New to DAW -- Just installed Cakewalk -- No audio. Any help/ direction appreciated.

[Joel Pixton]

I just installed Cakewalk by Bandlab. This is my first DAW and I'm using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 audio interface. 

I opened up SI Drums and have been hitting the drum sounds and it's producing no sounds.

I've checked Audio > Devices and the Focusrite is selected in both Input and Output .

My computer (youtube, MP3s, etc) is producing sound through the Scarlett and speakers, Cakewalk is not.

I've included a few pictures in hopes someone can spot something that might be the culprit. 

Any input, direction, or if I can present anymore details that would be helpful to the question -- all feedback is appreciated!

 

 

[OutrageProductions]

It appears that you MAY be using either WDM or WASAPI exclusive driver mode. If your audio interface has ASIO drivers available (it should be downloadable from Focusrite), try using that driver, or try WASAPI Shared.

Also refer to the online help system or the local help for more info on driver states.

Edited April 13, 2023 by OutrageProductions

[Byron Dickens]

Why are you not using the Focusrite ASIO driver?

 

https://youtu.be/YZqXiL2L36g

Only disagreement I have is that if you don't have an audio interface that supports ASIO, you need to get one. Stay away from ASIO4ALL. It tends to be problematic.

 

[Joel Pixton]

1 hour ago, OutrageProductions said:

If your audio interface has ASIO drivers available (it should be downloadable from Focusrite), try using that driver, or try WASAPI Shared.

Thank you for the reply. I went into the Audio > Playback and Recording and changed the Drive Mode to ASIO. I then received this pop up option (picture included) to reassign the audio output to an available device titled "Focusrite USB ASIO: Output 1...". 

I clicked OK. And, it has successfully changed the input/ output to this device (pic included), however, still there is no sound. I closed the program, reopened and still no sounds.

I assume this is the ASIO driver you are referring to for my audio interface (Focusrite Scarlett 2i4). 

Any suggestions or thoughts on what may be holding back the sound from hitting the speakers? All is appreciated.

 

[Joel Pixton]

1 hour ago, Byron Dickens said:

Why are you not using the Focusrite ASIO driver?

Only disagreement I have is that if you don't have an audio interface that supports ASIO, you need to get one. Stay away from ASIO4ALL. It tends to be problematic.

 

Thank you for the video link. I just subbed  to this guys channel, he has a ton of videos on Cakewalk I'm going to watch. 

I changed the Driver Mode to ASIO and I received a pop up option to reassign the audio output device to an available device named "Focusrite USB ASIO: Output 1"

I clicked ok, thought I was in the clear, and still there is no sound. Everything has been successfully switched to this driver as well. I closed, re-launched the program and still no sound on the drums. I included a few pictures of the current audio set up. 

If you have any thoughts or suggestions -- Any and all feedback is appreciated very much. 

[Giorgio Gabriel]

Hi Joel, I don't understand exactly what is happening, but I suggest to create an empty project, then insert an audio file into a track and verify that you can hear it during playback.

Hoping that this will work, then we are sure that the system is working, so you can try with a VST instrument.

Regards,

Giorgio

[Lord Tim]

It's possible this is 2 different things conspiring together to make it annoying.

The first one was not using the ASIO driver for sure - the other driver modes *can* work fine, but it's a crap-shoot with whatever is using that driver on your system (eg: Chrome likes to hijack stuff, so while everything might be fine one day, the next day you'll fire up CbB and it'll be silent and you'll be scratching your head as to why). The proper ASIO drivers are always your best bet, and the Scarlett drivers are really solid.

Then you changed over to ASIO, but it's very possible your routing in your project isn't switching over properly and you have your tracks going to the wrong (or silent) output, rather than sending to your 2i4. All of your Preferences look fine. That popup that said it's changing outputs is a good sign too, but maybe things aren't being properly sent to it.

In the Track View (the main view you see the tracks, and the strips with the volume controls, etc.), have a look at the top for where it says Custom in a drop-down box, and then set that to All. That will show all of the controls on your tracks and busses.

