John Vere

You have my curiosity I still have 8.5 on my old W7 DAW. I export dozens of projects in a day sometimes when updating my backing tracks. Those are all similar and only midi. But there’s a minimum of 5 instrument tracks and then some processing on the master bus including the LP multi band which is a CPU killer. Those projects at the most takes 1 min. To export. 48/24 dithering on. Only thing I noticed that slows down the export is this one organ I use sometimes called Colla B. It’s also slow to load. A quick test would be open a basic template project and drop a 3 min audio file. Now export that. I just did this and it took about 30 seconds. And my computer is 13 years old. But I do use SSD drives.

Dell laptops are particularly notorious for screwing up audio due to bloatware and weird BIOS settings my son gave up on his. Dell said it wasn’t their problem. Good luck and next time buy an Acer?

You guys go on Gear Space and this discussion has been gone over for probably 6,000 pages. As I said above I read a lot of it and the results are down in the . 00005 % difference zone. It’s all been done before buy lots of us audio nerds as well as way out there hi fi freaks. It’s really a waste of time worrying about it. I’d rather worry about how fast my fridge can cool my beer. And anyways it all ends up on a cell phone speaker anyway ?

The important question is what effect is this? When testing free plug ins I’ve definitely found some that bomb Cakewalk if dragged into projects. They can be inserted using the add dialogue but not dragged. But who wants a plug in kicking around that has that potential

I have to agree with @Byron Dickens The OP is staying they don’t like how their vocals sound. That’s an example of extreme difference in say compared to commercial recordings. in the dozens of threads on this topic I’ve read in the past it is stated that each DAW has a very very tiny little difference that only the best ears or measuring tools will reveal. That is not a extreme difference by any stretch. If I remember correctly it is something to do with panning laws that will be a tiny bit different in each DAW. Bottom line is great sounding vocals comes first from a great performance. Those performances don’t require much processing to finish nicely. A weak or terrible vocal performance might be made listenable By using turd polishing. The tools for turd polishing don’t really differ from DAW to DAW. So changing to different DAW will make zero difference other than you might find better tips on turd polish for certain DAWs over others.

This. But be aware that system latency will be present at the output. This can be substantial if effects are used to process the signal. This is OK for streaming as the person listening is not in the room. But that signal would be very late if playing in the performance venue

This. But be aware that system latency will be present at the output. This can be substantial if effects are used to process the signal. This is OK for streaming as the person listening is not in the room. But that signal would be very late if playing in the performance venue

Ample Guitar is an acoustic guitar and is not something you normally run through an amp. I can't think of anything that sounds worse than my Acoustic guitar with overdrive! If you are looking for metal guitar tones you need to use an electric guitar sample like Strum Session or ( sorry, don't flog me ) TTS-1.

The problem is with the mixer set up and not Cakewalk. You are taking your signal before it can be processed by the mixer. This is actually a desired method for live recording as it gives you unprocessed audio in the DAW. Just set the gain so there’s no danger of clipping and then later you use the DAW to mix and process the tracks. My question is why do you need the DAW for the live stream? Normally you would use the mixer and stream either the main mix or an auxiliary mix.

Are you opening this dialogue on a Midi track?

Funny. 2. Features I have never used. Which is part of equation for which DAW is right for you.

This is my go to for background vocals and guitars,, but be careful, it can make your mix out of phase and put the Correlometer off the map. But makes for a huge stereo effect. The pitch trick is more what you get from using a chorus, that's why they are called Modulation effects. https://polyversemusic.com/products/wider/

Exactly why I got rid of it. It wasn't anything much, I'd say I like SI drums better anyway. These are 2 much better drum sets as demo versions that are fully functional, never time out and only limitation is kit pieces. Then upgrading is simple once you have installed the product manager. Just a few minor hoops to jump through but well worth it. Addictive drums also has the fully functional Piano too. Steven Slates Drums https://stevenslatedrums.com/ Addictive drums https://www.xlnaudio.com/

To add what I generally do is all my projects share a base template and by template I will say it might not have started that way, but as I re visit older projects I update them to include my latest choices of buses and effects. If a bus is missing, I insert it. And effects are easy to duplicate because they all have presets. When ever I feel a certain song turned out real good, I go into it and I save presets in the effects and instruments and name it after that song. Then I will open a re visited song I'm not happy with, and lay it out exactly like the one I one did like by using the same routing and insert those effects or instruments and choose the preset that worked on the other song. It really doesn't take much for me because my songs are not overly complicated.

Input Quantize is in the midi track inspector.

Probably because really the only solution in this case is a second audio interface. Not all onboard audio is the same I guess. It’s a hit or miss thing. I do what you are doing with my office computer. I like to write my tutorials with Cakewalk open and test plug ins so I load up large projects sometimes. Quality seems very limited when using the on board audio and I get crashes and drop outs so I connected my old Focusrite 6i6 and the weird issues all were gone. I also have a laptop that is much newer than my office computer and it can play all my projects with out issues using on-board audio.

