Hi there,

I have just taken far longer than I should have to record a simple 3 audio track project in Cakewalk PA9 (Vista laptop). The main problem was inability to monitor an already recorded audio track while recording another audio track.

I suppose this could be fixed by changing some settings, either in the soundcard (Realtek in-built in the laptop) or in Cakewalk itself. I read older threads mentioning stuff like "driver mode", but could not find such setting either in Cakewalk or in the Windows configuration interface for the Realtek sound card. Anyone knows of anything else I could try?

Thanks,

A.Lower

I don't know much about Vista, but I do use Win XP and in the Sound Control Panel for XP you can select or deselect inputs (for Recording) and outputs (for playback) but those are done one at a time.
In otherwards you have to select the inputs or outputs and then reopen Windows Sound Control panel again to do the outputs or inputs, since one set are found in Recording and the other set are in Playback.
 
Hopefully that is all you are dealing with since that would be a simple fix.
 
Also in Cakewalk PA9 you would also need to select the Audio Source for the particular tracks you are working on, but it sounds like you have already done that part.

A.Lower,  If you want to monitor an already recorded track while recording a new one, then go to Options>Audio...  Then click the Advanced Tab.  Under "Playback and Recording" make sure "Simultaneous Record/Playback" is checked.  Also look at the Driver Tab and make sure your soundcard input and output are selected - it is not good enough that they are listed - they must be selected (click once and they should get a grey background).

To prevent the monitored audio from being recorded along with the new audio, go to the Windows Mixer (the speaker icon) and then get to the recording properties and make sure "Stereo Mix" or "What You Hear" is not selected.
--Larry

PS: CorpPunisher, Source and Port in PA9 are the same as Input and Output in Sonar.  But you probably knew that!

Hi everyone, thanks for your input.

In the "advanced" tab, I have the "simultaneous record/playback" option checked.

In the "drivers" tab, the field "Input Drivers" have only one item, namely "1. Microphone (Realtek high definition)", and I can leave it either highlighted or not. I have it highlighted, which I assume means selected. In the field "Output Drivers" I have two options, "1.Speakers (Realtek High Definition)" and "2.Realtek Digital Output (Realtek)". I have "1.Speakers (Realtek High Definition)" highlighted.


In the Windows mixer "recording properties" tab I have "Microphone (Realtek high definition audio) listed as "working", "Line In (Realtek high definition audio) listed as "not plugged in" - quite natural, as I only have an audio input jack connected to the mic input - and "Stereo Mix (Realtek high definition audio)" listed as "disabled". 


The situation remains the same: any monitored audio track inevitably ends up recorded with any new audio track I try to record. I wish there was a dedicated control to select what gets input to the recording tracks... Perhaps it is poorly named and I haven't identified it yet? I also wonder whether it lies in Cakewalk itself or somewhere in the Windows Vista configuration.

I gotta ask:  I assume you are not playing the monitored audio in your speakers such that your microphone is picking it up.  Right?

Are the various audio tracks assigned to different channels?  Actually I'm not sure what difference the channel number makes on audio tracks but I always have them on different channels.

Grasping at straws here.......

Hi Larry,

I am monitoring audio on headphones plugged into the laptop's headphone/speakers jack. Each audio track is in a separate, uniquey numbered channel.

Do you know where is the user expected to indicate what audio signal source is to be input to a newly armed, audio recording track before starting to record it?

I'm a little confused by your question.  It seems that you are able to record from your microphone so you have it selected.  Also, in PA9, a track is either a midi track or an audio track based on the Source that is selected.

In any case, the Source field of a track selects the input to use from the available sources.  If you double click either the Source or Port fields, a dialog box will appear that will allow you to select either or both the Source and Port for the track along with the channel to be used on that track and some other things too (mostly applying to midi tracks).
--Larry

Thanks for your patience Larry.

I see why you are puzzled with my question, but it is valid in view of the behavior I am getting upon recording audio: upon setting up a new audio track for recording, I select as input "Left mic Realtek" and output "Realtek speakers". Unless my understanding is incorrect, such channel input setting should cause only the Left Mic signal to be input when I record... Still what gets actually input is the Left Mic signal plus my monitored audio.
In other words, the input signal setting I select is being ignored, as the software (or perhaps Vista?) insists in adding the monitored audio signal to the left mic signal that I specified. Hence my question: If one cannot select a signal input by specifying it in the "input port" of the channel, then where else is it to be specified?

"Input port" is THE place.  The only thing I know that causes the issue you are seeing is that "Stereo Mix" is enabled in the Recording section of the mixer.  

Again grasping at straws: does your mixer setup include Stereo Mix in the recording and the listening sections?  Make sure you are working with the recording side of things and not the listening side of things.

I just looked at my wife's Win 7 system which might be like Vista.  The RealTek sound control panel has (hidden in some advanced settings area) an option to tie the various inputs together or to keep them separate.  If your system has that option and "tie them together" is selected, you'd get what you are seeing.  Take a good look at the RealTek mixer (or whatever it is called).

--Larry

Hi again. I am confident I am properly addressing the recording (input/source) signal path and listening (output/destination) signal paths, otherwise clearly indicated on each track's settings.

I took your cue regarding the Realtek sound control panel and did some investigation. It occurred to me that maybe I am not getting access to the Realtek audio manager / Realtek sound user interface... I read some articles on the web that suggest that actual adjustments to the soundcard are only possible through this interface (which seems to be different from the “Sound” tab I have been trying to make changes through…). Tonight I will try to locate said Realtek Interface, which might be hidden somewhere deep into this abomination that is Windows Vista.
For the record, I have run the wave profiler and got no change whatsoever. I wonder if I should try updating the Realtek driver? Am saving that for a last resort because I am worried this could do more harm than good.