Amberwolf

I doubt this is it, but if you have any plugins or synths / etc with open floating windows, even if they were minimized, perhaps they are interfering. If you do have some, try closing them before minimizing SONAR and retest.

Does the computer do everything else you want? Are you looking for something other than the silence SSD drives provide?

Some effects, like the Lexicon (somethingorothermodel) I've got in the rack, have a footswitch input that can be used directly with a pedal like a sustain pedal. On mine it's a TRS plug, and supports two switches for controlling different things (it comes with a dual switch), but a single switch like a sustain pedal can be used. Some effects, like the Digitech (somethingorothermodel) a friend of mine used to use for onstage effects, had a footswitch input *and* a "CV" input, which is for a pedal that has a potentiometer in it that allows variable control of something. On most keyboards that's volume by default, but is often programmable in the keybaord (or sound module) for different things; same for effects boxes that support CV (expression) pedals. Random article from google search on "CV pedal" https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/expression-pedal-cv

I prefer to play with my deweydecimals. Way less math, lots more words.....

You might want to recheck it's specs. Unless they have really messed up the wording, I think you'll need two of them to record 12 mics. Or other additional hardware. https://evo.audio/products/audio-interfaces/evo-16/overview/ https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EVO16--audient-evo-16-usb-audio-interface They don't mention what driver they use, and don't appear to have a download for it anywhere on their site, none of the support articles their own search finds are from this decade, or find ASIO in any of them. This is the only comment they have, which doesn't say anything useful at all (since they don't define or state the actual latency, driver type, OS supported by it, etc):

Does this mixer feed audio into the computer? (you may have to check it's manual if you've never used ti this way) Or does it record it's inputs onto a memory card or internal drive, that you can then download it's wave files into the computer? If not, then you would require an audio interface of some kind, even if it's just the line-in built into a laptop (which would suck, but...). Otherwise you have no way to get audio into the computer. They are required for sound conversion, period, whether using single tracks, stereo tracks, or many tracks in mono or stereo. (even if it's built into a mixer or computer, you still need one) If you need each mic's track separately and simultaneously recorded, you'll need at minimum a 12 channel audio interface. If you are recording the microphones directly into the computer without mixing them down first, that interface also requires mic inputs on each channel (some only have them on certain ones), and if they are condenser mics you also must have phantom power on each channel. If you don't find one that has that many mic inputs, you'll need to add mic-to-line level conversion equipment to any channel that doesn't have a mic input that you must plug a mic into. You will want to be sure the interface has a *real* ASIO driver for your computer type and operating system version. Many that claim to have ASIO drivers do not, and use "steinberg asio" or "asio4all" or "universal asio" and none of those are real low-latency ASIO drivers that you will require to do what you want. You'll also need a computer that can simultaneously record *and play back* that many tracks plus all your effects and any other things you want at the same time, with a harddisk large enough and fast enough to store all those tracks and all the other things you mix down or record along the way. Before buying, i recommend looking around for people that are doing exactly what you want to be doing, that are doing it without problems, and then use the same system and hardware that they are using, so that you will have the least amount of trouble and problems in setting it up and doing the work you want to do.

A web search on your post's first sentence finds bunches of stuff, but I've used this one experimentally a few times years ago: https://www.abc.se/~re/Coagula/Coagula.html

04-28-25: 042425 000001 200096x -- timng and mix changes, bounced some clips to fix repeated broken fade problems (where some of the clips, especially in percussion at the last section, would "get" clip fades that extended *beyond* the actual clip, usualy several clips at a time all the same fade length, when none of htem actually had fades. Everything fine, save the file, close it, go back later, and they'd be broken like that. Fix it, resave, close, reopen, and broken again. But bouncing them fixed it.) https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/behind-you-lie-many-unseen 04-30-25: 042425 000001 200104z -- tweak intro percussion

I don't really know what the waves fiasco was, so I still don't know what that means. I would *guess* it means subscription, like bandlab stuff is?

