Troubleshooting no sound

[Jana Cole]

I'm still getting to know this DAW, and I need to be able to figure out why I'm not getting sound. The set up I have now was working before — at least I think it was the same set up. I changed the driver mode from ASIO to WASAPI shared, and that worked before.

What do I need to check to figure out where the issue is? It looks like it's set up right to me. When I play, the meters don't respond at all. Any suggestions gratefully appreciated.

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Jana Cole

[Chaps]

Can you post a screenshot of your Audio Devices? That's a good place to start when tracking down audio playback problems.

[Jana Cole]

They're the same as in this previous post, except since it was suggested I change the driver mode to WASAPI, I changed it to WASAPI shared

 

[user 905133]

44 minutes ago, Jana Cole said:

They're the same as in this previous post, except since it was suggested I change the driver mode to WASAPI, I changed it to WASAPI shared

 

Am I reading that thread correctly in that the only output you have selected is the Microsoft Wavetable Synth as a MIDI Output? Or did you make the Realtek Chip an Audio Output, too?  

[Jana Cole]

10 hours ago, User 905133 said:

Am I reading that thread correctly in that the only output you have selected is the Microsoft Wavetable Synth as a MIDI Output? Or did you make the Realtek Chip an Audio Output, too?  

Yes, but I didn't set it myself. I guess that's the default. It looks like there's no other choice, anyway. Could this be part of the problem?

[Jana Cole]

10 hours ago, User 905133 said:

Am I reading that thread correctly in that the only output you have selected is the Microsoft Wavetable Synth as a MIDI Output? Or did you make the Realtek Chip an Audio Output, too?  

I wouldn't know how to make the Realtek Chip an Audio Output. Can you explain more what this means?

[scook]

Can't tell from the images above...does the synth plug-in have a preset loaded? Some synths make no sound by default, they must either have a preset or some samples loaded before they will make a sound.

Also make sure the "Zero Controllers When Play Stops" is not messing with the plug-ins volume setting.

 

[Jana Cole]

5 minutes ago, scook said:

Can't tell from the images above...does the synth plug-in have a preset loaded? Some synths make no sound by default, they must either have a preset or some samples loaded before they will make a sound.

 

Actually, the track in the screen shot is a violin sound from East West Composer Cloud, if that answers your question.

[scook]

Yes, that suggests a sound is loaded in Play. I have no experience with the plug-in.

The volume of the plug-in may be affected by Zero Controllers When Play Stops. Not having any experience with the plug-in I cannot say for certain. Others will have to weigh in on that plug-ins operation.

It may be instructive to swap Play for TTS-1 and see if it can make sound. That would narrow the problem down to the plug-in and its operation.

To swap synths on the track right-click in the track header, select "Replace Synth" then select a new synth.

 

[Jana Cole]

2 minutes ago, scook said:

Yes, that suggests a sound is loaded in Play. I have no experience with the plug-in.

The volume of the plug-in may be affected by Zero Controllers When Play Stops. Not having any experience with the plug-in I cannot say for certain. Others will have to weigh in on that plug-ins operation.

It may be instructive to swap Play for TTS-1 and see if it can make sound. That would narrow the problem down to the plug-in and its operation.

To swap synths on the track right-click in the track header, select "Replace Synth" then select a new synth.

 

I changed it to SI-Electric piano, and there is sound. Great, thanks. So, good, now I know it's some setting somewhere for Play. There's a mixer with it. I'll take a look at that....

[scook]

One thing to verify is if the note is within the instrument's range. Assuming the C4 indicated in the PRV is the CbB default then the MIDI note value is 48. This may be too low for violin.

By default CbB assigns MIDI note 0 to C0 but this may be changed with Base Octave for Pitches

 

 

[Jana Cole]

22 minutes ago, scook said:

Yes, that suggests a sound is loaded in Play. I have no experience with the plug-in.

The volume of the plug-in may be affected by Zero Controllers When Play Stops. Not having any experience with the plug-in I cannot say for certain. Others will have to weigh in on that plug-ins operation.

It may be instructive to swap Play for TTS-1 and see if it can make sound. That would narrow the problem down to the plug-in and its operation.

To swap synths on the track right-click in the track header, select "Replace Synth" then select a new synth.

 

That suggestion to change the synth was very helpful. I tried Play again, this time instead of strings, I choose horns, and there is sound with the horns. So it's the string sound that's the trouble. Little by little ... 

[scook]

My guess is the note is out of range for the instrument.

 

[Jana Cole]

10 minutes ago, scook said:

One thing to verify is if the note is within the instrument's range. Assuming the C4 indicated in the PRV is the CbB default then the MIDI note value is 48. This may be too low for violin.

By default CbB assigns MIDI note 0 to C0 but this may be changed with Base Octave for Pitches

 

 

The violins were actually out of range. I figured that out by comparing the horn note with piano notes. I'm used to octave 4 being the octave above middle C, but on the piano roll, apparently octave 4 is the octave below middle C.

