Craig Anderton

96 kHz can make a major improvement for sounds generated inside a computer, like virtual instruments and amp sims, as well as limiters with super-fast attack times. This is because it eliminates foldover distortion (which BTW 48 kHz will not do as effectively). So it's easy to make a case for recording and mixing at 96 kHz, because of the improvement in sound quality. Sonar was the first DAW to recognize this by including upsampling, which I had suggested to Noel and he not only ran with it, but simplified how to do it. However...in terms of a delivery medium, I've done a lot of classical sessions at 96 kHz with delicate acoustic sounds, reverb tails, etc., as well as some rock and EDM. I have yet to find anyone who can reliably (better than chance) differentiate between audio recorded at 96 kHz and played back at 96 kHz, vs. audio recorded at 96 kHz and played back at 44.1 kHz. So when it comes to a playback, delivery medium, I think Nyquist nailed it. But when it comes to recording, 96 kHz is a good way to prevent foldover distortion. I'll take it one step further. 192 kHz can sound even better than 96 kHz for sounds generated "in the box" (again, if something acoustic or electric is coming in via an audio interface, it doesn't matter). But doing a multitrack session at 192 kHz is highly impractical. It makes a lot more sense to do it at 44.1 kHz (or 48 kHz or 96 kHz, if that's how you roll), and selectively upsample those parts that benefit from higher sample rates. For more on the topic, check out the article Software Tech: 96 kHz vs. 44.1 kHz—Let’s Settle This. For a demo of the difference that higher sample rates make to virtual instruments, check out this video.

Well, then I give them a file mastered for vinyl...having been brought up in vinyl world, I know how to do it

With USB, I'm not sure the interface will be the bottleneck in your system. I use a 6|8 when on the road for workshops and seminars. You will get lower latency with Thunderbolt, or an interface that hooks directly into the PCI bus (which is basically the same as Thunderbolt).

Good question. I suspect it's because some people experience "the Spinal Tap" effect, where if an amp knob goes up to 11, it MUST be better than an amp knob that only goes up to 10. I've met quite a few people who consider it a more "professional" rate, so maybe it's just a psychological thing. Regardless, I'm a "the customer is always right" kinda guy when you're handing off files. If someone wants 48 kHz, I give them 48 kHz.

I wouldn't worry about it. If SoundCloud wants 48 kHz, then render the output at 48 kHz. The quality of Ozone's sample rate conversion is such that no one will hear a difference anyway.

Well there is that Even people who use other software will surely recognize that CbB has some unique attributes, and add it to their toolkit. Just waiting around for AAF...

And don't forget you can set the Desktop as one of the locations in the Browser's drop-down menu. Since doing that, I pretty much use the Browser for all dragging and dropping.

My general rule is it's okay to mention other programs if they have elements that complement CbB. I've been using Sonar since version and Studio One's project page since version 1. The project page is much simpler than the song page. You might also want to read up on LUFS as well for info on balancing levels.

I don't know if you owned Sonar previously so therefore have access to the wealth of plug-ins, but if you do, I think you'll find this article helpful. Even if you have only CbB, I still think the comments on workflow might help, and of course, the Sonitus effects can do most of what you need. I also wrote an article on how to do continuous, DJ-style mixes in Cakewalk, which might be applicable. Cakewalk is not really designed for album assembly, so you'll need a different program for that. For me, the best option is Studio One, but the Artist version doesn't offer this feature so you would need to pay the $$ for the Pro version. On the other hand if you've always wanted a deep editing program, then Magix Sound Forge or Steinberg Wavelab do album assembly as well as editing. The workflow varies for different people. I take non-processed, mixed tracks recorded in Cakewalk, bring them into Studio One's project page, and do any processing there. That way I can use SO's analytics to compare the various tracks in context, as well as its plug-ins. For maximization and dithering, my favorite plug-in is the Waves L3. However, the Adaptive Limiter is excellent if you have it. Hope this helps, I'd be happy to help with any follow-up questions.

