Cakewalk/recording questions...

[Motojunkie]

I've been messing around with cakewalk a bit, and was wondering if I'm doing things a bit wrong....

When recording my bass to Cakewalk, the raw tracks sound great. When I export them to a .wav file they seem to lose some body and low end. Am I doing something wrong?

OK, more questions. How does one go about building a good drum track? Do I need special software, or does Cakewalk do everything that I need it to? Also, do I need to purchase loop CDs? How do you do it?

Thanks!!

[wcandres]

We need to know which Cakewalk package you're using. With my "Guitar Studio 2", you need to play with the recording level a bit to get the sounds to remain the same when exported to wav's. Also, Guitar Studio 2 does have everything needed to create drum tracks (but it takes some work).

Bill

[Offshore Angler]

I use Guitar Tracks 2.0, and it sounds so bad it really doesn't matter. The drum stuff is a major pain, maybe somebody has some tricks they'd like to share?

[Gravity Jim]

Motojunkie, when you say you are exporting the tracks to a .wav file, do you mean when exporting the bass track by itself, or do you mean when exporting a full mix (lots of other sounds in there besides ther bass)?

If the latter (as I would guess), which process are you using:

1. I create a stereo mix by mixing everything down in real-time, playing back all the tracks and mixing it to a new stereo track, setting track levels and panning on a mixer:

- or -

2. I create a stereo mix by setting all levels and panning in the software, telling the computer which tracks to include and "bouncing" the whole thing down to a new stereo track.

[Motojunkie]

I'm using Sonar 4 Producer.

Jim, actually I'm just trying to get a couple of tone sample clips together - so I'm just trying to take a single track and make it a .wav then a .mp3. The way I have been doing it is to go to file-export-audio, then click the file type to Broadcast Wave.

Any ideas on drums?

Thanks for the help!

[Gravity Jim]

Hmmmm. So you are exporting a recorded track that sounds swell in Sonar, bu when it becomes a .wav, it sounds wimpy and loses low end. There is NO plug in on the track....

Are you certain that the .wav file you are creating is a 16 bit 44.1K file? Is there any chance you are downsampling to something like 22K? And does the .wav itself sound wimpy, or does it wuss out when it becomes an MP3?

[Motojunkie]

It gets wimpy when I export it to .wav at 24/44.1. And, no there aren't any plugins running.

I was thinking that maybe it was because I selected broadcast wave, not RIFF wave.....

I'm quite confused.

[Gravity Jim]

I'm confused, too. A BWF isn't inherently lower audio quality than a RIFF...

It don't add up. is there any chance that you are recording the bass track in stereo and bouncing down to mono?

[Motojunkie]

hmmm.....I'm going to have to check that out.

I'll report back a little later.

Thanks for the tips!

[fezz parka]

Jim has great advice above.

I have found that programs like Sonar and ACID, when converting multiple tracks to a stereo .wav file, lose something in the process. The mixed .wav never sounds quite like the multi's played back. The "conversion" isn't done in real time, like ProTools "bounce to disc", which I believe is the best way to do it. So here's what I do when using ACID: I get the mix the way I want it to sound and open up another program, like Wavelab or Cool Edit Pro, and record the playback from ACID. The resulting .wav sounds just like what I hear coming out of my speakers.

As far drums go, Sonar can use acidized loops right? Get some DOD or Discrete Drum loops, or even the ones that ACID has available (I use Drum Tools, Drum Sugar, and the Mick Fleetwood set). You'll be able to build great sounding drum parts out of them!

[Gravity Jim]

I second Fezz. I never "bounce" a mix out of Digital Performer (well, okay... it's just spoken word and a long show, like some of the radio program stuff I record, then I will but not music). I play it back and mix it through the 02/R to a fresh stereo track in DP or to DAT, because it sounds better.

Drums on Demand rock the house for the price. For MIDI drums, I use DrumTrax a lot of the time as a starting point, but I've been using Discrete Drums and DOD much more often.

[fezz parka]

Right on Jim! BTW, stellar guitar playing on "Groovity Jim". Not a note out of place, just freakin great. I tip my hat to you!

[photoweborama]

I get the mix the way I want it to sounds and open up another program, like Wavelab or Cool Edit Pro, and record the playback from ACID. The resulting .wav sounds just like what I hear coming out of my speakers.

Wow. I'm going to have to figure out how to do that! I've been able to get around some the degradation by using stereo panning and move things away for other things that mush together, but I'm going to have to give this a try.

[Gravity Jim]

Wow, thanks for the hat tip. Mr. Parka. There are at last a couple notes out of place... :)... but it really means something coming from another studio cat like yerself.

I'm waiting to see if my "collapsed stereo phase cancellation problem" guess is right.

[fezz parka]

I'm waiting to see if my "collapsed stereo phase cancellation problem" guess is right.

That certainly would suck the meat right out of the pie, so to speak.:)