John Vere

Think about why they made it free for a few years. I find Cakewalk is now on more lists of supported and tested DAWs with plug in vendors.

You can use Bluetooth for that because you are not performing so latency doesn't matter. My Computer has Bluetooth and possibly so does yours. Bluetooth won't work with Cakewalk I have to export the mix and play it in Media Player. Then I use both a small Bluetooth speaker or my Bluetooth headphones. There's also a cool free app called Sonobus. It is both an app for Cell phones/ computers and a VST plug in. https://sonobus.net/ You put it on your master bus in Cakewalk and it sends the audio over your network to anywhere in the world. You can listen in the studio to what your mix sounds like on a cell phone or play your latest mix to a client or band mate. You have to mess with the settings a little bit to improve the audio quality but for me in my house it works great. . It's yet another tool to use for proofing mixes in the real world. Possibly 90% or the world listens to music now on their cell phones. And you could use the built in speakers, ear buds or Bluetooth with your cell phone. I still prefer to upload to a music sites like Sound Click but Sonobus is for real time mixing in Cakewalk. The Big studio people proof mixes on different playback systems for good reasons. Ear buds is just one of many. The Guitar wireless is probably only mono so not ideal. Proofing your Mix Video - https://youtu.be/eHpO4rolwiU

@reginaldStjohn The Zoom L8 is a bit confusing because it is 3 different devices. The manual is not exactly great and I had to test things myself to get answers. I will send an Email to the company and ask just that because you have presented a good question. It wasn’t that long ago when I read that most consumer A/D converters are all 24 bit and therefore the reason most Audio Interfaces are only just that. To me it would be very misleading to say you are recording at 32 bit via a 24 bit A/D. ( or even16!!!) Zoom was never the top of my list. So it wouldn’t surprise me. If all it ever does is be my live mixer it was still the best option for that . Not to mention being able to record in multi track with out a computer. As an audio interface so far it’s outperforming my Motu M4. I am totally aware of the limitations of using gear in these lower price ranges. I simply have never had the budget for the real stuff. But the bang for the buck factor has improved ten fold or more since my first set up in the 80’s. Long live the bottom of the gear food chain. Edit Oct 29th. I now see that nowhere does Zoom claim that it is a 32 Bit device. A visit to the web site and looking at the specs for all of their Audio interfaces I saw only the UAC 232 ( see next post ) is listed as 32 bit floating.

VST instruments are audio tracks. So same thing. Lots of people upsample and claim it makes a huge difference.

Like I was saying you can do this for free as Cakewalk by Bandlad is still free but that might end with in the next year. All you need is any PC running W7 or higher and install Cakewalk. Has anyone ever opened a Wrk file by changing the extension to mid. ?? I could do that with DrT All files from my Atari.

Open the Workspace manager found in the drop down. You can check what will show for the selected Workspace. Workspaces are global to all projects. If you make changes to your layout and don’t save it to the Workspace or create and save a new workspace then those changes will revert next time you open a project. So if your opening a new project and your layout changes then you did not save the workspace. Project templates only load project stuff. They don’t save workspaces

Ok it’s more about being compatible on my system. I haven’t tried it yet with the Zoom but my Motu would simply crash when changing clock rates. So 48 solved the problem. When creating Tutorials I have to be able to have Cakewalk running and producing audio. Then Win Amp also playing Audio. Then the screen capture OBS recording both sources. As well as I might often have to use the internet to quickly grab a picture or web page screen shot. At 44.1 this is a train wreck. At 48 it all works. Back to the OP. I do all bouncing and stem exports at 32 with no dithering. Most audio interfaces are set at 24 and can’t be changed. For most people the majority of audio is recorded at 24. My new Zoom L8 can record at 32 which is a new thing in consumer gear as far as I can tell. I’m going to be using it from now on for my own original music because it will mean no dithering will be required at any step. If you read up on dithering it is yet another rabbit hole and you can obsess about it just like clock rate and bit depth. It is only required when reducing bit depth so 32 solves this little issue. As far as resources, storage is dirt cheap now. It’s the last thing I worry about , but that said I would never take the jump to 96/64.? This is not only for resources , but it is definitely outside the scope of reasoning in my work. I feel 48 is a happy balance in this day and age. I’ll leave 96 for those who think it matters.