There are some subtleties to the whole sample rate process. The interface, CbB preferences, and the project sample rate need to match. It may seem like this is happening, but isn't. Also note that different audio interfaces can interact differently with the system (I don't know if you're using ASIO or Windows drivers). I'm not an expert about this, but it appears that logically enough, CbB always prioritizes the project sample rate. For example, if I set my UA Apollo to 48 kHz and CbB preferences to 48 kHz, but then open a 44.1 kHz project (and note that the projects in the Start Screen have a native sample rate - click on the little circle with the 3 dots in the upper right to see details about the project), CbB will force the interface to 44.1 kHz. When you start a project by going File > New, you can choose the sample rate. If I do that and choose 48 kHz, then the Apollo stays at 48 kHz. As far as conversions are concerned, again, CbB can handle any sample rate, bit depth, or any supported format you throw at it, and it gets converted when brought into the project. If you're bringing in a sample from, for example, a sample library that's at a different sample rate, the original file is NOT overwritten. You can verify this by looking at the line at the bottom of the browser that shows the selected file's rate, bit depth and duration. However, if you save the audio with the project (which I would recommend), then because it's a 48 kHz project, CbB will save the file you imported into the project in the project folder, at the project's sample rate. Because the file in the browser is not being overwritten, it will remain at its unconverted sample rate. So yes, whenever you bring it into a project or audition it at the project's sample rate, it will need to sample rate convert. If you want to audition files at the project sample rate, then choose "Project Audio Folder" from the browser's drop-down menu. This will show the files in the project that you saved, which will have been converted. Of course, you can also drag these into the project if you want. Giving the example of drum loops, suppose you bring three loops in from the browser to test how they sound and you like them, so you want to drag them in for several other section. You can keep dragging them in from the browser if you want, and they will sample rate convert. But if you save the project with audio, then you bring them in from the project's audio folder, they will already have been sample rate converted. Hope this helps...

There's also the brute force option - hit a sharp drum sound in time with the track, record that to its own track, and use CbB's ability to extract a tempo track from audio.

True, but as I learned...one image is not enough, if it's an image of an operating system that showed no apparent signs of problems, but hosed the system upon being updated.

Hmmm...you may be on to something! I use a LOT of external drives, and also, have three drives inside the computer (in addition to the C : drive) with drive letters assigned. I remember reading something on the web where someone had a problem similar to mine, and unplugging all their internal drives fixed the problems.

Hey all, thanks for your help. I'm glad I started this thread, there's a lot of great information in here. Y'all are the best! So here's the final scoop on what happened: I was able to boot from a Macrium recovery disk generated for my office computer. Apparently the one for the studio computer was somehow corrupted. I re-imaged the drive, and was back at the desktop. However, Windows said the C : drive needed repairs, and to restart. When I did, the repair process was not able to complete. I tried again, and upon rebooting, there was the "required device isn't connected" issue again. So even though the C drive wasn't showing the usual signs of failing, maybe that's what interfered with the Windows update process. I talked to PC Audio Labs. I'll pick up a new C drive tomorrow, and re-image it. However, the image will be of the Windows OS that wouldn't update, so it will be interesting see whether I'll be able to do the official Windows update, or whether there's some intractable problem with the Windows OS on my machine that will require a re-install. Thanks again!! I've learned a lot that will be helpful in the future.

Again, thanks everyone. Mark, the Linux-based option sounds good...now I just need to learn enough to be able to do it. I thought that making images (with Macrium, I've heard Windows backup/restore is funky, even though it worked once for me) and recovery discs would take care of any issues...apparently not. Thankfully, all my data is always backed up, including what's relevant from the ? drive. So at least no data will be gone. It looks like it's time for a complete re-install, unless I can somehow use a working computer to repair the disk that's not working, and repair Windows from a different computer. But that seems like a long shot. Then again, it's about time I had an SSD boot drive Oh well. I wrote a column for Pro Sound News years ago that said making music with computers would continue to get less reliable, and aside from my current experience, there are the "death by a thousand cuts" posts all over the web about problems, bugs, and glitches involved in running music software on a computer. I think that ultimately, the answer is going to be that you have to use hardware that's no more than 2 or 3 years old max, have two computers (one with the bare minimum of software needed to do what you do, the other with more specialized programs and non-music programs), and have all copy protection be licenses on hardware dongles, with backup licenses in the cloud, because you can't trust licenses keyed to specific hardware. I've already "dongled" as many programs as possible when given a choice of a dongle-based or computer-based license. Programs also need to include an easy way to backup all the data stored in folders like Documents (Windows) or Libraries (Mac) so that you can restore your preferences, presets, and other elements that don't install with the program, but are part of your using it.

