yeah... that does not make sense that a compressor is doing that. However, throw a compressor into the mix of what else you are doing with the given hardware and anything does become possible.

As far as sound cards... with lappy's and or desk tops, you can always use a USB music interface. It is a dedicated card this is specifically designed to handle the music we record, unlike the sound card in the computer. 

I use a focusrite saffire for both my laptop and my desk top DAW. 

Jeez, new here. what a mess. so far.
 I bought a cheap usb mic that came with this cakewalk5 and I noticed the same thing to start, how suddenly the timing is off and the recording result is sped up! and I have Audacity as a reference that my mic works! and at 44k sample rate.

I'm winxp on a notebook. I am giving cake a try and have just started trying to figure it out, what a mess. is there not even a thorough manual? the tutorials pale in comparison to the features cake has with no appearant explanations.

you're trying to use two soundcards at the same time.  the USB mic is a soundcard even tho it only goes one direction, it still has a clock for digital input and you're using your onboard soundcard as output which has a separate clock.  those 2 clocks are not the same and you're going to get problems when you try to use a different clock for input than your output clock.

personally I wish USB mics were never invented.  they're nothing but trouble, IMO.  my BEST advice is to take it back and get your money back, then buy a traditional mic and a real soundcard with Input and Output and at least one mic preamp.  USB soundcards are OK, USB mics are problematic.

check my website for soundcard and mic recommendations.

in the meantime, you might be able to get the mic working "better" by using MME driver mode.  in MC5, go to OPTIONS>AUDIO and change the driver mode to MME.

Hey Black dog..... you should start a new thread for your topic so more people will know it's here. 

But, yup... the USB mic is not the tool to use to record in Sonar or MC. 

Was it the other way around? You paid for the mic and MC5LE came with the mic? 

OK so you are using a limited edition of MC... that LE version is not a full version... more of a teaser. 

Many folks starting out (including myself back 5 years ago) are totally over whelmed by the software. It takes time to learn it BUT having the right gear to start will help. 

Return the USB mic if you can. Buy a decent dynamic or condenser mic and buy a decent USB based audio/midi interface which runs native ASIO drivers. 

By using a USB mic with the laptop sound card for playback, you are in effect running TWO soundcards in the same computer and they are not synced together with timing signals so they will not playback the music you record in sync. Actually the out of sync is happening at the record point. You hear music and are singing/playing along with it, and it sounds like it's in sync but the new stuff going in on the USB mic is not being synced properly and when it's played back..... total confusion. 

Audacity is not like Cakewalk so saying it works fine with Audacity is one thing, but a USB mic will not work well in Cake.  A USB mic is ok for podcasting and that's about it.  It is certainly not designed for multitrack recording. And yeah, I know they bundle it with cake products and tell you that it is..... Like Beagle, I wish they would cease and desist that practice... but I guess it opens the doors to some people actually doing the right things and getting into recording the right way by getting a good interface and buying up the cakewalk ladder. 

WinXP is a good OS for MC. Lose the USB mic, get a decent interface, and the DAW will be a much better performer. 

thanks Beagle -- I am in MME mode -- I would love to upgrade but can not at this time. The kicker is I bought this mic that came with this software [cakewalk 5 LE]!! -- Actually my first sample recording did not sound off time! --it's possible since I upgraded through the website here it has been off. Maybe I should delete and reload with the disc I bought and NOT update?
 
UPDATE OF THIS MESSAGE: The speed problem does not seem to be when using usb mic but only when using my laptops built-in mic, which I only used for test, I will not use for proper recording so the speed issue may not be a problem at this time.

thanks Guitarhacker, [!] You may be right. and if you are. Cakewalk will not be a company I will do anything with!

my message #15 has been updated.