John Vere

My Zoom has a HiZ toggle on 2 channels. If your interface has that or sometimes they call it instrument, then the all important impedance is correct and all will be good. As @southcoaststeve just said I sometimes record both the amp mike and a DI into 2 separate tracks. Then hard pan them. The DI track I’ll use TH3 on. Lots of options and creative stuff for guitars. My Boss tuner has 2 outputs so I can split the signal there. But a good pedal board can be used directly with excellent results. As I said I have a Blackstar modeling amp with usb but that’s my worst option. I prefer my good old analog pedals to all that digital processing.

Spent a few hours trying to optimize it. Things are not where they were in Windows 10. One thing I can’t find is the USB power sleep settings. I use one drive for a lot of documents so I have to leave it on but the whole syncing crap put all the icons from my old computer on the desktop of the new one. Dang. Of course there’s no software yet so they are pointless and I had to delete them. So now installing my apps and plug ins. CbB was pretty straight forward I’m not sure why people seem to have problems. Just did the bare bones of 8.5 for True Piano, tempo delay Session Drummer and Lexicon. Now I can go straight to CCC. I don’t think I need to install Sonar Plat or X3. I’ll just grab my goodies which of a lot of them I no longer use. I’m not going to install any VST’s on here that I’m not currently using.

Well I ended up just purchasing from PC world for $100 Can. taxes in. This is Windows 11 Pro so looks like I save $125 off regular price. PC is all put together haven't done one in 10 years. Not much has really changed other than the new M2 SSD drives. Just installing windows now. Not looking forward to installing everything else!! Haven't done that for a long while either. But everything's on a external drive so just sort of time consuming. Will have to de authorize a bunch of stuff on my Laptop. Case fans will need some tweaking. Not loud but not sure why they are even on right now. Might have used the wrong sockets. Corsair 400D Airflow EVGA 700 Gold PS Intel i5 -13400F 10 cores up to 4.6GHz. Deep Cool AK400 CPU cooler MSI GeForce RTX 3060 12GB MSI Pro B760-P Patriot Viper DDR4 64 GB Two Samsung 970 1TB SSD M2 drives. So far with the OS its about $1,500

It’s simple. Guitar, Pedal Board, Amp. From there you have possibly 3 choices. Best- mike the amp, speakers are part of your sound. Down side is best if you live alone in you home. But this is really one of the best ways to record guitar. A line out can be good but only if it is after the pre amp. Some aren’t. And they can be noisy if not balanced. Might as well plug your pedal board into the audio interface. The amp might not be contributing much at all. Pointless. Next is the Amps USB audio interfaces connection if it available. Yes but only if there’s a proper ASIO audio driver from a manufacturer who knows how to write one. If done right this eliminates noise. If done wrong ( my Blackstar amp) it can be very noisy so pointless. And it requires you to turn off your regular interface so now you can’t hear anything. And some are only 16 bit. Usually Pointless.

So what you are saying is OBS doesn’t show the Loop Input option for source? Like mine does. Did you disable all other audio devices in Windows Sound settings. It might cause OBS to avoid the ASIO driver.

I don’t know how but the first place I’d look is the manual. It’s actually a very good manual. Google the exact question. Might even be a video.

But if you observe the second screenshot that is the same version after bouncing to clips and saving And then close and reopen the project. The big mess is gone. So my logic is This must save the CPU from having to sort out the big mess during playback.

