Mike. I have to tell you. I don't comment. Ever. But your channel is a gold mine. A real UA-cam treasure. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!
I already knew most of what you explained in this video. But I whish someone had given me your excellent explanation about 20 years ago. It would have saved me a lot of grey hair and bad mixes along the way ;-) Thank you for saving a new generation of producers from this unnecessary harm.
Hands down some of the best lessons not just for Cakewalk but for the entire spectrum of music production. Being a guitarist who is trying to mix and master his music, your videos have been tremendously helpful. Thank you so much.
Hi Mike! I decided to sell all my hardware gear about ten years ago, because I didn't have enough room for them after our daughter grew up (and she needed some more room of course). My father died a year ago and after that I felt a great need to express my feelings through music again. Your Cakewalk tutorials have been essential for me in the past few months, especially this one. So I wanted to say a big thank you, Mike, for your helpful, well thought and produced tutorials. Please keep them coming in the future too!
Patch points could work for you if you use outboard equipment. For example, you wanna run tracks 2-3 and 6 through a patch point that send it off to a physical output which goes off into a Yamaha SPX-90. Its output can be then be routed back to another track, You may actually have multiple outboard gear, so the patch points become individual inputs again as the come back. It's wicked to see you work man, keep it up!
I know this video has been out a while, but I came back to watch it again as I don't have outboard equipment, and wanted to use compression "pre recording" "on the way in" ... which I accomplished by doing the compression on the input track and then sending to an Aux track, actually recording the Aux track....maybe there is a better way, but I'm excited about it, ha.......all thanks to this video and your many other great ones...thanks Mike!
I have been using this software for years and now I watch a clear logical explanation for the use of aux and bus routing. Big thanks!! :-) Really enjoy your videos.
Thank you sooooooo much for all these videos about Cakewalk by bandlab. I am trying to switch my DAW from Cubase to this one because I cant afford a new one. The cracked ones I got are veeeery limited. So I decided to try a switch. Thank God I found this channel. It will help me make the BIG switch. Thanks a lot again
You raised a challenge for ways to use Patch Points. I'm a newbie with Cakewalk and with recording with DAW's but an idea sprang to mind as you said it. Imagine you have a song and you want to open with a certain mood, and have the guitar bright, clean but a bit 'spacey, then you want a midsection with a 'dirty guitar'', and an end section with a different set of effects and EQ. You would be able to change from one mood to another throughout the song - and back again, and change gradually from one mood to another simply by automating the volume of the guitar's Patch channels. I have not done this but I think it makes sense. I found this content very useful, cheers.
Wow! That's a great idea actually! The automation will go crazy and it can even be just guitar part looping over and over again but different feels! Ha this idea is amazing!
Ha!! At 25:19 he says "I'll just let you listen to parallel compression on it's own, sounds pretty terrible" then plays something that sounds better than anything I've ever recorded haha, almost spilled my coffee! Great video man, thanks for taking the time to make this!
Thank you for your videos! I've learned a lot about Cakewalk from them! Most recently, I used Patch Points to separate the Left and Right channels of a stereo audio file into two mono files. If you just convert a stereo file to mono, it combines the Left and Right. If you send each side to their own track, it doesn't. Sometimes, I will use a Patch Point to add an effect to a certain frequency range of an instrument.
I took a break from recording/writing/engineering for along time. . . i got back into it, and IM ABSOLUTELY LOVING the information your providing on all of your video's. I appreciate at all you do!
You are honestly the best tutor on youtube for mixing and mastering. I saw several other videos on this same subject, and though the knowledge was there, it got confuse, either cause some steps were skipped or talking too fast or lack of interest in transmitting knowledge some people don't own the teaching gift, which you have. Knowledge doesn't equals to know how to teach. thanks for these very helpful tutorials Mike. Cheers
For years I have been searching for an explanation of this information and I just stumbled upon this video and this brilliantly explains it. Thank you and now I’m a subscriber!!!
I immediately see a convenient solution in Patch Points, whenever the same signal has to be edited in several different ways. Say, you don't have a multiband-compressor, but want to differently compress three bands. PatchPoint send to three tracks that have an eq + compressor loaded. With Aux channels you would have to create 3 sends, with busses you would have to create 3 sends as well.
I've been using Cakewalk since version 1.0 for DOS (when it was 12 Tones). I've stumbled my way through it, tried to figure out as much as I could over the years. I wish I had found this sooner. WHAT A GOLDMINE OF INFORMATION! I found this series by accident, only about a month ago. I use Cakewalk to make pre-production demos, or lay down some basic stems, which I then bring to an established studio. But with (a lot) more practice, I may start doing some full projects, as I gain more knowledge and plug in the holes in my engineering education. And this series will be a big part of that. Thank you so very much for making these.
I'm just pausing quickly at minute 23 to say: you are a genius!!!! I should have invested all the necessary hours watching your videos before trying to work things out myself and wasting so many many more hours (with quite poor results!) over the past few years of recording... You have such a good way of explaining things so simply but very clearly. Thank you!!
