John Vere

There's a lot more people struggling with this issue now that Cakewalk is free. Lets face it in the old days you had to fork over near to $500 for the same quality software. Even way back a 4 track cassette studio would put you back well over $1,000 and that's probably $3,000 in todays economy. So because it's free we find a different user base growing. The OP wasted $$ on a device that obviously is not going to do the job. I always say your better off to put that money aside and save up for something that will. You can get by just fine with using the FREE software and the FREE on board audio. I can thing of dozens of almost free ways to plug a guitar into a 1/8" jack.

With the smart tool when you hold and point in middle/ top of note the velocity tool will activate and you drag it up or down

I would do like Glen said and just open the file in Wave Lab delete the left side and save as a mono file with a little M in the file name. Takes a few minutes. I would listen to the overheads with headphones on you'll soon hear if it's mono or stereo. If I wasn't planning on panning a track,, like snare and kick. I might just leave them alone as it wouldn't matter. But panning stereo tracks is a PITA.

If the Abelton instruments are VST then they will be in a folder. Find that folder at set Cakewalk VST settings to scan it

No I understand what your saying. That's a tough one though. Only thing I could think of is to record all those takes as a stereo track with the DI in the left and the Amp on the right. Then once you have completed all the editing you could separate them into two mono tracks. There a way to link tracks but only if you clone the same track.

You say you unplugged the keyboard. Long shot but did you plug it into the same USB port again? And if the Keyboard has a midi driver go to the manufactures web site and download and try installing that. I had mine disappear once because I plugged it into a different port and Windows installed a generic driver. I re installed the driver and it has worked since. Not all keyboards come with drivers but its worth a shot if yours is a name brand like Roland or Yamaha. And you did check in Preferences/Midi/Devices that the keyboard is not there or else possibly there but not checked?

10 gb

We all spent quality time with 8.5 and many like me refused to update to the X series at the time. I waited it out until the dust settled on the forum and people were now reporting a more stable version with X3e..... And Cakewalk sent me an offer to upgrade from X1 LE I got for free to X3 Studio for only $99. only took me a day or 2 with X3 to never want to go back again. I still have 8.5 installed and sometimes I open it and find myself looking at what now appears to be a very basic stripped down DAW. Where did all the features go? Bottom line is you can only run old software for so long until OS updates will kill it dead. So the longer you put off the inevitable the longer your stuck using a very downgraded version of one of the best DAW's out there. And did we mention it's free..

If you have the Pro version as you say , you just drag and drop the audio track directly from the Track Pane into the GUI. You can drag and drop just about anything that has audio including movies. I put the YL meter on my Master bus and then if I open the YL meter GUI , I can drag tracks or clips to that. I also just drag the effect from track bin to track bin as I need it. No point opening more than one instance. The drag and drop feature was the main reason for my purchase. I don't think any of the others do this. Also the ability to set custom targets is another feature unlocked by Pro. I do use the Cakewalk Level meter on real short clips as that is faster just to play a 2-12 second clip and see where it's at. To do midi tracks you do have to freeze them first. To analyze a bunch of songs I just open my Wave Export folder where my masters are in the Cakewalk Browser. Then I just drag and drop from there. You can also use the stand alone version for this.

You would have to play the whole track to get a reading. An analyzer does this in 3 seconds. My solution now is the You Lean loudness meter and you drag and drop the clip or track for instant analysis By clip I’m referring to working with short clips. Not clipping the signal

I found Cakewalks Normalization feature totally lacking many features I had learned to use in Wave lab. First there is no analyzing tool to tell you what the peak level of the track is. Second if your working clip by clip the dialogue closes after you render one clip. In Wave lab you can use the “ find peak level “ tool. The gain tool also has this. So you’re not guessing. And the tools stay open while you work on the track. Huge time saver. I used to tool copy into Wave Lab to work on Tracks but now I have a few work arounds in Cakewalk I use like clip gain. Only time I will use normalization is on a live recording when a track is way to low in level to work with. Once it’s up around-12 I can use none destructive tools. Not that I’m too concerned about the destructive thing. There’s always a back up but I’ve never heard anything go wrong when using normalization in any audio software.

I used to be normal but now I’m into gain. Trouble with thinking that peak level is going to make your tracks all the same “ loudness “ is it doesn’t always work that way. It’s certainly a starting point but as said LUFS is way more important.