Then go into your track and open it up so you see the Inputs and Outputs on there. Grab us a screenshot of what you see, so we can see where your tracks are going.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Lord Tim

[user 905133]

Try an Instrument Track (as opposed to a MIDI Track).

[Lord Tim]

^^ That's a good catch too. We can see you've got the instrument inserted and a MIDI track going to it, but there's no track for the instrument output by the looks of it.

[user 905133]

2 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

^^ That's a good catch too. We can see you've got the instrument inserted and a MIDI track going to it, but there's no track for the instrument output by the looks of it.

Thanks.  I was trying to figure out how that happened (SI-Drums available without an instrument track being present).  The most likely explanation I could come up with is that when the SI-Drums were inserted (through whatever method was used), the OP might have just checked MIDI Source in the dialogue.

If that's what happened, I'd suggest the using the Simple Instrument option until the OP is more familiar with the uses for other options.

Edited April 13, 2023 by User 905133
edited - to reflect more attempts after John's comment (see below)

[John Vere]

I noticed that as well. It seems odd but there's no way to open the GUI without the SI drums being in the synth rack?? 

My guess is the original wrong driver might have not assigned the Master bus correctly. But checking the dialogue they were presented with usually fixes that. 

In my Audio set up video I show how to test that audio is working by simply activating the Metronome during playback and hit the spacebar, that's if you first load a basic project. Starting Cakewalk without using default templates can cause audio routing issues as there will be no Master bus etc. Like opening a midi file does this. 

[user 905133]

37 minutes ago, John Vere said:

I noticed that as well. It seems odd but there's no way to open the GUI without the SI drums being in the synth rack?? 

My guess is the original wrong driver might have not assigned the Master bus correctly. But checking the dialogue they were presented with usually fixes that. 

In my Audio set up video I show how to test that audio is working by simply activating the Metronome during playback and hit the spacebar, that's if you first load a basic project. Starting Cakewalk without using default templates can cause audio routing issues as there will be no Master bus etc. Like opening a midi file does this. 

Hmmmm.  I took another look at what I did earlier based on these comments.  My guess as to how the problem might have happened is wrong.  (Thanks for the additional thoughts.)  To recreate a project that looked like what the OP posted (just a single midi track pointed to SI-Drums),  I had deleted the instrument track from the Track View.  But I still had the SI-Drums in the Synth Rack. 

Not sure  if that's how the OP did it.  So, maybe it is a driver issue after all. 

[Byron Dickens]

I'm banking on a routing issue.

 

[Lord Tim]

What you'd need to do, if the audio track that had the instrument output in it has been deleted somehow, is to insert a new audio track and set the track's input to the name of the instrument (in this case, SI Drums 1+2 Stereo). Then make sure the track output is going to either a properly assigned Master bus or directly to the 2i4 ASIO outputs 1/2.

If this was put in as split audio/MIDI tracks rather than a Simple Instrument Track in the first place, it's not really that difficult to go "hey what's this audio track? This isn't the MIDI for my drums!" and deleting it, thinking it's unnecessary. That leaves behind the MIDI track and the instrument itself, but no way for anyone to hear it because it hasn't got that audio track for the output.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Lord Tim

[Joel Pixton]

11 hours ago, User 905133 said:

Try an Instrument Track (as opposed to a MIDI Track).

Simple as this. There are drum sounds now. Thank you so much for catching this. I wouldn't have thought of trying a simple Instrument Track. I started the project as a MIDI track because I'm trying to run SI Drums with my Roland V-Drums. Still much more to learn, but, at least I can rest knowing I at least have installed the software correctly. Thank you, again, for catching this.

[Joel Pixton]

11 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

^^ That's a good catch too. We can see you've got the instrument inserted and a MIDI track going to it, but there's no track for the instrument output by the looks of it.

Lord Tim, thank you for taking the time to write all the suggestions. This indeed did work. All I needed was to start it as an instrument track and the sound works after all. Now, I'm on to my next hurdle -- learning how to use MIDI and to map SI drums to my Roland V-Drums. At least I know I installed the software correctly and the sound does work.