Do these they will keep you busy for a while.
Basic beginners setup tutorial:
When you first get MC there are a few things that will be necessary to get it up and running. First to install it you need to fake out your computer to make it think it has an older version of DirectX already installed, usually it is not necessary to actually install the older version, just go to support/music creator/FAQ/ and find the link for “directX 8.1 was not detected on your system†there is a patch there download it to a folder of choice and with the installation CD in the rom driver double click that file and it will install off the CD making the computer think it has directX 8.1 . Actually you will still have DirectX9, and MC will not care in the least.
Now for audio, midi playback and recording setup. Open the program it will usually run the wave profiler for you the first time you open it. You will get two pop ups to start with first a Tip of the day box will display, if you want you can scan thru a few of those, when done close it then a project box will display, close that also. Go to the top of the screen and find options, left click that and a box will appear, find audio click that and another box will display it has several tabs at the top the first is “generalâ€, you will see two thin boxes that are named playback and record wave devices, they should contain the name of your sound card, if it does not then run the wave profiler again to see if it adds it. Once that is right set the buffer slider to around the middle to start with that will save another problem later. Go to the advanced tab and check the box “Always use the MME interface even when WDM drivers are available†this will force the system to use the older windows MME drivers just incase your sound card does not support the newer WDM drivers, and will give you another option for midi playback. Now go to the input monitoring tab and un-highlight anything in the large white box, proceed to the drivers and driver profile tabs and make sure that your sound card is listed there as well, click okay and go back to options/midi devices, here a box will display that has two side one for midi input and the other for output, if using a midi keyboard you will need to highlight the input that the keyboard is plugged into, for out put if your sound card has it’s own midi synth chip you can highlight that, if not highlight Microsoft synth GS, that is an internal synth chip that will playback midi. DO NOT highlight Midi Mapper, it does not play sounds. Now the program should reproduce both midi playback and wave file output.
One point to remember is that midi is not sound, a midi track or file is just a complex data stream, that tells a synth chip what note, instrument, volume, timing, velocity, etc. to play at, it takes some kind of instrument that can read and process that data and produce sound from it like a synth or keyboard. Audio files are actual recordings of sound waves on the hard drive, the two are vastly different, MC is a program that brings the two worlds together to co-exist.
Take the time to go and do the tutorials they will give you a solid basis for using MC. A lot of the folks that come here are beginners, and have read the box that says this is a snap and will have you making songs in a few minutes, while that can be true if your system is setup right, computer recording is complicated and has many variables. Be patient and ask questions, read many posts, and find other sites that are related to music, I personally have bookmarked 7 different forums that I participate in and many are far advanced over my thick head, so I am learning everyday.
Recording Your First Audio Tracks
Now that you have MC up and running and can play the sample tutorials, you are ready to record audio data; we will assume that you will be recording (a) a Guitar and (b) a Microphone.
Hooking Your Instrument Into Your Computer for Audio Recording
In order to input audio data into your computer, you will need to connect your instrument to your soundcard. Although there are many advanced ways to do this (with pre-amplifiers and mixers and advanced soundcards) we will assume that you are plugging your instrument or microphone directly into the standard type of soundcard that comes with most computers. Your soundcard should at a minimum have two (and may have more inputs) 1/8" inputs (that's the same size as a plug for a pair of headphones). One of the inputs will have a picture of a microphone or will say "mic" (We'll call this the "Mic Input") and the other will say "line-in" (we'll call this the "Line-In Input").
Recording Your Guitar
Your guitar cord is a mono cord with 1/4" jacks (the big ones). You will likely need to buy a mono 1/4" jack to 1/8" stereo jack adapter (go to Radioshack, they have it). Once you have the adapter on, plug your guitar cord into the Line-In Input. Now read the following:
http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Lessons/WindowsMixer.asp Now you should know how to activate the Line-In recording function of the windows mixer - do that now.
Go into MC and arm an audio track (how to do that is another lesson I guess) - you should now be able to hear and record your guitar.
Recording Your Microphone
Your microphone may or may not need the adapter jack. If it does not, and the end of your microphone is already equipped with an 1/8" jack, please plug that into the Mic Input (if it is not, you will need to buy a stereo 1/4" to 1/8" adapter). Now go to the windows mixer and activate the Microphone recording function of the windows mixer.
