0 Db

Should I be concerned if I have the bar on cakewalk hitting zero at the top of kick beat, but a spectral analyser telling me it's atleast 20 db lower than that?  Why two different stories?

Oh Okay, thanks, I've seen both those terms before somewhere.  That was in relation to speakers though, RMS was the one that needed to be right but you can't have one without the other.  LOL, I'll work it out.

Herb is basically correct, an occasional red spike will many times not kill the mix, steady red will! I try to keep in the green with occasional orange spikes just to be sure. I can always do gain adjustments later. Multiple tracks tend to sum at the master buss, meaning that they are additive in nature, and the problem can get worse, and  "tagging the red" becomes accumulative and the overall volume will rise.

The magic number of what a track should be recorded at is really just guess work, because until the mix is done you have no idea where it will end up. A general rule of thumb is to keep individual tracks at -6DB or a bit less so that the end result is not clipped at the master buss. Even three tracks at -6DB can clip if care is not taken. Some clipping is not easily heard but can cause underlying noise issues. For the very small amount of spikes you get with occasional red hits a good master limiter on the master buss can help some. For this reason you should always set up your recording template with a master stereo buss and not allow the mix to sum at the sound card.

Yeah occasional Red, that's "living on the edge", that's what a lot of musicians do right.  I was wondering what was the difference if you send all the outputs on the tracks to Busses instead of doing it via sends....does it just kill the options available when you send or is it doing something funny with the signals.

My main problem at the moment is getting the low end of tracks under control, and it seems to me the samples I'm working with just don't cut it as no matter how much eqing and various effects I'm applying there are too many mountains with not sharp enough peaks, as it is I'm tending to get a live sounding demo rather than something that's nearing studio quality (even without much reverb).......not that I expect to get to close with my equipment.

I gotta say though the only problems I have found with Cakewalk is a tendency for it to crash when third party vsts are involved (98% of the time, but it's usually only a few culprits out of the many I use), and I'm wondering why vista would have to kill the entire program rather that cakewalk simply telling the vst to take a hike <grin>.  I've also found that the equalisers from sonifx report different decibel readings than the bars on the consoles tend to indicate......(without eq being modified obviously).

No my computer will audio dropout and gives me the warning down in the bottom corner rather than crash with a heavy CPU load (2 x 3.2 Ghz 4Gb).....although if you try to do much with the GUI while it is playing it Vista can get snappy.  One particular font umm VST player that is linked to the synthfont project....it has an error to do with drawing (mouse movement in a non defined area) and it will crash cakewalk in a heartbeat, if I use the keyboard not so much.

crashing with audio dropout is not because of the 3rd party VSTs.  it would do the same thing with native VSTs.  the problem, as guitarhacker is alluding to...is your soundcard and its drivers and settings.  what soundcard are you using?  your motherboard's onboard card?

Yeah I am using the factory card before that I was using the audio that came with the PCI video card which I imagine is the same thing (the video card died on that), I no it's not ideal but I don't think it's crashing my cakewalk the dropouts only occur with  multiple effects and hi chewers.  Having lost the video card and it's audio, Vista also now doesn't let any microphone work attached to it (no's it's there though).  Yeah the program crashes (Cakewalk needs to be shutdown) will occur in even the most minimal of circumstances sometimes but as I said third party free stuff will be the cause.  I have to get another audio card I know that much and a new microphone, I don't write many songs with only 3 or 4 instruments involved which pardon the pun is a cakewalk for this software on just about any computer.  The factory audio card I am using doesn't even have real driver support anymore nor does it have its own GUI LOL.  It's a learning process for me at the moment, I need to do more reading as I am learning a great deal from trial and error which is okay but I like doing music and reading isn't music LOL.  Lack of discipline. :)  Thanks for all the info all of you souls out there.

Yes the audio card is not sufficient (but I'm stuck with it for now) the program crashing rarely crashes under cpu duress, but I am getting more static and audio dropout with the more fx (not when using the bundled cakewalk one's exclusively though) etc.  I noticed however that with the factory card as opposed to the one that was onboard the dead video card, I can now access the other drivers such as the MME32. WASAPI etc, but they if anything work less than the ASIO drivers, are they supposed to be that much superior?  Not being smart with the fx either only just started using a reverb bus instead of several instances across the tracks.

But let me clarify LOL, when you or anybody else with sim experience says that it will crash less with a better audio card, I believe you (heck a better video card even).  Actually it's a competition in my head for what I replace, keyboard (music) died - that was old age, microphone does't work or doesn't work in Vista.  A more disciplined approach from myself would also help, bouncing tracks etc.  You could say I am in forcible denial, "what i can't solve is not a problem" somebody famous paradoxically once said ;).

