audio file not playing

When I download an audio file and press the play button nothing happens. It won't move. When I download video file then the video part plays but the audio won't. What the heck is going on. The rest of the operations work. I am on my laptop which is a Toshiba vista64 satelite a305 series. I also am running the realtek soudcard. The audio files are compatible with the program that I am playing. Unfortunatly the help section is no help at all. It reads like stero instructions. I wish I never bought this program and stuck with my N-Track program. Also I want to find a nice deep bass sound in the drums for hard tecno but the drum sounds are week. Any suggestions to how I can fix my audio file problem or just tell me how to get a better bass drum system. They promoted this music program as if you can do great musical recordings out of the box but the program is cofussing. I have used fruity loops and reason and acid and so far this is the worst one. Easy my butt I am pretty good at learning software and with music but this music creator so far is garbage! I regret buying it and now I am stuck with it! Please help me to love this program.

And get a firewire or USB interface. I know from experience ( and hair loss) that the Realtek soundcards do not like working with decent sound programs. The drum sounds are there, but you'll want to find them in TTS or another softsynth. The MIDI kicks aren't very deep, that I've found anyway.

Another thing to check for now is the Realtek driver, they just released a new update in mid February. www.realtek.com and get the new HD driver. It may not change anything, but then again it might.

MME driver? I went into my driver and everything is set! I do not know how 2 set my driver to MME???? And deep base sound?

What program are you using? I been using MC4 for a long time and I know of no way to view a video and work on the music track..... I think maybe sonar will allow that ... but not MC.

First off, the basic setup between N-Track and MC4 is a little bit different. N- Track is a tad more immediately friendly, but as many of us know it is just not very stable. MC need to have the drivers setup properly for audio to work. it is not a matter of just the sound working, it is a matter of does MC see the audio driver. Go to options/audio and make sure that the sound card is listed as the recording and playback master timers.

Another issue you brought up is the deep bass you want. This is not s feature of any DAW software, but rather a feature of the softsynth you use to reproduce the bass tones. MC is very similar to N-Track in how you setup synths. But you have to have some synths in the VST folder, and let MC recognize them before you can use them. If you are using realtek then you are accessing either TTS from MC or Microsoftsynth GS and neither of those does deep bass like a real bass synth can do.

P.S. is there any free downloads for MC yet?

LOL! You're funny! j/k

MC is the entry level program, it only costs $35 for download or $40 for boxed set. they have never, to my knowledge, offered any updates or otherwise free downloads for this program. unless there's some major functionality bug I suspect they will not do any updates on it. for minor bugs they either ignore them or expect you to wait until the next paid version comes out.

Go to www.creative.com and download the Proteus VX soft synth, if it's still free. Over 1200 sounds, and sound effects with it. You can also go to the Cakewalk site (click the Consumer Software button at the top of this page) and download the free Triangle II soft synth if you don't already have it. It may have been included with your MC 4, but if not, it's free.

Read the help file section on Drum Maps, and Pattern Brush. When using the Drum Map, there are preset patterns you can select and draw into the track. Splice a bunch of them together and you have an entire song-length drum track.
As for drums, MC can use the sound card's Microsoft GS Wavetable synthesizer for General MIDI (GM) Drums, which are not the best-sounding, or you can use the included TTS-1 soft synth. Those are the drum sounds you have available with MC 4. If you have an external drum machine, or a MIDI keyboard with good drum sounds, you can write a MIDI track in MC and route the data to those devices for them to play. You would then connect an audio cable from the drum box or keyboard to your sound card and record those sounds in MC on an audio track.
The Proteus VX I mentioned above has lots of drums with it.

Also google free acid loops and you will find a ton of good solid "Beats" as you like to call them for use here. There are some nice drum synths ar KVR that will help this kiond of music.

I'm curious, with the kind of music you seem to like, why move away from Acid linked with Reason, that seems like a match made in heaven for you?

Herbie prefers the old skool R word!