I’ve been a cakewalk user, then a sonar user and now a cakewalk user again for MANY years and I learned something! Thank you for this and all your excellent cakewalk videos!!
20:00 Worth noting when using send effects is that the signal in the effect mostly should be turned all the way to "wet" and no "dry". If not, the original signal will pass thru and will be added to the overall sound.
Most effects sends are set that way by default for the very reason you said. You can post the effected signal on a separate track if you like and blend it with the original dry track.
Yet another educational masterpiece. Mike's lessons are always clear and well-planned with a logical flow. He's found that elusive balance between "talking down" and "too much information"!
Mike - Thank you Thank you so much for this video! Any help with Cakewalk by Bandlab is greatly appreciated by all of us that use that particular DAW. THANK YOU!
As a guitarist never thought to put the delay before the drive !! That’s a good tip ! Indeed when you say even if you’re an advanced user you may learn or discover a thing or two that’s true
Patch Points: I like the ideas others have had, but I thought of another. I wondered for some time how to use one recorded part of one piano or synth and change patches. I suppose you could create patch points of a single synth, add patch points with different patches and then automate the PP channels on or off as you need them. BTW I've loved Mike's videos for years and I've learned a lot by watching them! He is the #1 Cakewalk prof.
What a great big lesson in a short time, fantastic!!!!!!! I never have understand as well as you explained. Despite that I am not an English speaking person
@@CreativeSauce please do a video of how I can change the tempo of a song, for example the beginning of 150bpm and the bridge of 130bpm and rise up to 150bpm from the final chorus
I have been using Cakewalk for 20 years starting with the first Guitar Tracks version for basic demos and to the current version and it is great to see your videos as there hasn't been too many Cakewalk tutorials as there are other Daws. Most of the workflow and techniques I use have been from trial and error but I find that we are basically at the same place. I have picked up some very useful ideas from you and it is always great to see another persons perspective. Needless to say I enjoy your presentations and always look forward to your next video. All the best.
Thanks for a fantastic video. I guess that’s why I’ve been subscribed for a while. This is the first DAW I’ve used in a long time. My last one was Cakewalk Home Studio 2004XL for reference. At 65, it’s like being an auto mechanic who worked in the 60s then quit for a time then started up again in 2021.
I have been using Cakewalk for years, way back from the Sonar LE version, but I have to say I pick up something new every time I watch one of you video's Mike. Great stuff, keep up the good work, I love it. Mike Knight.
1:07 3 default buses created in Cakewalk. 2:48 There's another divider squashed into the right hand side. It has more faders which represent outputs on your audio interface. You can route things to them to create separate mixes for different headphone outputs. But we're not using it today. 4:07 Gain knob. Set a healthy signal right at the beginning of your signal chain. 4:52 Then it goes to the ProChannel where there's a compressor and an EQ. The compressor sends the compressed signal to the EQ. They're both switched off now. 5:58 The signal then goes to the FX section. 6:41 Then it goes to the Sends section which behaves differently to the FX section. 7:11 Then it goes to the Pan then the Master fader which controls the overall output from that channel. Then it goes to the Master section. 7:51 The path of the signal. 8:24 What happens in the FX section? What order the FX should be in depends. 9:00 Example. A delay then TH3. 10:32 The combined effect of the two FX. The guitar gets less overdriven with each echo. 11:43 To make the overdrive sound repeat, swap the two FX around so the delay repeats the overdriven signal. So think about which order you want the FX be in. 12:57, 13:02 Sends. Creates a send to the overdriven signal. Sends + > New Stereo Bus. Adds TH3 to the new bus. 13:56 The signal branches off to the new bus and also continues down the channel (two simultaneous signals happen). 14:56 Sends + > New Stereo Bus (to put a delay FX on), so it's now being sent to two buses. It causes one overdriven signal and delays/echoes without overdrive on them. 16:33 Recap 16:48, 16:57 More typical ways of using busses. He's using two virtual guitars. 17:41 He's added reverb to one guitar. 18:29 Ctrl-click and drag FX to copy it to the other guitar. 18:49 To save you from altering the settings on the delay FX on both guitars and save resources, you can use a Send. So you can put the FX on a new bus and Send the two guitars to a new bus created for reverb FX. Sends+ > "name of bus created for reverb". 19:47 And you can use the fader of the reverb bus to alter the reverb for all the instruments being sent to it. 20:13 And you can control the levels of reverb sent through from each of the instrument channels. 20:54 Another good reason to use a Send is you can chain FX together in a single bus. 21:24 Insert an EQ before the reverb on the Reverb bus and get rid of the bottom end of the signal, so it's only sending the top end of the guitar to the reverb FX. Demo of how it sounds. 22:43 If you put the EQ and reverb on the instrument channel, the EQ has thinned the guitar out, it affects the whole signal. 