John Vere

Midi is data so if you’re keyboard is successfully entering data to cakewalk then the only difference would be the data is incorrect and that can possibly be a channel or the range of the notes. Are you using Omni?

Actually now I see this switch is unique because it has the mono option a handy dandy idea. Still a Blend controller that you can select any amount of either input or playback works best. I find the switch system found on many interfaces a comprising feature. You then have to turn down your master buss if the playback is louder than your input. This switch is the same but adding the mono option at least is a nice option that I’ve never run across before.

Ya I didn’t elaborate because I figured everyone involved in this thread understands this stuff pretty clearly. I have never had to adjust my Hardware outputs and for me they are always hidden. Actually if you load a basic template and default workspace I think even the master buss is always hidden. There’s been plenty of newbies asking where to find it. I was wondering why the default in export is always the Hardware and not the Master but I guess as said people might not use busses. In my case it’s not an issue as I analyze my master buss and always analyze the exported file as well. There never a difference. But if people don’t understand how signal flow works and they are not even aware they have a master those exports might be wrong. Example the habit of always muting your master buss to make sure everything is routed there. Then the scenario where someone forgets to assign their tracks correctly and some tracks are going directly to the Hardware outputs. Those are now totally bypassing any limiters on the master buss Guess why I know this ?

That wasn't my point. The experiment was to see what actually would happen if you did turn these down. I don't think many people would ever touch them as they are mostly hidden from view. But the OP was about signal flow and I was just confirming, to myself, that these are definatly the last step in the signal flow before audio is exported, not the Master bus.

This got my curiosity about something when you mentioned about people getting different results on export. Personaly since Sonar 8.5 all my exports have always been perfect renditions of what's happening in Cakewalk. I'm always mistified by posts about this topic. There's actually one right now here. But the question popped into my mind was how we are told your audio interface has zero to do with export becuase it's all internal. But what about those Hardware faders? SO I just tried an experiment where I turned them down to -15 db and exported using the default I've always used which is "entire mix". The resulting file you see I dropped into You lean to analyze and sure enough the export is -15db. So the Hardware faders do matter for export.

Your screen shot doesn't show the midi channel, bank and patch dialogue boxes. It's either off screen or your workspace has disabled that view. Set the Track Control Manager to ALL to see those dialogue boxes. It's found at the top of the track header and it will either show Workspace or Custom. I have a bunch or tutorials involving Midi and using VST's as well as harware set up.

Please start a new thread for your topic. It's a big waste of our time because people open this thread and read it not always seeing the date.

This is a very advanced complex operation and this video is the best one I found that explains the process clearly.

M Audio M Track Duo- $ 140 Can. ( I was wrong about the $70, that was on E Bay ) So it's around the same price as a Focusrite Solo, Presonus Audiobox 96 or a Tascam 2x2 all which are excellent interfaces. M Audio has been around a long time I have a Fast Track Pro sitting on the self. The drivers are outdated like your Tascam. Looking in the specs -This is not clear if it has Direct monitoring or not. • USB/Direct Mono/Direct Stereo switch for monitoring mic, line or instrument inputs in stereo or mono Can you hear your DAW playback and the Mike input in the headphones without turning on Input echo? The switch looks like it's either your input in mono or stereo or the USB but not both? That's very odd. I didn't think anybody made an interface these days without direct monitoring. FYI- Direct Monitoring = hearing the direct signal from your input mixed with the DAW playback. This results in Zero latency. This means you can record latency free at any buffer setting. But higher buffers equal more Round trip latency and you will not be able to use Input echo. Noises in recordings can be caused by DPC interupting your audio streaming, run this tool to check- https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon They can also be caused by dropouts because you're using too low a buffer setting. Also if you have effects in the project that are CPU intensive. I always by pass effects while recording by using the global bypass button.

It might be fine, and I could be wrong but it's an old saying- You get what you pay for. The Behringer UMC 22 comes to mind as well. Both are sort of Mac oriented companies so the devices work great on a Mac but Windows and Cakewalk tend to be more picky about drivers. Have you done all the proper ASIO driver set up including what you might want to set in Windows. Make sure there's no other drivers like Asio4all and Real tech etc. The Tascam driver will not interfere but make sure the M audio driver is showing in all the boxes in your audio preferences settings and especially the sync and cashing timing box. Make sure to use this driver https://m-audio.com/support/drivers

Hey if it makes you feel any better. I'm just in the process of doing what your doing. Opening old projects to re mix using what I think are better tools and methods. I listen to the MP3 files I posted on Sound Cloud 2 years ago on my headphones/Cell phone and make notes about what needs fixing. Then I opened this one project that is all clearly marked as being from around the same date as those files were uploaded and??? Were's that guitar track? That's not right??? This doesn't sound the same at all??? A quick check of all my back up files all show the exact same dates and looking in the audio folders show the exact same files?? But the MP3 version on Sound Cloud is "better"?? Anyhow, I have a feeling this is a case that the absolute final version in a folder on a bck up drive, which one is the question. I have somehow hidden it in a drawer somewhere for safe keeping along with my Capo I can't find.

