shareware drum machine for cakewalk?

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tsphillips

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I have cakewalk9 but I have no midi stuff at all. I just record with mikes (acoustic guitar and vocals). Since Cakewalk does NOT have a metronome I can listen to through the headphones while I play I need to figure out how to get some kind of drum patterns to use as a click track.

does anyone know of a freeware or shareware drum machine thingy I can use to record simple quarter tones that I can then listen to via headphones while I record on Cakewalk?

Can someone explain HOW I record the drums into Cakewalk??

I have sat here for days hoping I could figure out a way to tap into the basic stuff my soundblaster has but can not.

I have tried to program the Cakewalk metronome and it wont work, always comes through the PC speakers even when I have PC Speaker option OFF, and NEVER comes through to the head phones.

I have tried slecting midi insturments on a track and select drums and nothing ever records or plays back.

Any help would well be helpful thanks
 
Let me get there... Sound Blaster is a MIDI device, even the old SB16 card was. If you install the propher driver, and appear on your Cakewalk's MIDI input / Output devices option, then select it. Not the MPU UART / SB MIDI OUT port. Select some kind like internal synth. Can you do that ? Good. Now, prepare 1 MIDI track, click the tracks property to select the output port. Select the SB internal synth, select channel 10... yes, 10 ! and select the instrument (talk about it latter..). Now, open track's piano roll. Draw a note every measure in "snare" sound (you can drag the mouse all over the piano roll to get the sound you like...), and copy paste the measure to fit the whole song. Still with me ? Okay... there's should be a metronome heard in your sound system / headphone by the time you hit the play button. If you cannot hear anything, make sure you enable the MIDI in your kernell mixer. Come back for more... ;)
 
Not quite there yet!!

Thanks a lot.

OK I did all that or most of it. I was able to draw beats in the piano roll. They are there in the Track View but still no sound.

In the Options/Midi Devices my only left window choice is Soundblaster Live! In [10E0]. My right window option is set at A: Soundblaster Live! Midi Synth (There is also a B: Soundblaster Live! Midi Synth and the Midi Out thing you said not to choose).

My Track Properties read as:

Source: Right SB Live! Wave In [10EO]

Port: Project Card Out (this is my 16 bit card that goes to my mixing board and headphones)

Channel: 10

Bank: Select Mode: Normal*

Bank: none

Patch: Drums

PS you said something about dragging my mouse over the piano roll to hear different sounds, I do not know what you mean at all and can't figure it out.
 
Aaaah, all is getting clear now. So it's SB Live!. Good.

In the MIDI options select either A or B SoundBlaster Live! MIDI synth.

In your track property, select MIDI Omni (Not SB Live! Wave in !) as a source. And Port (either A or B) :SB Live! MIDI Synth. It would appear there as an option if you select the MIDI options propherly.

Channel : 10

Bank select mode : Normal.

Bank : None.

Patch : whatever appear first next to none. (Could be Acoustic Grand Piano or just number 0 / 1 not a big deal... yet).

Point your mouse on the piano roll (left hand side on Piano Roll view) click left button on the piano like laid there, move the mouse up and down to hear differences sound. How about that ? Do you hear any sound ?
;)
 
thanks again but...

well we are getting somewhere. This time I could hear sounds, and pick the snare and when I play back I hear it - BUT only through the speakers, NOT through the headphones.

As it stands now my set up goes like this...

mikes go into mackie board preamps, mix to my 16 bit Project Card (Steinberg). It records.

If the track Port is set to Project Card Out I hear my play back through the headphones that are in the headphone slot on the mackie board. this is the only way I can do multitracking and hear other tracks to play to.

If the track Port is set to Soundblaster Live! Wave Out [10EO] then it comes through the PC speakers, but not through the board and headphones. I use this to mix down for waves and mp3s.

When i followed your most recent settings the port DID say A: SB Live! MIDI Synth

But once I played back and went into track properties to change to Project Card Out (to see if it would work that way) the Port was changed to 1-Sound Font Device. I have to leave it on that to hear any sound from the piano roll or in playback, but again, only through the speakers.

Any idea how to get that to play back to my project card? or set up soundblaster to it remains my outs but still somehow gets back to my board (I have the rca outs on the project card currently leading to the board. The Soundblaster card just has little, mini plug ports, no RCAs

on that note, is a Steinberg 16 bit Project Card BETTER than the sound quality on Sound Blaster Live? I just assumed so, as it came with the $500 version of Cubasis VST I bought. Finally removed Cubasis as it just would not work right with my PC and went with Cakewalk instead, which is effortless except for the no click track. In Cubasis you just open the metronome, select your temp and it worked great. No midi stuff, not selecting all these options. Ah well.

thanks again

Any thoughts on trouble shooting from this point would be happily received!
 
yea*

well if I put the headpones into my pc speakers I can hear it just fine, and can play to the beat. I can not hear my guitar through the phones but that is not a problem for basic one guitar solo stuff.

It will be a problem for multitracking, if I have a lot going on and need to hear the instrument or my voice through the headphones. but this is a great start.

Any way to record tracks to other tracks, like could I set the midi stuff up for the click and then actually record the sound to another track so it becomes audio? as that I think WOULD play back through my Project card.

Just a thought.

Thanks again, this has already been a huge help
 
So you use two cards in your system ? That's fine. You use outboard mixer just fine. All you need to do is route both card's output to your Mackie mixer. Let say Project card to channel 5-6, and SB Live! to channel 7-8. Here you can hear both on your headphone thru Mackie's headphone out. (...ain't that what mixer is all about ? ;) ) I believe there's at least 2 aux send in your Mackie, then route it to your wave recording card. Here, any channels you want the signal to record simply just turn the channel's aux send knob... About the speaker, if you turn it off from your Cakewalk, Options, Metronome, and pick Use MIDI Note instead, you should hear nothing in your speaker. You should hear the Sound Blaster plays the ticks. And, yes... it will turn into Sound Fonts device. It's normal, since SoundBlaster Live! use SoundFonts technology to do it's internal MIDI part.
 
...and yes, you may wanna have propher cables. No other options to cables. Get ones. You must use 1/8 mini stereo jack for the SBLive! output to two 1/4 mono jack to hook the mixer. It's called Y cable. I dunno your Steinberg card, but if it's 16 bit, ain't SBLive! does 24 bits which is better ? But you may consider the SNR (Signal To Noise ratio) etc... also to pick which is better. ;)
 
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