23:25 The Post button can be switched off, which means the signal being sent through to the bus is not affected by the fader on the channel, if switched on then it is affected by it. 24:11 Why does it matter? Parallel compression on the vocals. Quick explanation of parallel compression. He Sends the vocal to a bus with a compressor on it that is compressing it very heavily, and you blend it with the original signal of the vocal 25:48 The fader on the channel affects the amount of signal sent to the compressor on the bus, making it be compressed less and less because compressors need a certain level of signal before they kick in. Demo. 26:44 To make it keep compressing the signal while lowering the main signal, switch the Post button off so the signal being sent to the bus doesn't get affected by the channel fader. Demo of it working. 27:38 Problem: The vocal and the parallel compression are imbalanced with eachother, there's a mix between the vocal and the compression. How to keep them in balance with eachother. Right click > Insert Stereo Bus, set the output of the vocals channel to the new bus, and set the output of the compression channel to the new bus too. Now that new bus can be used to affect the vocal level while keeping the same balance of the vocal and the compressed vocal. Demo. 29:25, 29:35 Another reason for buses is to create sub-mixes of items. Right click > Insert Stereo Bus, to create a bus for the two vocal channels, and colour code it. 30:58 Create a bus for another 2 vocal channels. 31:41 Grouping instruments in new busses allows you to do the mixing in those busses, and gives you less faders to deal with and more shared resources when you mix them. 32:32 Can also route to an Aux channel. 33:00 On bass guitar, Sends+ > New Aux Track 33:30 Adds TH3 on the new Aux track, now he can blend the two signals. 34:22 On an Aux channel, you can record (one difference from a bus), and the signal going to it would be recorded to that channel. 34:49, 34:56, 35:21 Patch points. Sends+ > New Patch Point. Patch points are internal routing, you need to add a new Audio Track to use them. Make the input for the audio track the stereo signal from the patch point. 36:33 The piano now goes through to the audio track. 36:53 Makes another 3 audio tracks and makes the input for them the piano Patch point. So from just the one Send on the original piano channel, it's being sent to 4 different channels. 37:37 Sending another instrument to the piano patch. 38:07 He hasn't really found a use for this yet. 38:23 Wrap up.
Mike, I've been using Cakewalk for years and I've never understood buses and sends. I now completely get it and have just used both on a track I'm working on. Absolutely transformational in terms of workflow and gives so much more control of effects and levels. Brilliant work as always, superbly explained. Thanks Andy
Another clear and easy to understand video Mike. Didn't have a clue about Patch points before, but now I can see that it would be useful in trying out different effects in parallel, for starters. Cheers
Thank for this useful tutorial. I'm just a rookie and I'm trying to learn. The first thing that goes through my mind when you talked about patch point was something I came through a few days ago: I wanted to replicate a track with a little delay and some EQ and then I slightly panned the tracks left and right. Patch point is a quick solution to that, instead of cloning the track as I did.
Thank you so much for this video, Mike! As someone who's messed around with DAWs (more Cakewalk than anything else) and recording for quite some time but still felt daunted by it all this was so helpful!
Such a pleasure to learn Cakewalk from a truly professional audio engineer.... except I'm a laserist. Instead of modifying audio tracks, I'm using Cakewalk to record custom mapped MIDI controls (12 oscillators, size, color, symmetry, etc) from an Akai ACP40 mkii onto separate MIDI tracks, which are output to a single MIDI channel (bus or patch point?). MidiUSB delivers that channel's MIDI controls/notes to my Teensy T4 Laser Synth, which to generates the actual XYRGB signals (complex harmonic lissajous waveforms) for a laser projector. So far, so good IOW, instead of altering the commercial stereo sound track, Cakewalk is only being used to record individual MIDI tracks onto a timeline, then THEORETICALLY route those controls to up to 4 different buses, one channel for each T4 Laser Synth, connected to it's own RGB laser projector. The end goal is to control multiple projectors via MIDI individually, in unison or any variation thereof, while still being able to jam in real time. For example, all 4 projectors would have the same size & intensity from one MIDI track, but different images from different combinations of harmonic waveform tracks (each waveform is on a different MIDI 'mixer' channel). That would be HUGE in the laser world. 🤯 Now, I want to record the XYRGB image signals onto 5 audio tracks in Cakewalk (in addition to the stereo sound track). Is it possible to apply audio effects to any combination of those laser image signals? Am I onto a new gen of laser controller or just wasting my time & $ by pissing into the wind, Mike?
EXCELLENT Lesson. Something I would use the patch points for would be to take a single vocal and make a gang of background vocals or harmonies. You could use a pitch correction tool to change them slightly. Have done that the hard way in other DAWs before, would have been nice to have used Cakewalk then.
hi Mike, yes original cakewalk user still- patch points for me are most useful routing many inputs into a sidechain for compression or ducking! hope it helps, best 👌
Great video Mike. You always manage to teach me something even when I think I know the topic. As far as patch points go, it's just another way to route signals. The only real difference is it allows you to record audio that you can't normally record to an audio track, like bus outputs and send effects. It's sort of a throw back to patch bays used in the analogue days. I don't see a lot of use for it either.