I guess a real pertinent question is am I doing any damage to my computer or it's components by working on some of the more cpu intensive compositions?  I mean particularly with relevance to the audio card, is it possible to kill the audio card on a computer?  I know the video cards premature exit was aided and abetted by a PSU with simply not enough wattage.

About the third party vsts (the mostly free ones), yeah I can make one of them crash with nothing going on an no sound just by clicking on a button and moving the mouse at the same time, unfortunately I had a lot of presets built in that one.

Cakewalks vst scanner works pretty well though it usually weeds the odd one out that just ain't gonna work.  However in a few instances there are Vsts that simply kill the program on opening (vista steps in and shuts it down).  And a really funny story one of the virus scanners detected and deleted one of the vsts the other day and it was actually working without much fuss.  I already had a better one handy.

The drivers I found for the audio card were actually realtek hq audio but as far as I could workout that just seemed like codecs thrown together.  It is an intel mother board D935 but Intel doesn't provide the drivers for it.  And NEC which put the whole thing together just point to the manufacturer, that's what we call a circle to nowhere.  But the realtek notes did mention this motherboard <points thumb in the air>.

So I don't mean to appear aloof to the information, I cherish the information I find here and youtube etc. For instance, Session Drummer 2 works very well for me now that I "think I" know what I'm doing, makes studio drums look ordinary actually.  I wouldn't buy that without the reviews I read here from wiser heads.  And if I had more elastic money I'd have all the stuff that guy R Kelly? has.   Anyways there are symphony's you (et. al) could be listening to instead of me prattling on incoherently out of tune.

<Plays humorous four note rif in the minor key sounding like laughter with a wah wah.>

I guess a real pertinent question is am I doing any damage to my computer or it's components by working on some of the more cpu intensive compositions?  I mean particularly with relevance to the audio card, is it possible to kill the audio card on a computer?  I know the video cards premature exit was aided and abetted by a PSU with simply not enough wattage.

normally, "NO" you won't hurt it by using MC and getting crashes from the load.  however, I'll quantify that by saying if your CPU isn't properly cooled that could harm it any time you put any kind of load on it.  also, you've mentioned having problems with the video and soundcards already so if you're already having hardware issues then I am not willing to say 100% that loading your system with MC and recording will not harm it.  but under normal circumstances with a good machine it's not an issue.

The drivers I found for the audio card were actually realtek hq audio but as far as I could workout that just seemed like codecs thrown together.  It is an intel mother board D935 but Intel doesn't provide the drivers for it.  And NEC which put the whole thing together just point to the manufacturer, that's what we call a circle to nowhere.  But the realtek notes did mention this motherboard <points thumb in the air>.

it doesn't matter.  the drivers for your factor sound will never be good enough for recording heavy loads in MC.  they're just not designed for that type of work.  they are designed for playing mp3's and windows sounds. 

BUT - as I said, until you can afford a better soundcard - follow those steps I gave you above.  if that doesn't help, let us know and I have more help for you!  in fact, check out my "RECORDING HELP" section on my website.  there's information there such as changing to MME driver mode and using ASIO4ALL for your onboard soundcard to improve performance until you can afford a better card.

good catch, greg!

Kick - you really need to follow the directions I gave you in a couple of threads above about changing to MME driver mode and then let us know if that helps or not.  if it doesn't I have other instructions that will help.  but if you won't do the first step then I can't help you.

my apologies - I misunderstood what you said there. 

it is extremely unlikely that your soundcard will have full ASIO drivers.

in that case, I suggest that you download and install ASIO4ALL (google it or go to my websites' RECORDING HELP area).  once you install ASIO4ALL, open MC, change the driver mode to WDM or MME or WASAPI - anything EXCEPT ASIO, click APPLY  and let the wave profiler run, then change it BACK to ASIO and click APPLY.

see if that helps.

Vista acknowledges that a Microphone is attached but you can tap it and say "testing, testing" as much as you like all's you get is flatline (that's with preamping from vista included or without).

 
Check the inputs in the Windows mixer that the mic input is enabled and unmuted.
If you haven't done that already.
As you may know, microphones need a preamp, and if you have Line In checked in the mixer, that may turn the preamp off, thus no, or very low, mic level.
Presuming that you only have one audio input. If you have seperate mic and line inputs, then you can have the preamp on for the mic-in already.