msmcleod

This sounds like a plugin that isn't authorised. IK Multimedia plugins typically do this.

What I tend to do with frozen tracks is: Freeze the track Copy (CTRL + SHIFT + drag) the frozen audio to another audio track Unfreeze the original track, and archive it (press the "A" button) This gives you maximum flexibility as: You can do what you like with your frozen copy without affecting anything else You can unarchive the original, change things and re-freeze all without affecting your frozen copy While archived, the original takes up no CPU and very little RAM (i.e. effects aren't loaded, if the VST had samples on it, they aren't loaded etc)

The Mackie Control Universal, and the Mackie MCU Pro both come with a set of overlays for different DAW's which re-label the buttons to better map to the functions available on each DAW. One of these is an overlay for SONAR/Cakewalk, which is what the MackieControl DLL expects the buttons to be mapped to. Any MCU compatible control surface that has a SONAR mode will map their buttons to this configuration. With no overlay, the buttons are as follows: The SONAR/Cakewalk overlay looks like this: So as you can see, the CLICK button on the standard button configuration is the same as LOOP ON/OFF on the SONAR overlay. This is why the "Metro" button on the KeyLab controls looping. Automation read looks like it's mapped the same, but there's no equivalent for automation write. "In" and "Out" also have no Cakewalk equivalents. There's no way of configuring the button mapping at present. To do so would require a fair amount of work, and would make setting a control surface up even more complicated than it already is. Although its possible to have presets for various control surfaces, given I don't have all of them, it's not something I'd want to commit to code without actually testing it. In the meantime, you could try setting the KeyLab to ProTools mode and changing the protocol to HUI within the MMcL MackieControl dialog. I can't guarantee that all the buttons will work (as mentioned earlier - not all of them have Cakewalk equivalents in the MackieControl DLL), but they may more closely match the buttons on the KeyLab.

Have you select the "Basic" lens by accident? Basic Lens: "None" Lens: You can change lens in the top right hand corner:

@Lee D - to set things up: First of all, make sure you've got your Control Surface type set correctly within Preferences, using the MMcL version: Here's the difference between them: Next, use the Utilities menu to bring up the Mackie Control dialog (it should be at the bottom of that menu), and make sure Disable Handshake is checked: (ignore the fact it's unchecked in this example - I'm at work, and haven't got CbB available so I'm using the only screenshots I have available!): Then, save this as a preset by giving it a name in the dropdown in the top left, and clicking the save icon. Then click OK to close the dialog.

Yeah, I think that would do the trick.

Yes, as long as the lanes aren't muted they'll all play together. When you're comping however, it automatically mutes the other lanes for the selected section. This is very quick & powerful if you're doing comping, but a real pain if you're not, as you then have to manually un-mute the lanes. That's why the option to remove comping (and other options) from the smart tool is so cool.

As far as I can remember there was no heartbeat for the MCU, but there's definitely one for HUI. The handshake was a specific bit of SysEx on startup that was in the original MCU protocol. Mackie got rid of this in subsequent revisions, but the Cakewalk code was never updated at that point. The MCU clones that support SONAR/CbB have a specific mode to react to the SysEx message that SONAR/CbB sends to it on startup, but all the ones I've seen work fine if they never receive that message. Disabling handshake just removes that whole sysex procedure altogether. @Lee D - where are you seeing the "Connecting" message? Is this in CbB or on the KeyLab itself?

You can download the installer from here: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MMcLMackieControlSetup.zip Then pick "MMcL Mackie Control #1" as your controller type:

That's fine. Plenty of headroom there.

Maybe your AUD.INI is still filled up with all the settings from the Generic ASIO driver. Try deleting AUD.INI ( from %APPDATA%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\) and startup Cakewalk again, which will re-create it. You'll need to set your sample rate etc again, but it'll refresh all its settings for your RME driver. If this still doesn't work, you could try re-installing your RME driver, then deleting AUD.INI again.

This is actually a really good idea. I've always shied away from this, as I thought it might introduce noise into the ground... but I guess the frequencies are too high to make a difference? Do you find it affects your audio setup at all when it's in use?

