Using Cakewalk with Sound Cards

Overview

This document will cover the general installation and operations of a sound card in Windows and its use with Cakewalk.

There are certain obstacles in configuring a sound card in Windows which will affect the performance of Cakewalk. Since Cakewalk uses the MIDI drivers that are provided by the hardware device manufacturer, you will need to be aware of possible problems associated with sound card installation.

Installation

Don't Zap Your Investment!

Before touching any components inside your computer, discharge static electricity by touching the casing of your computer. If this charge hits a processing chip, you can blow up the circuitry in your sound card.

To install the card in the computer, follow all instructions provided by the sound card manufacturer.

Software Installation, Diagnostic, and Configuration Utilities

When installing your sound card, first try using the card's hardware default setup values before changing them. If the card is not Plug and Play, leave the jumpers where they are for now.

Once the card is installed in the PC, install the software according to the manufacturer's instructions. Most Plug and Play cards will be recognized by Windows on startup and Windows will prompt you for the driver disk.

After the software is completely installed, test the card out.  You can try it with Sound Recorder or Media Player in Windows or with Cakewalk.  Many cards come with diagnostic utilities that can help you make sure they are working.

Sound Card MIDI and Audio Explained

Sound cards handle MIDI and audio signals from input and output ports on the back of the card. The MIDI connection is made using the special 15-pin MIDI/Joystick adapter cable will not carry audio signals. You can think of MIDI data as "events" that will trigger notes on and off complete with instructions on how hard the note is hit (velocity), how long it lasts (duration), and what pitch it will be. This is basically how a player piano works.

To hear the notes that the MIDI data is playing, you'll need to hook up audio cables and speakers to your sound card or instrument. In the case of a sound card synth, the audio portion is handled by the sound card's audio 1/8" stereo jacks (mic/aux/out) and the software mixer included with your sound card. For example, you'll be able to hook up a MIDI keyboard's audio output through your sound card by plugging it into the Aux In or Line In jack on the card. You can then use the software mixer to enable the Aux input. This will mix the audio signals from the keyboard with the audio output from the sound card's digital audio and synthesizer sections. The mixed sounds will be routed to the headphone/line out jack. You can connect this mixed output to an audio amplifier or multimedia speaker system.

Connecting the Sound Card MIDI Adapter Cable

The sound card MIDI adapter cable ends will most likely be labeled In and Out. You should connect the cable labeled Out to the MIDI In port of your keyboard. The cable labeled In should be connected to the MIDI Out port of your keyboard.

Using Cakewalk with Windows Sound Card Drivers

Cakewalk allows the use of Windows MIDI drivers which are installed in Control Panel | Multimedia | Advanced. Be aware that there can be drivers in that list which will not appear in Cakewalk's driver list since many of these drivers are not related to MIDI transmission.

Use Cakewalk's Options | MIDI Devices (Tools | MIDI Devices in v. 7 and 8) option to highlight MIDI inputs and outputs. Remember that the inputs are merged together so it doesn't matter what order you select them in if you're selecting more than one input port.

The highlighted output ports are listed in order. In other words, the first highlighted port is Port 1, the second on the list is Port 2 and so on. In the case of sound cards, there are usually two or more ports available. One is for the sound card's built-in synthesizer and the others are for its MIDI port. Highlight both the synthesizer and MIDI Out ports listed in Cakewalk's Options | MIDI Devices to access both ports in Cakewalk.

Updated Drivers

Most sound card manufacturers update the Windows drivers to fix problems and add new functionality to their card. You can contact the manufacturer to obtain information on updated drivers and how to get them.

MIDI Mapper

The Microsoft MIDI Mapper is used by some Windows multimedia programs to access the MIDI functions on sound cards. It is not necessary to use the MIDI Mapper in Cakewalk because the MIDI drivers are accessed directly in Options | MIDI Devices.

Unless you're prepared to use the MIDI Mapper for a specific purpose, don't select it as a MIDI output. This will prevent potential MIDI looping problems which can confuse the sound card and cause it to crash.

Troubleshooting Question and Answer

Q. Why is the sound card's synthesizer volume too low?

A. It's possible that the sound card's software mixer volume controls need to be brought up. There is usually a volume slider which affects only the synthesizer and a main volume slider which affects the completely mixed output of the sound card.

Q. I don't hear drums on my sound card's FM synthesizer, even though I have my drum track set to use channel 10..

A. Some sound cards will assign the drums to MIDI channel 16. A General MIDI file will have its drum channel set to 10, so you will have to change the drum track's channel assignment to 16.

Q. SMPTE and MMC synchronization work poorly through the sound card's MIDI port.

A. Many sound card drivers and hardware are not capable of efficiently handling synchronization. You may need to get a stand-alone MIDI interface to ensure proper timing and buffering. This interface can be installed in the same computer as the sound card to add more MIDI ports to your system.

Q. My sound card will not record or playback MIDI data and/or crashes the computer.

A. It's possible that there are conflicts between the sound card and another device in the computer caused by overlapping IRQ, DMA, or Address settings. Possible conflicting devices: MIDI interfaces, network cards, modems, video cards and SCSI drives.

Q. System Exclusive messages are not sent and received properly using the sound card's MIDI interface.

A. Some sound card drivers do not allow the efficient recycling of sysx buffers which makes sysx transmission possible. In this case, you can get a dedicated MIDI   interface to install along-side of your sound card to handle sysx.

Q. My sound card sometimes hangs notes on my synthesizer and crashes the computer.

A. Several sound card manufacturers provide hardware and drivers which contain a defective MIDI Out port and cannot be fixed with a software update. The problem usually appears on faster computers where the interface can't react quickly enough to keep up with the computer. If your sound card manufacturer confirms this problem, you will need to get another sound card or a MIDI interface to install along-side the existing sound card. You will still be able to use the FM synthesizer and the wave playing portions of the sound card though.

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