John Vere

OK so it seem the only ones mentioned all use Kontakt paid version right? I only have the free version so I'm told that won't play files like those from 8Dio? I'm not about to pay $200 for Kontakt which also seems is a very hi CPU hog. I think I see if the TTS-1 crashes the project, I might get lucky. Or just use the Marimba.

Another thing I see wrong to me, is you have had to turn down your track faders to what seems an unreasonable amount. This implies that you must have Guitar Rig outputs set too high. Set the faders at unity and adjust Guitar rig to -12 to -6 db on the meter. I don’t know if you watched the video but that is the main reason I posted it. A good mix starts with every stage of the signal path being under control. Faders are only for fine tuning levels. And with midi this also starts with velocity and then the soft synth having correct levels set so there’s a equal output on all tracks. -12 to -6 db is just my personal preferences. Some go less some go more.

First that output list looks wrong for Focusrite ASIO drivers. Are you using them? Track outs go to sub buses. Sub buses go to master. Master goes to Focusrite 1-2 This video might clarify what most people do for setting up a typical signal flow. This might help you sort out the drivers https://youtu.be/opDwsC4_llg?si=ocZA6axh-a-HA8DU

Once the mono signal is recorded to a track it can become stereo by using stereo effects. You can also pan it. No point in having 2 identical signals in a stereo track. It actually makes it harder to edit and manipulate.

Being someone who did a lot of live sound I always had a bunch of DI/ pre amps on hand. Like the Art Tube pre was a good one for those wimpy transducers. A lot of the amateur players were always blown away by the full sound they were all of a sudden hearing. Most had been playing though small guitar amps. I still see that. I was in a music store last summer and tried all the $$$$ acoustic amps they had on hand. They all more or less sucked. Overpriced powered speakers. You’re better off with a good stomp box pre and a small powered speaker. Half the price too.

Thanks everyone lots to try out. And ya I never usually think to check the TTS-1. Seeing as how it’s just a backing track that might be fine but I don’t mind anything that’s under $30 and is easy to use. I have stopped using TTS-1 other than for preview. It can crash a project if added later like this would be. I like the sound of this 8Dio thing. Never heard of it. Tomorrow I’ll have time if it will stop snowing. I’m learning 5 or 6 Jimmy Buffet songs to chase away the long Canadian winter blues.

I’m working on a bunch of Jimmy Buffet backing tracks and about all I can find are Marimbas. They sound close but I started looking for steel drums and all I found were there’s weird cloud drums and spacey sort of things. I installed the free Kontakt 7 but nothing seems cheep so far.

This is good to know. I just recently installed the free version of 7 just because seems a lot of people talk about it. Right away on first use I could have sworn I was hearing very tiny artifacts. I’d rewind over we’re it happened and it gone. I refuse to increase my buffer so I just froze Kontakt and the glitches went away. This was all because I was thinking I might need an alternative to Air Xpand2. Then I found out the free version is very limited in what is available. Looks like you can blow a lot of money on getting Kontakt working. But Xpand is back working and between that and DimPro I seem to find enough sounds.

The TTS-1 has not been updated, ever.

This is an old thread but what the OP was possibly experiencing is when she played live she probably used a DI box or a Pre Amp/ DI combo. Nobody should really plug a passive acoustic electric instrument directly into the Mixing board, it will; probably sound terrible. Same with an Audio interface. A lot of players spend time looking for the perfect combination of pick up system and pre amp if they play acoustic instruments on stage. And this can translate nicely to a studio if you get it right. A lot of instruments have everything built right in and some those can sound good without an outboard device. But generally, if it doesn't need a battery, it needs an outboard Pre Amp. And we are not talking the one in you mixing board or interface, even if it's marked HiZ. Instrument pre amps are different by design. They have special EQ and the better ones have compression and saturation. It's the same story as with electric guitars. They need that preamp that was built for there voicing. That's why a guitar sim can never sound as good as a real guitar amp and a mike. So plugging an acoustic instrument directly to a interface and hoping to fix it in the mix is wishful thinking. There's a million Videos on the topic " How to amplify your acoustic guitar". A lot of what applies to a guitar applies to a violin, banjo, mandolin, bass or dobro. Just the pick up systems will be different designs. And I say systems, as there's at least 5 or 6 different systems you can purchase including clip on microphones, under saddle and button piezo transducers, magnetic PU's and combinations of some these. But for most a good quality Pre Amp will be a must. I use my TC Voice Live Play Acoustic as a pre amp as example. I also have a Radial Tone Bone and I'm lusting after the LR Baggs Aline Session box.

Exactly what I do. I often screw up half way through so my trick is usually using Alt mouse scroll zoom out until I see the end of the song and quickly drag the timeline to highlight. Then turn on punch in. Zoom back in, fine tune the start of the punch and carry on. This takes less tha 15 seconds . That’s because I’m a mouse oriented person.

I would recommend you learn to use sub buses for each instrument type. Then you do the final mix using the buses not the tracks

@mettelus @heath row All I know is I explored the whole web site , I used the search function using demo and Free trail. I used Google. If it’s that elusive it’s just not going to be found. And the only option to get at the download is to agree to a monthly payment, I call that a subscription. Possibly people who always had the software can still have a lifetime license. Back when Gibson pulled the plug on Sonar I installed the free version which was easily found and installed.

Actually Cakewalk converts all audio to the project sample rate. It should have been fine but then it is best to always use the same sample rate for all of your systems. 48 is my choice because I do a lot of video editing. It might have been an issue with your audio system. Try using WASAPI shared mode next time.