However, when I moved the violins in range, I'm still not getting any sound. Strange, because I added the string track exactly the same way as the horn track. When I click on the horn note in the piano roll, I hear the horn sound and see it on the meter. I click on the string note, and there's nothing. I wonder if I need to "turn it up" somewhere.

The plug-in has a mixer, where the slider is up all the way, it's sending output to Main L/R. The plug-in has a piano keyboard where the keys move if I click on them, but there's no sound.

Still looking around in cakewalk and the plug in for a setting or something somewhere that could be the issue.

[scook]

Without the plug-in my ability to suggest fixes is limited. Does Play have a full string section? Try that or use the PRV keyboard to determine the range of the preset.

 

[user 905133]

9 hours ago, Jana Cole said:

I wouldn't know how to make the Realtek Chip an Audio Output. Can you explain more what this means?

Sorry for the error.  When you referred to the previous thread:

21 hours ago, Jana Cole said:

They're the same as in this previous post, except since it was suggested I change the driver mode to WASAPI, I changed it to WASAPI shared

and saw               I mistakenly thought that you needed to select an audio output. 

Evidently in non-ASIO mode you don't need to select an output here   an audio out was later selected as evidenced by this thread.

Edited February 25, 2020 by User 905133
to tweak the last line so as to recognize that evidently an audio output had indeed been selected (either intentionally or by default) after the shot was posted in the previous thread

[scook]

Audio I/O devices must be specified regardless of the Driver Mode. The prior post shows an attempt to use ASIO Driver Mode when no ASIO driver was present. Switching to WASAPI Shared solved that problem.

If the OP posted that page of preferences in this thread there would be selections enabled.

Audio was working after switching to WASAPI Shared but now a plug-in is not producing sound.

In this case, the failure was not due to CbB hardware setup.

The user asked the sampler to play notes that are out of range for the instrument selected. Maybe due to an expectation of which MIDI note value C4 represents. The clues to the problem are the third image in the OP and later mentioning a violin preset.

 

 

[Jana Cole]

12 hours ago, scook said:

Can't tell from the images above...does the synth plug-in have a preset loaded? Some synths make no sound by default, they must either have a preset or some samples loaded before they will make a sound.

Also make sure the "Zero Controllers When Play Stops" is not messing with the plug-ins volume setting.

 

The plug in says "no preset" and I've gotten sound from it without changing this.

[Jana Cole]

11 hours ago, scook said:

Without the plug-in my ability to suggest fixes is limited. Does Play have a full string section? Try that or use the PRV keyboard to determine the range of the preset.

 

Ok, no problem. 

The strings in Play are separate sections and you choose one for the track, violin, cello, etc., and you also choose the articulation, like "strong system" or "short and tight," etc. But you can't choose the whole string string section at once.

[Jana Cole]

13 hours ago, scook said:

One thing to verify is if the note is within the instrument's range. Assuming the C4 indicated in the PRV is the CbB default then the MIDI note value is 48. This may be too low for violin.

By default CbB assigns MIDI note 0 to C0 but this may be changed with Base Octave for Pitches

 

 

Thanks for that. I changed the base octave to -1, so now middle C is C4, which is what I'm used to.

[scook]

I was getting ready to send this when the post immediately above hit.

 

1 hour ago, Jana Cole said:

The plug in says "no preset" and I've gotten sound from it without changing this.

This is typical of sample playing plug-ins. Normally the plug-ins start up empty. In that state they will make no sound. There are two ways to get samples loaded in the plug-in either by explicitly loading samples or by loading a plug-in preset.

When it comes to presets there can be multiple preset managers. Cakewalk supplies one ("A" in the image below); it is above every plug-in in the standard header -

You can read about it here. For most synth plug-ins this preset manager starts up with "No Preset" selected.

Most plug-ins have their own preset manager (sometimes multiple ones depending on the plug-ins). These are separate from the preset manager in the Cakewalk standard header. For their use refer to the plug-in's documentation.

 

Regardless, at the point I mentioned preset or sample in this thread, it occurred to me the plug-in may not have been setup to make sound. The subsequent mention of violin samples answered that question but raised the issue of the MIDI notes being out of range. When looking at the PRV keyboard do not make assumptions about the MIDI note value. The note names displayed in the PRV are based on the "Base Octave for Pitches" setting.  Cakewalk starts with MIDI note 0 being C0. This means MIDI note 48 is C4. If you want C4 to play MIDI note 60 the "Base Octave for Pitches" needs to be set to -1.

The question about a full string section was an attempt to find a string library for the sampler with a broader range of playable notes. Some sample players have them. Again not having the benefit of working with Play puts me at a disadvantage in providing solutions.

There are users on the forum that use Play but they may not read this thread because the subject and OP start off reading like a generic CbB configuration problem.

If you want specific help with Play, a new thread in Instruments & Effects may get replies from users of that product.