Is it possible you have "select track envelopes with selected clips" enabled? That would move the track envelopes with the clip when you move the clip. I don't know where that is in the current version, but in ancient versions it was in the dropdown on the Select (mouse arrow icon) button in the toolbar.

I can imagine why you wouldn't want a global echo *on*; there could be projects with so many tracks that this could cause problems suddenly turning all those on. But i can't imagine why you wouldn't want to be able to turn them all *off* globally with one click or keystroke.

Not sure what that means?

04-28-25: 042425 000001 200075v -- replaced awkward section and fixed tuning glitch https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/behind-you-lie-many-unseen

If you meant to reply, whatever you meant to say didn't make it into your posts. there are only quotes of other people .

Maybe we'll be lucky and they'll go back to the old way of making their stuff work, that was useful and didn't constantly break systems. Their present way caused me to give up on them entirely because their updates would break things pretty much every time I went to use their stuff, and instead of making music I'd have to troubleshoot things, which was depressing and wasted all my time so I didn't get to make any music. Since their support would only uselessly say to remove and reinstall and redownload all the many gigabytes of stuff again everytime there was any problem, and they would never fix their actual problems with their stuff, I ended up just removing everything of theirs and now I'm much happier with the tools I already had that "just work". If they would make it so it just worked locally, no internet connection and no login required, and you just use the version that you already have that just works, no updates or checks required, *then* it would be useful for music. Otherwise, it's just a headache not worth dealing with.

I don't use CV, but I wish there could be multiple *track views* open, with different windows on to various sections, and each one had a separate toggle for "scroll lock" so I could see sections of projects I need to work on "together" (using one as a reference for another) without having to constantly rearrange my tracks and views. (even if I had a whole wall that was a monitor, I couldn't fit everything I need all at once at the zoom level I need, so multiple separate independent views is the only way that would do what I really want).

If you don't mind the extra work (which can be fun if you're open to learning new ways of making up music you might not have tried), you can also use sample packs of vocalists to build the sounds you need from. Some are available as instruments to sing them, like the ones from 8Dio in the Seven Solo Voices pack I'd love to get someday, but there are also individual sample packs that can be used to splice together tracks, pitch shifting and time-stretching and fading bits as needed. This is how I have been building my more recent tracks, such as Behind You Lie Many Unseen which uses Elven from Ghosthack's Shymer collection, and The Beaten Dog which uses bits of spoken English phrases to create the lyrics. These are experiments, and I'm no expert at any of this, so I'm sure anyone that wanted to really do it could do a better job than me, but they're perfectly listenable music even as imperfect as they are. 😊 Anyway, the point is that if you can't get the original tracks back, and like me can't get a live singer to do what you want, you can still make them (and new songs!) with vocals that still sound good.

04-27-25: 042425 000001 200063t -- timing and mix changes, and glitch fixes. The Elven rock harder than before, in the last minute. https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/behind-you-lie-many-unseen