Always have a backup plan and always have 2 of everything. I have always kept a old suitcase I leave in my vehicle I call it the redundancy bag. It has extra cables, mikes, mike clips batteries, strings, and an old mini disk player with ( old) backing tracks on it.And a complete tool kit including soldering iron. All lot of stuff. I bring 2 guitars. 2 laptops both loaded with current playlist both connected to PA , tested and ready to go. If my guitar amp fails I can survive using the mixer. If the mixer fails I have 6 inputs available on my powered speakers. None of this has ever been deployed other than a few broken guitar strings in my 30 years as a one man show. The importance of being prepared is because the people who hired you are dependent on you and expect music to happen with no exception. The power has gone out on us a few times and I would grab my acoustic guitar ( yes that’s the second guitar) and go out on the dance floor and start pounding out Elvis rockabilly. One place had an piano I made a total fool of myself but people party on in the spirit of it all. I was at a Wedding once were this Amateur DJ blew up his home stereo speakers during the first dance. End of party. He just stood there and did nothing. I did not feel sorry for him he was an idiot.

This is why a person should use the DAW that works for you . Each will have certain features unique to only that DAW. Cakewalk can’t always do what Pro Tools can do and in probably more ways Pro Tools can’t always do what Cakewalk can do. Actually for me Pro Tools is a DAW I like second best and I found it user friendly unlike the rest of them. So why not just use it? It’s very good at Audio projects but Cakewalk has it beat for using midi tracks ( for me anyway)

As you are asking a very basic question which people normally teach them selves using the many teachings aids that are very accessible including the documentation found in the help menu and the tutorials found here https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/forum/35-tutorials/

What I also found was some plug in installers seem to create either a VST folder or in some cases the Steinberg VST folder. Just pay attention during the install if this happens because Cakewalk has no way of knowing about new folders unless you add them. Those are the only other folders for VST 2 that are in my scan path other than Cakewalks folder. So if I install a VST 2 and it defaults to Cakewalk folder I change it to one of the others. I reserve the Cakewalk VST folder for Sonar and Cakewalk stuff. So in answer to you question I use the VST folder found in Program Files mostly.

Mute doesn’t unload a synth from the CPU anyway . I’m pretty sure of that. You might need a higher buffer setting. Just be aware that projects with a lot of effects and higher buffer settings will add latency so you’re keyboard playing will struggle. But just so you know what does work and on a older 2014 laptop. I created backing tracks with midi instruments but I export stems to create 4 sub mixes. Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Other stuff Using audio for backing tracks totally eliminates CPU issues. Then I created a project template with 4 Audio tracks for the sub mixes and my 7 keyboard VST’s. The only effect used is Loud max on the master bus. This set up allows me to have the options of muting as well as routing of those 4 parts for different bands I play in. Someday I’ll purchase a midi lighting controller. I have a Yamaha 01v digital mixer that I could also control with midi which would automate solos and effects. But that’s a lot of prep work. Then I created a playlist for the performance . I haven’t used it live yet but I’ve certainly practiced a lot and so far no issues. I often change channels mid song. And I always use the volume which I should really get an expression pedal for.

I would just use automation. I haven't used an even list since my Atari died in 1998 so sorry I wouldn't know how to do that. . When you arm a track for automation all the things that can be automated turn red. Mute is one of them.

The thing is the projects need to be from the same template and no additional tracks added. So it works best for live recordings where the project was kept identical through out the session. You dial in the first song and go to town on effects. Then the other songs from the session will fall in place easily with very little if any changes needed.

Here's the script from the video. It's sort of confusing without the visual but the important steps are still here. Mostly what you want is near the end. The key thing as you'll read in scooks post above is the drag and drop of the mix recall file. Sharing a mix scene with other projects. Mix recall stores the scenes in a special folder you will find inside your projects folder. We can use the browser to find and open it. In this demo project I’ve not saved any mix scenes yet so the folder is empty. I’ll mute a corresponding track number so you can see the different mixes. . If I click the Snapshot icon I get this dialogue and it say’s Mix 1. You see it now shows in the Mix Recall folder and it has the name of the project as part of the file name. Notice the CWM file extension. Now pay attention. I’ll Mute track 2 and save as a new scene. This time we will re name it “ July Mix.” Notice the name in the folder is still the project name Mix 2. Did I loose you yet? I’ll save this project. And now I’ll also use SAVE AS and re name it with NEW in the name and I will stay inside the original project folder. This would be how you might manage different versions of your projects. They will share the audio folder and as you’ll see, the Mix recall folder. I’ll now mute track 3 and save the scene which is now Mix 3 and now notice the NEW in the file name. I’ll mute track 4 now and it saves as mix 4. Lets save and close this project and return to the original. Well browse back to the Mix recall folder It still contains all 4 mixes. But if you look in the Mix scenes list here, only mix 1 and July Mix are showing. So let’s share a scene and see what happens. Mix 3 and 4 are from the second version of this same project but they don’t show on the list in the Mix recall module. So we have to copy them from the Mix Recall Folder. If I drag and drop Mix 4 into the track pane notice track 4 is now muted so I’ve successfully applied Mix 4 to this project. If I save it right now it will overwrite July Mix. But I’ll save as a new scene which you see is scene 3 but gets the correct project name. This is why I took the time to go into this in detail for you as the naming system will trip you up if you don’t understand it fully. The sharing scenes is a great way to work with multiple projects from a live band session. It’s also handy if you have already saved a few version of the same song under different names but didn’t change the tracks and buses around. In conclusion Mix Recall is an easy way to quickly compare different mixes of the same project but can also be applied to many other scenarios. Thanks for watching.

To bad that was a video I just deleted. But the answer is using mix recall you can definitely do this. Take to long to type it out but I’ll go look for my script later.