RexRed

I welcome your honest critique Jack, I have found it very useful in shaping the music and getting it polished. The bass comment you made I should have realized that myself. I usually make two bass lines and interleave them every 4 or 8 bars so a song does not get monotonous. Since I played this on the bass I sort of forgot my method here. You put me right back on track. Your other suggestions all got some attention also. Best to you and thanks for your insight, it is a great resource for my efforts! Take care and hope to hear from you soon (on my next song). ???✨ Best to you all! RexRed

Okay version 9 just went up. I did a final remix and fixed the rhythm guitars. This song has all three telecaster, semi hollow body electric (P9s) and 12 string guitar rhythms. The rhythms were all over the place and I fixed the timing so they track together. When they were out of sync they sounded distant and metallic like they were fighting each other with phase. This gave the song a sort of echo that sounded like too much reverb and bad EQ. Wishy washy mash of sounds. Now it seems right, sort of creamy and pad like. I fixed a lot of other stuff, drum volumes, bass riff volumes micromanaged most elements and remastered it. Fixed vocal timing. Unless something stands right out I think it is done for now. Thanks again for your help peeps! Best to you all! RexRed

Thank you Nio! ?✨

I changed the bassline in some spots (about half of them) to a different pattern with less notes. I hope you like the change peeps! I am hopefully going to move on now to a different song I just wrote. Thanks for the help, it is always a pleasure! ???

Hello David, that is a Les Paul "style" guitar (2 humbuckers). I was thinking of using a Strat but my hand just grabbed the Les Paul and so I went with that. Thanks for the awesome comments peeps. I have been listening to the bass line and I know what you are all referring to. The bass seems to have an overpowering and distractive vibe to it. I'm considering my options right now. One option is to turn it down. That could lessen the warmth factor it (basses in general) adds to the song. Another option is try and EQ it to make it more distant. Drop the midrange. Another option is to take out a few notes. Simplify it in areas and then only let the current base note arrangement stand in certain areas like the chorus. I am leaning towards the last option because it also has a repetitive feel that I would like to fix also. I will update you when I get a chance to address this issue with some changes. Currently it is "okay" the way it is but fixing the bass is something I feel it really needs. Thanks a lot for the critiques/suggestions, it is helps a lot in getting these songs right. My problem was I was using my big 15 inch speakers to monitor the song and the bass problem is more apparent in my earbuds. So, I will fix this. Thanks for any song purchases, someone has been buying one song a day for months. Kudos to you! ? If you purchase a song, that entitles you to download subsequent revisions also. Revisions usually have a consecutive number in the filename because I replace the file. This song is up to revision 7 already. I revise my catalogue often to fix problems that arise or become apparent over time. If you see/hear any more songs in my catalogue that could use some love, feel free to speak up! ReverbNation is the dynamic and ever changing place to purchase these songs because I am constantly refining them there. Purchasing one song gives you access to all future versions of that song. Best Regards! RexRed

Thanks JohnBee and Jack! I just bought a cheap new bass guitar and I am finding that real bass is a great addition to my songs. It is amazing what you can find new on Amazon for around 100 dollars. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MZTXSH8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00 This thing is more beautiful in person than it is in the Amazon photos. Once again Jack you always come through with a very spot on critique. I thank you for your honesty, it is very helpful indeed. Back to Cakewalk to fix stuff. ??

Very nice cinematic feel, would fit well in a film or just relaxing music to garden to. Great work bdickens! ?

Hey awesome Cakewalk peeps! Here is my latest song. It is not finished yet, this is the first mixdown of the song. It needs some cymbal crashes and drum rolls yet. Your critiques are welcome! Best to you! RexRed

After buying two UMC 1820s for nearly 600 dollars I emailed Behringer asking for a simple block diagram of the device and they replied, "We only provide block diagrams to "partners" not customers". ...out of 40 years I have never bought a mixer without a block diagram. Many mixers have them printed somewhere on the mixer itself! A device as complex as this and no signal flow diagram? I have a month to return them to Amazon...