Informative and fun to watch. As a use for patch point busses, perhaps to stereo pan ("spread") background vocals... I have a (first!) project where I am using panning to "spread" background vocals, but I copied the track twice more and used the pan on each channel. With patch points, no track copying, just multiple busses using one track. Just a thought. Seems more economical, and if the vocal gets edited, there's no tail-chasing with multiple tracks. Thanks again for another great instructional video!
Just caught up with this - been missing you! That was all really interesting and I understand a lot more about buses now (actually I'm a bus enthusiast but the ones with four wheels). I wondered what auxiliaries were and hadn't even noticed the patch points! I'll go back to my mix in progress of I Won't Buy and review what I have done so far in the light of this. Thanks again and look forward to the next one - I'll have plenty of time to watch whilst we can't go to the pub or gigs over here!
Just wanting to give you a heartfelt thanks for this and many of your other great Cakewalk videos! I have watched this video many times and the info is finally syncing in! Cheers!
Thankyou very much for sharing... i love all your videos... Please keep making more cakewalk tutorials ( i have seen almost all the videos in your channel about Cakewalk, but i need more because i am a new cakewalk user...) God Bless you - keep it up... (I olso love the way you theach by the way...)
It's great to start to understand and fill in the gaps for the stuff I've sort of worked out over the years. Still haven't properly made the switch from Platinum yet though!
Just found your channel today......your "Mastering for Beginners" video was extremely helpful (Literally made a huge difference in a recording we just finished)....I'll be going through most of your Cakewalk vids.....subbed.
That was just a perfect explanation of what a bus is. Been doing some composing for several years and always scared to get into the hard stuff. Wish I could figure what the patch point is, but already headspun form the bus part :). Thank you for the tuts.
Hi Mike, thanks for this. Yep, I'm currently trying to get to the point in Cakewalk Bandlab to where I can create all manner of sophisticated connections between my tracks... to where they can all "talk to each other" in a variety of ways to create sophisticated effects. Your videos are a big help to me here. I've been using Cakewalk audio products since 2003, but there are loads of features I've never explored... mainly because they seemed too daunting for a thicko like me, haha.
Mike. I have to tell you. I don't comment. Ever. But your channel is a gold mine. A real UA-cam treasure. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!
I already knew most of what you explained in this video. But I whish someone had given me your excellent explanation about 20 years ago. It would have saved me a lot of grey hair and bad mixes along the way ;-) Thank you for saving a new generation of producers from this unnecessary harm.
Hands down some of the best lessons not just for Cakewalk but for the entire spectrum of music production. Being a guitarist who is trying to mix and master his music, your videos have been tremendously helpful. Thank you so much.
P
Couldn't agree more - Excellent videos!
You say "You may pick up something you don't already know" I have to say I pick up something I don't know with all your videos. THANKS!!
Haha - thats great Darran :)
ikr
Hi Mike! I decided to sell all my hardware gear about ten years ago, because I didn't have enough room for them after our daughter grew up (and she needed some more room of course). My father died a year ago and after that I felt a great need to express my feelings through music again. Your Cakewalk tutorials have been essential for me in the past few months, especially this one. So I wanted to say a big thank you, Mike, for your helpful, well thought and produced tutorials. Please keep them coming in the future too!
Patch points could work for you if you use outboard equipment. For example, you wanna run tracks 2-3 and 6 through a patch point that send it off to a physical output which goes off into a Yamaha SPX-90. Its output can be then be routed back to another track, You may actually have multiple outboard gear, so the patch points become individual inputs again as the come back.
It's wicked to see you work man, keep it up!
I know this video has been out a while, but I came back to watch it again as I don't have outboard equipment, and wanted to use compression "pre recording" "on the way in" ... which I accomplished by doing the compression on the input track and then sending to an Aux track, actually recording the Aux track....maybe there is a better way, but I'm excited about it, ha.......all thanks to this video and your many other great ones...thanks Mike!
I've learned more on this subject in 20mins that I had in the previous 20 years! Bravo Mike!
I love Cakewalk and have been using it since the Twelve-Tone days!
I have been using this software for years and now I watch a clear logical explanation for the use of aux and bus routing. Big thanks!! :-) Really enjoy your videos.
Hey Gary - I'm glad it was useful!
So did i .. thanks Mike 😚
Thank you sooooooo much for all these videos about Cakewalk by bandlab. I am trying to switch my DAW from Cubase to this one because I cant afford a new one. The cracked ones I got are veeeery limited. So I decided to try a switch. Thank God I found this channel. It will help me make the BIG switch. Thanks a lot again
You can use patch points to send signal to outboard gear or individual monitors
13:00 Send Ref 32:32 Aux Ref, Thanks just starting my mixing journey
I’m fairly easily confused by the ‘routing’ topic. Thank you for covering it. 👍
You raised a challenge for ways to use Patch Points. I'm a newbie with Cakewalk and with recording with DAW's but an idea sprang to mind as you said it. Imagine you have a song and you want to open with a certain mood, and have the guitar bright, clean but a bit 'spacey, then you want a midsection with a 'dirty guitar'', and an end section with a different set of effects and EQ. You would be able to change from one mood to another throughout the song - and back again, and change gradually from one mood to another simply by automating the volume of the guitar's Patch channels. I have not done this but I think it makes sense.
