Kevin Walsh

Thanks for chiming in, scook, I knew you'd know something, and thank you for the link So the dotted line indicates that there is no automation data present along the dotted segment, and the parameter that the envelope is bound to is not changed by a dotted line, I get that. I don't see why the distinction between a solid automation line and a dotted one is important to me when I'm working on a track. Is there some intrinsic value to me in choosing to do a jump rather than say, having just inserting a vertical set of nodes on a solid automation line?

Well, I already threw my hat in the ring for the Audient ID-22, which I dearly love. Audient has definitely nailed the preamp thing, the difference between my old MOTU 8pre and the Focusrite Solo v2 I bought on a whim at GC several years ago is quite noticeable to my battered old ears. As for the latency, the best thing I can say is that I no longer futz with the settings the way I used to. It just works and works well. But then I don't really need 5ms roundtrip speeds in my workflow either. I'd say get them both and ship back the one you don't want but that wouldn't be ethical, would it?

I've been testing the next early release (and wow, it's nice) and I found a small defect that's triggered by the unexpected presence of a segment of dotted-line automation. The developers were all over it but it got me to thinking about these things. I've been seeing these dotted line automation envelope things for a long time and never really understood what their purpose is or how they get created. They seem to breed like bunnies. So I spent a bit of time this morning trying to find information on automation envelopes and these mysterious dotted-line segments, but I couldn't find any real discussion about the circumstances under which they are created and what purpose they serve. Can anybody point me to some documentation, or maybe have some insider knowledge?

When you created the section, how did you insure that it was from 1:01:000 to 5:01:000?

Love these tunes, I studied Mississippi John Hurt quite a few years ago now. I might still be able to play Spikedriver Blues if I give myself a few days of plunking on it. The sound is great as is the playing! I do hear some distortion on the bass notes on the first track. I don't know if it's my listening set up or the recording, but it's something you might want to check in a few different contexts (assuming you haven't already done that.) Love this stuff!

You sound pretty tech-savvy, so I apologize in advance if I'm telling you stuff you already know. If good DAW performance was determined by your CPU's speed and processing power and by the amount of system memory you have, none of us would have DPC latency problems. Most PC's are not built for audio production, nor are they tuned to optimize audio processing in the system. I'll bet your PC absolutely screams at web browsing, watching videos, reading email and using Microsoft Office, though, because odds are that's what it's built to be best at. If you want to get great performance as a DAW, changes in hardware and software configurations will help you get there. The built-in sound card in PC's is designed primarily for audio playback. You can find amazingly decent audio interfaces with quality ASIO drivers (that completely bypass the Windows audio driver stack) for reasonably low prices these days, many with MIDI interfaces and XLR mic and instrument inputs included. You're in a much better position to achieve the kind of audio performance you need with an audio device built for the kind of work you're doing. And I think it bears repeating, some NVidia graphics cards, particularly ones of the GTX lineage (according to net lore and my own personal experience) are often reported to be not terribly DAW friendly when it comes to DPC. I pulled my GTX960 from my system and installed a Radeon RX 580 graphics card and very nearly burst into tears when I ran Latency Mon. Seriously. I still get the sniffles when I think about it. I do hope that you find the performance you're looking for with the set up you have.

HDAudBus.sys is the high definition audio driver for your computer. Something prevented the audio device from completing it's operation in time for real time audio to run glitch free, and the issue occurred while HDAudBus code was executing so it's possible that the issue is with the software or configuration associated with that device. The trick is now figuring out what the problem really is. I'd look into (Google) issues others have had with DPC latency on the specific device you're using, perhaps also the specific system. It's likely that others with similar hardware configurations are experiencing the same problem. The DPC performance on your system is completely independent of Cakewalk, and you should see LatencyMon report any problems with audio performance due to poor DPC latency whether or not Cakewalk is using the device. There are other more generic steps you can take. For example, since you're using the Realtek audio device, you might make sure that other audio devices such as the HD audio device on your graphics card is disabled. You can do this in Device Manager. Incidentally, to be clear, I was not recommending using Realtek's ASIO driver, and I couldn't find any reference about it by @scook so I can't say whether or not I agree with his position. I have no experience using a Realtek sound card with Cakewalk, but I have used many decent USB and Firewire devices with Cakewalk and have dealt with many dropout issues before, mostly unsuccessfully until (as I said above) I replaced my old NVidia card.

