Trouble With Arturia KeyLab Essential 88 keyboard

[Thomas Sneddon]

In an effort to further troubleshoot my issues with AAS's Ultra Analog VA-3 and my Mixcraft 8, 9 & Ableton Live Lite 11 DAW's....I sought to obtain a free DAW, to see how this AAS plugin would behave in it.

This brought to discovering Cakewalk BandLab and I was absolutely thrilled with the prospect of this DAW....& I was amazed at how beautifully simple it was to install it and all of it's contents & I loved that it immediately recognized my midi controller....but for the life of me, I cannot get it to work in Cakewalk. My audio interface setup is solid....but I am not receiving any midi signal & there is no sound coming from any of the instruments I load up on track 1.

I don't even know where the midi indicator light is(assuming there is one? I sought out video tutorials on mid keyboard set ups, but this doesn't sort out my problem. BandLab tech support is useless and I have posted all over the internet, in an effort to gain some insight into this problem.

Somehow....I knew...that a free, feature-packed DAW was too good to be true(I guess it's asking too much for product support for a product that is free.) I don't want to give up just yet, but I've exhausted all possible options...it seems.

[Noel Borthwick]

I have the Keystep32 running here and there are no issues with MIDI from the keyboard.
Make sure you have their latest MIDI drivers installed from the MIDI Control center. 

Have you tried record enabling a MIDI track and testing recording from the controller?
BandLab support won't necessarily be able to assist you with configuring third party hardware controllers.

 

[User 905133]

1 hour ago, Thomas Sneddon said:

. . . for the life of me, I cannot get it to work in Cakewalk. My audio interface setup is solid....but I am not receiving any midi signal & there is no sound coming from any of the instruments I load up on track 1.

• More info / details / etc. would help others to help you diagnose the two issues you mentioned:
  • not receiving any midi signal
  • no sound coming from instruments "loaded up" on track 1

Based on this: all anyone knows is that you have an audio track inserted into the project.

There is no evidence that you have any instruments / soft synths inserted.  There is no evidence that you have midi data routed / routed properly to an instrument in such a way as to produce sound. Etc. **

1 hour ago, Thomas Sneddon said:

I sought out video tutorials on mid keyboard set ups, but this doesn't sort out my problem.

I am not very familiar with video tutorials, but there are a number of tutorial makers who have posted links to videos in the forum here.  Not sure if those are some of the ones you looked at.  Personally, I learn things from some of them, but others don't resonate with me (wrong learning style, too much stuff I know to wade through, etc.) 

However, there are plenty of comments in the forum that other users find the posted videos helpful.  Perhaps you haven't found the right videos yet.  

If you haven't inserted / routed / setup VA-3 successfully, perhaps you need a tutorial on how to insert plug-ins / instruments / VSTs / soft synths, etc.  Also there is a Cakewalk Reference Guide and also on-line documentation if you prefer text.

**I typically use the Menu Bar > Insert > Soft Synth... method to insert an Instrument Track, but there are other methods that work (personal workflow preference).  

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by User 905133
(3) added an image; (2) to address "useless" help / tutorials issue; (1) to add a image from the OP and comments about the lack of information that might be helpful

[Byron Dickens]

You need to spend some quality time here:

https://bandlab.github.io/cakewalk/docs/Cakewalk Reference Guide.pdf

And here:

instead of just stabbing around in the dark.

[Thomas Sneddon]

Thanks for all of the replies...much appreciated. I will definitely look into the manual more. Here is what I have discovered thus far on my own...I doubled-clicked on a VST plugin & a options window popped up & after checking off a few boxes, I now have audio.

I made a video of it, but oddly, my screen capturing software did not pick up the audio. There must be a better way to create instrument tracks(do I have to go through this procedure for each & every instance of an instrument track?

 

 

[Noel Borthwick]

Its, not clear what you were trying to do in the video.  It seems you were confused by the default audio and midi track that are pre created in a new project.
The dialog for insert synth is the advanced dialog that happens when you insert a synth manually from the browser.

There is an easier way to insert an instrument track. Click the big + button at the top of the tracks view. In the instrument tab pick the instrument you want and click Create. Thats it - the synth routing is all set up for you and you can immediately play the synth.

[Thomas Sneddon]

Noel...this is extremely helpful...didn't realize how simple the layout is! One of my mistakes, was choosing the preset 16 track option, as this really overwhelmed me.

Thanks a mint!?

[Michael Vogel]

 

18 hours ago, Thomas Sneddon said:

Somehow....I knew...that a free, feature-packed DAW was too good to be true(I guess it's asking too much for product support for a product that is free.) I don't want to give up just yet, but I've exhausted all possible options...it seems.

Please don't go down this road.

This free DAW is particularly well supported and while you probably didn't realize it, Noel (Borthwick) is the companies Chief Technical Officer and has been programming Cakewalk for some 20 odd years. Like many of us we all had to start somewhere and while many of us used Cakewalk's paid for precursor software, SONAR (myself for more than 3 decades), we all appreciate that the level of support here outstrips that offered by many DAW companies with far greater resources. 

The community centered around this DAW has been in existence since the early news group days (pre-modern internet) late 80's early 90's, yes last century, and comprises some very knowledgeable and experienced, musicians, producers, composers and programmers in the music industry. They give their time freely and in time like many, you'll have more questions then, one day you'll be in a position to provide an answer or a comment to help someone else. Thats the way it works at its best. 

So - welcome to the Cakewalk by Bandlab (CbB0 forum, remain patient and remember that even when you think it's the software, it's probably user error. Thats OK. Even when you express your frustration someone will likely still help. AND if it is the software then there are well established lines of communication to get the issue resolved.

[Thomas Sneddon]

I had already realized it was my own doing & admitted my mistakes( so there is no need to worry about me trashing this DAW.) Initially....I was overwhelmed and I thought it was very odd that I couldn't find a midi connection indicator light within Cakewalk & because of how different Cakewalk is from Ableton, Mixcraft & Studio One...I was really thrown off...in terms of becoming acclimated & my initial interpretation was way off base.

As it were...Cakewalk had a bad wrap(under Gibson's ownership & their subsequent mismanagement of it)....& I have come to realize that under BandLab's acquisition of Cakewalk, this DAW is in a whole other category.

There is no other software in existence(that I know of)...that is 100% free, fully functional & well maintained...so you have to expect a certain amount of skepticism from new users(as most free software...though advertised as free...isn't as such....& if it is...it's abandoned by the software developers & the user just gets the software as is.)

I've been working with DAW's since 2007 & have owned & tested out several and Cakewalk Bandlab outshines some of the other paid DAW's and once I got my bearings...I found Cakewalk to be n absolute pleasure to work with.

I was especially impressed with how easy it was to install and anyone who is considering this DAW....should definitely watch this short review of it; 

 

By the way....I am so taken with Cakewalk BandLab...that I have deleted my Mixcraft & Ableton DAW's and although Reason 10 has been my main DAW...I'm focusing all my attention on Cakewalk.

I do appreciate your thoughts about Cakewalk & people who use Cakewalk, should defend it...when it's put into question by skeptics.