I cannot get the great sound in Cakewalk out to exported files

[kfcherring]

Help!....    

I am a musician in a band and I am the audio engineer.  We record on my mixing device, I then 'record' all the separate tracks into Cakewalk and apply various effects etc.  I have watched many Youtube videos from Mike at Creative sauce and get some awesome results.  The song sounds amazing in Cakewalk.  When done, I then export to Wave, Flac or MP3 and there is sound loss.  Ugh!! I cannot get the sound I hear in Cakewalk out to recordings, that I share with my band mates.  Why can I not export out the same audio quality?

Does anyone else have this issue?

I have had multiple discussions even sending my Project and exports into your amazing support (shout out to Lois… super customer support) but we have not been able to solve this issue…….

[msmcleod]

When you say sound loss, what do you mean?

A loss of volume can be due to you routing directly to the hardware outputs (rather than via a Master Bus), and/or the hardware output volume not being at unity gain.

If you're outputting directly to the hardware, add a bus and call it Master, then route the tracks that went to the hardware output to that instead.

In either case, ensure your hardware output is set to unity gain, e.g:




You can change the level of the master fader, but don't change the hardware fader levels (the ones with the red fader knobs).

The other reason for a difference in sound is that you're using your onboard audio device that has some sound enhancement processing on it.   In other words, what is coming out of Cakewalk/Sonar is being further EQ'd / processed by Windows before it reaches your ears.

Cakewalk/Sonar has no knowledge or access to this extra processing.

If this is the issue, the only thing you can do here is disable all extra Windows sound processing, and re-tweak your mix accordingly.   As this was done on the final stereo output, you may get away with simply adding an EQ to your master bus and tweaking that to match what Windows was doing.
 

[Amberwolf]

Also, if it just sounds different played back on something else other than the monitors you use for mixing, or the room you're in when mixing, that might mean you need to treat the room, or it might be the other playback speakers or spaces are just really different from your monitors.

One way to minimize this is to have several sets of monitors including cheap speakers, headphones, a tv soundbar, etc., all connected to the output of your system thru a switch.  Then change from your main monitors to test your mix now and then, to each other listening devices. 

[Amberwolf]

3 hours ago, msmcleod said:

The other reason for a difference in sound is that you're using your onboard audio device that has some sound enhancement processing on it.   In other words, what is coming out of Cakewalk/Sonar is being further EQ'd / processed by Windows before it reaches your ears.

Cakewalk/Sonar has no knowledge or access to this extra processing.

If this is the issue, the only thing you can do here is disable all extra Windows sound processing, and re-tweak your mix accordingly.   As this was done on the final stereo output, you may get away with simply adding an EQ to your master bus and tweaking that to match what Windows was doing.

There are actually ways to include this in your final output if you really want to. 

 

 Your simplest way is to record this output realtime into your mixing device, then get that file back into the computer as a  wave file you can then encode into mp3 or whatever format.  (keep in mind that depending on the encoding choices it can change the sound of your file). 

 

A more complex way to setup is to use an audio loopback driver, if you can get one to "connect" to the *output* side of your hardware's sound driver, but that's something you'd have to figure out...the previous way is easier to do. 

[Amberwolf]

5 hours ago, kfcherring said:

I have had multiple discussions even sending my Project and exports into your amazing support (shout out to Lois… super customer support) but we have not been able to solve this issue…….

So that everyone isn't wasting a bunch of time getting you to try things already done, you need to list all the things already suggested and tried, point by point, and their specific results.  

Describing your complete setup, including how the project is routed / bussed internally, will also help us help you. 

[Bass Guitar]

Screenshots of console view! With project playing. And please use proper screenshots not your cell phone. 
 

[sjoens]

And a screenshot of your Export window settings.

To insure sound consistency, you can record the entire mix real time to a stereo track from the hardware output.  The resulting audio can be dragged to desktop (wait for the process bar in the Transport module to complete).