This song was built from various sample packs, recorded sounds, etc. Almost none of the pieces are used wiht any other pieces of the same 'kits" or "stems" they were intended to be. Some are "loops" of patterns of sound, most are just individiual sound samples. I used mostly spoken phrases from Veela's Siren bundle for the vocal sounds and words. The sounds were from various bundles I don't recal with much certainty, but the sax bits are from a Basement Freaks bundle called Funk Legends in the Miles subfolder. I stretched or squshed them in time to fit the beat of the song, and pitch shifted some of them for variations in ones used more than once, as well as chopping them up into syllables and whatnot. (while I'm using existing recordings, it's not really much different in principle from playing a keyboard that uses samples of sounds to make it's instruments (which very very many of them do), except it is a bit more like creating that instrument in the first place (editing the samples for playback). Or like paying an artist to record things for you that you then edit down into a recording....the main difference being that htese are recorded by such artists so that any other artist that wants to (and buys them) can create whatever they want with them, instead of being recorded to my specifications. ) I had to cut and composite most of the vocal phrases from the ones available in that bundle to get the words I wanted, and pitch shift or time expand or compress individual syllables as needed to fit the music, and also to create expressiveness that isn't there in the original phrases. For instance, "My people" is just one phrase, said rather dully, and I needed it to be more emotional, perhaps wistful or sad when the dog is thinking about what happened, so I listend to the way I could say the phrase myself in different ways utnil I figured out the differences in the way I said it flat and dull vs expressed the way I wnated, and then did those things to the phrase. I ended up using the phrase twice in succession, as one might when considering something one may not really want to say out loud and have to pause after starting to, so the first is more matter of fact and the second more emotional. One phrase, had all the words I wanted, but all as one rapidly spoken phrase, and I needed it all slower and separated, so the first part was so fast that there are obvious artifacts in it after slowing it down and separating the parts enough to sound the way I wanted, and that's the "there's a reason", followed by the "i'm a shadow". These aren't in any of the other phrases, so I'm stuck with those. I found some other vocalist in a differnet bundle but had the wordes but they're not spoken, theyre sung, and they sound totally different than this vocalist anyway, so it wouldn't match. I wanted to tell the story more copmletely, but not al the words I need are in the Siren spoken section, and I don't have another source that sounded wistful or sad enough, or could be made so. So for now, this is as long as the story can be. I dont' have a specific set of words written down for it ohter than those I used, but the story of an abused dog from it's own point of view, up to it's end, is what this song is meant to be. Kind of an homage to Kirin, who while probably not beaten, was certainly starved for her first few years along with other dogs at that place, and to Loki who was probably used as a bait dog and had probable cigarette burns all over. So at some point I'll expand the song once I can either modify the existing words and phrases I have to do what I want, or find another source to replace all of them with consistent new ones with the right emotional content. (that I hopefully won't have to modify syllable by syllable!).

This was built almost entirely using Ghosthack's Shymer, Ultimate Composer Bundles 1-3, and Ultimate Cinematic Vocals, though almost none of the pieces are used wiht any other pieces of the same 'kits" or "stems" they were intended to be. As part of the experiment and learning process, I deliberately went thru Shymer's "song kits" and picked only one piece at most from each one. Some are "loops" of patterns of sound, some are just individiual sound samples. The Elvish speech comes as spoken phrases, with English versions as well, in dry (no effects) and "wet" (effects applied), but I like the sound of the elvish versions better so I use them, and I use them for how they sound rather than what they mean (unlike in Gareki where I chose them for their meanings). Later when I care what's being said and have something to say, I'll use the English ones in some other song. I did leave most of the phrases intact in their order, but I stretched or squshed them in time to fit the beat of the song, and pitch shifted some of them for variations in ones used more than once. The sung syllables in the rockin' Elven section in the last minute of hte song were individual syllables of the chants in FunctionLoops' Ethnic Voices bundle. I just picked a phrase at random, and split it up, and it turned out to work; almsot none of the syllables are in the order they were sung in. These were also time-altered and pitch shifted in some cases. Similar things were done to choose and modify the staccato strings, the cellos, the long vocalizations and elven phrases, as well as the percussion, fretless bass, etc. The only piece in there that is nearly unmodified is the pulsing bassline in part of the slow beginning and middle part of the song. So, while I'm using existing recordings, it's not really much different in principle from playing a keyboard that uses samples of sounds to make it's instruments (which very very many of them do), except it is a bit more like creating that instrument in the first place (editing the samples for playback). Or like paying an artist to record things for you that you then edit down into a recording....the main difference being that htese are recorded by such artists so that any other artist that wants to (and buys them) can create whatever they want with them, instead of being recorded to my specifications.

Now if I can just get someone to take them, especially the piano.... (hopefully someone from one of the places I "know", like this, will want them, as I'd rather do that than complete unknowns like craigslist / etc).

This clown (me) makes fun *with* all this crap.