Go into MC and arm an audio track - you should now be able to hear and record your voice.
Afterthoughts
The above is very basic and once you are able to do the above you should note the following:
- The Mic Input is a soundcard input that has a pre-amplifier built in that boosts the level of the signal from the microphone. Since most basic soundcards stink, you may want to invest in a mixer or pre-amplifier that will do this independently. If you do this, you would record the microphone (hooking the output from the preamp or mixer) directly into the Line-In Input. Also, you may want to plug your guitar into an amp, preamp, mixer or a combination of all of these before plugging it into the Line-In Input to achieve better sound results."
Basic beginners setup tutorial:
When you first get MC there are a few things that will be necessary to get it up and running. First to install it you need to fake out your computer to make it think it has an older version of DirectX already installed, usually it is not necessary to actually install the older version, just go to support/music creator/FAQ/ and find the link for “directX 8.1 was not detected on your system†there is a patch there download it to a folder of choice and with the installation CD in the rom driver double click that file and it will install off the CD making the computer think it has directX 8.1 . Actually you will still have DirectX9, and MC will not care in the least.
Now for audio, midi playback and recording setup. Open the program it will usually run the wave profiler for you the first time you open it. You will get two pop ups to start with first a Tip of the day box will display, if you want you can scan thru a few of those, when done close it then a project box will display, close that also. Go to the top of the screen and find options, left click that and a box will appear, find audio click that and another box will display it has several tabs at the top the first is “generalâ€, you will see two thin boxes that are named playback and record wave devices, they should contain the name of your sound card, if it does not then run the wave profiler again to see if it adds it. Once that is right set the buffer slider to around the middle to start with that will save another problem later. Go to the advanced tab and check the box “Always use the MME interface even when WDM drivers are available†this will force the system to use the older windows MME drivers just incase your sound card does not support the newer WDM drivers, and will give you another option for midi playback. Now go to the input monitoring tab and un-highlight anything in the large white box, proceed to the drivers and driver profile tabs and make sure that your sound card is listed there as well, click okay and go back to options/midi devices, here a box will display that has two side one for midi input and the other for output, if using a midi keyboard you will need to highlight the input that the keyboard is plugged into, for out put if your sound card has it’s own midi synth chip you can highlight that, if not highlight Microsoft synth GS, that is an internal synth chip that will playback midi. DO NOT highlight Midi Mapper, it does not play sounds. Now the program should reproduce both midi playback and wave file output.
One point to remember is that midi is not sound, a midi track or file is just a complex data stream, that tells a synth chip what note, instrument, volume, timing, velocity, etc. to play at, it takes some kind of instrument that can read and process that data and produce sound from it like a synth or keyboard. Audio files are actual recordings of sound waves on the hard drive, the two are vastly different, MC is a program that brings the two worlds together to co-exist.
Take the time to go and do the tutorials they will give you a solid basis for using MC. A lot of the folks that come here are beginners, and have read the box that says this is a snap and will have you making songs in a few minutes, while that can be true if your system is setup right, computer recording is complicated and has many variables. Be patient and ask questions, read many posts, and find other sites that are related to music, I personally have bookmarked 7 different forums that I participate in and many are far advanced over my thick head, so I am learning everyday.
Recording Your First Audio Tracks
Now that you have MC up and running and can play the sample tutorials, you are ready to record audio data; we will assume that you will be recording (a) a Guitar and (b) a Microphone.
Hooking Your Instrument Into Your Computer for Audio Recording
In order to input audio data into your computer, you will need to connect your instrument to your soundcard. Although there are many advanced ways to do this (with pre-amplifiers and mixers and advanced soundcards) we will assume that you are plugging your instrument or microphone directly into the standard type of soundcard that comes with most computers. Your soundcard should at a minimum have two (and may have more inputs) 1/8" inputs (that's the same size as a plug for a pair of headphones). One of the inputs will have a picture of a microphone or will say "mic" (We'll call this the "Mic Input") and the other will say "line-in" (we'll call this the "Line-In Input").
