(SOLVED) Setting up "external effects" in Cakewalk??? Help!

[Waldemar Pawlik]

Does anyone here run a Roland Studio-Capture 1610 interface with their Cakewalk DAW?

I want to send selected tracks to external effects for extra processing, but for the life of me, I can't make it work.

I've spent hours chasing down tutorials ( mostly for other DAWs ) ..... There seems to be very little referencing Cakewalk ....

and experimenting with Cakewalk and the interface, but somehow I'm missing something.

I have followed the setup shown in the Cakewalk manual for "external effects", but I get nothing, or a feedback loop.

There has to be someone here who can do this successfully, and who can tell me what I'm missing in this process.

 Thank you for your assistance.

 

 

Edited May 31, 2023 by Waldemar Pawlik

[Lord Tim]

It really comes down to choosing the right inputs on a multi in/out card. It's all fairly straightforward once you have it down once.

Can you explain how you have it set up now? What outs you're sending to, what ins it's coming back on, and how you have your track set up? That'll give us a place to start to help you untangle it.

[bats brew]

it's super easy to do in studio one.

look up 'pipeline'

[Lord Tim]

It's super easy in Cakewalk too, but hard in any DAW if you don't know how to do it the first time.

[Waldemar Pawlik]

On 5/30/2023 at 6:52 PM, Lord Tim said:

It really comes down to choosing the right inputs on a multi in/out card. It's all fairly straightforward once you have it down once.

Can you explain how you have it set up now? What outs you're sending to, what ins it's coming back on, and how you have your track set up? That'll give us a place to start to help you untangle it.

Like I stated earlier, I have followed the setup exactly as explained in the manual.

First connecting up the external effect, a chorus pedal.

Then I set the output of the plugin to outputs 5/6.

I then set the return on the plugin to a new track e.g track 3

The input and output lines appear in the plugin.

I start play and can see the meter on ouput of the plugin bounce.

No movement in the return section of the plugin, even when adjusted to max input and output.

When I arm the return track and record the input it shows just a straight line with no signal coming in.

There it is. It is so simple, yet so frustrating.

Cheers 

[Lord Tim]

OK, so to make sure I understand correctly:

You have outputs 5/6 going to your chorus pedal input jack. This is set up via the Send part on the External Insert plugin, where it's basically taking the sound of the track and sending its signal to output 5/6 on your interface, which you've connected to your pedal. Understood.

From the chorus pedal output jack, which input are you connected back to on your interface?

If you've plugged into input 3, that's what you need to set your Return on the External Insert plugin to be. 

Let's ignore arming tracks and recording for now, but if it's set up like this, are you seeing any signal?

Edited May 31, 2023 by Lord Tim

[Waldemar Pawlik]

I will try to provide a screen shot of my set up tomorrow.

[Waldemar Pawlik]

Feeling a bit foolish now.

I have a patchbay to which the ins and outs of my Studio Capture interface are connected to.

Don't know how, as all my cables are coloured, but the outputs of my interface where all out of sequence on the back of the patchbay, out of sight.

Doh! Rookie mistake.

Re-patched and all is good now. Just goes to show that you can't take anything for granted. Check first.

Thanks guys.

 

[Lord Tim]

Man, that is the WORST. You're doing everything right but nothing makes sense... and then you find out later you were right all along but it was actually something entirely unrelated making it fail. Been there. ?

But yeah, it sounded like it was some connection issue coming out of the pedal. Glad you got it sorted ?

[Glenn Stanton]

when setting up patch bays (i don't do it often) i print the connections reversed (as well as normal) so when i'm in the back the connections are shown so they line up correctly on the front. yes, after using the normal connections drawing on, say, erm, 2-3 bays each with a few hundred connections, then finding i reversed (compared to front) all the ones i did after lunch (apparently doing this on a full stomach is not good as it causes your brain to slow down...) i figured out that printing the connections with them reversed for the back, i made almost zero mistakes...  fyi -- patchcad -- an excellent tool.