RexRed

I understand most of your points now and your request for more background seems legit. I spend less time "redoing all of my mixing and mastering" than I would constantly rendering mixes only to have to constantly go back and re-render multiple times then set up an entirely new mastering layout I can surgically insert things into the mix while mastering. That is efficient. It is not really redoing my mixing and mastering it is simply slipping in a new item which is usually filling a spot anyway. I choose to differ, I find my workflow efficient and my decision making process is not "horribly" hurt by a workflow that is static and not dynamic. It is just my opinion. I do not have to master out errors, I can mix them out and my mastering then is not fixing sub par mixes. I digress. We need Windows to allow us multiple audio interfaces with timing sync in a project and then the latency problems would be solved. One AI could be used for mixing and one for tracking. Voice Meeter Potato can use virtual sound sources, why can't Cakewalk do this too? Scook that is a great article I will be experimenting with that feature, very helpful indeed! Way back when everyone was calling ProTools the "industry standard" and everyone was buying hype and ridiculously over priced Macs and recording on 8 track cassette, I was using Cakewalk. I had to put up with a lot of sneers and insult for doing so. They referred to themselves as purists. lol I do not have 8 track cassette demos I have Cakewalk demos from all the way back to MSDOS when I synced Cakewalk to my Fostex reel to reel. through SMPTE time code. As soon as Cakewalk went midi my synth samples went hard drive based. A soon as Cakewalk went digital audio, I dropped the reel to reel, everyone was buying DAT machines and 8 track cassettes and mixers... I was buying hard drives and ram. They sneered at me and the insults flew. Eventually you will all be mixing and mastering simultaneously. I don't need to use stems, I have lush projects that contain my tracking, mixes and mastering all in one project. I have total and absolute recall and THAT, is efficiency. ? Thanks for the help on this. The technology for sound modules to sync is available, it should be used to solve the latency problem so we can monitor the recorded material and not the prerecorded material. Thanks for the insight. Because I mix and master simultaneously my mastering really in the end only requires a brick wall and or boost/leveling. When I need to bring a vocal or instrument up out of a mic I simply turn it up... Again, that is efficient. If you want to do great things set your face to the wind...

Thanks for your questions BDickens. I track, mix and master nearly simultaneously, doesn't everyone who has my setup? I usually track first but there are 'many' times when I get to the mastering phase and say, wow a piano or other instrument would sound nice in this song. That happens on nearly every song I make. When I mix and master simultaneously I am only using up about 1 to 6 % of my CPU power. My first Cakewalk I bought was Cakewalk for MSDOS, what kinds of effects? Guitar distortion/overdrive, delays, flanges, reverbs (mostly convolution), doubling, EQs, compressors, tube, console, sidechaining... I use many effects on the tacks and busses (many of them parallel). I usually only use one effect on my mastering bus, a Fab Filter L2 brick wall limiter but sometimes I use Izotope Ozone 9 too. I don't need to do much mastering when I mix and master simultaneously. My audio interface is a Steinberg UR22C. Your questions seem to miss my point... It is about a separate latency buffer for tracking during the mastering phase.

Is there a way to assign priority to one track so I don't have to shut off my effects and everything to get some good latency for midi recording, real-time guitar effects or vocal recording on a certain track? It would be nice if there was a button in Cakewalk on a track that I could click and my midi or vocal recording and effects on that track would receive priority or rather everything else would not. But then that makes me think, what good would be getting better latency out of one track if everything else would get its latency thrown off? I am just tossing this out there and seeing what others do to remedy this? I have a 12 core Intel I9 CPU with an Nvidia 3090 graphics card. It would seem there should be a special tracking buffer optimized for latency with all of this horse power available. I usually click "bypass FX racks of this type" (this throws off all of my mastering volumes) and then open my Audio Interface settings and lower the latency timing. This seems like a terrible way to have to do this every time I want to track another track. Any suggestions or comments? Thanks Cakewalk peeps!

Hey Kurt! I just changed the bass to a fatter rounder sound and I will work on the drums, also adding a lot of pedal steel. I will try an acoustic piano. I can't take out the guitar rhythms, it changes the character of the song too much and leaves a big hole. Will post something sometime today.

Due to your awesome suggestions I have decided to revisit "Let Me Be The One". I have smoothed out the vocal volume fluctuations and brought the vocal down more into the mix. It may still be a bit too hot but I brought the mix up quite a bit. Short of rewriting the song the structure will remain the same but I am putting some thought into making the instrumentation have more dramatic changes. I did turn up some of the subtle instrumentation that was probably not pronounced enough but I am thinking there is semi hollow body guitar rhythm part left and a clean Les Paul rhythm right. They go throughout the whole song. This might be causing the lackluster feel of the instrumentation. I may cut them out in places and add other instruments instead to give the song more changes. I am thinking instead of the rhythm guitars going throughout that maybe a pedal steel in places instead. The pedal steel will come in on the line, there are many roads, and cut out at the chorus line, let me be the one. I replaced the song that was there at the top of the page with the new version and I will let you know when I have another new version with some new instrumentation. Thanks for your help peeps! The suggestions were all great! Oh, and the hook is where I sing, let me be let me be let me be... (like I am saying leave me alone) and then I sing, "the one" (that is the hook) ?