That is amazing information SCook! I am finding that ASIO is the only driver that is viable in my case. With broadcast, zero (or close to zero) latency is of the greatest concern so I have synchronization between audio and video sources. The end product must have the least amount of latency as possible. From my perspective everything must be built from ASIO on up. I am finding there is a lot of incorrect information out there. People tout certain products to consumers to get video views even though those products are not really feasible in a real-time broadcast situation. The actual way to do live broadcast is perhaps one of the best kept secrets. There are hundreds of ways to set up a broadcast station, using dual computers and then when you also broadcast in 4k, everything becomes even more specific due to the large data throughput. It seems out of hundreds if not more options there is only one right way to do it. That way is not necessarily found in any how-to video. You have to stumble upon it through trial and error. Once you find how it is done then it is up to you if you want to share that hard earned process with others. ?

Okay I just got the MME 32 drivers to work. I am getting 20ms latency. This is a whole new ball of wax.

Thank for that helpful info SCook. What are the best drivers to get both low latency and be able to route things out to other devices? I included this image it pops up as an option in the drive settings. I am wondering if the Behringer has the same option. I toggled the output to 3 + 4 and now the outputs done seem to show up in Windows sound settings. I am trying to figure this all out. Every time I go to steam live it takes me sometimes up to 2 hours to get all my ins and outs and audio routed. I stream games, stream live sessions of Cakewalk and stream while i work on 3d art, all of these require a different setup due to different audio routing arrays. Having all of my audio interfaces that I am using sync to a certain device's clock does not seem to be that much of a problem. Though, I am not sure of that either. Signal Flow Roland Quad Capture

I am seeing a SPDIF out RCA jack it says 9/10. I bet that is digital out and can be set to allow a second stereo pair to exit the box.

"Mike" (reviewer) wrote this on Sweetwater. You will not find in any literature that this device cannot run multiple stereo outputs simultaneously. Only one at a time. I wanted to be able to run multiple stereo pairs out of the umc 1820 interface so I could feed one stereo pair to my rack delay and cabzeus separately for guitar then into my mixer and run the other line outs straight to my mixer. Not happening. What good are all those outputs without being able to run them simultaneously?? Any additional effects better be in front of the interface or a plug in because its all coming out one output pair. On the plus side this thing sounds great. Better than my old interface which was a surprise since it was what I thought about as good as it gets. If not for the sound improvement this would be a complete waste of my money since it does not do anymore than my old one. if only it had simultaneous output pairs it would be the solution to all my problems. Apparently this issue is not just limited to Behringer umc 1820. Might need an interface/mixer combo for this to work. lots more money of course. Comment: This could be a deal breaker. Cakewalk should really be able to use multiple sound devices at once. Problem solved... I feel like we are in the dinosaur age.

Thanks Deering for that tip, RME UFX, 12 in (8 line, 4 mic pres) 8 out! Very pricy interface and it goes to 192khz but I never go above 96khz anyway. It is a hard choice... I spent around $550 for two of the Behringer AI's. Having the line/instrument switch is nice, it allows me to send audio from one box to the other. Also having two headphone jacks with independent volumes are a major perk! I like the sound of the preamps too! They have a warm sound. I hear they are great as long as I do not over push them or rather back off them a little. I think I got overcharged a bit for them on Amazon but not by much. (Probably $50 bucks each) The times we live in. I hope the drivers are not totally bare bones but I think that will be the case. I expect them to work well though. I don't think they will have a looping feature but with 8 ins and outs I should be able to route most of my needs. I am tired of jumping hoops to route things with a single stereo in and out. I am constantly rerouting things and then setting them back changing between each streaming environment. Now I can arrive at an ultimate setup and just leave it. Flip a switch and broadcast and all of my audio sources are always just there.