Are you importing the video to Cakewalk to score your music?

What everyone seems to do is import the video to Cakewalk and then score your music etc. Then just export the audio and work with a video editing software to finish. Cakewalks video feature is very basic and not very good at making finished videos. The feature is just for scoring, not rendering. And the compression error is probably about the video not the audio.

A sound tech friend of mine showed me this little 4 XLR to CAT6 snake box. I was sceptical but no hum or issues. Dirt cheap too! He was using it for Aux send to floor monitors. Lots of options these days.

Why would anyone use 44.1/16 ? It’s a total holdover from the CD era. As @OutrageProductionshas said everything in my world is now at 48/24 or 48/32. My new interface records at 32 and believe the rest will follow soon. I just uploaded 14 songs to a distributor DistroKid and they recommended 48/24 as minimum. What the streaming services do with that is beyond my control but as we all know it’s how things are now done. I listened to them on Spotify, Apple, Deezer YouTube etc and they all sound the same to me on studio headphones. If I can’t hear any degrading then what else matters. There’s zero reason for 44.1 to even exist anymore. If I want a CD my burner converts the file automatically.

This will need to be non Bluetooth. And possibly between the guitar and the headphones this could cost $500. Proper Wireless is not cheap. Avoid anything that is as it will be disappointing sound quality. Hardwire is for the most part dirt cheap. It can be as simple as figuring out how far it is and making a 3/4” hole in the wall. Then use long enough cable to go directly to the interface. In my original studio I bought these metal wall plates that were sold with either a pair of XLR or 1/4” jacks. Some I had a both XLR and then a 1/4” TRS that I could use for headphones or Balanced amp outputs. I had these in the isolated Booths an a few scattered around the main room. Those were run to the control room using bulk Beldon cable. This was all done during construction. I still have the box of cable and a bunch of the wall plates. If there’s an operator in the control room this is fine. But if you are by yourself then you could actually bring the audio interface into the other room and use a long enough USB cable. But then you need control of Cakewalk too. For headphone extension I just buy off Amazon and have had good luck with the cheaper stuff. I just buy the 1/8” ones as most of my headphones these days can use both. For guitar if the run is more than 20’ you might want a DI box and run XLR.

It is actually very simple but you will need a PC with any version of Sonar or Cakewalk installed. The latest version of Cakewalk can still be installed an run on old W7 computers. I have 2 that I just updated to the last version. If these files are important to you go to your local computer tech shop and they will probably give you one. Your other option is you can install windows in a partition on your Mac. Many people do this.

What I do is uncheck notes or ? In views To hide them. I found I have to use the delete key and I just hold it down and let it PAC Man the events. I tried all sorts of stuff but the event list is very crude.

Cakewalk can’t have that setting because the device is external. What happens when it is not available? I’ve had my controller connected to Cakewalk for possibly 12 years and it always works. Like most it is USB powered so it simply turns on when I boot up. One other thing When I insert a soft synth using the ADD TRACK . I have the option to choose my controller. The option stays put until you close the project. So I often add all my instruments in that session so the controller is all set up for all instruments. But “ none” will also grab your controller if it is the only input option in preferences.

Yep it’s just a midi keyboard that is also a sound module. So you treat it as such. Record the midi, edit and when happy send the midi back to the keyboard and record the audio output via your interface. There are keyboard workstations that include ASIO audio interfaces and those normally will have audio inputs on them for guitar and mike connections. I know Yamaha makes one. But they are rare. I’ll add there is nothing wrong with switching audio interfaces when needed. I do it all the time. The important part is using 48 as a sample rate for everything.

