John Vere

Yes the question is not clear as to what you are trying to do. 
It’s always a better idea to work with short clips when using regional effects.
For vocals I split them into phrases  making the cut where it’s obvious that there is a breath. Even if I’m not going to use Melodyne I do this to remove unwanted noise. 

And as said, all versions of Melodyne can edit these. Unless you are trying to use the demo version which will have timed out for you by now 

99% of the time that people say they have no sound is due to the master buss grabbing the wrong outputs from the device list. 

You need to deal with setting up your Apollo interface. Why are you even bothering with one board audio when you own a proper ASIO interface? 
You say it pops and crackles. This can be easily rectified buy setting thing up properly.  

First. Go to the manufacturer web site and follow all instructions or videos on installing the drivers and using the device.  
Things that can cause crackles 

1. low buffer settings 

2. wrong USB ports, hub or cable. 

3. Computer is not optimized for audio and background apps are interrupting cpu. 
Run Latency Monitor to test. 

I would not want one of their computers but I do prefer the iPhone to my wife’s Samsung which I find very hard to navigate. Once you figure out how to beat an iPhone into submission then they are actually more user friendly than  most. But these items suck

1-no headphone jack

2- no way to add more storage 

3- no drag and drop other than pictures 

4- becomes obsolete with updates 

Actually everything is covered very well in the documentation. 

44 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

After checking out many virtual pianos, the best I've heard yet is Meldaproduction's Monastery Grand. Best news: it's free.

Sold?

It’s all covered very well in the documentation 

https://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Knowledge-Base/2007013035/Setting-Up-a-MIDI-Device-as-a-Control-Surface-in-SONAR

There’s a thread with links to hundreds of free VST instruments 

Actually with IPhones you can’t drag and drop files. At least it’s never worked for me. They sort of force you to use iTunes or the internet. 
So just put the 1,200 files in a cloud storage account and use the app to open them 

First I’m a bit confused by this 

20 hours ago, Dave G said:

But when I lower that track's Gain knob, the instrument becomes muddy, muffled, and distorted, and the Gain knob has reached a horrendously ridiculous level (< 50/60%).

This seems terribly wrong to me. Turning down gain or level has never changed the quality of the sound in my 60 years of audio.  It’s common knowledge that loud always sounds better but quiet  is just quiet  and there definitely should not be distorted sound as you reduce level. 
 

The better quality VST instruments are louder because they use samples that are optimized. 
I have never used the instrument channel gain on a VST. I always use the one supplied in it GUI. I set that so the loudest output is showing between -14db to  -8db on the meter. I then use the instrument track ( this is an audio track) to fine tune using the fader. This is also where I will use automation. I avoid using midi tracks to adjust level. There's no point in this as when you end up replacing the Instrument all will change anyhow. 
With midi data I do pay attention to velocities as each VST might respond differently. Velocity is for timber not volume . Example a piano will sound harsh at full velocity.  I find it's important to find the right velocity. Example if I use Ample or SI bass they seem best at 100 to no more than 110. 

Midi is the safest way to save projects as it has proven to be long lived and future proof. There’s always going to be better VST instruments to use. 
I have never needed to bounce midi to audio. As a matter of fact I do the exact opposite and convert audio to midi for a safety copy of all my projects. 
 

46 minutes ago, scook said:

Is this setting being used with the TTS-1 plug-in or the MS GS Wavetable synth built into the PC?

This!  For proper dynamics you might want to invest in a good sample based piano VST. 
You can get the demo version of XLN Addictive Keys for free. Just create an account, install the download manager and the demos will be there. 
 

https://www.xlnaudio.com/demos

Midi is easy to adjust. It’s called Quantize.  

There’s dozens of ways to put both MP3 or even wave files on your phone. 
You don’t really have to use iTunes but believe it or not that’s the most simple way as iTunes will sync to all devices.
It is the only reason I even suffer having iTunes on my PC.  My biggest pet peeve is it seems to need to upgrade every few days!!??