I found this content very useful, cheers.
Wow! That's a great idea actually! The automation will go crazy and it can even be just guitar part looping over and over again but different feels! Ha this idea is amazing!
Ha!! At 25:19 he says "I'll just let you listen to parallel compression on it's own, sounds pretty terrible" then plays something that sounds better than anything I've ever recorded haha, almost spilled my coffee! Great video man, thanks for taking the time to make this!
Finally i understood what all those tracks are (expecially buses). I love this software more and more. Thank yuo!
Thank you for your videos! I've learned a lot about Cakewalk from them!
Most recently, I used Patch Points to separate the Left and Right channels of a stereo audio file into two mono files. If you just convert a stereo file to mono, it combines the Left and Right. If you send each side to their own track, it doesn't.
Sometimes, I will use a Patch Point to add an effect to a certain frequency range of an instrument.
Nice I like that, thank you :)
I took a break from recording/writing/engineering for along time. . . i got back into it, and IM ABSOLUTELY LOVING the information your providing on all of your video's. I appreciate at all you do!
You are simply the best DAW teacher!!
You are honestly the best tutor on youtube for mixing and mastering. I saw several other videos on this same subject, and though the knowledge was there, it got confuse, either cause some steps were skipped or talking too fast or lack of interest in transmitting knowledge some people don't own the teaching gift, which you have. Knowledge doesn't equals to know how to teach. thanks for these very helpful tutorials Mike. Cheers
I just started with Cakewalk this month. What did everyone do before your videos? I'd be lost without them. Thanks!
All of us were just struggling... ;)
I mostly used Cakewalk as a multitrack tape machine. And some midi stuff.
For years I have been searching for an explanation of this information and I just stumbled upon this video and this brilliantly explains it. Thank you and now I’m a subscriber!!!
Awesome David! I hope you can make great use of it! Thanks for subscribing :)
I immediately see a convenient solution in Patch Points, whenever the same signal has to be edited in several different ways. Say, you don't have a multiband-compressor, but want to differently compress three bands. PatchPoint send to three tracks that have an eq + compressor loaded. With Aux channels you would have to create 3 sends, with busses you would have to create 3 sends as well.
Yes, that makes some sense. Nice!
Awesome ! Routing, Sends, and Busses explained in 30 minutes !
I've been using Cakewalk since version 1.0 for DOS (when it was 12 Tones). I've stumbled my way through it, tried to figure out as much as I could over the years.
I wish I had found this sooner. WHAT A GOLDMINE OF INFORMATION!
I found this series by accident, only about a month ago. I use Cakewalk to make pre-production demos, or lay down some basic stems, which I then bring to an established studio. But with (a lot) more practice, I may start doing some full projects, as I gain more knowledge and plug in the holes in my engineering education. And this series will be a big part of that.
Thank you so very much for making these.
Thanks so much. I've been using Cakewalk for many years, but you clarified a number of things that I only vaguely understood.
What a treasure trove of cakewalk knowledge. I save all your videos. Great stuff. Just starting out, so I really don't even know what I don't know.
Very nice. Definitely my main source for Cakewalk tutorials.
This is by far the most important video I have ever watched thank you
You present the information so well. My mixes and masters have improved so much from watching your videos. Kudos for such a stellar channel.
Thank you for your service :P For teaching us not just cakewalk but fundamentals of music production in general!
I'm just pausing quickly at minute 23 to say: you are a genius!!!! I should have invested all the necessary hours watching your videos before trying to work things out myself and wasting so many many more hours (with quite poor results!) over the past few years of recording... You have such a good way of explaining things so simply but very clearly. Thank you!!
This is the first time Ive learn how to use sends, patches etc. Excellent lesson, Thanks
I’ve been a cakewalk user, then a sonar user and now a cakewalk user again for MANY years and I learned something! Thank you for this and all your excellent cakewalk videos!!
20:00 Worth noting when using send effects is that the signal in the effect mostly should be turned all the way to "wet" and no "dry". If not, the original signal will pass thru and will be added to the overall sound.
Most effects sends are set that way by default for the very reason you said. You can post the effected signal on a separate track if you like and blend it with the original dry track.
hey sorry but, i dont see the wet/dry signal button on the channel. could u tell me where it is?
@@nic678 It's in the plugin
Yet another educational masterpiece. Mike's lessons are always clear and well-planned with a logical flow. He's found that elusive balance between "talking down" and "too much information"!
Just started using Cakewalk last week.....these videos are most helpful brother!!! Thanks and cheers!