With the free version you put the You lean on you master bus in the FX bin but always last in the chain after the limiter. I’m pretty sure that’s in the mixing video. As you play the song it will start calculating the results so it’s a good place to start. With the paid version you drag and drop the mastered file to its GUI and get a proper absolute reading in seconds. There’s some interesting discussion here from people that have used backing tracks. But most of you folks seem like it’s way overdone to me. Way to close to Karaoke. Yes cheese comes to mind. Since the 80’s my tracks have been Drums and Bass with a little bit of keyboards or possibly a horn section. All I can say is I most certainly never had an issue with that configuration and the dance floor was always packed. People like the songs and they most certainly don’t have to even come close to sounding at all like the original. People don’t expect them to. You give it your best and play with lots of energy and it works. I’ve seen many duo’s with a drum machine and they do real good. People don’t seem to notice the drums actually suck. It’s the melody and song that count. And why worry about needing a different mix in different venues ? Do we need different mixes for songs played from CDs or records when there’s a DJ? No. A solo or a duo is no different. The backing tracks are a given mix that doesn’t need to change. Why would it? Learn how to create mixes that are PA friendly. And you can always do like me and have mixes that say, don’t have keyboards because you’re playing with one that night. And the split stereo versions are a perfect solution to having control over certain parts like bass or a click.

Thanks Mark I just tested this and as you see the original audio folder is a total mess. The vocals originally were only done in 3 takes with a few punch ins so would have been about 8 files. The only vocal track kept was Vocal 3. The guitars I did in a couple of takes. But this is probably nothing compared to what I think a lot of people do to projects with 100 guitar and vocal takes. So I used bounce to clips on the Vocals and one guitar track and this is now much better. Of note is that after the bounce it renamed the guitar track to it's currant name. Goes to show why you should always name tracks before recording not after. But there are still more files than what is being used. So I did SAVE AS to a new location now it's almost perfect and If I had have bounced the Banjo and the Guitar Rythym it would be perfect.

@msmcleod Question. In another thread I was having issues with exporting a chopped up track and bringing it back as a complete track. I would export as stem, delete and replace with the stem. I’ve done this a zillion times. But all of a sudden the audio engine was randomly stopping. Someone recommended I just bounce the track to clips. I did this and it most certainly seems to create a complete track. But reading what you just said brings up this question. The way I did it before created a true new audio file that was complete end to end with no edits or Melodyne ghosts. So does bounce to clip not create a clean audio file but simply is a visual change and the audio file still has a zillion edits that Cakewalk has to decipher as it plays? This would be important to know.

Yes It’s best practices to bypass all effects when tracking both midi or audio. A few light duty effects might not matter but most Mastering effects have Look ahead buffers that adds latency that Cakewalk cannot adjust for.

@Dave Gelzleichter My playlist was made to watch in order. Unlike most I start out teaching you how to find your way around Cakewalks interface. Each video has an end screen to take you to the next in sequence. He can skip the midi videos.

Thanks both of you. @Glenn Stanton Its a brand new build. I’m just waiting for the case and power supply. The old DAW was from 2005 and was also a home built my son gave me as he upgraded. It got shelved back in 2015 when I was given my current PC a HP Pavilion So he took it back and put new drives in it and he bought one of those cheap W10 licenses off eBay. He used it as a media host but it was painfully slow so he gave it back in case I needed parts. Well I guess the license is a part. He going to see if he still has the numbers written down somewhere. Which is another question is there an app that can find your license key? The PC World article said you can download the OS and install with out the key. Everything will work but you get nagged.

Yes but Pro is $200 or more from the MS store. That’s a bit too much for me after spending $1,600 on the rest. My wife will start noticing!! The question is that seems you can get it for well under $100 from other sources. Has anyone advise about that? I have a long ago shelved DAW PC which has a W10 licence that my son said I should be able to transfer if I deactivate it. And possibly if you have W10 you can upgrade for cheap?

You definitely have a great voice. Song sounds just fine to me I wouldn’t think it needs changing unless this is an update. Curious as how it works when we publish songs that have the same title as a popular hit. Odd thing is I used to sing a Song Called Silver Bird and when I saw your post I immediately thought you might have covered it. Your voice would have been perfect. but Google only come up with a completely different song of that title I thought the version I sang was Willie Nelson or Waylon Jennings but that comes up blank too? The lyrics were Silver Bird shining in the sunlight Roaring engine heading somewhere out of site Taking you away and leaving me lonely.

https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14683218 Edit Dec 5- Thanks for every ones feedback. I followed a lot of it and have made a lot of small changes. Worked on just about every instrument and the vocals. I found even a few more bad guitar notes as well as the Hi Hat hadn't been edited at all. It wasn't even quantized. Edit Nov 20 I think I made my wife happy by just re doing the Bass, drums and rhythm guitars so they are more sustaining. Then I decided to add harmonies. This is still in the proofing stages.