Your SDD drive can absolutely cause this issue. Just last winter I started having problems and a new drive completely solved it. I use Samsung SSD drives and they have a app called the Magician. You can run that to analyze. But best of all it will clone any drive including you OS drive and you just swap it out and carry on. Took 20 minutes. I bought two 500 GB drives at $50 each and it was like getting a new computer. The drives start to slow down after so many read/ write cycles and recording will do that. The other thing comes to mind is there’s always a big chance of a plug in causing you grief and looking at meters might not clue you in. I can’t use Isotope stuff at all as example. All you can do is remove them one by one until you find the culprit. And one last item is to make sure your system is optimized by running this https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

This is not good. The sync and caching box needs to show your audio interface period. Nothing else. If you are using ASIO mode and all the boxes show the Zoom that box needs to as well. I would contact Zoom and get an answer.

Once again. First watch my Audio set up video https://youtu.be/opDwsC4_llg?si=LtDN6nYqggVyDZa2 then the video I just released for the L8. https://youtu.be/56Nmoy-UcRE?si=PU6yzHvcOTK655jP No guarantee that the ASIO driver for the L8 shares any code from the R24. But the Zoom L8 ASIO driver is a very good driver. I’m into my 5th week using it and it’s a big improvement over my Motu. Watch the videos and get back to me if you have further questions.

I use that theme on 3 computers and it still works fine. Sadly Scook has not logged on here since early September so I hope he’s alright. @msmcleod might know how to resolve theme issues. They definitely didn’t change anything. We are told there’s not going to be a theme editor for a while after Sonar is released. Guess it’s because of the major overhaul to the graphics.

You definitely can’t use Bluetooth due to very high latency. But the Wireless frequency bands as used with mikes and guitars have no noticeable latency. I played in a band that bought a cheap wireless system from Musicians Friend. It was pretty bad sound quality and the buds that came with it were terrible. I bought the cheapest set of Shure buds for a little over $100 and hardwired into the mixer. I still use them and they are just fine. You are way better off in the lower price points to use a hardwired set up. A good wireless system will be over $600. A hardwired system is dirt cheap to build. If you sing or play keyboards/ drums you are not going to be moving away from your station. Use a headphone extension cables and terminate it just behind your mike and wrap Velcro around it leaving about 2’ dangling. If I need to leave my station I just unplug. My son experimented with ear buds from Amazon and found a set for $50 that sound really good. What is most important is comfort. Out of a dozen pair I can only use my Shures and the ones he bought. The rest either fall out or are uncomfortable. Even with changes to the silicone buds. He also bought a headphones amp to convert the Aux outs of his x18 to Headphone. If you are the only person the headphones jack on the mixer can often be used. I was using my Voice Live pedal which has my vocal and guitar already connected. I only use one in ear. I now have a Zoom L8 so I can have 4 customized headphone mixes. I’ll say one huge advantage to using in ears is not just to sing in pitch but there’s no stage latency so your timing is super tight.

@Sidney Earl Goodroe I totally agree. In away it would be the solution to rewarding long time customers. If I was them I would follow the example of companies like Melda and you have a product manager where you can demo and purchase. And then if sales are slow you toss things on sale via Email.

First make sure none of the VST instruments you are using have midi output enabled Second uncheck all but your controller in t preferences/midi /devices/ input It will then default to none and your keyboard will work. I find if you assign your keyboard under this set up and you reopen the project later it’s still the input device. Always leave the controller connected.

I also use Gold Wave and the demo never expires so it in a way it is free but with a nag screen. I bought it real cheap 10 years ago and so I don’t have the nag screen on my main computers. But I installed it on my laptop a while ago and it does. I need to contact them to get my account fixed but I rarely will use it on that machine so the nag doesn’t bother me. Defiantly my go to for batch converting of audio files. I still use Wave Lab for top and tail but they want you to pay for MP3 license??? Sonar did for a while as well and that’s when I bought Gold Wave. I think it was only $40 back then. I see it’s gone up.