John Vere

I agree that one could have 2 seconds of a perfect take mixed in with 3 minutes of noodles. I guess I’m more structured and tend to play what I hear in my head. So my solos are going to just be me trying to achieve that. I fully understand the process of creating by experimenting on the fly. That’s good too. And I guess comping is the better tool for that method. Possibly a difference with me is I need to recreate these parts live so comping together a solo would make that impossible. I prefer to just use 3 tracks. I record 1,2,3 and if I’m still not happy back to 1 and keep doing this until I feel I’ve got it. Sometimes that might require a dozen takes but as a rule my last take will be the best. It might be track 2. But even though it was as good as I’m going to get it might still have a few boners. Therefore the reason I have 3 tracks. I drag the best take to the top and if I find any boners I can easily cut paste from one of the other tracks or now I often use Melodyne to fix mistakes. I realize that take lanes could be used but every attempt at using it has ended up with a big mess for me because I obviously don’t understand it. I’ve lost material from using it. I used to use auto punch in but don’t really use that as much anymore because Melodyne probably can fix those mistakes. So once again there’s always 10 + ways to accomplish the same thing in cakewalk and we each use what works best for us.

Funny how I always get the real old ones before I get the stuff from the last few albums. It helps if they are songs I used to play and especially if I made a backing track for it.

I just swapped out all 3 of my music computers SSD drives because the new drives are bigger and faster etc. I always use Samsung drives and they have a Magician app. I had a 4 year old Evo 860 Data drive that was running real slow and the App showed that drive did have issues. So I ordered the 3 new drives 'cuase they were cheap. . For the C drive is was very simple. The Magician cloned to the new drive using the Data Migration you see at the bottom of the left hand list in about 20 minutes with no fuss. It's been running perfectly for 2 weeks now. There is a noticeable increase in speed overall. The broken data drive eventually came back to life somehow but is on the shelf along with the other older drives. Cost me $160 Can for 3 Samsung Evo 870. So I now have 3 500 GB drives and a increase in overall speed when opening and transferring data. I cannot say enough praise for the Magician app. It certainly seems like a well thought out tool. I have no clue about this 4K alignment is too, I looked it up, it seems way to geaked out for me. What ever it does I can't see would matter if you can replace these puppies every year for the cost of a dinner for 2 in most restaurants. 500GB = $44 can

That solves that potential problem. We can now confirm you do have a proper ASIO driver which is defiantly what you will use. Question? when you looked in the Registry was the PreSonus the only ASIO driver? If there are others remove them. I assume you watched the video. Anyhow we are then back to you should try lower buffer settings like 256 or 512 in ASIO mode, possibly this was the difference because if you used WASAPI shared it automatically uses what it thinks is the best setting and you usually can't adjust it. 1. make sure and download the latest version of the Universal control. 2. Try the VST 2 version of the plug in. Companies that focus on Mac OS don't always have the best Windows drivers, example my Motu M4 sucks compared to my Focusrite. I can run the same project no problem at 128 on the Scarlett but the Motu will stutter. I have to use 256 and even 512 on bigger projects with lots of effects. Motu is a very Mac oriented company. At this point I would be thinking it's either a faulty driver or it's a plug in that is not 100% compatible with Cakewalk. If this is the case it wouldn't hurt to contact both vendors and explain what is happening.

And to add to what Mr Cook said above. If there is audio you follow his instructions to re create the midi part. Save as a Normal CWP project and now drag and drop the audio into the new project. For others reading, this is an easy way to transfer a project between any DAW. The only prep needed is the audio should be a continuous stem starting at zero. You will need to create that in the original DAW.

Good find. That good news as this interface is only about $100. So possibly a good deal for people on a budget. It’s odd they don’t make it clear that it uses ASIO because if I was shopping I would pass it by. The minute I see “doesn’t need any drivers “ I move on. The adds seem very focused on the Mac crowd.

Please watch this video I just released for this very reason. People get confused about the different drivers etc. This video explains it all very clearly and hopefully will sort out your issue. My main point in the video is very clear Audio interface = Manufactures ASIO driver On Board Computer Audio= WASAPI mode, Exclusive if it supports it or Shared if not. But I also cover properly setting up windows system. You can have issues when you set a buffer way to high like that. Most people mix using 256 or 512.

Well this might be the problem. Usually PreSonus have proper ASIO drivers but it appears yours does not have ASIO. So using ASIO will most likely not work. It appears to be made for Mac users not Windows. Quote from specifications- The AudioBox USB 96 is built to be used on the go with a heavy-duty steel chassis to stand up to the rigors of mobile recording. It’s USB class-compliant — no special drivers to install — and natively compatible with Apple Silicon-based Macs and iOS and iPadOS devices. A screaming-loud headphone output ensures you can hear your music clearly, even in noisy locations. I could be wrong but I don't see any mention of ASIO and searching the internet only leads you to download and install the PreSonus Unaversal Control which it is not documented anywhere as having an ASIO driver. You could check by opening the Reg Edit App and looking under ASIO and see if your device is listed. The other place to check is in Sync and Caching at the bottom. If not you will need to use WASAPI modes. Be warned that if you plan on overdubbing vocals or guitar you will need to run a loopback test and adjust your timing offset correctly or the new tracks will be late in timing sync. This is the exact same issue as with Behringer's entry level interfaces, No ASIO driver. I personally would trade it in for a interface that has ASIO drivers. I believe if you go up in price points that will happen with the PreSonus brand but this is not clearly noted on the web site.