Thanks for the comments and awesome suggestions peeps! ?

Thanks Kurt, the song has some issues and maybe I will go back and address some of them. I have currently moved on, some of these songs take me weeks to make and tie up a lot of my time and I simply have to put them aside and finish work on them at a later date. Thanks for the helpful critique. Best to you! ??

Thanks Jack! Your comment is much appreciated! Best to you buddy!

Hello awesome Cakewalk peeps! Here is my latest song peeps! Hope you like it. Song purchases are appreciated! ? Best to you! RexRed

New song awesome Cakewalk peeps, "Still Holding On". Please enjoy, thanks for listening and for purchases. Lots of love to you! RexRed

Thanks Jack! ??

Hey awesome Cakewalk peeps! Here is my latest new song, just finished it. Please enjoy this music... And thanks for the song purchases. ? (You know who you are) Lots of love ? RexRed

Thanks very much for the compliment Bajan Blue.

Asking splice.com to put a link to FREE Cakewalk would be a way to increase market share...

What an awesome compliment on my song Bjorn! Thanks! ????

Thanks for the nice comments Jack and David! ??? I bought the backup vocals from East West. HOLLYWOOD BACKUP SINGERS features powerful vocals from legendary singers Durga McBroom, Lorelei McBroom, and C.C. White. http://www.soundsonline.com/hollywood-backup-singers

Hey Cakewalk peeps! Here is a new tune I hope you like this piece with a slightly psychedelic edge. All the best to you! RexRed

Thanks Wookiee, disco lives! ?

Thanks Jack for the nice critique! Best to you buddy! ?

Here is my new song Cakewalk peeps! Yes, that is me singing. lol Hope you like it! Rex

Aww, thanks Freddie! Best to you! ??

Thanks Lynn! I appreciate the awesome compliment buddy! Best to you bro! ?? (I am honored you like Eternity!) ?

I just uploaded version 13 of this song a few minutes ago, I added a bit of flange and width to the snare to cut down on the crunch. This song has been rebuilt nearly from the ground up about 6 times, it's had multiple tracks changed and the vocals scrutinized. I think it is finished. I faded the organ in in the intro because, it was too stark just starting out a bit jarring. (which is often the case with intro leads) I've been working on this song for two weeks, I have also been testing out new synths and effects so it has been a learning time too. Had issues with my sound but fixed that. This song has a very silent quality to it and even the tiniest little peck stands out as if it was a brass horn blasting. Cakewalk's sound engine really shines in this piece. I am so enamored by Cakewalk's performance. This mp3 was exported from a 24bit 96khz master. This is also the first song I have finally figured out how to keep my LUFS at -14db Thanks for all the very helpful suggestions on this song Cakewalk peeps!

Well, I figured it out... The problem was not Cakewalk, Windows, Izotope, Codecs, Plugin incompatibility, Vst3 vs Vst2, Melodyne... The problem was I put Blue Cat Gain in the bins of all of my tracks and did not set the unity gain right and the track volume was acting like the moon in front of the sun during an eclipse! The corona was the static spikes, the spikes were coming from all of my tracks when they would peak. After getting the gain in the right ballpark, Cakewalk returned to its wonderful, beautiful self again giving me 96khz of pristine perfect flawless audio. It is good sometimes to create artificial problems so you can go searching under the rug and lifting every stone to find things that aren't broken. I need to learn how to set unity gain with the blue cat faders and the track faders... I understand the concept of unity gain well, unity in and unity out... but this particular task has got me a bit overwhelmed. I will let all of this sink in a bit. At least I know what was causing the problem. Thanks for the help on this Cakewalk peeps!

Thanks John Vere for your suggestions! It is going to take me a while to figure this out and until it is fixed I cannot export my songs. I have ascertained that the problem is not observed in Windows when I play videos from YouTube there is no static spikes. I will disable Izotope and some other plugins and see if the problem goes away. I am wondering if maybe somehow the audio files were corrupted on the hard drive. I need to try some other projects and see if the problem is there. I already had Izotope ozone, neutron, nectar and number of other splice apps and Izotope support said it would not hurt anything to install the subscription without uninstalling the rent to own apps. It seemed to start when I clicked this "loudness standard preset" in Izotope Insight, did that change Cakewalk somehow? It is either corrupted wave files or an incompatible or corrupted plugin. I uninstalled all of the Splice Izotope rent to own apps and removed all of the dlls from the VST folders then installed the subscription Izotope apps. Static spikes are still there. It is like the loudness standard preset lowered the ceiling of acceptable Cakewalk loudness. I will shut off plugins and see if that works maybe safemode would reveal some things. Like if my files are corrupted. How do I access safe mode again? I will google it, I was up all night now I am exhausted. I will try the buffer lower at 256, I have 128 gb of ram and 12 cores but a lot of plugins and instruments in the project.