Bass Guitar

A little more information might help. Are you still using Platinum? When you open the project do you get warning about missing audio files? Or are these midi instruments? Does the project play and produce audio?

Yes it is common for midi data that was not your own creation to contain extra information. Open the event list. As well as note if there’s any extra Controller lanes in the PVR. Rare but sometimes I found the problem was Sys Ex data. ( System Exclusive) there’s a view for that in the multi dock. One way to tell is as example in the instrument GUI adjust the master volume. Now start playback and observe what happens.

When you insert the instrument the GUI should open automatically, if not open it and simply click on the preview part of the GUI. If that makes sound then the problem is with your midi data. It might be out of the range used. If the GUI doesn’t make sound then it is probably the track is not going to the correct output.

Exactly. The more code you ask for in your application the more bugs you get. Keep it simple. A professional engineer will be using the correct software to master with. That is rarely going to be a DAW. And as @Helios.G said that is part of what you pay for when you upload your songs to a distributor. Possibly even Bandlab offers this as part of the membership fee. It is generally not something recording engineers would concern themselves with so not even on the radar of Daw development.

Take note that it goes on sale for half price. I think it’s full price right now. Just use the free version and eventually you will get a toast notification offering a better deal. Most people just lie about their birthday they are just data mining which is harmless. You can most certainly use your long time Cakewalk email to create your Membership account. Start with logging into the Cakewalk Product Manager using the same email you used to sign in here.

It’s an idiot light, not a gauge. ( to borrow from the world of car tech) Just don’t make it red. That’s all you really know about it. As I said it’s mostly handy for buses. Not so much for tracks. Your tracks should already be at target levels well below the point where that light would come on. If a track is on the low side in level then the Gain Control can be used to set a better target level. Some people will apply gain or normalization processing. The difference is that the gain knob is none destructive but gain and normalization process are destructive. Therefore Gain knob is preferable as it can be undone at any time. To use the gain first turn off all effects and with the track fader at unity adjust the gain until the track meters are showing the desired level. Take note that Im referring to using audio tracks, example guitar, and that a midi instrument is also an audio track. But the difference is that the instrument will have a volume control you can set a desired level with. By default the Pro Channel is first in the signal path. Note that the light only works when you turn the Pro Channel on. So even if a bus doesn’t use any PC modules I always turn it on. Then you also get the cool little spectrum meter.

I believe the standard procedure is that when done bounce it to clip.

I do believe that this is a feature of a wave editor like Wave Lab. Not sure if Audacity can. Sound Forge? Gold Wave?

I’ve always considered that one of the more critical parts of keeping tabs on your signal path. Especially on buses. Individual tracks should have been recorded at a correct level but a bus being fed from multiple tracks can easily be overloaded. If you see that on wth an audio track then you have recorded it too hot. So it is most useful for buses especially for the Master. It seems people rely on the bus fader meters and when they see red might adjust the fader. Wrong! The pro channel idiot light is there to warn you that your input to the bus strip is being overpowered. It’s something like the same input red light found on analog or digital mixers. This then should be dealt with by turning the Gain down or adjusting at the tracks. Because the audio is rendered at 32 FP you might not hear the distortion but better to be safe because little digital errors suck. Sonar definitely has the best metering system of all the Daw’s I tried over the last few years. Many require you to use plug ins just to see the peak readings.

https://sonobus.net/ Sonobus can be used for real time audio over the network. There's no video but remote listeners can comment on your mix and you can make changes in real time for them. For Video/ Audio I would try OBS studio. https://obsproject.com/ It allows me to have Sonar running in ASIO mode. I've used it to shoot tutorials and never had an issue or had to use WASAPI. Your interface needs to have the Loopback feature for it to work like this. I've never tried streaming but it would seem it's no different than screen capture.

On my latest build I went with 64 because it was inexpensive. I can get by on 16.

Somehow I think the continuing saga of Cakewalk / Sonar/ 12 Tones is not over. Don’t underestimate the power of users who have voted against the membership. Im patiently waiting for next June and the announcement of “Cakewalk II”. Introductory pricing for $199 US. And I don’t rule out new owners as being part of its future. It’s a great Daw. To me it’s a repeat of what happened with the release of X1. Nobody liked the way it looked either.

+1. You are probably fine with 32. But depending on how old the RAM you have is you might see an improvements in performance if you can upgrade to newer faster RAM.

I’ll just add that Melodyne, especially the full version, can be used for a whole lot more than just vocal pitch correction. It’s an audio editor on steroids. A simple way of thinking about it is it turns audio tracks into a type of midi track. Most of the things that you can edit in midi can be edited in a similar manner. Pitch. Timing and Amplitude among them. I think the mistake new users make is not watching the most excellent video tutorials produced by Celemony. I almost never even use it to pitch correct my lead vocals. Im not a fan of that. But boy do I lay it on the harmonies. I think creating outstanding harmonies is where Melodyne shines. I do my best to sing them correctly but the ability to then edit the pitch. Timing and levels is amazing. The other huge lifesaver is tweaking guitar chords. I have arthritis and my playing is becoming sloppy with unwanted notes happening. No prob, seek and destroy. I just recorded a live band and the bass player had made a few boners. When I sent them the mix down he was wondering what happened to them because he most certainly remembers screwing up! Anyways to me Melodyne was the best investment in recording software I have ever made. I got it for about half price by upgrading it every Black Friday over a few years.

To use Melodyne it has to be registered with Your Celemony account. Just like Addictive drums and most plugins that you buy. Melodyne 4 is now really old and a basic version was included with Cakewalk. But it still had to be activated with a Celemony account. When Melodyne 5 came out they discontinued handing out free licenses to Cakewalk and a bunch of other Daw’s that use Ara. The installer was there but it became a 30 day demo. Coming up this fall is the Black Friday sales and Thats the best time to purchase an upgrade. Your old version 4 should get you a discount on upgrades.