scook

It is  a pretty good idea to use a master bus and have all audio and instrument tracks ultimately flow through it.

All the project templates bundled with CbB have a master bus set up.

The bus pane is at the bottom of the track view. 

SHIFT+B toggles bus display. There is also a button below to the right side of the bus headers to toggle the display too.

Folders are not supported for project templates.

They are supported for track templated.

Track templates may contain as many tracks, plug-ins and references to buses as necessary.

If you prefer not to use track templates, instead of project templates create empty projects.

Then create new projects by opening an empty project and immediately "Save As" a new project.

Projects may be nested as deep as desired.

Converting 16bit files to 24bit files does not do a thing to the sound of the files. 

The top one is used with VST3 format synths.

The other is used with VST2 format synths.

Exporting at 24bit is less than the internal mix. Try with dithering and without. Try the different dithering algorithms. See if it makes a difference with your own projects. The "rule" is always dither when lowering bit depth but, it often makes no audible difference.

In addition to auto-save, set up versioning see http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=0x20A26

File > Revert to select and load a previously saved version.

10 minutes ago, 57Gregy said:

I don't think you will find complete song drum loops

Groove Monkee includes a few in their MIDI packs.

I can't read the images but Zero Controllers When Play Stops is one potential source of CC data when the transport stops.

6 minutes ago, Richard Burns said:

Would you possibly be able to give me an example of files that the DAW can create in a project that would use the Render Bit Depth? I understand what you're saying but  I think an example would help me to get my head around how it works.

• Freezing and Bouncing tracks - both of these apply effects and generate audio from MIDI using softsynths. Bounce can also mix down multiple tracks to a single track.
• Destructive edits - any time an audio clip is edited in a way causing it to be written to disk such as shortening a clip and throwing away the unused part (aka applying trimming). Destructively applying plug-ins. Normalizing a clip.
• Exporting files

14 minutes ago, Richard Burns said:

I see... So as there are multiple bit depths used within the project, should i be going off the highest one that will be used in the project to know if i will be exporting  the final version at a lower / reduced Bit rate overall? So for example, if i want to export the final version at 24 Bit depth, i know that the project will contain some elements with bit depths at 32, as that is what the Render Bit Depth is set at. So by this logic, i would be exporting the final version at a lower bit depth. Is this assumption correct?

Internally, the DAW reads all the audio clips and gets all the audio data from the synths and mixes this together using 32 or 64bit math. This data is sent to the export process. By default, export uses the Render Bit Depth to write out the file; however, this may be overridden in the export dialog. If exporting a 24bit file, the extra info in the data stream has to be dealt with in some fashion. This means either truncating or dithering.

42 minutes ago, Richard Burns said:

Even if the record & audio driver  bit depth is set at 16 or 24 Bit,  the moment you apply any form of processing or editing in the daw (automation, adding an fx, etc) it's going to be treated as 32 bit, due to the Render Bit depth. 

The audio engine runs at 32 or 64 bit depending on the 64bit Double Precision Engine setting in preferences. When the DAW creates files other than recording or importing, it uses the Render Bit Depth.

42 minutes ago, Richard Burns said:

By extension of this, am i right in assuming i should be looking at the Render Bit Depth to know what my overall mix / project is? This is important to know due to knowing if i need to apply Dithering or not to my final "master" export.

Unlike sample rate, projects can have clips at a variety of bit depths. As mentioned before, the Render Bit Depth is used any time files are written to disk except when recording or importing. Recording and importing have their own settings on the same preference page.

42 minutes ago, Richard Burns said:

Also, should i leave my Render Bit Depth at 32 bit and not just set all of these 3 settings at 24 bit?  I've heard having the render bit depth at 32 is beneficial during the mixing process?

Use either 32 or 64 for Render Bit Depth. The default is 32.

The Record Bit Depth should be set to agree with the Audio Driver Bit Depth. By default, Record Bit Depth is 16 but most ASIO drivers use 24. Some interfaces with built-in DSP are locked at 32.

I leave the Import Bit Depth at "Original." Cannot think of a reason to change this. If necessary, the sample rate will be altered to the project sample rate but the DAW can handle clips at different bit depths.

42 minutes ago, Richard Burns said:

Lastly, I've found that there seems to be a massive debate on whether you need to dither from 32 bit to 24 and this was reflected in your post. So In your experience, would you suggest not dithering at all in this instance and only when going down to 16 Bit. I've heard a range of things on this subject, such as it causing more harm than good when dithering from 32 bit to 24 but i could use some guidance on it.