You should disable those other audio devices you don’t need in Windows sound settings. That’s probably why it’s not working because OBS is using windows not the Scarlett. And you seemed to have chosen Default. Choose the Focusrite. You see mine has the Loopback as 2 options. I use the Mix as that captures everything happening on the computer. What does it look like in Cakewalk?

Ok just tried this and yes brilliant. You can use this software for 30 years and still learn a better way to do something. I think I always use tracks and not clips. Big thanks to @HOOK And @Base 57 for the clarification. Song is now finished and Even though there might have been an issue I’ll consider it fixed.

I’m just working on the third vocal track on this older project. All 3 are chopped up and have Melodyne on each clip. They will all be safely rendered . So I’ll try and see if this weird issue is going to happen . I’ll also try your bouncing method. I just seem to remember that gave me some unwanted results. Possibly the 3db issue? Isn’t there a bug with bouncing tracks that adds 3db of gain?

In OBS audio settings you need to choose the Loopback as Desktop audio or Mike input. Try the options. My Motu has one that is just Loopback and one that is called Loopback Mix which is the one that works for me. I can play Cakewalk, Media player and talk into my mike while recording inOBS. It’s fussy to set up but it does work. And make sure everything is set to 48 sample rate.

Because i never had any luck with that. And it opens the export dialogue anyhow so it’s no real difference. But thank for the suggestion it is another option I could try if this persists.

Well your fussing with Melodyne must have paid off. Most excellent track. Vocals very intimate and up front. Great harmonies. I love the oohs! Better than using an instrument.

Saving before the drag and drop might be a solution. Read on. I have a theory. The 3 tracks that crashed the audio engine all had had Melodyne applied. Of course I render immediately after working on a clip. This is one reason I like to consolidate so the new track is just a simple audio file not a zillion references to the original. So my theory is that even though I delete the audio from the track that the track is somehow still in reference to Melodyne. They actually say that when you look at the tracks info. But the big question is why is this now happening if it never did before. I finished that song in 2 days and now I’m back to working on a project that is 3 years old. I’m redoing vocals which will get chopped to death so we’ll see what happens when I consolidate it later today Of note is I am using a new audio interface. A Zoom L8. My buffer is at 256 like I’ve used forever. I never have changed this. FYI even midi only projects use the audio engine so that info is false. I’m a huge fan of saving as I work I assigned the V key so it’s right there in the Center. Undo doesn’t go away when you save and all your audio is still as it was until you actually close the project. Even then it is available until you Save As to a new location. It’s actually pretty hard to completely loose audio files. Undo was still working and I brought back the original track, But the Audio engine was still frozen. See - Brand new project, only a Midi track , Audio engine on.

So I almost have all my parts to build my new DAW PC, one thing missing will be the OS. I looked on line and the price goes from $29 to $229 for Pro. Seems these sellers might be sketchy? It's not clear. The most solid one I found is from PC World for $89. At least I know who they are. Seems the most expensive if from MS themselves. Last OS I had to buy was W 8.1. All my W10 versions were free direct from MS. What is everyone's experience with purchasing the OS and why the huge difference?

What ever you did to the snare It was the thing I really liked. You say that’s SI Drums? Which kit I want it! I like that it is dry. Mix to me is really good and most certainly fits the acoustic style. Bass is fine. The tempo change does sound strange. At first you think something went wrong. Then you get it. Not sure how I would approach that Normally people stop the song and bring it back with the faster tempo. or the drums do something to lead into the tempo change.