Cakewalk/audiophile2496 problems

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detonation2000

New member
Ok so I am very new at the whole recording thing and I am having a few problems.

The first is that with this damn audiophile in order to get real time midi I cannot use any of the effects that come with cakewalk. If I do then I get a delay.

Another problem is that I cannot figure out how to get the midi to go through my main speakers. When I hit play it playes through the piano.

Another problem is that sometimes when I am working even if is without any effect I suddenly get a massive delay with the piano(like 30 seconds) and the only way of fixing it is restarting cakewalk and sometimes the computer.

Anyone have any ideas on fixing these problems.

I am running a P3 600, 256 ram, audiophile 2496, Yamaha Clavinova CLP-360, Cakewalk 9.
 
Sounds like the primary issue that you are dealing with is latency. Unfortunately, with a 600 Mhz CPU, this is most likely not going to get fixed.

Latency is affected by your sound card, the drivers, the OS, and the processing power available.

If you are not using WDM drivers for your sound card, that will probably help. But with a PIII 600, you're not likley going to wrestle this bear to the ground.
 
I get less than 9ms latency in Home Studio 2002XL with my Audiophile on a PII-400 with 512Mb of RAM in XP. That translates to no noticeable delay with DXi softsynths.

You need to adjust the latency slider first and then run wave profiler so Sonar/HS2002 can recalculate buffers to work with your new latency setting.

Seeing as you are still using PA9, I suggest a call to Cakewalk for an upgrade purchase to Sonar or HS2002. PA9 does not make as good use of WDM drivers as Sonar/HS2002.
 
What version Windows do you use? If it's ME then you should be able to use the WDM drivers for the Audiophile and get the latency down to 10ms or under. But, I don't know if PA9 can use WDM drivers - it was designed before these were available.
You can force the latency down though, even with the older VXD type drivers you probably have. Find the Audio Settings options from the menu bar - find the "use wavepipe acceleration" and check it, pull the Latency slider to the left and run WaveProfiler. Close PA9 and reopen it. You should be able to get down to around 40ms which is only just usable for effect monitoring but it's the best you will do. If you go too low, playback will stutter. If this is the way you want to work then you really do need to upgrade to Sonar or HomeStudio2002 and probably up Windows to 2000 or XP too.
This is not the fault of the Audiophile but the old Windows MME audio system which has a normal latency of 450ms no matter how fast your pc is!
Then again you can just record your midi instrument sound back into PA9 without the fx on a new audio track and add the fx afterwards - monitor latency is not then an issue and this is the way the designers intended you to work.
Your midi...
Assuming you have the Clav midi out to Audiophile (hereafter AP) midi in and AP midi out to Clav midi in - you need to select "local off" in the Clavs settings. When you play the Clav, the midi note info is sent to PA9 (you must have a midi track selected), PA9 then echoes this back out to the Clavs sound generator and it plays the notes. You can either record the midi into the midi track or feed the Clavs audio into the AP line in and record this into a PA9 audio track. To get a differant midi sound than the Clav you need another midi synth and the AP card does not provide one. If you do have a "soft" synth - such as the Roland GS synth provided with Windows, then you select it as the midi tracks output port. You can then select one of the general midi sounds from the patch menu. Again, you will have to record this to an audio track sooner or later.
As you are a new to this, I would advise reading as much as you can on the subject - there really is a lot you need to learn. Don't forget that midi is just digital instructions on how to play a note - it does not produce audio without a synth of some sort and you cannot make a CD from a midi sequence/recording. It must be recorded as an Audio .wav file first.
 
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uhhu

Ok guys thanks for all the info. I have a friend who is pretty heavy into midi and he has been finding my card really wierd and hard to deal with do. he runs a soundblaster live and has no problem with midi.

I am running windows 2000 service pack 3.

NOt to sound like an idiot but what does WDM stand for?

What is sonar or homestudio 2?

and what is PA 9?

and where do I find waveprofiler?

sorry for all the dumb questions but I gotto learn somehow.