Dithering 32/64 floating point to 24bit may matter for some genres and listening environments but I have my doubts. That said, if this is the final export, dithering won't hurt. Try it and see. In some cases it may not even matter when going to 16bit. It really depends on the material and the final audio format. I rarely export 16bit anymore. When I do, I use dithering. 

Bottom line, dithering should be done at most one time. It is most often used when creating 16bit files but there is no harm using anytime the bit depth is being reduced.

Here is the section from the Adaptive Limiter documentation on its lookahead buffer

Quote

Lookahead

The Adaptive Limiter uses look-ahead peak detection to reduce the gain just before a peak. Lookahead peak detection can prevent clipping, and lets you preserve transients, while still avoiding ultra-fast attack times thatmight cause distortion or aliasing.

The Lookahead control lets you specify how far in advance the limiter should start reacting before gain change is

actually detected.

The Lookahead settings are as follows:

• Minimum = 1.5 ms at 44.1 kHz sample rate (662 samples)
• Low = 3 ms at 44.1 kHz sample rate (1323 samples)
• Medium = 5 ms at 44.1 kHz sample rate (2205 samples)
• High = 10 ms at 44.1 kHz sample rate (4410 samples)

The setting is on the expert menu.

40 minutes ago, Richard Burns said:

So should I export at 16 bit (as that’s what the tracks are recorded at)? Or should I export at 24 bit (as that is what the audio driver is set to). Or, should I export to 24 bit and apply dithering because the Render Bit depth is set at 32? Are elements of my project going to be at 32 bit due to this, meaning if I export to 24 bit without applying dithering, I could get unwanted artefacts or a bad sound?

Unless you plan on taking the export into another tool such as Ozone or and audio editor for additional processing, export to the bit depth you plan on using while listening. 

If exporting for additional processing, export at the render bit depth.

Dithering, if done at all, should happen one time, when creating the final version of the file.

Record bit depth is used for ... recording new clips. Usually, this should be set the same as the audio driver bit depth.

Render bit depth is used when the DAW creates clips by some type of processing such as freezing, bouncing and exporting clips. IOW, everything except recording and importing.

Dithering is usually performed when going from a higher bit depth to a lower one such as 32bit to 16bit. So by this "rule" going from 32bit to 24bit one would apply dithering. That said, there is practically no audible difference creating 24bit files from 32bit (or 64bit) whether dithered or truncated. Do apply dithering when going from anything higher than 16bit down to 16bit. This often does make a noticeable difference.

No Bazille

And it was updated this month

Using anything than needs an elicense?

If so, this was the problem reported in this thread around on page 2

The image shows CbB with a very out of date theme.

SI is likely Studio Instruments, a suite of synths bundled with Cakewalk.

Ezdrummer 2 is a considerable step up from SI-Drums. There is  demo for it.

I do not have FL studio but my understanding of their product line is their plug-in are available in a proprietary format usable in their DAWs and as VST plug-ins for use in other DAWs. The VST format plug-ins are sold separately,

With tooltips enabled, hovering over the  disk space meter shows drive being used.

FL Studio does not need its generic driver.

They install it just in case there is no ASIO driver available.

If you do not want to uninstall the FL Studio ASIO driver, if you rename it or remove the reference to it from the registry so that Cakewalk will not see it. You can always restore the file name or registry entry at a later date if necessary.

The registry entry where ASIO drivers are stored is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO

There is one record for each driver.

WASAPI exclusive has adjustable latency but will not allow any other program access to the sound chip while Cakewalk is running.

There are two generic ASIO drivers installed.

They are likely conflicting with each other. Notice how the input on ASIO4All shows "Not Connected."

If you must use a generic ASIO driver (not necessary for CbB) pick one and uninstall the other.

Chances are ASIO4All is the better choice.

That said, neither is a true driver. They both wrap Windows WDM drivers and present them to ASIO hosts as ASIO drivers.

As mention above, WASAPI shared and exclusive mode may work better for Cakewalk. It does not require an ASIO driver.

10 minutes ago, Alexandre Falcão Viriato Filho said:

 actually giving me an error dialog this time.

This is not very helpful.

Images of errors and setup screens mentioned above may be  helpful

Bit depth does not matter.

Sample rate does.

14 hours ago, Mark Ellis said:

I’m able to select and hear any of SynthMaster’s sounds in its own browser, but I’m still not seeing how to add 1 of its sounds to a project I’m working on.

It's all about MIDI. Add the synth as an instrument or audio+MIDI track pair, load a preset from the synth preset browser and enter/record some MIDI data in the instrument/MIDI track.

The full expression in  Using the Smart Tool om automation for Right-Click is "Drag to lasso select" 

This is the method I was trying to describe.