John Vere

I understand exactly what you’re saying. This is it, To find orphaned tracks later on it’s nice if they use the correct project title. This is why it’s important to name a project before you record new material. It’s also important to name the track clearly too. It often happens when you start with templates. You end up with “ no name” audio files until you save the project. And naming a track After you record it doesn’t change the files name. So this is a good question- How do you safely change the name of audio files to match the new project? I’ll have to try this later today, but I’m guessing you might have to delete the audio and drag it to the new project? Im pretty sure re naming in Explorer won’t work.

Great explanation of why looks can count. And if you saw my studio you’re sure enough going to see a big mess of wires, old gear and not to pretty instruments. I actually just switched over to using the start screen last summer. I always had it shut off but turned it back on for making tutorials. Cakewalk’s default of the screen shot icon sort of works brilliantly for me in narrowing down the search for a project. Like my “16 Track template “ shows 16 uncoloured tracks. That looks entirely different than full projects that are very colourful. And I’m grateful to those who make new themes. I would never take the time to figure that out as my DAW time is limited. I just loaded up one made by Mr Cook. A simple one with soft green highlights , perfect.

? Not sure why you would need the step sequencer to create a hi hat and crash pattern. Most would just draw the notes in the PVR or actually play them and record them using a Controller or the Virtual Keyboard. Or drag a MIdi loop of a pattern to a amidi track, The step sequencer takes a bit more knowledge to master. One should not have deadlines for creating with tools they have yet to master?

I often wonder how many users spend more time getting Cakewalk to look wonderful than actually recording music?

The OP said they have reverb on a bunch of tracks? This is a well documented way to create a muddy mix. Reverb is space. Having a bunch of different spaces in a mix totally confuses the listener unless that is your goal. Best practices is to limit how many reverbs are used in a project and share one instance using a effect send to a reverb buss. Of course this general advice is for most popular types of music and not applicable to all. I’m only mentioning this as newbie’s might get the idea it’s normal to put a different reverb on each track. The pro channel has made it way to easy to make this mistake.

This is an example of a song I used this technique with. It’s on the run down in each verse where I hold a long note. Then at the very end of the song. https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/GS1mdfwq2h3ozPvM8 The other part I forgot to mention is the echo track gets a lot more reverb. You could even automate it to increase as the repeat fades away This just gave me an idea for a future video ?

I had this similar challenge once and just couldn’t get the exact timing I wanted. So my solution was to create 2 new tracks below the original. Each was panned hard left and right. Then I would drag copy the phrase I wanted and paste to the new tracks a few times as needed. I placed them precisely were I wanted using the grid for timing. I then used clip gain envelopes to fade each away and with differences between left and right tracks to create a subtle ping pong. In the end it was much faster than trying to figure it out with a delay plug in.

As I said this is at the tracking stage still so no effects. And normally I use a very tiny bit of delay set with tempo. Did some background vocals today and Melodyne the krat out of them b

Two tricks I’m using a lot since I found them are: Short cut F- all tracks fit to screen. Auto track zoom - found in the view menu of track pane. Sort of works like holding Ctrl but only the mouse pointer is needed. It’s a bit buggy for some reason and sometimes you get variable results. And it doesn’t have a shortcut to toggle.

Works fine for me. The only part different is you have to print an effect output to a track. This is exactly the same for anything that is not ITB like hardware synths.

UPDATED Mix # 5 January 28 2022 Thought I'd post this here and I'll add the mixes as I progress. This is where this song is at as I follow through in my Tutorial on " How to record an Original Song" https://youtu.be/KNqxWGE2ZJw Updated Jan 25, This is at the point where I have added harmonies and a little more filler. Still no effects. Updated Jan 26 2022. I am close to finishing. Added a supprise part to the Hook.

Not sure if you tried this but I often have used my Lexicon mx200 hardware for reverb and I use outputs 3/4 of my interface as the output from a buss I set up and then simply bring it back in to Cakewalk using input 3/4 and record it to a track. The tracks I want the effect on use a standard effects send to the 3/4 output buss. Once the “wet” track is recorded you just mix it in. It’s a terribly stupid set up but it works. Not worth it unless you have a particular effect that cannot be duplicated by a plug in.

Good news, and congradulations for fixing it in a logical way. There is a thread here were the OP has the exact same issue with an outdated Midi interface and seems that person is going down a twisted pathway. Instead of doing the logical solution, like you did, they have spent since last April fighting a loosing battle trying to get the old driver working. 3 pages with some excellent help by a staff memeber and still not working, my my.