Okay. I have only used them a couple times (my song 'On The Beach' is an example), so I had to review the process.
The Drum Maps will only work if using a General MIDI device to play the drums, such as a MIDI keyboard with drums in it, an external drum box, or the Microsoft GS Wavetable synth. More on this later.
Open a MIDI track and expand the track pane so you can see all the track's properties. For In (I), you don't need to select anything, since you'll be writing the data with the mouse. For Out (O) select New Drum Map>General MIDI Drums and choose the kit you want to play. Out, Channel, and Bank should all change to read Drum Map.
Click 'Views' at the top and select Piano Roll. A screen with a grid on it and drum names on the left side should appear. If you click on the drum names you should hear that sound, if your outputs are set correctly.
Above the grid on the left you'll see a toolbar, and one of the tools looks like a paint brush. There will be a drop-down arrow beside the brush. Click the arrow to bring up the pattern menu. Select a pattern, click the brush tool then drag the cursor across the grid line with that instrument's name. Some of the patterns are drum-specific, so if you choose a snare pattern and drag the brush across the Crash Cymbal 1 line, it may still draw in the snare line.
Go ahead and do a bass drum, high hat and snare by choosing a pattern for each and drawing them in the proper line for a couple measures. Rewind and click the play button. Does it play and can you hear it? If you can't hear it, we need to get your output set.
Now, on my set-up, I do have a MIDI keyboard with GM drums, so I didn't have to use the Microsoft GS Wavetable synth. But, I also did it using the TTS-1 soft synth included with MC 4. Instead of using the Drum Map output, I went to the top and under the 'Insert' menu, I selected TTS-1 soft synth. In the MIDI track, I set the output to TTS-1, and the bank was Preset Rhythm GM Drums Standard Kit or something like that. Then when you go to the Piano Roll View (PRV), you may not see drum names on the left. That's okay, just right-click where all the numbers are on the left and click the button for 'Use These Note Names Instead'. A box will pop up and you select GM Drums>the kit you want to play. That should display the drum names for you and the pattern brush works the same way.

it may be that the GS Wavetable doesn't have the correct mapping according to what you're entering with the brush tool - the brush tool, I believe, probably assumes a GM2 map and the GS wavetable is GM, so the extra notes may be assigned incorrectly.

I would suggest that instead of using MS GS Wavetable that you use TTS-1 instead (assuming MC4, Edirol VSC if you're using MC3). TTS-1/Edirol VSC are both GM2 softsynths and honestly they sound better than MS GS Wavetable anyway.

if you need help using the softsynth, just work thru tutorial #8 in the help files, or Herb has some "down to earth" instructions on his website (Guitarhacker).

are you setting the MIDI/output track up correctly? have you selected the channel, bank and patch info in the MIDI track's properties? did you work thru the tutorial and it wouldn't give you sound there either? give us a little more detail on what you've done and we'll try to get through it.

I'll try what TAP says to do. I do not understand what turtorial BEAGLES is talking about, but I have followed most of the directions correctly. I hate to say but this music program seems to be a little overly touchy! I have never had so much trouble with one program before! Also the reason I do not use REASON or FRUITY LOOPS any more is because it was on my old computer that I had to sell along time ago (plus I downloaded it through KAZZA like 6yrs ago) I just got my new laptop recently and best buy is the only store that sells computer softwear in Bend Oregon. Unless I want to spend a ton of money and travel far. Plus MC's way of promoting itself was that it was an easy out of the box start making music type of program... I think they stretched the truth because without turtorials I masterd REASON and Fruity Loops no problem. I'm one of those musicians that loves to play the guitar but that dosen't mean I know or want to know how to build one. With MC I feel like I just want to make music not become a computer programmer. I learn pretty quick but it just seems like when I fix one problem then another problem arises! Anyway, enough ****en I'll stick with it. The funny thing is when I had a playstation one music generator I made some sick break beat and hard trance music with hard deep bass and now that I have more memory and a computer with a professional music program I feel like I am working with a casio. The drums are way weak and I know my computer has great sound, so I am a little confussed. So far I have done everything correct so hmmm! Thanx for all your help. If anyone has a killer deep bass sounding track please send me a sample so I can hear it. josephcohee@rocketmail.com

the tutorials are in the help files. when you first start MC, a window pops up and it will give you options of opening an existing project, starting a new project or going to the GETTING STARTED GUIDE" if you choose that, you will go to the help files (or you can press F1 at any time inside MC). in the help files there are links to tutorials which help you through learning stuff like how to use softsynths. tutorial #8 is the one on softsynths.