John Vere

Yes it's Air that will cause me grief! I just went through that. I contacted them, didn't hear anything other than an auto reply for a week. In the end I got lucky and still had the original HD for the Laptop I had used. I put it back in and managed to de activate. I'm not sure what will happen now and maybe I better install iLock and see what it says about this computer. It might still recognize the hardware.

I think this is the heart of the issue- You are still not grasping how this system works. I see this thread started in November! That's a long time to wait. Sorry this is hard stuff to understand if your brand new to recording but everyone goes through the process. And you still didn't answer an important question. Are you monitoring with headphones or studio monitors attached to the Audio Interface. Your laptops system should not be used when in ASIO mode,, only your interface. I think from the start your confusion is that the recorded tracks are controlled by the interface. As I said way back the level of recorded tracks are controlled by the faders of each track. Not the interface. That control is for setting input/ record levels. Not sure why your music files sound different than the recorded track, Did you make sure there are no effects on that track? Look in the Pro Channel or BYpass all effects using the toggle.

Good advice. This is my first (possible) hard drive failure in a very long time. I generally replace OS drives every 4 or so years. This one was way overdue. And I also don’t mind the rebuilding part because it’s a great way to clean up all that useless stuff that ends up in there. I use this machine to test new software and VST’s before committing to my main daw. the worst of it is companies that require deactivating a computer first and if you forget to do that you have to contact them and beg for mercy

I think it’s my OS hard drive. I was just re installing my apps and on a re boot it gave the same repair message. Luckily it did re boot. Just made a recovery drive last night and will go buy a new drive today. It was a 7200 1tb so time for a nice SSD drive anyhow

First important fact is install the latest midi USB drivers from the Alesis web site Second- midi is just the data that you can record to a midi track in your DAW. It doesn’t contain sound. The sounds will be made by the VST instruments or hardware synth. The beauty of this method is you can clean up your performance and edit mistakes. Then you can send the midi back out to the Brain of the kit. Now simply connect it with 2 audio cables to your audio interface. You will need an audio interface for this to work properly Then record this to a stereo audio track in the DAW. You can record your drums audio live as well but most of us need a little editing so that’s why using midi first is preferable. Have fun I have a Yamaha kit and even though my drumming sucks I can get a pretty good track down.

A driver from 2000 era is not going to be compatible with W10 at best. It is sort of critical to have drivers supported by your OS version. And yes Focusrite is a very good choice if you want good drivers. Possibly the best in the lower price point.

You don't want to be anywhere near 0 db- better to be well below that in digital. I try not to go over -0.8 max. And when you mix multiple tracks together they sum to more.

Being someone who just recently experimented with on board audio and WASAPI modes all I will say is do yourself a big favor and purchase a proper audio interface that uses ASIO drivers. Cakewalk will thank you. Your best route to trouble shoot is run latency monitor - https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

OK. So what you are saying is when you play back a sound track file on any music player it’s fine But when you import it to Cakewalk and use ASIO drivers it sounds Metallic. When you play the same file with Cakewalk and WASAPI mode it sounds fine Let’s narrow this down When you use ASIO is you master bus going to different speakers? Are you listening with headphones or studio monitors connected to your interface? The metallic sound seems like a good description of what laptops built in speakers sound like. Double check your output by muting the master bus you should hear nothing

Been a long time since had any computer issues so was a bit taken aback by this Thank goodness it’s my office machine and not my main DAW. Last night as I shut down it said Shut down and Update. Fine this is normal. When I got up in the night I noticed the glow from the office. It said something about failing to update and a few options I can’t remember what I chose but it might have been try again. In the morning it was still stuck. I tried every option offered and it kept sending reports to MS and promised to fix it but nothing worked. The only way out of the loop was to re install windows. I’m now starring at 3 pages of apps that are missing. I just spent a lot of time updating all my Cakewalk plug ins even installed Sonar X1 just to get V Vocal. I’m not impressed. So I just unplugged the LAN cable from my main DAW. It’s going to stay that way until CbB times out Anyhow don’t have a clue why a machine that’s had W10 on it since the “ free” upgrade and always ran smoothly bombed out on a routine update. Just posting in case others have this issue and as a caution ⚠️

All you need to do it look a little bit closer at the dialogue box that opens. You can easily change the synth. There’s at least 5 ways to insert VST instruments. In my signature is a link to my tutorials that covers all that

We as slowly getting somewhere so just hang in there and we’ll get you on track. Pun intended OK so the sound of the track you recorded into track 1 sounds fine on playback but the download file sucks. This tells me you have everything working properly but there’s an issue with that particular file. What does that file sound like when you play it in Windows media player?