Anyways you have all been great! Thanks so much for your patience to a newbee. My friend is coming over in the next couple of days and using your info and his help I think we should get it!
 
NOt to sound like an idiot but what does WDM stand for?
Click to expand...
Windows Driver Model. I'm not a techie on this stuff, but in essence WDM is a relatively new driver standard developed by Microsoft that allows software to communicate more directly (and therefore faster) with hardware (e.g., Sonar talking to your sound card). It replaces an older standard called MME (Multimedia Extensions).

What is sonar or homestudio 2?
Click to expand...
Recording software.

and what is PA 9?
Click to expand...
Cakewalk Pro Audio 9. The precursor to Sonar.

and where do I find waveprofiler?
Click to expand...
Options -> Audio.
 
I wonder if you're actually using the bundled version of Cakewalk that M-audio are now shipping with the Audiophile? (It was "DeltaLogic" when I got mine - awful!) It's just that I don't think the old pre-Sonar Cakewalks will actually work under Win2000. M-audio have a habit of packaging software with their products that is at best sub-standard and don't even bother to provide satisfactory instructions on using them with the card. If so I should ditch it pronto and get HomeStudio2002 - as long as you are using a basic card like the Audiophile (as opposed to a full-on studio card like the Delta 1010) it will serve your purpose for some time to come. As a beginner (boy, have you got a lot of learning ahead of you ;) ) getting a proper paper manual will be essential.
The soundblaster card has a midi synth built in, so your friend has access to it's soundfont sampler for midi sounds. From the sound of it, you only have your Clav'. The AP cannot generate midi sounds - it only has a midi interface for connecting to external equipment. Sonar, and (I think) HS2002 supply a software Roland SoundCanvas midi synth which emulates a real hardware one - so this will give a similar choice of sounds to the Soundblaster.
I personally recommend you get a nice external midi sound module like a Roland sound-canvas, your Clav will then act as a master keyboard and you will always have a full set of midi sounds independant of what your pc and sequencer can do. It doesn't have to be expensive - a used Korg 05R/w module or similar are still very powerful beasts for the home studio.
 
I see

Thanks so much everyone!

I guessed that most likely I would have to get a module outside of the sound card. I realize with the card I payed for good recording quality and thats it. Basically I got the ultimate no frills card ever. I will probably rent a module at the end of august (no point in renting now I am going away for most of it) and then I will have some serious fun!

I hope no one is offended but at this point in time I am using a cracked version of cakewalk 9. I see no point in buying the software unless I am actually going to use it. Now that I have heard about these newer programs I think I might pick one up. So just verify for me. Is Homestudio the best software for me and my card? Im not rich. Dont want to invest in crap.

Also on a side note: I have a goal and it is to take a audio engineering course. Probably at Trebas Institute in Toronto.

Once again thanks so much to everyone for this info.

I did take a cheesy midi course in highschool using really old macs so I learned the basics. But thank you guys for making a newbie feel welcome. Very few forums are really welcoming to newbies but you guys have been great!
 
Have a look at www.cakewalk.com and d/load some demos.
They time-out after 30days but until then are fully functional - that is you can save your work.
For me, the big thing missing from HS2002 and all the "entry level" sequencers is the ability to synchronise to an external recorder or sequencer - but if you intend to work mostly with pc software, HS2002 will not be a waste and Cakewalk do provide upgrade deals if you decide to move up. Also, you might consider that there are dealers who supply software at discount rates for students.
Your opinion of the Audiophile is correct - it's a high quality Audio interface - no more or less.
Your pc has ample power for most audio jobs and midi sequencing itself can be done with an old 486 laptop provided the sound module is an external box.
 
Jim Y said:
For me, the big thing missing from HS2002 and all the "entry level" sequencers is the ability to synchronise to an external recorder or sequencer -
Click to expand...

You are not entirely correct. HS2002 can transmit MIDI start/stop/continue/clock data but not receive.

If you use HS2002 as you clock source, there are no problems.
 
detonation2000 ,


Why don't you try to overclock that 600? If you can you might solve some of these issues.
 
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