John Vere

First, make sure you have the most up to date ASIO driver- https://o.steinberg.net/en/support/downloads_hardware/downloads_ur_c.html Your buffer setting is a bit high, change that to 256 or even better 128 . Generally we try as low a setting as possible until you hear artifacts or drop outs. Then you move it up one notch. Make sure your computer has been optimized for audio, Laptops can be iffy as they have more junk in the BIOS. Run this to test- https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon Otherwise your settings look correct to me. Because your using soft synths ASIO does matter in you system as that is what adjusts the timing offset for the playback of the VST which IS audio. Usually having certain effects running will recording can cause latency issues so always bypass all effects while recording.

Seems a bad idea to log in with Google. There certainly a few people that have trouble with that system and have started threads here. So don’t use that system. All you need is a email address. Just like 90% of the other free software I use. And Bandlab must be the only company I’ve given my address to that doesn’t bombard me with offers. You simply log on that first time and after that activation is more or less automatically done. For me this has been by installing the updates. My DAW is often off line when I’m recording new tracks so I make sure to check for updates when I go back online for all my software. Cakewalk is nice enough to let me know and it takes only a few minutes to do this. They have made recent changes to the updates and activation process and it seems pretty together now.

If you set snap to whole notes I find it locked on to each measure.

On the laptop running with what ever is left of Melodyne 4 after the demo expires . The big difference is there are no algorithm choices. It just pops up the second box telling you it might take a while. But it did create a polyphonic midi track which surprises me. The results are definitely much worse than what I got with version 5. It’s there but more editing will be required. Lots of missing notes and pitch issues which didn’t happen with 5. So my $99 was well spent to upgrade. Thanks to all who answered, it was all valuable info. I think I’ll edit my OP to list what my conclusion was.

I use Ample P bass Lite on everything.. Probably over 300 tracks by now. I have been Tempted to buy the full version just to get the lower notes. I'm a bass player and I am fussy about bass. I sometimes forget that I swapped my Yamaha Bass audio track for the Ample P bass. Hard to hear a difference in the mix. And I don't even EQ it. Just a little hi pass and a touch of compression. And ya I love that I can then change things around a bit with the midi. The results for a real bass player are close to achieving a perfect take. Something that used to require hours and a lot of drooling. Anyhow here is a short sample of what I got. I put the Original in the Left side and the Strum Session on the Right. There is no processing and I didn't edit the midi yet so you can get a better idea of the results. The Original guitar part is a rough take I put down as I was writing this song so is probably a direct into the interface track. I think this is sort of exciting that this works with the cheaper and possibly the free version that stays in Cakewalk. At this point I think Cakewalks Melodyne is version 4 so tonight I'll fire up my laptop and check. My Laptops is all free stuff and I don't have a licensed Melodyne installed, so we'll see what happens. Melodyne to MIDI.mp3

It sounds like I expect it to sound,, Like midi guitar if that makes sense. As I said I've from time to time recorded my GR 50 and created midi tracks with that so I'm no stranger to this sound. When I get a chance I'll post a short clip with the original guitar and then the Strum session. Of course Strum Session is probably a very basic guitar VST and not the best example, I also have Ample Guitar Lite which I will also try. Being a actual guitar player means I've never had to pay close attention to these types of VST instruments. I've never tried to make them work and I'm sure there's better samples out there but for this project which is archiving midi tracks the player really doesn't matter. I'm not using these midi tracks for recording, they are for backing tracks and to share the files. Down the road someone can use whatever VST instrument they want. As you are saying you can even use these parts to play non guitar sounds. I've done just that plenty of times with downloaded files. Often turning them into Wurly Piano parts. @pbognar As I have said I have a GR 50 guitar synth as well as a Godin guitar with built in Roland connection port. It works much better than Midi Guitar. I've played with Midi Guitar a little bit and it works fine with Cakewalk but way more fussy to set up than the GR50 which is dead simple because it's already midi. But truth be told there seems to be absolutely no difference in the results either way. Recording a midi guitar, or converting a clean guitar track = same midi track . Advantage of playing and recording a midi guitar in real time is you will immediately hear your sloppy playing as glitches and adjust your technique on the fly. The whole point is I need to convert a whole lot of already recorded tracks. Having to re play them is not something I'm that interested in. As long as I can make this work with minimum editing required it will be a huge time saver.

What do your master buss levels show before export? If they are correct and you have set your export options correctly then it will work. Make sure to select Entire mix.

Thanks @Glenn Stanton Last night Installed the full version. At least so I thought! Read on. I chopped the guitar audio track into short sections to experiment. This is a clean acoustic track no effects. I then dragged it to Strum Session Midi track. I tried both the Polyphonic Decay and Polyphonic Sustain and results seemed identical to me. But it did create a midi track that sounded about 70% correct. Mostly timing artifacts and jumped octaves, just like the Bass tracks I've made a hundred times.. BUT_ I wasn't exactly sure which version the 30 day trial was so I created a regional effect and opened the Melodyne screen. I checked and it was showing I was still using Assistant? So this tells me that even though Assistant is Monophonic it still creates a Polyphonic midi track with drag and drop! Truth be told I had never just tried this before as my understanding was I won't work unless you had Studio. I guess @Jacques Boileau was correct when he said he used assistant. I read into that post that it gave them pour results and that's because it was not studio. Any how within Melodyn screen under help there's a tab takes you to your product page and there I found a tab to "Activate 30 day Trail. When I returned to Cakewalk it now said I have the Studio trail version. OK, that was never included in the instructions. So I made a new midi track and dragged again. The algorithm dialog is identical to Assistant. I would have thought there would be different options? It seems there's no point in the upgrade if this is all you want to do. I will explore the audio editing a bit which is what I now think will be the only difference. It's not a feature I really need. If you look at my screen shot you can see that both midi tracks look the same. The top red one is with Studio, the lower Green one is with Assistant There is a small difference because I had worked on the Assistant track and moved a few notes to correct timing.. But my conclusion is that Assistant will do this just fine.

