Reference Guide

1561
Audio
Beginner’s guide to Cakewalk software
1. Your pre-recorded tracks flow out of the sound card’s outputs into mixer inputs #1 and 2.
2. Both the pre-recorded tracks and the live guitar’s sound flow into the main mixer outs, where you
can hear them (monitor them) through the stereo amplifier and speakers.
3. If you turn up the bus send #1 on the guitar input (mixer input #3), the guitar sound flows into a
sound card line input out of bus #1. You could turn up the bus send #2 control on the guitar input
if you wanted to use that instead, since both buses #1 and #2 are patched into the sound card’s
line input. You could also use both bus sends at the same time to double the guitar’s mono signal
if you wanted (not the usual way to record).
4. Since you’re already hearing the guitar through the main outputs, you probably don’t want to
hear its signal again coming back through the sound card’s outputs, so mute the sound card’s
line-in on its Play Control page of its mixer software (not its Record Control page—you want to
record the line-in, but not play it back).
5. If you plug other instruments into other inputs, you can send them into your sound card’s line
input by turning up bus send #1 and/or #2 on each of the mixer’s channels.
6. If the guitar in the above picture had a stereo pickup and stereo cable, you could plug the left
plug on the cable into input #3 and turn up bus send #1, and plug the right plug into input #4, and
turn up bus send #2 on that input. You would then be sending a stereo signal from the guitar
through buses #1 and #2 to the sound card’s line input.
7. In the above setup, do not turn up the bus sends on inputs #1 or #2 (where the sound card’s line
outputs connect to the mixer)—this creates a feedback loop, feeding the sound card’s outputs
back into its inputs through the buses.
For more information, see:
“Choosing inputs” on page 1561
“Audio recording” on page 1556
“Audio hardware (sound cards) and drivers” on page 1564
“MIDI” on page 1541
Choosing inputs
After you’ve connected your instrument or other sound source to your sound card, you need to tell
your sound card’s software, SONAR, and possibly the Windows Mixer which input you’re recording
through. If you’re recording through the S/PDIF input, the procedure is a little different (see “To
record through the S/PDIF input” on page 1563).
If your sound card only has one pair of inputs (one stereo Line input, usually, or Line and Mic inputs
that can’t be used simultaneously), then your sound card probably responds to the Windows Mixer.
Use the following procedure to record a track using the Windows Mixer.