This is happening for me as well. I tried to look up a keyboard shortcut which I always use the help menu for. It takes me to an promo page for the new upcoming software. There were no links to find help. So I tried the documentation and the same thing. Both Computers, This sucks if they leave it this way as I don't know how many of my videos always tell people to use this feature which is now been highjacked by promoting the new software.

Out of curiosity I opened Modo Drum demo version on my office computer that uses on board audio and WASAPI shared mode. Seems just fine. I put it in a project which had a lot of tracks and effects running. The office computer is from 2016 i5 4 core 2.8. 16 GB RAM with SSD drives. Have you ever run the Resplendance Latency Monitor? https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

remove comments OP not engaging.

I loaded a midi file I made in 1986 on an Atari the other day so I beat you by 2 years About the biggest difference is those files are not GM so you have to figure out what the heck you used back then by looking at the channels and patch change numbers. Cakewalk has a long history of not abandoning old project formats I doubt they have any reason to change that. The new version is still based on the old code from what the staff are telling us.

He's marked the topic Solved but then it's an eternal mystery how?

I'm not sure why you are having so much trouble. Just last week I fired up a laptop I have Cakewalk on that I rarely use and I got the message you got I just opened the Help menu and refreshed activation, done. You don't use the Assistant now for a long time they fixed that. Everything is done inside of Cakewalk. If you are logged on to this forum you are logged on to your Cakewalk account. The Help menu is there for a good reason.

All audio interfaces come with ASIO drivers which are normally the best choice for many reasons. Make sure you have the most up to date driver from the manufactures web site. This video has all the details of setting up Cakewalk audio for optimum results. https://youtu.be/opDwsC4_llg

Not if you are getting drop outs, That tells me your computer is not coping, 512 is a pretty high setting already. Leave it alone and deal with the effects that are causing this. Pure midi projects that use something like the TTS-1 can be played on the worlds oldest computers. And even a few audio tracks that are not being processed won't make any difference. But if you start adding instruments that use sample libraries to play the sounds the game changes. Audio files are even easier in a way and a few audio tracks in a project should not cause issues, but adding processing will. So just bounce the tracks to mix the processing into them and delete the effects. The same goes for any midi instruments that are process hogs, freeze them.

This is why I asked about your computer specs. Because some computers can run at very low setting but not so great computers can't. Lot's of people use lower buffers without issues but I find a buffer of 256 handles my project without issue. Defiantly there are effect processor one should avoid especially playing live. You want stability and that comes with only using effects and instruments that are low CPU users. And then the danger is as you increase the buffer size to get stability, you will add more latency which doesn't matter for playback but it sort of sounds like you are trying to process your voice? Guitar? You would need a very powerful laptop to get away with that. The Buffer settings are found in Preferences under Driver settings or open the control panel for your interface.

I'll ditto that as well. I export everything at 48/24 wave. Cakewalks export is too clunky to bother with top and tailing the songs so I load them into Wave Lab to clean that up. If I do need MP3's , which is rare, I use Gold Wave to batch convert. MP3 are becoming obsolete anyhow. I send my friends wave files now because everyone has unlimited bandwidth and fiber optic internet. I upload wave files to Sound Cloud too. MP'3 have gone the way of the 44.1 CD.

Are you setting the Buffers high enough? What are the processer specs on the Surface pro, possibly just not enough for the projects? Also are you using effects on the tracks? That can quickly bring a Whimpey computer to it's knees'.

Thanks I was going to try Amazon.ca. I have blown lots of air on that stupid fan and even gave it a drop of lubricant it’s just a POS.

Seems a loosing battle to me about avoiding the internet or cell data plans. You can keep riding your horse or you can by a Automobile. Nobodies stopping you but you will be left in the dust. I totally sympathize with people who do live where there is no choice or it's overpriced. But that is rare for sure even in the 3rd world. These people might not have an issue once Cakewalk announces it's game plan for purchasing of the new versions. We will wait and see if they remove the time out from CbB

Question- would THIS card work in the Pavilion? One thing I didn't mention is that the currant Video card is fan cooled and real noisy. A Passive card is defiantly what I was looking at. I passed on the one you posted because I didn't think going from 1 GB to 2 GB would make much difference but it would certainly get rid if the terrible fan noise. I actually went to order the Dell you linked and it added a Canadian surcharge which put the price at $230 Can. So I chickened out. But I will still look into that. I usually build my own because any off the self computer will have nothing but underbuilt components that will then need upgrading. But that was years ago since I've done this so possibly things have changed. I have a few Laptops and personally I would never use one as a main DAW. I have an Acer I5 quad core 3.4 with 16 GB RAM and 2 x 240GB SSD drives. It's my portable studio. But it really doesn't work at all for video editing. Screen captures with OBS on it are jerky.

Remove post information wrong.

Thanks everyone I figured as much. After reading these comments I think I'll send it back. I would have no problem figuring this out if it was a computer I built myself. It seems HP actually hides the bios from you and there's only a dummied down systems screen.. in the user manual they want you to send it in to the factory. It works real good for Cakewalk just that in Movie Maker ( Vegas) video editor the preview was super jerky. I have to render the movie to actually see how things like zooming and transitions turned out. It was mostly only one beep at random. But it's not mission critical for this old machine. One more reason to save up for a new one which I will build myself to get the components I need. Updated- Amazon already approved the return. No questions asked. I just printed the return label.

Reading between the lines in the announcements I think they are planning on re issuing effects and instruments that were once available with the paid versions of Cakewalk. Which ones will be offered and if they are included, or for sale as add on’s, is a just wait and see. You can now see the logic and reason they didn’t include these free with CbB. More proof that there always was a plan to start charging for it at some point.