I am trying to get things to pipe out of Cakewalk to different outputs. For the longest time I have not used the digital output 3 + 4 on the Roland Quad-Capture because I had to buy separate hardware to use it. Well I bought a digital to RCA/headphone box. Now I have an RCA chord going from the digital output of the Quad Capture to the digital input of the converter box. I have headphones plugged into the converter box monitoring the audio being sent out of the Quad Capture. Much to my disappointment, it seems I can only send out the main out of Cakewalk to either output. I expected that if I sent one track output to 3 + 4 and another track output to 1 + 2 I would only hear each track respectively isolated in each output signal. What is happening is I can only send out to 1 + 2 and that is heard on both outputs. If I send the track or master to the 3 + 4 output the output is silent. What am I doing wrong? Or, can Cakewalk only send out to one stereo output and that is it? It seems to be defaulting to 1 + 2 UPDATE I figured it out. In the Quad-Capture driver menu there is a dropdown that allows you to select the digital out input. You can select Main, 1 + 2 or 3 + 4. When I select 3 + 4 then the tracks I have selected to output to 3 + 4 are only heard on the 3 + 4 output. This allows me to pipe out certain tracks to 1 + 2 and 3 + 4. What a relief!

I took the plunge and bought two of these, one for each computer. BEHRINGER U-Phoria UMC1820 I am making the assumption that at least two stereo outputs will show up in Voice Meeter Potato. I hope I can route just about anything with these. It is complicated trying to stream live when you are recording tracks, especially vocal tracks. How do you handle the vocal record tracking mic? When you also need a mic to talk to people too? You have to mute one mic when you record so the audio is not doubled and then there is the latency problem where the tracking mic may not be at the same timestamp as the mic routing to the camera and out to the 4k capture. I am a bit worried that even these devices are not going to do what I need. The ability to tap and monitor the vocal mic out of the back of the unit may be what I need.

I am looking for a new audio interface. I really don't expect to need more than 8 inputs/outputs The problem is they all say stuff like 8 in and 8 outputs. But they all get tricky from there on in. I use Voice Meeter Potato to route virtual inputs through my DAW to another streaming computer and though they say they have 8 outputs (depending on the model), Usually they only show up with one or two stereo inputs in Voice Meeter Potato. Sometimes a Main input also which combines all outputs. I am looking for an 8 input and 8 or 4 output audio interface that has 4 "virtual" stereo outputs that I could route out of Cakewalk to Voice Meeter independently. They make it seem like you are getting 8 outputs but really they are only often giving you one or two virtual stereo outputs into windows through USB. Does anyone know of an 8 in 4 out to Windows with 4 stereo outputs that would show up in Voice Meeter Potato? And then what about a USB mixer instead? Are there any mixers that have 4 Widows stereo outputs? There is the issue of latency and also grounding issues, hooking audio from one computer to another. (it boggles me) I am thinking about buying the same audio interface each for both computers so I can route audio separately at will from either computer back and forth. Any ideas here?

I love it, very show tune! Reminds me of a "Singing in the Rain" style song! Very nice production! A jazzy arrangement and a lovely sentimental love song! Very nice work Jack! ???

This song has a Dimension Pro Grand Piano 3v 3m rt sim 230.2MB And the Modern Harpejji (Impact Sound Works) https://impactsoundworks.com/product/modern-harpejji/ Lounge Lizard EP An acoustic guitar rhythm I played Guitar lead is a Telecaster style guitar I played (Guitar Rig 6 preset) Pedal Steel is Wavelore VST Pedal Steel Drums Addictive Drums Fairfax Kit Vol 1 Vocals sung without a windscreen (just trying it) Bass Scarbee Jay-Bass both pickups Pads UVI Synth Anthology (still need to add drum rolls and cymbals)

I added the guitar leads, I am not all that pleased with it but... I cut out most of the pedal steel and turned up what I did not cut out. Fixed a bunch of other stuff.

