Chaps

One tool that you might find useful is a Spectrum Analyzer. It lets you see where the frequencies are 'thick' and 'thin' and can help you see what frequencies can be cut or boosted most effectively. I've used Voxengo's SPAN (free) and I really like its interface and the ability to click and drag the cursor horizontally through the window so you hear only the frequencies your cursor is over. https://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

You can use your Juno sounds if you record them onto an audio track. MIDI is just data, no audio. I'm not sure if you can record both audio and MIDI on two separate tracks at the same time but you can use the MIDI track to play your JUNO and record that audio.

What you are showing is a MIDI track, not an Instrument Track. You aren't going to hear a MIDI track unless it is outputting to a soft synth. A good way to do this is to insert a soft-synth with its own MIDI track and then enter your notes on that MIDI track. You can also use the MIDI track you already have by inserting a soft-synth and then using that synth as the output of the MIDI track.

Are you sure those directories are loaded? Could you post a screencap of those directories expanded to show the contents?

The way I loaded the sample was to expand the directories at the top left and drag a .wav file into the sample window. In your image your directories are still minimized. How did you load the sample in yours? Here is the One Small Clue page for their percussion sampler Poise. I had to download and install Poise before I was able to download their free sample content. After I downloaded the sample content I right-clicked the directory pane and added the directories for the sample content I had downloaded. I had to expand a new directory to see the samples and then I clicked and dragged one into the sample pane on the right. Also, to see the Grace keyboard click the Sample Map button. https://www.onesmallclue.com/index.html

If you inserted Grace with a MIDI track you can use a MIDI controller or the PRV to audition the sounds. One thing I notice is that when I load a sample into Grace it shows the sample's properties in the lower left corner. Your image doesn't show that.

I saw it was freeware so downloaded and installed it. It didn't come with any samples so I also downloaded Poise (from the same company) and the free samples for it. I loaded the directory for the Poise .wav files into Grace and they play fine.

Addictive Drums 2 is the same. You can't assign an audio track to the output of the cymbals and can only hear them through the Room or Overheads tracks.

You can try Camel Crusher. I haven't used it in years but I remember it was a lot of fun to play with. https://www.audiopluginsforfree.com/camelcrusher/

Scott Garrigus posted an article several years ago at DigiFreq that explained how to make a .bat file that can delete .wov files in the picture cache either automatically or manually. I used to use it years ago but haven't thought about it in a long time. I just created another one and used it to delete the files in my picture cache. Here is the URL for that page if anyone is interested. http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/tip.asp?ID=13

Regarding the M.2 SSD, they use two SATA lanes instead of the one other components use. Something to consider if one plans on putting extra hard drives in the case, or wants to use two DVD drives for copying purposes.

Here's the manual for Addictive Drums 2 if you are interested. https://assets.xlnaudio.com/documents/addictive-drums-manual.pdf

I, too, only use the PRV for MIDI but I use a drum map instead of the keyboard. I've never seen anything grayed out so it's because it's a demo version. Here's a screencap of a slightly altered Fairfax Vol. 2 City Nights Preset. You can add, remove or change any of the kit pieces to any you have available. You can always buy more. You can use any kit piece with any ADpack or preset.

AD2 includes the ability to do a lot of editing and processing to the instruments, so that's where the presets are coming from. It's a lot more than a basic drum vsti. I have several different ADpacks that I got for free, or cheap, when offered by Cakewalk/XLN as promo packages. They all sound different and all are useful for getting different kinds of sounds. Most of the presets have a bit TOO much processing in them for my taste so when I use it I tend to strip it down and use Cakewalk for processing.

Yeah, I use the free guitar and bass plugins with no problem. The samples stay at the location where the zip files are extracted and the .dll files go to the folders I posted earlier unless a different location is used. The only reason I can think of why someone would have trouble is if they deleted, or moved, the extracted folder because that's where the samples are.

I can't find anything in the reference file regarding the Scrub Tool being able to audition MIDI in anything other than the PRV. The problem I have with it is that if I try to scrub an audio track with it Cakewalk freezes, and I get an audio engine stopped message when Cakewalk unfreezes. It works fine in the PRV and nowhere else.

It's a great tool. I use it in every project.

That's what I would try. The FX Velocity tool can limit the velocity range either destructively or non-destructively.

Can you post a screencap where your system isn't reserving 8 GB of memory?

So, your system is reserving 8GB of RAM whether or not you are running Cakewalk?

Could you post a screencap of that when you aren't running Cakewalk?

Out of 64 GB RAM I only have 50.8 MB Hardware Reserved RAM, and running Cakewalk has no effect on that number.

Could one avoid the problems by routing the tracks to the same bus and automating the bus?

Here is an image of the Mixing Latency in the Driver Settings in Preferences. Where is your Buffer Size Slider?