Recording Your Guitar
Your guitar cord is a mono cord with 1/4" jacks (the big ones). You will likely need to buy a mono 1/4" jack to 1/8" stereo jack adapter (go to Radioshack, they have it). Once you have the adapter on, plug your guitar cord into the Line-In Input. Now read the following:
http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Lessons/WindowsMixer.asp Now you should know how to activate the Line-In recording function of the windows mixer - do that now.
Go into MC and arm an audio track (how to do that is another lesson I guess) - you should now be able to hear and record your guitar.
Recording Your Microphone
Your microphone may or may not need the adapter jack. If it does not, and the end of your microphone is already equipped with an 1/8" jack, please plug that into the Mic Input (if it is not, you will need to buy a stereo 1/4" to 1/8" adapter). Now go to the windows mixer and activate the Microphone recording function of the windows mixer.
Go into MC and arm an audio track - you should now be able to hear and record your voice.
Afterthoughts
The above is very basic and once you are able to do the above you should note the following:
- The Mic Input is a soundcard input that has a pre-amplifier built in that boosts the level of the signal from the microphone. Since most basic soundcards stink, you may want to invest in a mixer or pre-amplifier that will do this independently. If you do this, you would record the microphone (hooking the output from the preamp or mixer) directly into the Line-In Input. Also, you may want to plug your guitar into an amp, preamp, mixer or a combination of all of these before plugging it into the Line-In Input to achieve better sound results."
Making Loops in Cakewalk Music Creator
The loop making page in the lesions area of the cakewalk site has some good information, but also has some confusion along with it, as it mentions some features are for Sonar. I spend three years using AcidPro software and became fairly adept at making loops with that program. It has some very advanced loop making tools that make it the king of loops. Having said that loops can be made fairly well in MC as well, it is a decent workable tool, the one feature it lacks is the render looped region only feature that Acid has, to take the fight out of the process. But since Cakewalk is a great all around program bringing both midi and audio together in a very powerful package, and for most of us here a cost effective one at that, it is good to explore the full capabilities of the program, so I put together a simple process to make loops.
As was mentioned in a previous post, loop making helps us where we want to add an instrument we might not be as adept at so that we can have a good outcome, you want to make a song with three chord in it C, D and G, and for instance maybe you play the guitar a bit, but every time you try to play a song and record a whole track of backing acoustic guitar chords you make a mistake somewhere in the track and have to start over, well looping can solve that problem, he is how:
First plug in the guitar or mike it then get ready to play, then open an audio track and arm it. Let’s begin with a “C†chord, Strum a few measures of the chord till you feel that it sounds like you want, now hit record, and strum the “C†chord for about six measures, then hit stop.
Now look at the wave file in the audio track it stretches for six measures, but you only want two measures of the “C†, so listen to the whole track and it sounds pretty good, but the middle two measures are the best sounding, no mistakes.
Take your cursor to the middle of the wave file, and left click, and the whole wave file will turn dark, then slide the cursor to the ruler bar above the track and right click in the gray area of the ruler bar, and a box will appear, find “set loop pointsâ€, two yellow arrows will appear above the ruler bar and at each end of the wave file.
Slide those loop points until they are at the beginning and the end of the area that you want to keep as a loop, then hit play the looped area will play over and over, you can fine tune this loop by sliding the loop points until the loop plays perfectly as if you were strumming the guitar on the same chord over and over seamlessly, now that loop area is a perfect loop. (Note that the loop point will only slide to the snap points of the grid, most likely the beginning of each measure, that may be right, but it also may not be a perfect loop, if so then you will need to undo the snap to grid feature, at the bottom of the track view window there is an icon next to the plus (+) and minus (-) icons that looks like a box with a four smaller boxes in it, unclick that and the loop point arrows will slide anywhere you want them too, unaffected by the snap to grid feature.)
Once you have the loop playing flawlessly, then slide the cursor to the ruler bar again and right click, then click on “select looped regionâ€, the area between the loop points will turn dark, now in that area, right click, and choose split, a box will appear, in the box it will have a smaller box that asks for the time to split at, insert the ruler position of the beginning of the looped region, (this will be displayed in the boxes above called “loop from and loop thru†these boxes are on the tool bar between “loop on/off†and “set to loop selectionâ€. If these are not visible on the tool bar then you need to add them from the View/toolbars) and click okay, then repeat for the end of the looped area.