I can't tell any distortion from the rest of the audio; it's all heavily distorted to my ears; I could only listen to a few seconds around the 15 mark because it is way too much for me to take (I'm autistic and the rapid pounding distorted noise like that is terrifying to me). But if you are getting distortion, the usually problem is input levels that are too high. If your M-Audio is like m Fast Track Duo, it has a clipping light (red) on each channel by the input level knob, and is green when there's signal but no clipping. Any red light seen means there can be distortion in the resulting audio. It can also be levels within the tracks or busses that are too high in total. If you get it primarily when recording along with other existing tracks, and if you mute the other tracks and it goes away, you just have your track levels too high and theere's just too much total audio power for the bus(es) being fed to the master. You'd need to turn all the track outputs down proportionally, which is easy to do in Offset mode (O on my keyboard in my ancient SONAR), then select all the volume controls in a quick group, and decrease them all by however much you need to until the problem goes away. When it is not levels that are too high, it is usually driver latency / buffering. I use the ASIO driver from AVID (since the older M-Audio driver doesn't work in Win10 but the Avid package 1.0.4 one does), and can get as low as 7.3ms using 44100 sample rate and 320sample buffer size in the Fasttrack ASIO control panel, even while running a few dozen FX and multiple instances of Z3TA2+ and other synths, and still record stereo (or dual-mono) audio with input monitoring thru the track and bus FX. The ancient (decade old+) laptop I use is the Lenovo ideapad 300 with only 16gb ram and a spinny HDD (not ssd, though i have one for backups I don't record to it). If you have any other ASIO drivers on the system (like ASIO4All, Steinberg ASIO, etc), they may cause problems and not let you use your real ASIO driver (or cause it to behave incorrectly), so I'd remove all of those and scrub the system of them if you can.

Since you're not using Sonar or Next (nest?), what program are you using? What does it's manual say those codes mean? (we can't look it up because you didn't tell us which program, etc). What audio interface are you using? What driver are you using to run the audio interface? Which driver mode are you using? What latency is the program set to use with that driver? What resolution and bit depth are you recording and playing back at? What effects, if any, are you using on the tracks, in the project, etc? Are you doing input monitoring within the program to hear the recording realtime? Are you playing back other tracks while recording? Do they have effects on them? Do you have any high latency plugins requiring a lot of CPU? Etc.

Available for local pickup in Metrocenter area of Phoenix, AZ, USA. Free to good home, though I'll accept any money thrown my way for them. Piano is mostly tuned, but after you move it, it will need retuning. Comes with an unused tuning kit; there are free phone apps you can use to help you tune it. It's a Kimball 404P #T26204 probably from the late 1970s: Amberwolf's Music Studio Technical Stuff Piano is very heavy, over 400lbs, bring at least two strong people to get it into your large transportation device, or all your stubbornness; I won't really be able to help much. (I originally got it here by myself in a bicycle trailer built / rebuilt for the purpose, but I wouldn't recommend it The SB Cruiser : Amberwolf's 2WD Heavy Cargo Trike & Dog Carrier ). Upright electronic organ is much lighter, don't know the weight but one person can move it relatively easily. It has MIDI output, so can be used to control synths, etc on a computer or other MIDI capable hardware. I've not used the organ since getting back here into the house after the fire (it was a replacement for stuff lost in that fire so I could keep playing music). The piano I very rarely use and it's large and I could use the space for a workbench in my bedroom to work on wolfy-robot-project stuff instead. Piano when hauled home (hasn't changed since then, except for a bit of toothmark work on hte left front leg by either Peebs or the Schmoo when they were puppies, but that doesn't affect it's sound or structure. The organ is presently behind my brother's art stuff in the storage room, so I can't access it to get better pics. This shows the console and keys, the stuff on top is not part of it (though I'll sell the Yamaha TG33 in the middle if someone really wants it; I know they don't generally go cheap). I think it's the Discovery version, don't know the specific model. These are some pics from a Reverb.com page listing for what looks like the same model