Stuttering and Mono Recording

[DrewMac24]

Hi All,
I am a new user to Cakewalk 7 Professional and have been having a few problems. When I try to record, it sounds as though it was recorded on cassette tape and the player is eating my tape! In other words, it speeds up and slows down quite frequently. I have a PIII 450 with 256meg RAM so I am assuming it is not my computer. I have also very recently defragmented my hard drive so it is not that. I am sure it is a setting in Cakewalk that I am overlooking because if I record using the recording software that came with my Soundblaster Live, there is no problem.

Also, when I go to choose the input device, I have to choose the SB Live left OR SB Live Right....this causes it to sound like it is recorded in mono. How can this be fixed.
Thanks to all in advance.
Happy Recording
Drew

[pglewis]

Are you trying to sync the audio with other equipment? If not, you should set Cakewalk to sync to audio. That's most likely your problem.

Cakewalk 7 only has mono tracks. If you want to record a stereo input, you have to arm two tracks... one listening to the left input and one listening to the right input, and then pan them hard left and right during playback. You can upgrade to CPA9 for $100, it might be worth that much just to get rid of the 8 track limit in CP7.

[DrewMac24]

Hey!
Thanks for the input....I guess you are right about Cakewalk. I will definitely consider upgrading eventually but I am short on cash right now.

As for my problem with stuttering, it can't be because of the synchronization....it has always been set to sync to audio. Any more suggstions???
Anyone????

[pglewis]

Roger-roger on the cash. You can still get a lot of mileage out of CP7 once you learn Cakewalk's quirks. I'm assuming you've got the stereo thing figured out.

That's weird with the audio. I thought I had managed to find just about every glitch there is. The only time I've had that problem happen is when I was attempting to do "full chase lock" (on the advanced tab of audio options) while trying to sync to MTC. You might click "trigger and free-wheel" there, just to be safe, but I don't think it should matter if you're syncing to audio. You might also try checking/clearing the "use wave out position for timing" box (always write down your original settings when you tweak). If you have any kind of hardware acceleration adjustment, try bringing it down to about 25% of full when you use the machine for audio. I also wouldn't rule out an IRQ conflict or other hardware problem, even though you can record in another app. I've seen weirder things happen. I hope ya get it figured out.

[DrewMac24]

Thanks for all the help everyone!
I may have figured out what was wrong with the stuttering that was happening. I set up another hardware configuration in my windows that did not include anything that was not needed as well as lowering my hardware acceleration. So far so good! You will hear me complaining more if the problem comes back!
Thanks again for the help!