That might have been my video right? I show that and as I explain you open the Register Edit App and delete the invasive driver. You don’t use your on board audio if you have an interface. Your speakers should be connected to the interface not your computer. You can remove the Real Tech ASIO driver and Windows will use WASAPI if you disconnect the ASIO interface. I do this all the time. I have 3 computers that Realtech on board audio and all work just fine with out the Realtech ASIO driver if I don’t have my interface turned on

Basically you have gone from a $400 interface to a $70 interface and you’re finding a difference in quality . Seems to be expected to me

Yes I think my videos numbered 201 -210 will explain a lot of what you can start with. I don’t go into super details, it’s just a series where you look over my shoulder as I take a rough song idea of vocals and guitar and turn it into a finished song and mix and mastering is involved . I’m planning on a series with details later but taking a break to work on my own stuff right now If I lived near you I’d gladly come over and help

Yes mostly it's the vocals that are not clear. Do you use sub busses? I like to have a sub buss for each part of the "Band" Bass, Drums, keyboards,Guitars, and then vocals. So it's pretty easy to go back to a mix and turn stuff down. Notice I said turn it down. A common mistake is turning stuff up. Then you're going to be slamming your peak limiter and the song will die of over compression. I just released a seires of 10 tutorials on recording original songs and there's lot's of info about how I build the mix starting at the tracking level. You'll find my tutorials in the sub forum. Also I show you how to export and Top and tail the song. I noticed right away you had 4 seconds of dead air at the start.

Well done. I actually prefer music in other languages then your not distracted by lyrics. My wifes sister married a Mexican and we go to visit from time to time. They Live in Puebla. I helped my nephews band make a recording in their church there. They were real good. My Nephew has since produced a few albums on his own and he's not only a great plaayer but has become a first class sound tech too. He introduced me to real Latin music. It's addictive! I ended up coming home with a bunch of CD's. My favourite is Mana'. Espesially their Unplugged album. Anyhow, I have no clue what they are singing , I only catch the meaning somehow. When I had my real studio I recorded a Cuban band that was on tour and needed a quick demo. They had some weird 8 string guitars and of course Bongos and shakers and stuff. And then another Cuban showed up on my doorstep and recorded a few songs very close to what you just did there. Anyhow, keep the demo it has soul and fits the song perfectly. The singing is all that matters.

No problem for me. Inside the Export folder are sub folders for what I'm exporting. If I had a client right now that folder would be here too. I set the path in preferences Then in the export dialog I click on the Folder icon in the destination options That opens the Export folder where all I need to do is choose the correct folder. Takes 3 seconds. I usually have the Export folder in the root of my Data drive ( G) but right now I'm focusing on my originals so I put it in there so I can back the whole folder up to other drives as I work on it. I also have my Narration export in there because I use that too for tutorials.

I’m glad you bumped because I would have missed this and I try not to miss anything you produce. I can honestly say your recordings are way beyond most of what gets posted here. Like you, I also refrain from commenting mostly because I have to grit my teeth at what I’m hearing. I guess I lean towards energetic full on balls up rock. Anyways you nailed this one once again with great arrangement and awesome guitar tone and chops I guess I could follow you then I won’t miss your next song

I used this song as a demo in my latest tutorial about using Drum Replacer. I was just looking for a Graphic and found pages and pages of Hoarder pictures! So that brought about the idea for making a video for the song. I'll also post the tutorial so you can see how the song started. It was an old recording from 2008? and the drums were badly done. I actually had already fixed this song up a long time ago but just for the challenge I thought I'd start from scratch again. Last time I didn't create the tempo map so keyboard parts kinda wandered. So this version turned out way better thanks once again to Cakewalks amazing Turd Polish feature. heres the Tutorial about the song.

First 800 MB is not unreasonable for projects with Audio. It’s not hard to add up quickly especially if your recording at higher sample rates. Cakewalk keeps all your audio even if you delete it from the project. Comping mode can end up with hundreds of audio files stored in the folder. Open it and look. One way to clean up audio is to use “Save As “ to a new location and check the copy audio box. Most of us use a second larger hard drive for project files so storage management is never an issue. You should work with video if you want to chomp through the GB’s. Audio is a light weight compared to that

This was recommended in first reply and the OP followed through This is sort of true and you are absolutely correct that if it shows as connected in device manager that rules out connection and driver. But getting Windows to see a device and then Cakewalk are not exactly the same thing. Cakewalk seems fussy about audio and midi drivers. This is probably to protect us from using faulty drivers. So I’ll agree that it might be called a Cakewalk issue but it’s not Cakewalk that is broken, it’s the driver. It’s just plain outdated and there’s a few other threads with same issues. It’s going to become harder for those people like me who have the old gear that only has the Midi ports and not USB. My solution is all my audio interfaces have Midi ports. This means I have to daisy chain but it still works. If I had more old gear I would definitely invest in a multi port Midi interface. But I’m finding just about all my hardware now has a VST emulation. Most are free. I’m just holding out on paying for the Roland Cloud thing

You really need to watch my videos then as @bdickens said. We wouldn’t be having this conversation. You have a excellent audio interface. Learn about it and everything will be smooth sailing ⛵️

Last time I did this I used a cassette tape? But my guess is you set a midi track up with the correct input and hit record and then the send from the device.

You need to perform a loop back test to determine how many samples to adjust for none ASIO drivers timing offset. ASIO does this automatically but all other drivers will be late. And yes it’s going to be 1/32 or more so it does matter. I demonstrate how to do a loop back in this video

You can set up a default export folder in preferences/ folders I always use a global export folder so my songs are ready for mastering as an album. I can see putting a copy of your export with the project if you don’t produce many songs but it not convenient for albums and backing tracks where I have 300 wave files.