I use my phone's voice recorder built-in app. I don't think it allows folder creation/navigation but that's something you could do with a file manager outside the app easily enough, and my phone has plenty of storage for that stuff. I have a Samsun S10e. The built in mic has great quality for a phone and it's more than adequate and damned handy. As for organizing, I don't do that on my phone. I load them up to my computer every couple of days and clean then off my phone. Once they're on my computer I typically spend a couple of hours going through them, tossing out the crap and organizing ones with promise into folders. It works well and it's fast and convenient. A friend of mine has an old Tascam 8 track deck that he uses. I can't imagine using that bulky old thing. There's also the Zoom devices that do allow file management. I have one of those and they're great for band rehearsals. I have one with 4 XLR inputs plus the stereo condenser mic pair mounted on the device. They sound fantastic for that, but I've found it too cumbersome for capturing those fast-moving ideas that pop into my head and then all too quickly out again. Good luck!

I finally ended up replacing my NVidia GPU with an AMD GPU after years of intermittent dropouts and running at 1024 buffers (ASIO) just to be able to get anything done. Real time monitoring? Puh-leaze. Multiple computers and audio interfaces didn't solve the problem. I had pretty much come to the conclusion that it was Cakewalk, but I wasn't going to quit using my favorite DAW. I finally realized that I'd been bringing that old NVidia graphics adapter along in every build all this time. Runs great now. Doh. Anyway, LatencyMon is your best bet to get some insight into what causes the drop outs. Obtaining, installing and running the program is easy. Let it run for some time to get a good idea of what is happening on your machine. Post your results here and you might even have someone who knows what they're talking about see what the problem is. And if possible, I recommend finding yourself an inexpensive USB audio/MIDI interface with a true ASIO driver. It will at lease eliminate the sound device as the source of the problem and I you might find that you have better results than with a built-in sound card.

Great stuff!

You definitely have something going on with you 80's covers, really enjoyed it. And my wife really likes this. She spent 80's in dance clubs so she knows good 80's music.

Great melody! Great mix! Great singing! Great pop!

I agree, great vocals that deserve to be heard!

I'm grateful you guys are chiming in! Thanks DeeringAmps-tom for your kind words, it was a bit of a scary deal for me to make that video since I've not been a solo performer before, and getting a start with music pretty late in life hasn't done much for my confidence in what I'm writing or how well I can perform it. emeraldsould-Tom, you're raising exactly the kinds of issues that I struggled with on this mix. The lead vocal and guitar were done with the same mic and are the same track, so it's unclear how I can follow your advice with ducking the guitar while singing. (Duh, unless I just play quieter, lol). Perhaps having two mics, one predominantly guitar and one mostly vocals? Again, you input is very much appreciated!

Loved this song, Lynn! You have a great rock voice, in the same family with Peter Frampton I think, and this song suits it well. Love the guitar playing wherever it sits in the mix, and the changes are great fun to anticipate. Two thumbs and two toes up!

Pretty freakin' great cover, and a very, very polished mix. Hang in there, kid, I just know you've got what it takes to make it in this biz.

Great job! Love me some Bowie.

Really nice sounds, much too soothing for the end.

True enough but USB Midi inputs are becoming commodity devices, they're cheap and they're everywhere. I have a lovely little wireless USB device that I use for my Behringer FCB1010 foot controller that works great.

Yes, it's good to know what you need first. That said I love my Audient ID-22. Probably not the fastest in terms of latency but quite good enough for me and it sounds really very nice. The improvement in quality was completely obvious to even my poor ears after my old Firewire MOTU 8pre and the USB Focusrite 2i2 solo (2nd gen.) I briefly tried out.

I know I posted this before, but this is a bit of a different take. A few folks and I talked about recording and posting some original songs that we've never really performed before and I picked this one. Truth is, I've never recorded an actual performance of any song I've written. I always recorded one track at a time in pieces and parts and once they're done, it's damned rare that they ever see the light of day again. So I took a deep breath and after a couple of run-throughs as rehearsal, I fired up my Logitech HD Pro WebCam C910 and let her rip. As you can see in the video (sort of) I used a Microphone-Parts T12 mic into an Audient ID22 interface and right on in to Cakewalk. I did two tracks, one with me on vocals and guitar (a Martin D-16GT) and one with me doing a harmony part. I did have an audio output from the web cam but I did not use it. It was a bit of a pain getting the audio and video lined up, but mixing is much easier with only one or two tracks. A compressor, a little reverb, some EQ and Izotope's Ozone 9 Maximizer and this is what came out. It's a pretty rough but it was a lot of fun doing it. I'd appreciate any feedback on mic placement, eq and any other recording technique that comes to mind.

I have a Ryzen 7 3950x system with an Audient ID-22 usb interface. I'm also running the early adopter release of Cakewalk (05 I think). Did the 2004 upgrade on Friday and everything runs real nice so far.

Grr. This is happening to me now with both Rapture Session and Rapture Pro. Offline activation doesn't work either. Dimension Pro and other SPLAT-associated synths work fine. (So far.) Is there a fix available for this yet?

Thanks, Jon, I appreciate you sharing the information you managed to get. In the immortal words of Danny Kaye, "DAW latency concerns us all."

It would be useful if you were to share with us what you've learned.