Nag, nag, nag  

But it is important to me to be able to proof mixes on the phone seeing as that’s probably going to be how people are going to listen. 
 I simply drag and drop the MP3 into the iTunes music folder and it will then sync up with my phone. How hard is that?

Other ways I have used

email your self the song. 
put it in drop box

put it in one drive

put it in Google drive 

put it in iCloud Drive 

post it on you tube 

post it one Sound Click 

post it on Reverbnation

post it on Facebook 

post it on sound cloud
 

The difference for me is my devices that have factory drivers can be turned on with Cakewalk running and they will connect. My generic driver devices require I re start Cakewalk for them to work. Otherwise I guess there’s no big difference. 
 

I have always exported as a Wave and Top and Tail in Wave Lab. Cakewalk never gets start and ending precisely the way I want it. 
I then use another Wave Editor called Gold Wave to convert to MP3. I often do this as a batch (album) of songs.
I always found Cakewalks MP3 export limited and have never used it. 

First you should be backing projects up to a second drive from time to time. I do this before I shut down for the day or before I proceed to make a major change to something. Use “Save As”. 
 

As said above you can drag a whole song by using Ctrl A to select all. But good idea to make sure there’s no data in the blank space first 

Also be sure to use a snap to grid setting like 1/2 note to keep stuff on the grid. 

Good to know it’s just me.  
Funny thing is I tried opening a project and used Ctrl A to select all and when I used Delete it worked. Seems it only doesn’t work when I Split. 

Most name brand keyboard controllers have a midi driver so check the support pages and be sure to install that instead of using the generic version 

Files do get corrupted .  My CWP files are mostly around 600 kb. 

As @Promidi  said I would check your hard drive it might be pooched.

Not sure where you stored the back ups because they should be fine if this was the case and they are on a different drive. 

Where it doesn’t work was I was splitting a song and using highlight to right of split point. I had to use the Edit/Delete option.

Try it and see. 

Take a whole project, CTRL A to select all, S key to split, Now when you use the Delete key for me the selection flips to unselected and nothing happened.  I just tried this on 3 different projects to test.  These are raw audio tracks no automation etc.  In the undo menu it shows a delete had been performed.

But I can use right click/ edit/ delete just fine. I was thinking they did this for a reason to stop you from deleting large pieces of a project. 
 

They are rare but I’ve run into a few times the keyboard delete key didn’t work. Therefore why I said that. 

I'm just downloading now. But a CWP file without audio should not be 3 GB? There is only midi and the project parameters in a CWP file.   

 it won't open for me either, same message. 

First some advice- always back up any projects you have spent time on. Use Save as to copy to a back up drive. 
Projects do become corrupt but it’s pretty rare. 
If your audio is safe then you can rebuild with that. But if you had a lot of midi then you might be hooped without a backup copy. 

I often save projects as midi files as these are bulletproof and can be opened with any DAW.

I put more work into the midi part of my songs than the audio. Audio is easy for me to redo but creating something like a good drum track with midi can be a lot of work. Therefore it needs to be stored safely. 

You could post a copy of just the CWP file with out the audio and maybe one of us can see if we can open it for you. 

So why would we even suggest the Assistant when something better is now available?  The Assistant has been the worst software I’ve been forced to use ever. I’m so glad that it is been replaced with a proper solution 

I find that for some processing I have to right click/edit/delete. The delete key defiantly doesn’t work for everything 

I have used my laptop on board audio directly into PA systems for almost 20 years.
Some laptops hum and I had to use a ground lift. 

If the mixing board is near you on stage All you need is a TRS 1/8” to 1/4” stereo pair adapter cable. 

But for longer runs you need to convert to a balanced signal. 

For this I bought a Radial DI box that is designed specifically for use with laptops and portable devices. 
 

But all I’m doing is playing backing tracks that are recorded in Cakewalk and then pre mixed to wave files. 
If your planning on playing your backing tracks directly from Cakewalk you might be best off using an audio interface. Most have balanced outputs.  An audio interface is also a good investment if your going to use Cakewalk for recording audio.