Personally I find keeping the master level fairly low during mixing works well for me. With 24 bit, even having a mix at -6 or -12 db still gives you loads of dynamic range. If it's too quiet I just turn my monitor speakers up. The only time I worry about loudness is at the mastering stage, which I'll do on stereo audio file itself rather than within my project. The only exception to this is if I want a quick & dirty master, in which case I'll probably just stick Waves L2 on the master bus for that purpose. Sticking to mastering the stereo audio removes the temptation to go back to tweaking (and probably ruining) the mix.

Rather than a usb dongle that sticks out the back of your PC, you could consider is one with an external antenna. This is the one I use in my studio: https://www.ebuyer.com/262952-tp-link-tl-wn822n-300mbps-high-gain-wireless-n-usb-adapter-tl-wn822n?mkwid=sIWICnDdL_dc&pcrid=51482427899&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=CjwKCAjwyqTqBRAyEiwA8K_4OzRapFqYpCEoJfHwd_EuFSXi6BM3qAOLFBaZ9xjbwQlbO1Bs6kRR7RoCT9sQAvD_BwE Because my studio is sound proofed, I run a 5m USB cable through the walls with this "looking" through the window to the house. Using something like this gives you the option of positioning the antenna in a more suitable place where the signal is stronger.

I love the fact I can do all my lane edits with more confidence, especially now the comping can be turned off for the smart tool, so I don't comp by accident. My guitar playing has really gone south due to lack of practice, so I'm finding myself recording things in phrases much more often than I used to. Being able to build a track up with each phrase (or multiple takes of a phrase) in different lanes is fantastic.

Set your scan to Manual within Preferences / VST Settings.

This sounds like you've got ripple edit switched on. Make sure its switched off:

In addition to the default Cakewalk ones, the most common directories vst plugins are found in: C:\Program Files\VstPlugins C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VstPlugins 32 Bit plugins are likely to be found in: C:\Program Files (x86)\VstPlugins C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\VstPlugins You may need to search around if there's ones missing, but these should catch 99% of all your plugins.

Have you thought about getting a WiFi repeater? My Studio is in the back of my garden, and my WiFi router is at the front of my house. I've got a WiFi repeater in the kitchen, which is in the back of my house and makes a huge difference. Something like this should do the trick: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Extender-External-Antennas-TL-WA855RE/dp/B0195Y0A42/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=WiFi+repeater&qid=1564926791&s=gateway&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sr=8-3

Go to Apps & Features in the Windows Control Panel, then scroll down to view everything installed - it should tell you when you last installed CbB:

Do a search for *.cwp in Windows Explorer. Maybe it got put somewhere else.

Music/Beer accessories are always a good idea. A good friend of mine used to rest his pint on the bridge of his double bass, until he found it started to warp after too many drops of Guinness. I suggested he get one of these for his mic stand:

You could try iZotope I guess, but it's not guaranteed that it'll work perfectly: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/products/rx/repairing-a-distorted-audio-track.html

To be honest, I'm not sure you could improve massively on what you already have. Things that might help (biggest performance gains first): 1. Replace your USB 3 samples drive with an external or internal SATA SSD's 2. Replace your 2TB SSHD with an SSD 3. Replace your CPU/Motherboard with a i9900K However given your disk activity is low, I really doubt if you'll get a huge amount of difference, and IMO it's definitely not worth the cost involved. Comparing your current CPU with the i9900K (note the CPU Mark Rating is twice as fast ONLY because there's twice as many cores): The interesting figure here is the single thread rating. It's really not that different at all. Here's the thing. The reason your CPU is only at 20% during freezing is mostly likely due to VSTi's that don't support multiple cores. If you were using 100% of one core, and none of the others then your CPU usage would only read around 12.5 - 15%. So upgrading to a CPU with twice the number of cores really wouldn't make a difference here. Plugin load balancing only works with effects, which explains why your CPU usage increases during mix down. Again I suspect the CPU usage is low, not because you've CPU isn't that busy, it's just not using all the cores. In any case, this is only my opinion - may be @Jim Roseberry can offer a better insight...

Even if you're not running as Administrator itself, installing anything that resembles a driver at least needs your user account to have admin rights to your local machine. If this isn't the case, that's likely the cause of this.