Funny. I used to have that synth bought it for $10 at a garage sale. Sold it for $25 a few year ago. I didn’t know there was a VST for the DW. I’ll have grab that. I have the Fury 800 VST which seems to be a good emulation of the Korg Poly 800 which was my first synth 1884? I think I paid $1,200 for it and it died long time ago. So I was pretty happy to get it back for free. To answer your question I’ve never figured out how to set up sys exec messages. Seems pretty advanced stuff. But I’m pretty sure if if works in Reaper it should work with Cakewalk. We have a few forum members who know this stuff better than me for sure. The question is? if the VST instrument sounds the same why not just use that?

That’s always my solution. Hundreds of free or cheap plugins out there. But sometimes the cheap ones can also cause grief. Example I only own Airs collection because it was cheap . I was fighting a battle with Air but my battle wasn’t exactly Air it was that they chose iLok as an authorization server. ILok just cost me 3 days of headaches. They finally fixed it but it was not very straight forward process. So that’s the last money anything that says ILok required will see from me. Not worth it.

It would be interesting to perform a Loopback test to see if it actually was in sync. Asio4all is supposed to be a WDM wrapper and I’ve not tested myself but a few years ago others tested and did the Loopback was definitely not in sync. But possibly it depends on the device being used. I used to use it on my laptop back in W7 day’s before WASAPI came along.

I actually was just looking the other day as I was doing my own troubleshooting. Seems they have gone subscription and as far as I could tell there’s no demo anymore. Actually I couldn’t find much in the way of usable demos or free DAW’s. Cakewalk is still by far the only real DAW that is easily available. And Reaper.

This is why it is recommended to render the clip when you are done. It’s not a big deal to simply re open it if for some reason you still hate what you did. I have assigned the Z key to open Melodyne and X key to render. I can open and close clips pretty quickly this way. Leaving clips un rendered uses way more CPU and Memory every time you play the clip.

Prices I listed came from Sweetwater and some things might have even been on sale. Example the Zoom AMS 24 is $150 here in Canada. The Steinberg UR 12 is very similar to the infamous Focusrite Solo as well as the not so famous Zoom AMS 24. They all have Loopback which none of the others at the bottom price points have. So what you do is compare the other features and see what's better or missing. The Zoom has 2 combi jacks which makes it more versatile for both using 2 Mikes or recording stereo line level. It doesn't have a dedicated Headphone level or a blend/mix control but it does have 2 headphone jacks. And it has different power supply options for remote recording. It's also super portable, solid and cool looking. It's pre amp specs look better for what it's worth. The Steinberg UR 12 has only an XLR Mike and a 1/4" input so not very versatile for connecting different gear. It also doesn't have any controls for headphones or Blending computer playback with input. The pre amp specs are just barley over the 100 mark, not great. The Focusrite Solo at least has 1 Combi jack so tiny bit more versatile than the UR 12. But it's the only one with a headphone level. It's pre amp specs are mediocre too. Because Loopback is important to me if I wanted a cheap simple 2x2 interface the Zoom seems the best pick. If I wasn't worried about 16 Bit or Loopback then the M Audio Duo would be my pick. It's even got a headphone level and balanced outputs. The pre amps seem about the same as Focusrite.

https://olehch.medium.com/how-to-test-your-audio-plugins-using-plugindoctor-b24a923f451a

@Will. I use the iLok Licence Manager software which is a Pace product. But thanks once again as I think you’re insight into the iLok funky servers was bang on. Ilok sent me these instructions and it worked. 1) Close any open cloud sessions (From the File menu in iLok License Manager) 2) Quit iLok License Manager if currently running, as well as any other binary that uses our protection 3) Go to the Start icon 4) In the search field type in “services” (without quotes) 5) Choose “Services” from the search results 6) Within the Services window, look for “PACE License Services” 7) Right-click it and choose “Stop” from the pop-up menu ? Leaving the Services window open, open a Windows File Explorer window 9) Navigate to the following location (this can be cut and pasted into the address bar): C:\ProgramData\PACE\Eden 10) Delete all ”.sdb” files found there and then close the Windows File Explorer window 11) Return back to the Services window 12) Right-click “PACE License Services” and choose “Start” from the pop-up menu The client database on Windows will be reset after completing this step. Next, log in to iLok License Manager and from the File menu, click Preferences, then Licenses. Click "Remove account data saved on computer" If the button's text is already gray there's no need for this step. Now reactivate your licenses; the products should launch as usual.

Im doing them all because other than Air there’s only 2 other vendors.

Yes that’s definitely the least expensive interface on the market but- only 16 bit and RCA outs. You see the Presonus are about the same price are 24 bit & ASIO but with a warning about the pre amps which were rated the lowest in a test someone did. I would personally choose the Zoom AMS 24 in this price range . It has much better features, specs and drivers are 1st class It’s funny how people always recommend the Focusrite interfaces but they are actually lacking in features compared to others. For the same price as a 2i2 you can get the SSL 2 which has way more features as well as it was the top of the list for best pre amps. Motu M2 is also a better option. Below is my list which is priced low to hi.

Air just got back to me with a very detailed instructions on what to do. I am to contact iLok and ask them to reset all my licenses on the server. Then I’m to deactivate them locally. Then there’s a long list of steps to delete things stored on my computer. It’s a complicated process but we’ll see if it works. Air said don’t do anything until iLok confirms they reset. Question is why did it happen in the first place? Who’s to blame for wasting all my time? ILok or windows 11? I have a Steinberg e Licence dongle that I had to buy for Cubase and Wave Lab. I just used that and managed to wrestle Cubase and Wave Lab 7 on to my old computer I'm slowly re building. Had to Hack the DVD and then run from the installer in W7 compatibility mode.