So just to be clear. When you say "The recorded track" is that the new track you are recording or is this a already recorded track in Cakewalk? If it is, then yes of course it will be part of the "USB" output. The Direct is for monitoring you live mike input of the interface. When you use headphones and speak into your mike, it should be louder when you turn the control towards direct. It will go quiet when turned towards USB. The mix the levels of the all ready recorded tracks are balanced by the track level controls. And as I pointed out you best make all tracks run through the master bus. in your screen shot this was not happening.

Well that just confirmed what I thought. So you should get a good blend of your mike and the playback from Cakewalk somewhere in the middle. This is not going to happen if 1- you don’t have the gain of the mike set properly 2-you don’t have the output level from the master bus set properly

I don’t get that. Normally the blend control is marked computer and input. Turning it to computer turns the playback from your DAW. Turning up the input turns the level of the signal from the input up. I guess USB is a confusing way of saying computer or DAW. And direct is a confusing way of saying input. So it’s not your track you will hear from direct but the sound from the input ( mike or guitar). Is there a software mixer with you interface? every interface I own usually sounds balanced when set in the middle.

Almost seems like the location you storing your files is disconnecting from windows. Are you using a USB drive of a second data drive?

This is not common at all. If it was they would’ve fixed it a long time ago. Something else is putting your system on the edge

Your screen shot is showing track one going directly to your interface and track 2 is correctly going to the master bus. Did you read the instructions for the interface yet? I should tell you how to use the direct monitoring. You should not hear an echo unless you toggle the input echo. Turn that off or you will hear an echo. The master buss will send the all ready recorded tracks to your interface where you monitors or headphones will hear this. Your mike input will be mixed with this but read the manual for correct settings

The easiest solution is to open the midi track that is triggering the Module and using the piano keyboard on the left see what notes are assigned to the sounds. If the MIDI track kick is on a C note and the Module Kick uses a B just select all the C notes by pressing that key and then drag them down to the B or ?

Not sure if this will solve it but I bought the M4 and immediately was getting artifacts in playback at 256 buffers, the same setting I always used with my Scarlett. I experimented switching between interfaces and the M4 was defiantly screwing up. I contacted Motu and they sent a PDF with the standard list of tweaks and also recommended a PCIe USB 3 card. Seems a common issue with bus powered interfaces are not getting enough juice so they screw up. What a bad design! They should always have the option of using a proper power supply. I knew this and this is my fault, I would not have bought this interface had I figured that out. I just put the PCIe card in last night and will see how it goes. Only thing I'm sorting out is it has a SATA power cable option and I raan out of connectors from my cheapo HP power supply. Might have to order a better power supply. They say it should work with out it and it's only for if you load up all 5 ports. ANyhow you might not need the PCIe card if your new computer has enough USB ports and you can find a USB 3.0 port that is not shared.

I can record Cakewalk tutorials into OBS screen capture program no problem. It has a streaming option It took some fussing but I think what worked for me is the setting in Sound Device properties/ Additional device properties/ Advanced tab Uncheck the exclusive control box as in picture. Then Cakewalk can share the ASIO drivers and your interface with other software. You also need a Loopback function on your interface.

The most common reason for no sound is Master buss is not been set to the proper output watch the video.

This is true and in the old days it was common to switch a patch or channel at different points in a song for what ever reasons the hardwares limitations might have had. But now most VST instruments will play on any channel. As I say I've done tonnes of these songs and I have never had to re assign channels. Patch changes for sure. I usually just set that for NONE. Basically you set Cakewalk with NO MIDI OUTPUTS in preferences. You OPEN a midi file and Cakewalk will use the TTS_1. to play the file correctly. Then as example I want the drums to use SI drummer I insert SI drums and then take TTS-1 channel 10 drum track ( this is usually Track 10) and change its output from the TTS-1 to SI drums. Done. I repeat this for each instrument midi track. If I insert SI Bass I then find the Bass track ( usually marked as such) and change it from TTS-1 to SI Bass. It really doesn't matter what channel they used. SI bass will play that track. Only time channels will matter is when using a multi channel synth like TTS-1, Kontakt or AIr Xpand2. I'm in the habit of opening each track in the event list and deleting just about everything but the notes and sometimes the CC1 for organ parts. If there are PG changes in the middle of the song you have to look for them. as they don't usually show on the event list.

Oh well