MC3 Midi to Audio problems
Hello everyone!
I've been using
Music Creator 3 for quite some time now, and I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I've never been able to figure out how to convert my midi tracks into audio. I scanned the threads in this forum many times trying to find an answer but to no avail. I understand that you guys are experts with this, so I hope you don't mind helping a technologically challenged 17-year-old out. I'll try to be as specific as possible.
What I'm using:
Windows XP (SP2)
Music Creator 3
M-Audio Audiophile 2496 soundcard
Casio external midi keyboard
Setup:
Audiophile 2496 soundcard properly installed w/updated drivers
Midi cable connecting 'Line-out' of external keyboard to 'Line-in' of soundcard
Midi cable connecting 'Line-in' of external keyboard to 'Line-out' of souncard to hear playback
Haha I haven't a clue about computers and tech so please bear with me.
I've read all the Cakewalk tutorials including the many insightful ones posted on this forum. I liked the simplicity that the
MIDI to AudioWeb guide offered (it says Sonar but also works for MC..?), but I still couldn't end up with an audio file. I think this is because there's no activity on the dB meter thing (not sure what it's called). I arm the inserted audio track for recording and click the record button, however everything gets recorded as a straight line.
Screen capture taken during recording:
http://img253.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cwmcpickd8.jpg I think this is the right way to record multiple midi tracks into a single audio file, so I'm guessing it may just be a hardware configuration problem. I once read somewhere that the Driver Mode needs to be set to ASIO for the M-Audio soundcard, but I get the same problem whether I switch it to ASIO or MME. I also tried using the DXi softsynth thing but couldn't get that to work either.
Right now all settings for MC and the Audiophile 2496 soundcard are set to default ones. As I said earlier, I really have no idea about tech configuration and what everything means despite having read books and such, so can you guys help me out here? If it's a hardware/config problem then I'd appreciate it if you can tell me how to set everything up. It's been several years and I feel like I'm so close to finally being able to make nice mp3 files of my songs. At this point I'm willing to do anything to get this right, even if it means buying hundreds of dollars worth of more equipment.
Any help will be very much appreciated! Thanks!
p.s. I will laugh if my problem is a really simple one.