocals will not help you improve much. And looking at pitch is not a very good idea. You need to learn how to Hear pitch. You should have your eyes closed and concentrate on not just pitch but timber and vibrato and all the other things that make your voice what it is. You do the voice training lessons and then practice songs that are suitable to your voice. I can sing over 300 songs. There are defiantly more songs I cannot sing than ones I can. Of course you can learn to sing without proper training too, but that takes longer and you might develop bad habits. There's a lot of real good videos on singing most are free. If the first thing they don't teach you is breathing, move on to the next one.

You can use Melodyne. Cakewalk comes with a 1 Month demo then after that you need to purchase it. Pricing starts at $49 on sale.

@abacab just did an excellent job of translating what the question really was. The question should have read. “ How do I use the patterns”?

It probably is the ASIO driver you downloaded. Go into Preferences Audi and change the mode to ASIO. Tutorial #20 explains how to do all this.

And you should always have a peak limiter on the master anyway so little things like that really won’t matter. I use the Loud Max set at -1.0 db. It seems to be the most transparent and effective. Then I use the You Lean loudness meter and Span to analyze it. I personally expect anything I toss in the signal path to have some sort of interference with the audio. That’s why I don’t go crazy with effects.

Just for clarification ASIO 4all is not ASIO it is actually WDM mode in a wrapper that makes it look like ASIO but it’s performance is just as bad as WDM. WASAPI modes both outperform WDM. Only a proper well written ASIO driver will report the system latency to Cakewalk and then Cakewalk adjusts the recording sync so that your new audio recordings line up perfectly with the project. I think there’s a lot of people out there using on board or badly designed interfaces, like USB mikes, that are totally unaware of this. Possibly they don’t hear it. I sure do. 1/16 note is very noticeable.

OH, so your using WASAPI instead of ASIO? I can see why if your trying to use another Audio device but I hate to tell you this but WASAPI has a few issues. First and foremost is it will record all audio tracks about 1/16 note late. At least on my system this was the case when I did a loopback test. And it is probably why your having the issue So simple test is to set it back on ASIO mode and see if the problem goes away. Nothing to loose and everything to gain. EDIT: Good I see you did this we were typing the same time Funny I'm just in the process of making a new Tutorial titled " Other Audio Devices" where I am demonstrating using things thaat don't really work with Cakewalk like bad ASIO drivers, USB mikes and guess what, a Guitar amp with a USB connection.

I edited my first post as it was based on thinking these were 2 identical Steinberg interfaces. I have 3 different interfaces a Tascam, Scarlett and a Motu. They have different input configurations but all have 4 analog outs plus the Tascam and Scarlett have 5/6 as digital. I used to use the digital a lot when using my Yamaha O1v mixer. So I have a lot of old projects that use that on the 5/6 outputs on the Master bus. I just recently got the Motu and sure enough if I open one of those old projects I get the silent bus warning. But the Tascam and Scarlett have never had issues with outputs getting messed up. I haven’t used the mixer for a while because it’s only 44.1 so I always have to think for a minute when I hear no output when opening one of those projects. Not a problem because I immediately convert them to 48 before I even play them. But I can only guess that every brand of interfaces talks to Cakewalk differently and not surprised that the order could change if the names are weird like that. Mine are all 1/2. 3/4. 5/6. For all devices. The Scarlett has these DAW 1 etc that are part of using the Mix Control software. They are always last on the list The Motu has Loopback outputs that also are always last on the list

What I find amusing is the number of people on Facebook who try Cakewalk, get hung up on something that is 100% pilot error and say screw this I’m going to buy my DAW! It will obviously be better! I don’t feel sorry for stupid people but those posts actually make me laugh and be proud I’m not stupid!

First there’s no reason to use input echo on Audio tracks. You should use the interface direct monitoring feature. I have the M4. If I use the input echo that’s exactly what I get, an echo. This is because you’re hearing the audio system latency which will be around 10 milliseconds. I set the input monitor control at 12 o clock or sometimes around 10 o clock if I want my vocals a bit louder than the track playback. But that said there’s no reason you can’t turn it on. Make sure all the settings are correct in preferences. ASIO and your buffer settings etc.