John Vere

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

Generally I don't think I've ever encountered this issue andf I have in the past re done dozens and dozens of downloads. In my signature is a link to my web page and both text based and a video all about using a downloaded file and swapping each instrument for something better than TTS-1.

Ha! wasn’t sure. But now I Am.

About the clip gain. As my above post I was unaware of its use. So I have tried it but I cannot get it to behave the way everyone is describing it works. for me the red line behaviour is the same as a standard volume envelope. I grab in the middle and get a peak. Not a even line. Is there setting or toggle?

What @marled just said. I just bought a Motu M4. And I was having terrible playback issues. Same settings with my old Scarlett interface no problems. Motu’s answer was to install a PCIe USB card. I should have known better than to buy a bus powered interface. I have ordered the USB card but for a laptop you would need a powered USB hub. if it’s possible take the interface back and exchange for one that has a power supply option.

None of us here would ever claim to be a pro. Pro’s wouldn’t even bother with these types of questions. They only like to squabble over which $5,000 gadget is the best. I think what @InstrEd is meaning is sometimes we can only guess at what people are trying to do and what their goals are.

You need to possibly read the instructions that came with the interface. It will explain how to use the direct monitoring so you hear both the computer and your mike with out latency in the speaker or headphones

As I said before A clean install. That’s more involved than just re install. You can google it. Re install keeps a lot of the original files. A clean install involves wiping ever last traces of cakewalk first

I’m in he mood for some fun. No body thinks in terms of mono because we have two ears. There, I said it. Surround sound is for modern people who actually have 5 ears. But no one wants to admit that

It’s dead simple. If there is one cable plugged into your audio interface then you will be recording mono. If there’s two cables, like from a hardware synth or guitar processor then you record stereo. There is no point in recording a mono signal to stereo track. It actually makes it harder to pan correctly. The VST effects you add to the mono track are sent out in stereo to your master bus.

Just save Shortcut to the CWP on your desktop but really. How hard is it to do what @Nigel Mackay said

What I'm seeing is in the new Channel, Pro Channel is turned off. Not sure why all the controls are at zero? If I insert a new audio track and open pro channel the EQ most are pointed straight up. Is that a custom pre set? C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\mfc140u.dll - When I enter that into google search I get a warning that it can harm my computer?? But it seems this is part of a download of Visual C++ You would have to do a clean uninstall and re install of Cakewalk to fix any weirdness.

Yes in the past there were a lot of small none showstopper bugs. When Bandlab took over the first thing the staff they kept on board did was dig in and work hard to rectify this. I think now bugs are rare and Cakewalk might just be the most stable it's ever been. Are your projects 100% midi? Seems your not talking about any audio or using an audio interface. And if your midi interface has up to date drivers there's should be nothing happening there. This may sound stupid but, did you swap out you audio cables and anything in your audio system that might cause this like a loose connection or a dirty volume pot? Trouble shooting is a process of elimination.