Well thanks, but it's not fixed. I still can't access the current C drive or any of the programs I use currently, because it won't boot, can't be repaired, and recovery media claims Windows wants to update so the recovery media can't do anything. Maybe if I'd done system restore, like I had the first time there was an update that fried the system, I would have been okay. But then, the procedure would have been: Restore > use computer until Windows forces the same update that screwed it up > restore > use computer until Windows forces the same update that screwed it up > restore > use computer... You get the idea. I feel like I'm an extra in the movie Live Die Repeat aka Edge of Tomorrow.

Update: I verified that the disk itself is fine - so at least the contents like the desktop and such are safe, and I backed up all that stuff a few days ago anyway. My system drive is a removable drive, and I had an ancient failing OS hard disk sitting around (it boots, then starts repairing itself until it hits about 20% or so), and it booted and started its disk repair. So the computer can boot from the C drive, just not the disk with the Windows "update." I doubt it's a hardware problem. Hardware doesn't work magically until Microsoft applies the second in a pair of updates, then fails immediately thereafter, then after a system restore works fine for several days, until Microsoft wants to try the two updates again. Same thing: The first one worked, after a shut down/reboot. The second one hosed the computer. And now, here's the warning from this sad tale: If you reach the troubleshooting screen, use system restore. System restore worked the first time, but the second time I made the mistake of trying to uninstall the feature update instead, and that's what did the final bricking from which there is apparently no recovery. When I try to boot from recovery media, Windows says something to the effect that "an update was in progress and not completed. Remove the media and hit Enter" after which nothing happens and the computer goes into a deep coma. It will not let me use the recovery media. Unless there's some way to fix Windows on an external drive from a system that's running Windows properly, my first call on Monday is going to be to PC Audio Labs, to see if they can figure this out.

You and are are thinking along the same lines...time to start over. Windows 10 has been getting progressively shakier, I think I need new hardware, and a fresh OS install...the hit on my productivity and to my clients will be major, but not as major as the hours and hours (and hours) I've wasted over the past couple months trying to make Windows happy on an older machine.

I am in another room

According to the BIOS, it is. That's why I suspect the media. I just enabled boot from removable media and from USB, so I'm just waiting at this point for my only currently working Windows computer (an ancient ADK laptop from when Windows 7 was new, but is up to date) to create a restore USB drive. I'm currently writing on a MacBook Pro...

Could the problem be that Windows is able to start booting from the C drive, so it ignores the recovery disk, and then can't get any further? But I would think if the optical drive is the boot priority, Windows would pick up on that. I dunno... I'm creating the recovery USB stick now. I'll let you know if it works or not. I'm copying over the system files so it should be able to re-install Windows...although the whole problem started with the update and installing Windows. This isn't the first time this happened. I went through the same cycle before - successful update to 1809, then Windows wanted to do one more update, and hosed the computer. I was only able to fix it by going to a system restore point and get back. But this time, I can't access system restore. Hopefully the recovery disk will be able to.

Unfortunately I bought it while at Gibson, and Gibson email is no longer available to me. At this point I do not mind buying a new copy, the loss in productivity is a major issue.

Possible the recovery disc is defective. Or maybe the motherboard died coincidentally with the update, but the BIOS sees the DVD drive and acknowledges it as the first boot choice.

Thanks John. At this point the product key for the music computer is the victim of three moves. I don't know where it is, all I know is the product ID...and I can't access that without being able to get into properties. Ugh. Hopefully I'll be able to boot from a recovery drive and see what the next step might be.

I have no idea how to check it or restore it. It was probably a mistake to mention two different computers, I'm going to delete the reference to the second once. The problem is I can't do anything with the computer. I have a working laptop that has the latest version of Windows, so I'm going to use that to create a recovery drive and see if I can boot the main music computer from that.