You should be using CWP files not CWB. CWB have random issues. There are many reports of real tech ASIO drivers being installed during windows update and causing issues check your sync and caching dialogue and make sure your audio interface is in the box at the bottom. Other thing comes to mind is VST plug ins that get screwed up by updates.

I guess I assumed the OP was using an audio interface based on the fact they owned 8 mikes!! You could watch my video on using on board sound it has tips for optimizing. You will need to pay special attention to your timing offset if your trying to record audio using on board sound. It will otherwise be out of sync. In the end an audio interface is what you need to have trouble free audio recording with any DAW. The second video is all about audio interfaces. https://youtu.be/iAeqy0nW5uY https://youtu.be/ZWuzhOUM9IQ

The fast answer is -don’t use them -use a VST that has a sound you like. There are a lot of free VST’s and somewhere below this thread is a thread that lists just about all of them. The long answer is you can send the tts-1 to 4 outputs and then use the Pro Channel effects to improve the quality of the sound.

The input level is controlled by your Audio Interface. Set that so the peak light is as per instructions with your interface. You did read the instructions didn’t you?

You cannot expect to use Cakewalk for the first time and have it work the way you think it should. It’s complicated and you really need to watch the tutorials first just to get started There is a sub forum here. So go spend a day or two watching videos and you’ll be up and running in no time. https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/forum/35-tutorials/

I just love it when I see this: Notice anything missing? Supported Hosts: Ableton Live 9 - 10, Cubase 9.5, Digital Performer 9, FL Studio 12, Logic Pro X, Nuendo 8, Pro Tools 10 - 12, Reaper 5, Reason 10, Studio One 3 - 4

The Dynameter does look like a great tool. It makes a complicated task a lot easier. I will pass on the $125 Can price tag as my music seems fine without it but I would defiantly think about it if it was more like $30-$40. I think that's what the You Lean meter was and it has more than paid for itself. I think the reason I don't have an issue is the way I use compression and limiting. I always set them so there is very little activity on the meter. Even my Multi band. If a certain frequency is showing too much compression I go back to the mix and seek out the offending instrument. This is were sub busses come in handy. Just mute a sub buss and if the issue goes away you have narrowed down your search. I tend to push most instruments to the wall and then back them off a bit. The limiter/compressors are only used to catch peaks not to squash. I find -12 to -14 LUFS just fine.

No. I have an M4. You have made a good investment but the next purchase should be proper studio monitors that will bring your home studio up to standard. The solution in the mean time is to use headphones or plug the computer speakers into the Motu's headphone jack with an adaptor. You could also use the 1/2 RCA outputs with yet another type of adaptor cable. I have a few of those myself. You defiantly want to stay with ASIO mode and use the audio interface ins and out's for using Cakewalk.

I thought you had the youlean loudness meter?

Because my first keyboard was a Korg Poly 800 I love the fact that it is a free VST plug in. That’s my go to when I need big fat pads And because I spent 3 quality years with it all the perimeters make sense to me. I have also squeezed some good stuff out of the Roland groove synth and the Juno emulation

This is exactly why cakewalk doesn’t delete previous audio files like was brought up just recently in another thread. You can almost be sloppy about the new punch in and then just drag stuff around until it sounds correct. The original audio is underneath the new take so finding the sweet spot is easy.

Here’s a trick I used to minimize the delay you hear due to round trip latency. I always have a sub bus for my vocal effects. The vocal track will have a send. Set your interface direct monitoring so the singer hears a good balance of the playback and their direct signal of their vocal. Arm the track and activate input echo Now change the effects send from post to pre fader. Turn the channel fader way down or off. Now turn the effects send up until you get the desired amount of reverb coming from the back end. The delay will still be in there but not as noticeable as when the track fader is up.

Ya I was going to mention that the few times that I tried the clone track and messed around, it just never came close to what I get by playing a second track. To me it’s a different effect. The time shift just sounds like what I could do with one track and a delay without a second track. The clone track is sort of like when we only had one guitar track because of 8 track tape. I would run the recorded guitar track out to an amp ( that’s right, re amping in 1992). And then stick 4 mikes around the room all at different distances from the amp. One was 20’ away. This was brought back to the mix down board and these channels were panned and mixed in to the final master. Was cool sound but not like the double take method . DAW’s take all the fun out recording