Hey awesome Cakewalk peeps! Here is a work in progress new song! Currently it is a train wreck. Yes, it has a pedal steel in it but it sounds so bad I turned it WAY down. I couldn't find any pedal steel samples in this weird key, F# Why did I make it in F#? I thought it was in G. Oh well, I have not added a solo instrumental yet, I am thinking of an electric guitar solo. It needs a lot of editing and it seems to drift on aimlessly. I did not write the lyrics and then make it (which is weird). I wrote the lyrics as I was laying down the vocals. Sing a few lines and write some more... etc. I can't remember ever doing that before. Any and all comments are welcome. No drum rolls or cymbals yet. It seems like a goopy mess to me right now but it has its promise. I have been thinking of adding finger cymbals played by Buddhist monks but I have yet to find samples of that also. (just kidding) Hope you like what I have so far! Best to you peeps! Red

I lowered the volume of the intro violin and panned it to the side and panned the pedal steel center. I edited the vocals more and turned down the rhythmic synth, it was too loud and distracting. Thanks Kurt for your insightful suggestions which have helped greatly in this song! I think I will give it some time to incubate and maybe look at it again later. Best to you all Cakewalk peeps!

Glenn that was a very precise and well thought out process of exactly how it works and what I am doing. I wish my workflow was such that my tracking was all done before I applied any effects. I get bit by the curiosity bug of, I wonder what this will all sound like under some gluey compression? ...and then I am off to the races to catch up with the latency. Glenn you explained it better than what my understanding of this all was. The part about certain effects having different latency and moving the entire project to a new timing was very informative. Things I experience but never really thought it through. I do use a lot of master busses and when i turn on Fab Filter L2 oversampling this is the most extreme case of all. Turning everything off is the work around that suits me best. If there is still a tiny bit of latency after all of that knowing the PDC (stand for, "pretty damned quick") button exists is good info too! I really wish a second audio interface would remedy this so I could just leave the effects on. I am not lazy or anything and bypassing the effects is not that big of a deal. I have a certain lead guitar player who won't come by and record anymore. He hates the latency and I think it is a kind of phobia of his or pet quirk. He is not that tech savvy and I think he distrusts my ability because of this. I think he assumes he will not have this issue with his Apple laptop. lol At first it was something that threw me for a loop and I had to always scramble to figure out how to bring the latency down. Now I can usually get a decent latency after tweaking a few things but it is usually still a bit noticeable when I have a full project loaded. I will see how the PDC button works in those situations. I assume that if I have everything bypassed and then use the PDC button that I will not encounter any syncing issues. Then I should be able to disable the PDC and then reenable my effects. I will try this. This has been a very good thread and experience for me on a quite complex and debated topic. I think beginner Cakewalk users have it really hard understanding latency and how to set it. I do not envy them during this process of learning. We need a magic bullet here. Like enabling two sound cards in Cakewalk... If two cards could sync and one could handle tracking that would be so fine! I don't think Windows will even recognize two audio interfaces at once. Last time I tried plugging two USB AIs in, if i recall correctly, one did not appear in my device manager. It will recognize two sound cards but Cakewalk will only allow one to be selected in the audio preferences. That is the part that I wish could be developed if it is even logistically possible... It seems the project would still be out of sync with the effects present in the mix. My brain is boggled by all of this. I wish I understood this more. ?

Okay, this song has consumed two more day of my life... I must say all of your suggestions were very helpful! This song was far from done and I simply dropped it and moved on. If it had not been for all of the suggestions I would probably not have gone the extra mile and finished this song. There may still be some problems but they are tiny tweaks that I can go in and fix when my ears are rested. I added a lot of complex pedal steel parts. And yes I played a piano part, it is not as "gran old opry" as I would have liked but it does have some complexity. I added different pads to each section to give the sections their own unique character. I took the flange off my vocal which was making is sound harsh and lifeless. I added real-time tuning to the backup vocals and main vocal. I also added vocal rider to all of the vocal tracks, recorded vocal rider envelopes and hand edited them. The drums may still be a bit muffled, they are improved over what they were though. I did edit them. The new bass I changed has more punch and a lot more warmth. The vocal may still be a bit up front but it is a lot better than it was. Let me know what you think. I am glad this song got more work, I think it is a nice song and really needs to be made right. Best to you all and thanks again for making me go back and fix it better.