Edited Tuesday at 03:38 AM by sjoens

[mettelus]

Another thing based on the OP is it sounds like you are getting variations between your system and when you share the file, but not sure. If you are using Windows audio for mixing, having any FX enabled in the Windows Mixer (edit those in Sound Control options) will totally muck up what you thought you did. This is not a DAW-based issue, but sound manipulations that Windows can have enabled (and does by default). If you are using Windows audio in any way, it is good practice to have the Windows Mixer stripped down so it is not adding anything that is truly not there.

[kfcherring]

Thank you for all the comments.

let me explain the issue further...  I have been using the free Cakewalk for a couple years but have recently moved to Sonar.  same issue.

once I have all the tracks into Cakewalk Sonar on my laptop with my headphones connected, I solo each track usually starting with drums, moving to vocals then guitars and keyboard, I pan and apply various effects like reverb etc.  I then listen to the song with all tracks and adjust volume to get the right mix.  I may apply automation to adjust volume in various places.  I get the song to where I'm happy all tracks outputting to a Master bus not any hardware bus.  I apply some Mastering effects effects to the master track, to get volume and in some cases compression.  I use Span Plus to check volume 

Then I export and listen on the same laptop with the same headphones and it does not sound the same.  the bass is not as rich etc.. I also have trouble getting enough volume.  I have tried WAVE, FLAC and even MP3 (and I know your going to say there could be loss using this format)

I cannot see any headphone settings that would negatively impact the exported sound.  Also wouldn't Cakewalk use my headphone settings?

I also play the exported song on my laptop through my amplifier / speakers same disappointing results.

 

see screen shots attached

Cakewalk sonar screen shots.docx

[kfcherring]

I have even tried to export the song out to a stereo WAVE file then import it back in and apply mastering effects and export out to a final file..... same result   

[kfcherring]

To Sjoens

"To insure sound consistency, you can record the entire mix real time to a stereo track from the hardware output.  The resulting audio can be dragged to desktop (wait for the process bar in the Transport module to complete)."

Sorry I don't know what you mean, how do I do this?

[Bass Guitar]

It would seem that you are using a monitoring system while mixing that is not translating into the real world. You need to sort that out.
It doesn’t matter what you use , if it doesn’t sound right in the real world it needs to be changed or you will be guessing. 

 

Your screenshots show that you seem to have decent levels. A Console view would show more. But Span if that is on the master and if the master is the source for export that looks pretty normal.
Buy the way you just need to drag and drop the pictures to the bottom of your post. 
 

I see you have Windows set for 48 / 24 but your project is set for 44.1 / 16. And in export you have dithering turned off. 

It is recommended to avoid issues to keep Windows and your Daw set to same Sample Rate. 
And not sure what audio interface you are using but most are 24 bit so any recordings are going to be 24 bit. And Sonars rendering is actually 32 bit. If you have some reason you are only using 16 bit it might be a good idea to turn on dithering . 
Are you using an audio interface to record? Or somehow using the Jack on the laptop? 
 

 

Edited 18 hours ago by Bass Guitar

[sjoens]

On 12/16/2025 at 1:27 PM, kfcherring said:

Sorry I don't know what you mean, how do I do this?

Sorry, not sure how that would work with onboard Realtek sound as it only provides microphone inputs.

However, try these:
1. Change Windows default format to 16 bit, 44,100 Hz or to the same as Sonar
2. Make sure Signal Enhancements is deselected (yours is selected)
3. Double check Audio enhancements and Spatial sound are deselected or turned OFF after each Windows update

[mettelus]

I think in all Windows versions you can still access the Sound popup via Control Panel->Sound. In that popup, in the "Playback" tab at the top, highlight the device being used, right click and then "Properties"... in the next popup:

• Enhancement tab - "Disable all sound effects"
• Advanced tab - Be sure the "Default Format" is set to what you use for DAW projects. Disable both "Exclusive Mode" options, bottom one first. This doesn't affect what you are experiencing, but causes other issues otherwise.
• Spatial sound tab - Select "Off" in that drop down box.

While the "Recording" tab has similar options (and you can also set those), it is highly advised not to record audio via Windows (at least for now), this is why audio interfaces are used to get audio into a computer.

As mentioned above, the Windows Mixer wreaks havoc on DAW usage, so those adjustments will take the Windows Mixer offline.

Edited 8 hours ago by mettelus