Well, all is long time users for sure. But I think the new comers outnumber us now. But that said on the form here most are still the same folks from the old forum. The newcomers ask questions and leave. They don’t hang around anymore.

@Starship Krupa I remember that free deal from I think it was Computer Music Mag. Even though I had Splat I grabbed a Copy of Home Studio and put it on a Laptop creating a 3rd set up. I was blown away with how much you could do for free. Sort of the pre-cursor to CbB I guess. I still have that license in CCC. That deal is still there if you go to the old forum and follow the links I posted in the deals sub forum. But then You come to a dead end when you get to the old Cakewalk site. Back to the topic. I find it sort of annoying that the emulator gets added to the Pro Channel by default with most of the templates. I have to delete it. I use my own "snake oil" the BBE Loudness Max and Sonic Maximizer. They ruin your perfect recording nicely too.

I am an idiot- You can try Melodyne full version for 30 days free! So Lets see if I can make this work and I'll report back, downloading right now.

Thanks for your replies. Yes I totally understand the "very squeaky clean" part because I played guitar synth back in the 80's on my Roland GR 50 which I still have. I've had this ability for years. Now you can do it for free with Midi Guitar VST - https://www.jamorigin.com/ But these parts are already played, lots of them, and they are Acoustic Guitar and recorded dry. I realize it won't work for faster strumming etc. So let me re phrase- @Glenn Stanton and @treesha Can Melodyne 5 Studio convert clean Acoustic guitar chords to midi with minor editing required afterwards?

Go to the PVR views menu and check show controller pane. Then the velocity line will be down there instead of in the main view

Like I said it’s not as obvious as some would think. Especially if your using a mobile device like me. And yes the getting started video selection it terribly out of date and Cakewalk has changed more than justifying new videos. I’d be embarrassed if it was my software.

The op said they had checked the zero controller box and didn’t work

It’s a huge jump in price for what seems to be that one feature. These are backing tracks used for live performance and not recording. I would never suffer a listener to a VST guitar in a recording. But being a one man band I needed full band back up So I often added a rhythm guitar part and I would then play fills and lead as I sing. I use Wave files for my tracks so that can contain real instruments. I’ve already converted all the real bass into midi but now it would be perfect to somehow use those rhythm guitar chords and use Strum Session. I want to archive all 300+ songs as midi files. That way they are future proof and can be used with any DAW. I will share these openly . So what I want to hear from someone is that it works brilliantly not so, so ?

Please call it a Controller or control surface. Cakewalk has faders already so this confuses dummies like me? Theres a form member here that is real good at this stuff I think it’s @azslow3

Funny how the tutorial sub forum is not as obvious as you would think it is. It doesn’t get a lot of views. Example if I post a tutorial video there I get about 30 views. Meanwhile my You Tube stats showed over 300 views It’s also never visited by the mods. I deleted about 6 tutorials and put” please delete this thread “ in the titles. Been a few months and they are still there. So I’m reluctant to post there from now on. Cakewalk should support the handful of folks who take all that time to make the videos. The documentation is very difficult to use if you are a new comer. Videos seem to be a better option.

If you were hearing a piano without first inserting a VST instrument then you were using the ms wavetable synth which you most certainly don’t want to do. Go watch the tutorials on getting started

No the sample is bad. I tested it and every other patch works just fine. They need to fix that one sample. Read my post

Has anyone here successfully used Melodyne 5 Editor to drag guitar chords to midi? I want to archive a lot of my backing tracks as midi only files so it would speed things up not to have to draw chords the slow way. I have Assistant but can upgrade next time a sale happens. Edit - added for clarity= Can Melodyne 5 Studio convert clean Acoustic guitar chords to midi with minor editing required afterwards UPDATE 9-11 2021- Conclusion= Yes this works with all versions of Melodyne even after your demo expires with Cakewalk. You do not need Melodyne Studio to convert Polyphonic audio to midi in Cakewalk. But you do need Studio for working with Polyphonic Audio tracks. Melodyne 5 seems to do a much better rendering than Melodyne 4.

there is a midi Panic button that sends note off in the control bar transport. You could set up a keyboard shortcut to make the move faster

I think it is limited to traditional stuff. But easy to make a click track yourself and use say SI drums for the sound as you are asking. Just Mute the track when not wanted.

That must be me ? I think it's pretty clear what happened and some good detective work from a few of the community sorted it out. The files were Compressed and instead of unzipping the downloaded folder you must have tried to access that folder directly from Cakewalks Browser. The files were still compressed and not usable. And I apologize for my snarky reply at first. It's just me after replying to at least a dozen threads were the OP never returns. I sort of get grumpy about that. The Question and Answer sub Form should be re named Ask a Question and Never return... Another thing through me off is I'm used to "Samples" being something you use in a VST instrument. I call those Sample libraries. I call audio files you drop into the project directly- "Audio loops" . So originally I thought you had downloaded a Sample Pak that would be used like say with Dim Pro, Kontak or any sample based VST. Anyhow glad you got it working.

Actually wouldn't more dung attract more bugs? Oh you said Dune. That's Scottish for Done.