Thanks, Mike. A load of good information after working with Cakewalk for almost 20 years!
Mike - Thank you Thank you so much for this video! Any help with Cakewalk by Bandlab is greatly appreciated by all of us that use that particular DAW. THANK YOU!
Mu pleasure - thanks for watching!
Man I´m so thankful for your work, attitude and gentleness! You deserve the best karma. Thanks again mate!
As a guitarist never thought to put the delay before the drive !! That’s a good tip ! Indeed when you say even if you’re an advanced user you may learn or discover a thing or two that’s true
These tutorial videos are the best I've ever seen on UA-cam. Thank you Mike.
You just taught an old dog a new trick!! Oustanding video... love your whole series!!
Extremely useful for those of us who are starting with CbB. Thanks
Patch Points: I like the ideas others have had, but I thought of another. I wondered for some time how to use one recorded part of one piano or synth and change patches. I suppose you could create patch points of a single synth, add patch points with different patches and then automate the PP channels on or off as you need them.
BTW I've loved Mike's videos for years and I've learned a lot by watching them! He is the #1 Cakewalk prof.
What a great big lesson in a short time, fantastic!!!!!!! I never have understand as well as you explained. Despite that I am not an English speaking person
What can i say that not said yet. My english sucks but i learned more that my own lang. The best 39 min invested of my life, Tks¡¡¡
i was looking for this channel the whole year... just fouind it, had to learn most of this from old sonar videos.. thanks!
I love when a yellow video appear in my UA-cam browser!
lol - cheers Solomon :)
@@CreativeSauce please do a video of how I can change the tempo of a song, for example the beginning of 150bpm and the bridge of 130bpm and rise up to 150bpm from the final chorus
Thanks Mike...always learn something from watching your videos.
I have been using Cakewalk for 20 years starting with the first Guitar Tracks version for basic demos and to the current version and it is great to see your videos as there hasn't been too many Cakewalk tutorials as there are other Daws. Most of the workflow and techniques I use have been from trial and error but I find that we are basically at the same place. I have picked up some very useful ideas from you and it is always great to see another persons perspective. Needless to say I enjoy your presentations and always look forward to your next video. All the best.
Thanks for a fantastic video. I guess that’s why I’ve been subscribed for a while. This is the first DAW I’ve used in a long time. My last one was Cakewalk Home Studio 2004XL for reference. At 65, it’s like being an auto mechanic who worked in the 60s then quit for a time then started up again in 2021.
Brilliant instruction for beginner to intermediate Cakewalk users!
Using Cakewalk for years but you explain things so clearly and teach new things. Thank you so much.
Dina videor varit oerhört hjälpsamma. Tack så mycket.
I have been using Cakewalk for years, way back from the Sonar LE version, but I have to say I pick up something new every time I watch one of you video's Mike. Great stuff, keep up the good work, I love it. Mike Knight.
1:07 3 default buses created in Cakewalk.
2:48 There's another divider squashed into the right hand side. It has more faders which represent outputs on your audio interface. You can route things to them to create separate mixes for different headphone outputs. But we're not using it today.
4:07 Gain knob. Set a healthy signal right at the beginning of your signal chain.
4:52 Then it goes to the ProChannel where there's a compressor and an EQ. The compressor sends the compressed signal to the EQ. They're both switched off now.
5:58 The signal then goes to the FX section.
6:41 Then it goes to the Sends section which behaves differently to the FX section.
7:11 Then it goes to the Pan then the Master fader which controls the overall output from that channel. Then it goes to the Master section.
7:51 The path of the signal.
8:24 What happens in the FX section? What order the FX should be in depends.
9:00 Example. A delay then TH3.
10:32 The combined effect of the two FX. The guitar gets less overdriven with each echo.
11:43 To make the overdrive sound repeat, swap the two FX around so the delay repeats the overdriven signal. So think about which order you want the FX be in.
12:57, 13:02 Sends. Creates a send to the overdriven signal. Sends + > New Stereo Bus. Adds TH3 to the new bus.
13:56 The signal branches off to the new bus and also continues down the channel (two simultaneous signals happen).
14:56 Sends + > New Stereo Bus (to put a delay FX on), so it's now being sent to two buses. It causes one overdriven signal and delays/echoes without overdrive on them.
16:33 Recap
16:48, 16:57 More typical ways of using busses. He's using two virtual guitars.
17:41 He's added reverb to one guitar.
18:29 Ctrl-click and drag FX to copy it to the other guitar.
18:49 To save you from altering the settings on the delay FX on both guitars and save resources, you can use a Send. So you can put the FX on a new bus and Send the two guitars to a new bus created for reverb FX. Sends+ > "name of bus created for reverb".
19:47 And you can use the fader of the reverb bus to alter the reverb for all the instruments being sent to it. 20:13 And you can control the levels of reverb sent through from each of the instrument channels.
