Recording with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 Deluxe

[brtaln1]

Very straight foreward questions. Thinking of the following purchase's.

Cakewalk Pro Audio 9
Roland Audio Canvas for vocals and guitars
drum mcahine
synth/midi controller
microphones.
cd recorder/burner

Question is:how does everything interact or better yet, will it interact together.

Thanks in advance

[Peter Ochello]

Sounds like a good plan....here's a quick description of how everything will coincide,
though there are various ways to hook things up. I'm not familiar with the Roland.
In a nutshell.... Cakewalk 9 (which I have) records two formats: MIDI and audio.
It can deal with both at the same time. Your controller is a good way to input
MIDI notes into Cakewalk. You will need the synth and drum machine to actually
create the sound that the MIDI note generates. A good sound card can also create this
sound. Cakewalk allows you to send notes to these various sound generators
simultaneously. For the audio, Cakewalk is capable of recording through the
soundcard input (or your Roland) into mono or stero tracks. This is where your
mics will come in. One thing I recommend is a small mixer with aux sends and
returns. The mixer allows you to adjust levels on the fly and connect to the card
with one cable. It can act as sort of a patch panel that prevents you from having
to connect to the back of your computer all the time. I have basically the same set
up and I use the Peavey RSM mixer. Some folks prefer Mackies but in my opinion
the new RSM is better for the money. Speaking of Peavey, Cakewalk and Peavey
made a joint product called the StudioMix. It's a programmable mixing surface
that basically takes the Cakewalk on-screen mixer and places it on your desk.
It gives you real knobs and motorized sliders to work with. I have one of those too
and it's great to work with. If you buy the StudioMix you get Cakewalk with it.
I recommend buying Cakewalk that way. If you go to buy the StudioMix later
it will still come with a version of Cakewalk (that you will be paying for).
Finally, Cakewalk can mixdown all your tracks for you and make a stereo wavefile.
This file can then be burnt to CDr with your burner. Then you can play your music on
a consumer CD player in your home or car.
Hope this helps.....pete o

[brtaln1]

Pete, checked out the Studiomix and purchased it today.Thanks for the direction!!