You will see that the area that is looped will split off from the proceeding and following areas of the wave file, now click on and delete the extra areas outside the looped area, now only the wave file in the looped area will remain, the process in not done, to lock in these properties, right click in the middle of the looped area and click Groove-Clip Looping, this will turn the wave file into a groove clip with the tempo and key signature embedded, and make sure that the part you deleted is gone from the file. Now this can be exported to a folder for safe keeping.
Now repeat this process with the “G†chord and the “D†chord and save them now you can import these clips as loops in an audio track and used to build a song add the chords as needed, to make the song structure. This process can be used with drums, bass piano anything to make a complete song.
Using soft synths
When using midi tracks in CAKEWALK or any sequencer, there are many way to reproduce the sound from the midi data. One can use an internal synth on the sound card, or inside XP there is Microsoft synth GS, or you can route thru a soft synth that you download or install, some are synths, some are samplers, others use sound fonts, each has unique capabilities that you can use to reproduce midi data into sound.
Cakewalk only uses DX type instruments as synths unless one installs a wrapper type program, these allow you to use VST instruments and effects, VST is a trademark that comes from cubase, and anyone who makes a program that uses VST technology must gain access to that from Cubase, Cakewalk uses DX technology that is from Microsoft development. So keep in mind that at first you need to obtain effects and instrument that are designed with DX technology.
In order to use soft synths to replay a midi file you will need to play them through an audio track, this will allow the midi to be routed through a soft synth and produce an audible output. Here is what you need to do, and for this tutorial we will use Edirol VSC (VSC stands for Virtual Sound Canvas) but for all intents and purposes, this will work with any DX instrument, and at the end I will post links to several that you can down load.
First let’s go to a midi download site and down load a file, then we will open it in CAKEWALK and process it. Go to this site
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/creed90952/index.htm?mtbrand=AOL_US Go down the page and find the eagles best of my love file, we will use this as the example, right click the file and then click save as target, save this file in a folder you are familiar with, then a pop up box will appear, that with ask you to open , click cancel.
Now open CAKEWALK and go to file and then click open, the open box will allow you to find the folder that you saved the file in( the file name is bestlove.mid), then when you do double click it, it should open in MC. Now you will have a file that has 10 tracks of midi, there will be one track that say words on it, ignore it. Now under the last track that is named “Rideâ€, place your cursor and right click, a box will pop up go up and chose “insert audio trackâ€, maximize that audio track by clicking the double box icon next to the MSR on the track, then right click the fx box and chose Dx Instruments, (or DX synths for some version) and click on Edirol VSC, Edirol will pop up close it for now, minimize the track again, and then maximize each midi track one at a time and left click each output box and chose Edirol VSC as the output, then minimize each until all of them have Edirol as the output device. Now hit play, and the file should play thru Edirol.
Okay let’s learn to change up the sounds in Edirol a bit, go to the audio track that has Edirol in it and maximize it again, double click on edirol and it should pop up into view. Each track has been assigned to an instrument, this is because Edirol acts like a GM/GS synth like the one on the sound card, but with a little bit better tones. At the bottom of Edirol is a button called setup, click that and a box will open, change the generator tones to GS from GM, and slide the polyphony bar to 128 and hit okay. and then move Edirol down just a bit hit play again Now notice that you can adjust the panning, volume, reverb, expression, delay and chorus so if you want adjust a couple of those as the song plays.
Now that is the basics, you can use any DX instrument to do this depending on it’s personal attributes, some only do one track, other do many. If you want more than one synth, then open more than one audio track to hold them. You might want edirol to do everything but the drums and guitar and use sampletank for those, then open two one for each.
To get more synths go here
http://www.kvraudio.com/ go to the side and see a box that has the words instruments, effects, host, etc. and click that then go down to advanced search, in box 1. click on instruments, go down further and find 2. and click DX, then down to 3 and click only Windows, then to 4. and click only free, then down to search. There should be 5 on the list go to sampletank, sonic synth, synth 1 and triangleII download each of these and they will work with CAKEWALK be careful to follow the instructions for each carefully, this will take some time be patient, this will set you up for some great sounds.