COMPLETELY FUSTRATED WITH RECORDING. PLEEEASE HELP!

jimmy, (i assume), first of all, take a deep breath and try to relax a little. computers can be very frustrating, so we all need to take a break and get a better perspective sometimes.

now on to your problem. what you are describing says to me that CW doesn't recognize that there are any sound cards availble for use. Tell me more about your hardware, computer, OS, RAM, and especially your sound card. Is it a motherboard onboard card, or a PCI, or a USB, Firewire, PCMCIA?

If you are running a version of Windows such as XP or 2000, you should go look at what it thinks you have installed for a sound card.

Go to START>CONTROL PANEL>SYSTEM>HARDWARE>DEVICE MANAGER (XP version - 2000 might be a little different, I don't remember) ...scroll down to where it says SOUND, VIDEO AND GAME CONTROLLERS. Click on the "+" to open the subdirectories. There will be several things listed there (hopefully), you need to find one or more of them that have something to do with one or more of your sound cards (depending on if you have more than one or not - i.e. if you have an onboard card AND a PCI card).

If you can't figure out which one(s) are sound cards from the description, open each one by double clicking. Only real devices (such as sound cards or keyboards or other sound peripherals) will have a TAB at the top for DRIVERS.

once you've located ALL of the devices in that area that have drivers listed, post those here.

if you don't have ANY listed in there, then windows is not recognizing your sound card as being installed. In fact, if there's hardware actually installed, but windows doesn't recognize it, it should be LISTED, but it will have a yellow "!" in front of it. If that's the case, then there's a problem with either the device or the drivers (more likely the drivers). Try removing the device, bringing windows back up, then back down and reinstalling the device and drivers per the manufacturer's instructions.

Then take two asprin and call me back later!

No How,
First, I want to verify that you say you have the exact same problem - do you mean that in the MC OPTIONS>AUDIO>DRIVERS there are NO sound cards listed?

You have 2 sound cards listed in the stuff you told me about. At this point they both *should* be showing up in MC in the audio drivers for selection. (The unimodem half-duplex is probably a fax-modem)

First, I would disable the REALTEK - that's your Motherboard's ONBOARD sound card and it's almost useless for recording audio. To disable it, go back into the START>CONTROL PANEL>SYSTEM>HARDWARE>DEVICE MANAGER>SOUND, VIDEO AND GAME CONTROLLERS and double click on the REALTEK selection. At the bottom of that popup window there's a pull down menu that says "USE THIS DEVICE" or "DISABLE THIS DEVICE". Choose disable. If you know how to get into your BIOS if there's an option there for disabling your motherboard's sound card, then do that as well, but there's no way for me to know how to step by step guide you thru that since all MOBO are different.

Next, open MC, go to OPTIONS>AUDIO> SOMETHING (sorry - I'm doing this from memory) go to the last tab and select everything listed in the inputs and outputs. Then go back to another one of the tabs and look for the audio driver. It will have a pull down selection of either WDM or MME. If choose WDM.

Make sure the sampling rate is the same as the sound card (sound blasters use 48,000htz) - that should also be on the same tab, but you'll have to open your SB control panel to check the sampling rate that it is set to.

At the bottom of that same tab, there's a button called WAVE PROFILER - run that.

Take the asprin and call back later!

Wow! It sounds like you've got some major hardware problems. Did you disable the REALTEK in BIOS or just in windows? If you did it in BIOS, then the first thing I would do would be go back into the BIOS and use the RESET TO DEFAULT settings and see if your computer comes back up.

If you didn't disable the sound card in BIOS, but only in Windows, then I would first remove the SB card and try to start it back up. If it still doesn't come back up, then start it up in SAFE MODE, change the settings back to what they were before the catastrophe, then reboot.

If that doesn't bring it back up then you've got more hardware problems than I could probably help you with.

Hello Beagle,
I moved my soundcard to another slot and the computer is up and running
I still have no sound (since I've disabled Realtek and have not figured out how to get SoundBlaster to work.
I looked again in the Midi Options screen and I have nothing in either column.
Where should i go to get the Sound Blaster to engage?
Thank you.

Mr.Beagle,
I got my MC back up and now am without any sound at all on my pc. I can't seem to find the Realtek I dis abled yesterday and the computer says that the Sound Blaster is not installed right. (I don't have the CD that should come with it as I took it off my windows 95 computer.)
Can you guide me through a way to get some sound? I would appreciate it very much indeed.
Thank you.

Go to options/audio and make sure that the sound blaster is listed as the playback and record device.

No How - you're having hardware problems that most users don't experience. If you need help reinstalling the drivers I'll be glad to help you with it, just let me know. If reinstalling the drivers here don't help then you might have to either get help from Compaq or purchase a new sound card. If you decide to purchase a new sound card, I would advise checking on the cakewalk site for their recommendations for compatible equipment (I can find the link for you if you wish), and/or search thru these forum posts...there are a lot of people who have made recommendations on that very subject. I can also throw in my 2cents if you want.

Can I be honest? In a word: NO. If you have the money to upgrade the SB is not a desirable card to use for DAW (especially the SB 16AWE - that's an old 16 bit card).

Here's the link on the cakewalk site for recommendations for sound cards compatible with their products:
CW SoundCards

HOWEVER - even tho they list 3 Creative cards, I (and many others in these forums) do NOT recommend them for DAW. They are designed for home theater and gaming and there are much better alternatives for the same price ranges for use in DAWs.

I own an M-audio Delta 44 that I purchased from Guitar Center for $140. It has 4 analog unbalanced inputs and 4 unbalanced outputs that you can easily access thru a breakout box using 1/4" TS connectors. It's big sister is the Delta 66 which also has SPDIF I/O if you need those connections (I doubt that you do). Other good m-audio products include the 1010LT (if you need to record a lot of inputs at the same time and don't want to purchase a mixing board) or the 2496 is very popular. The 2496 has 2 analog, 1 SPDIF and 1 MIDI inputs and outputs. This is a good board if you need a specific MIDI input. M-Audio. You might also want to consider an external "sound card" using Firewire. (NOTE: I do NOT recommend USB for sound card interface. Others might disagree, but I don't believe USB is capable of the same level of quality for the same amount of money using Firewire or PCMCIA or PCI). M-audio has some options for those: M-audio mobile

The EMU has newer technology and have several good options available. The EMU 0404 is a great entry level card with 2 analog inputs/outputs, 1 SPDIF I/O and 1 MIDI I/O and I think you can get it for ~$100. There are other nice EMU boards available that go up from there and you can find more info on them on the website. EMU Products They also have some sweet looking interfaces that you can purchase for your mics and instruments that go in the signal chain between them and the sound card.

There are a lot of other sound cards available which are good for DAW work - these seem to be the most popular among entry level users. It really depends on what you want to accomplish and how you want your home studio to function as to what you want to get.

Good luck!

P.S. - where's "over here" - across the Big Pond?

Beagle,
Can you please direct me in restoring (enabling) the Realtek that I disabled?
I can't seem to find it and until I buy another sound card it's all I have. (the kids use it for games.) If the new sound card i purchase will work for both (MC and the kids games), then it isn't as vital that I find the Realtek.
Thanks.

Thanks. I'll give it a whirl.