Cakewalk PA9 mixing problems...please help

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RPM

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I've been using Pro Audio 9 for quite a while now, and have always had a real annoying situation while mixing in console view. Here's the problem. I start the playback of the song and move either the panning or volume of a certain track to get it set the way I want it. When I hit the arrow button to get the song back to the beginning, the setting of the panning or volume that I just fixed jumps back to where it was before I made the adjustment. Annoyed by this, I once found a button to click near the top of the console view that prevented the sliders from visibly jumping back to where they were, but now the placement and volume of the track will revert back to where it was before the adjustments were made (just as it had before), but the sliders don't visibly jump...it's now more like a visually hidden (but audible) annoyance. If I then click directly on the slider in question, the volume then gets adjusted to where the slider actually is without the slider even moving. The only way to get things the way I want them is to adjust them as the song is playing, make a note of what the settings are, and then go back to the beginning of the song and adjust the levels there before it starts playing.
Anyone else have this problem or know what I'm doing wrong? Any input would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!
Rick
http://www.mp3.com/RPM33
 
RPM... This drives me crazy too. The solution is once you set the levels and panning the way you want it, click the update faders button off (like you did already) rewind the song, and THEN press the snapshot key. This will create a snapshot at the very beginning of the song of the positions of the faders after you were done adjusting them. No just click update faders to on, and you will see they are in the sam position. If you have any other questions feel free to ask, I have this mixing thing down pretty good.
 
Here's some email correspondence between myself and Cakewalk;

I would like to know how I can make the level settings in the console view stay where I put them. Both audio and visual settings. When I set the sliders on the console view, they revert to their previous positions when I exit and re-enter a song. Sometimes the sliders, sometimes the actual audio level. I don't see why I should have to rewind and take a snapshot of a setting, or whatever the routine is, to make it stay put. Is there some way of bypassing the default, or something, so it won't be such a pain in the butt every time I want to use Cakewalk. When I use a real mixer, everything stays where I put it. That's what I want the Cakewalk software to do. I don't understand the reason for making it any other way, unless the user has the option to do so. The logic behind designing software to do this is beyond my comprehension. Maybe I'm missing the point, but if there is no way of turning off this constant aggravating situation, and your future versions or upgrades don't address this situation, I will have to discontinue the use of Cakewalk in favor of a more intuitively designed software. I'm not trying to be a prick, I just want a simple recording experience. Do you maybe have any plug-ins or software upgrades to remedy this situation? Or is there a way to bypass or turn it off. And my update button is in the off position so please don't refer me to that. Please let me know what I can do to make things stay where I put them.

Sincerely,
Monty Benoit
Design Services

Monty-

At this time the way to have the Console act like a 'dead' mixer is to rewind and press the Snapshot button to lock those settings in place. Or you can set the Vol and Pan columns in the Track View to --, and leave the Update button off. When you rewind, the faders will visibly stay where you left them, and no new values will be placed in those columns.

We are aware that this causes problems for users like yourself, and we'll be addressing it in our next release. I'll pass your comments along to our development team as well.

Good luck!

Matthew Saunders
Cakewalk Technical Support
http://www.cakewalk.com
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My little hack

* Move the position anywhere except the start of the song
* Set the volume to -1 in the track view

If you adjust the faders while at the beginning of the song, it'll reset the volume... just repeat the steps above.
 
Is there any way to just set all the faders to some default?

Before I read this discussion I ran into this problem and used the snapshot idea...however I 'stupidly' placed many snapshots throughout the song. So the mix is jumping around like crazy.

Next, I tried to cut and paste the tracks into another project so that I could just start over, but apparently it also copied the mixer automation.

I just want to be able to mix this from the start without having to rerecord.

Help !!!

*Slaps Cakewalk Mixer*
 
Bassman; Thanks for this info! It's a little tedious, but at least I'm in control now and I have the ability to mix on the fly and then save those levels, not like before when I sort of had to guess what all the levels were. One more question: after all the faders are set where I want them, is there any reason not to delete the automated mix track? I would think it would be ok since all of the snapshots are taken at the beginning of the piece, but then again I still don't really understand the how the whole snapshot thing really works. Thanks again! Rick
 
RPM,

I havent noticed any adverse effects when deleting the automated console channel. I actually really not sure what it does. Seems all automation data is stored in the events screen not in a midi track.
 
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