20:54 Another good reason to use a Send is you can chain FX together in a single bus. 21:24 Insert an EQ before the reverb on the Reverb bus and get rid of the bottom end of the signal, so it's only sending the top end of the guitar to the reverb FX. Demo of how it sounds.
22:43 If you put the EQ and reverb on the instrument channel, the EQ has thinned the guitar out, it affects the whole signal.
23:25 The Post button can be switched off, which means the signal being sent through to the bus is not affected by the fader on the channel, if switched on then it is affected by it.
24:11 Why does it matter? Parallel compression on the vocals. Quick explanation of parallel compression. He Sends the vocal to a bus with a compressor on it that is compressing it very heavily, and you blend it with the original signal of the vocal
25:48 The fader on the channel affects the amount of signal sent to the compressor on the bus, making it be compressed less and less because compressors need a certain level of signal before they kick in. Demo.
26:44 To make it keep compressing the signal while lowering the main signal, switch the Post button off so the signal being sent to the bus doesn't get affected by the channel fader. Demo of it working.
27:38 Problem: The vocal and the parallel compression are imbalanced with eachother, there's a mix between the vocal and the compression. How to keep them in balance with eachother. Right click > Insert Stereo Bus, set the output of the vocals channel to the new bus, and set the output of the compression channel to the new bus too. Now that new bus can be used to affect the vocal level while keeping the same balance of the vocal and the compressed vocal. Demo.
29:25, 29:35 Another reason for buses is to create sub-mixes of items. Right click > Insert Stereo Bus, to create a bus for the two vocal channels, and colour code it.
30:58 Create a bus for another 2 vocal channels.
31:41 Grouping instruments in new busses allows you to do the mixing in those busses, and gives you less faders to deal with and more shared resources when you mix them.
32:32 Can also route to an Aux channel. 33:00 On bass guitar, Sends+ > New Aux Track
33:30 Adds TH3 on the new Aux track, now he can blend the two signals.
34:22 On an Aux channel, you can record (one difference from a bus), and the signal going to it would be recorded to that channel.
34:49, 34:56, 35:21 Patch points. Sends+ > New Patch Point. Patch points are internal routing, you need to add a new Audio Track to use them. Make the input for the audio track the stereo signal from the patch point.
36:33 The piano now goes through to the audio track. 36:53 Makes another 3 audio tracks and makes the input for them the piano Patch point. So from just the one Send on the original piano channel, it's being sent to 4 different channels.
37:37 Sending another instrument to the piano patch.
38:07 He hasn't really found a use for this yet.
38:23 Wrap up.
PARABENS PELA INICIATIVA
Mike, I've been using Cakewalk for years and I've never understood buses and sends.
I now completely get it and have just used both on a track I'm working on. Absolutely transformational in terms of workflow and gives so much more control of effects and levels.
Brilliant work as always, superbly explained.
Thanks
Andy
Another clear and easy to understand video Mike. Didn't have a clue about Patch points before, but now I can see that it would be useful in trying out different effects in parallel, for starters. Cheers
Brilliant point!
Thank for this useful tutorial. I'm just a rookie and I'm trying to learn. The first thing that goes through my mind when you talked about patch point was something I came through a few days ago: I wanted to replicate a track with a little delay and some EQ and then I slightly panned the tracks left and right. Patch point is a quick solution to that, instead of cloning the track as I did.
Nice!
You're a good teacher sir
Thank you so much for this video, Mike! As someone who's messed around with DAWs (more Cakewalk than anything else) and recording for quite some time but still felt daunted by it all this was so helpful!
3rd video I am looking at. Same very good teaching skills, and pragmatic topics. Amazing. Probably the best videos on mixing on YT !
Thank you for that lesson. You're an awesome teacher!
Thanks so much. I've watched a few videos on this topic but this is the first one that really made it click for me.
This kind of help is priceless. Really, truly, thank you.
Such a pleasure to learn Cakewalk from a truly professional audio engineer.... except I'm a laserist.
Instead of modifying audio tracks, I'm using Cakewalk to record custom mapped MIDI controls (12 oscillators, size, color, symmetry, etc) from an Akai ACP40 mkii onto separate MIDI tracks, which are output to a single MIDI channel (bus or patch point?).
MidiUSB delivers that channel's MIDI controls/notes to my Teensy T4 Laser Synth, which to generates the actual XYRGB signals (complex harmonic lissajous waveforms) for a laser projector. So far, so good
IOW, instead of altering the commercial stereo sound track, Cakewalk is only being used to record individual MIDI tracks onto a timeline, then THEORETICALLY route those controls to up to 4 different buses, one channel for each T4 Laser Synth, connected to it's own RGB laser projector.
The end goal is to control multiple projectors via MIDI individually, in unison or any variation thereof, while still being able to jam in real time. For example, all 4 projectors would have the same size & intensity from one MIDI track, but different images from different combinations of harmonic waveform tracks (each waveform is on a different MIDI 'mixer' channel).