I've had dozens of Mixers that have those type of Stereo channels including my little Mackie Mix 8 I use just to patch in my Korg 05/rw and my Roland 505. Never had an issue with level. Ya, a little quieter than a channel with a pre amp, but then I guess it depends on the mixer and the zoom just might be a little bit different that way. In my world of doing sound for 30+ years it's always been like this XLR mike inputs are low Impedance obviously used for signals from mikes or DI boxes. But modern mixers use combi jacks and either a Toggle or /and a Pad to allow Instrument or Line level as well. The Instrument setting or dedicated inputs marked as such on both mixers and Audio interfaces, are for Accoustic Guitars with pre amps built in. But I also have no problem with keyboards/ Hardware synths, drum machines, or Electric guitars via a pedal board. Line Level I've use for consummer playback devices including Laptops as well as some Keyboards, Drum Machines and digital pianos, once again not all are exactly the same. Of course if the mixer is not within 10-15 feet, you use a DI box and a snake. Those Stereo inputs are useless for a snake set ups so only see use as playback or a outboard effect units return. They generally don't have as much gain because of the lack a pre amp therefore the Impediance miss match. So your out of luck as Bit Flipper has pointed out and a Pre amp is needed. The way to test is set the fader at unity and turn the keyboard to unity and see were the level is at.

Yes, no need to pre convert MP3 files to wave as every audio app that I use will automatically do this for you. Example Wave Lab and Cakewalk will convert to wave files on loading,, But Gold wave is the King of Batch conversion. I'm sure there might be others, but it's free to use.

Your desired work flow might be quicker in a Wave editor. That’s what I’ve always used for editing wave files. Cakewalk is more for multi track recording and doesn’t include the workflow features of a true wave editor. I think only Cubase has it built in. I use Wave Lab but there are many free wave editors available Cakewalk can be set to “tool copy “ a track and open in any editor using a tool made by @scook

Always start with the mixer. If you plug anything into a channel and it doesn’t have input gain this is because that channel has a set impedance designed to connect to certain devices. Those devices all have there own levels so that’s where you start. Make sure you’re keyboard is turned up at least to unity or 3/4. This might need a closer look inside the settings as there might be more than one place the level is set. This should show as a healthy level in the track meter ( nice feature) Now set the mixer master volume to unity (0) The master output level meter should match Cakewalks track meter. If it doesn’t, find the spot that you need and mark it. If it is way off then that’s not normal. If that channel of the mixer is not showing a healthy level then there is an impedance miss match. When everything is set up properly faders should be near unity . Any fader that needs to be pushed to max needs something corrected with the source. You'll be risking adding noise otherwise. I have a feeling the issue is with the keyboard might not be loud enough.

By the way @Fauna84263542 You asked this question in my Comments of the # 12 Working with Midi tracks tutorial- " what's an MST file?" :09 in video. The screen at that point is showing an Atari sequencer not sure which compamy, and yes there is a MST module in there. I used to know what that was and possibly someone else might know.

They will be added automaticly with certain workspaces. They are easily hidden. Then make sure to save your own workspace so they will not come back unless you want them. This video shows you how to use workspaces- https://youtu.be/tzUtfEl4sps This video shows you how to find the options in the Track view https://youtu.be/1ctdDrGn7yI

I’m not familiar with Kontakt but for the TTS/1 I have a pre set saved with my instruments and outputs selected. Say I have a download Midi file which will automatically load a signal output TTS-1 and I now want multi outputs. I can load a new instance set to Multi output and then simply change the midi tracks in bulk using the Tracks/ select track outputs to this new version. There’s 2 things involved. If all your Midi track already have all the channels/banks/patches set it will tell the New Multi output TTS-1 what to play and they will go to one of the 4 outputs randomly. If all the tracks are set to none as the patch then the TTS-1 will control the instruments so I do this and use my pre set assignment

N opens Transpose dialogue. Use CTRL A to select all and deselect the drum track by holding CTRL. Clicking on track number.

It’s stupid thinking not uncommon on the internet ? Only reason I could think of is that someone asked for a wave file and you can say, “no problem buddy here ya go. !” They probably asked for a wave because they know MP3’s suck. But most likely they won’t notice they were duped

Got it, good observation. But they add that option and ten minutes later someone will be here complaining that they used to hear the notes and now they don’t because it got toggled off. The more features you add the more can go wrong. I like that feature because I use it to drag the note to the one I “hear” in my head. In other words I use my ears more than my eyes to create chords or correct mistakes

Actually I’m with @bdickensI don’t know what you’re getting at. I’ve used Cakewalk PVR for 20 years? Is it the track your editing a synth with a ARP?

And FYI to make a short screen capture video. try LiceCap. it makes a short GIF video. I post those to Giffy. But you can also use Imgur