That would be HUGE in the laser world. 🤯
Now, I want to record the XYRGB image signals onto 5 audio tracks in Cakewalk (in addition to the stereo sound track). Is it possible to apply audio effects to any combination of those laser image signals?
Am I onto a new gen of laser controller or just wasting my time & $ by pissing into the wind, Mike?
Cool stuff , as a virtual beginner to CW .... this is a fast rack to productivity . Thanks.
My Man! Thanks for this vid. Not as complicated as I thought it was going to be.
EXCELLENT Lesson. Something I would use the patch points for would be to take a single vocal and make a gang of background vocals or harmonies. You could use a pitch correction tool to change them slightly. Have done that the hard way in other DAWs before, would have been nice to have used Cakewalk then.
hi Mike, yes original cakewalk user still- patch points for me are most useful routing many inputs into a sidechain for compression or ducking! hope it helps, best 👌
Great video Mike. You always manage to teach me something even when I think I know the topic. As far as patch points go, it's just another way to route signals. The only real difference is it allows you to record audio that you can't normally record to an audio track, like bus outputs and send effects. It's sort of a throw back to patch bays used in the analogue days. I don't see a lot of use for it either.
Cheers Jimmy, I don't even know how I know this stuff (I do, it's mostly by doing it wrong for years).
Thanks for including the extra bits like the hidden hardware device faders!!
Thanks for this chanel. This is my Cakewalk encyclopedia! 😄
Really enjoying your vids. I would love to see a video on creating headphone mixes for different interface outputs. Thanks!
Informative and fun to watch. As a use for patch point busses, perhaps to stereo pan ("spread") background vocals... I have a (first!) project where I am using panning to "spread" background vocals, but I copied the track twice more and used the pan on each channel. With patch points, no track copying, just multiple busses using one track. Just a thought. Seems more economical, and if the vocal gets edited, there's no tail-chasing with multiple tracks. Thanks again for another great instructional video!
Just caught up with this - been missing you! That was all really interesting and I understand a lot more about buses now (actually I'm a bus enthusiast but the ones with four wheels). I wondered what auxiliaries were and hadn't even noticed the patch points! I'll go back to my mix in progress of I Won't Buy and review what I have done so far in the light of this. Thanks again and look forward to the next one - I'll have plenty of time to watch whilst we can't go to the pub or gigs over here!
Awesome vid. The easiest and best explanations I have seen for these “gadgets”.
Liked and subbed. Cakewalk is my DAW. Marathon of your vids starts now!
Awesome! Thank you!
You are a very good teacher. Thank you for your work.
Thank you, Mike. I have gotten so much from your videos. Your hard work is appreciated!!
Just wanting to give you a heartfelt thanks for this and many of your other great Cakewalk videos! I have watched this video many times and the info is finally syncing in! Cheers!
This one was exceptionally enlightening! (Been around since Pro Audio 9, but learning something new in every one of your videos)
Thankyou very much for sharing... i love all your videos... Please keep making more cakewalk tutorials ( i have seen almost all the videos in your channel about Cakewalk, but i need more because i am a new cakewalk user...) God Bless you - keep it up... (I olso love the way you theach by the way...)
Thanks Mike. Very detailed explanation regarding a complex subject that can really improve a mix if we can learn how to do it. Great lesson!
It's great to start to understand and fill in the gaps for the stuff I've sort of worked out over the years. Still haven't properly made the switch from Platinum yet though!
Haha - well if it works for you, I wouldn't rush :)
This was a fantastic lesson. It's much appreciated!
YOU'RE THE G.O.A.T
Very informative. I've been figuring some stuff out for myself for about a year now. I only wish I'd found this channel sooner. Great info here.
Just found your channel today......your "Mastering for Beginners" video was extremely helpful (Literally made a huge difference in a recording we just finished)....I'll be going through most of your Cakewalk vids.....subbed.
What's the difference between using a Stereo Bus and an Aux Track? From what I could tell they do essentially the same thing...
That was just a perfect explanation of what a bus is. Been doing some composing for several years and always scared to get into the hard stuff. Wish I could figure what the patch point is, but already headspun form the bus part :). Thank you for the tuts.
Just wanted to to say thanks for this content, I'm still learning Cakewalk and this was very informative and wonderfully explained cheers Mike!
Hi Mike, thanks for this. Yep, I'm currently trying to get to the point in Cakewalk Bandlab to where I can create all manner of sophisticated connections between my tracks... to where they can all "talk to each other" in a variety of ways to create sophisticated effects. Your videos are a big help to me here. I've been using Cakewalk audio products since 2003, but there are loads of features I've never explored... mainly because they seemed too daunting for a thicko like me, haha.
You're a terrific tutor Mike, kudos and keep up the great job sir👍
Quite excellent tutorial. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you.... from Moscow....🤝🎹🎤🎧🎸🎷🎛️🎙️🎶
So nice way you explain, in the greatest details, the subject of each video! So well done, and SO USEFUL!
Yet another gem ... thanks so much Mike for sharing your time and knowledge!