General Information

Can Music Creator open my old .WRK and .BUN files?

Yes, Music Creator can open any Cakewalk-authored .WRK, .BUN, and .MID files.

Is Music Creator compatible with my sound card? Are there WDM drivers available for my sound card?

WDM drivers are available from almost all audio card manufacturers, and should be available for all Windows 2000 and XP compatible sound devices.  You can find a current list of manufacturers who are working on or have already developed WDM drivers on the Open Audio Hardware Guide.  Please note that there can be a large discrepency in the performance of WDM drivers between consumer/OEM cards and professional models.

What is the upgrade price for Music Creator?

For the most current pricing information visit the Cakewalk store or call our Sales team at 888-CAKEWALK.

I get an error message when installing Music Creator

Something interfered with your Music Creator installation. Try reinstalling Music Creator but click NO anytime you're asked to restart the computer during the install process. You WILL need to restart after the installation has been completed.

If that doesn't fix the problem try this: Close all programs running in the background. Install DirectX 8.0a from Microsoft, then restart the PC. Next, reinstall Music Creator. Do not restart the PC until the Music Creator install has completed.

I get the message "Direct X 8.1 was not detected on your system" when I try to install Music Creator

After installing Microsoft DirectX 9, most Cakewalk products will not install properly. You may receive an error message stating "You must install DirectX 8 to proceed" or "You are not running Windows 95. Please upgrade to Win 98, ME, XP..." Both errors are caused by the presence of Microsoft DirectX 9 on your system. We have learned that since the installers built into several Cakewalk products were designed with earlier versions of DirectX in mind, they have a problem when DirectX 9 is detected.

The problem affects installation only. If you've already installed one of our products such as SONAR or pyro 2003, they will function correctly. The program operation is NOT affected by the presence of DX 9. If your Cakewalk product is installed and running, you do not need to do anything. Enjoy the software.

Solution:
By following the steps below it is possible to install any of our products on a PC where DX 9 is present.

1. Open your CD drive and insert the installation CD of the Cakewalk product you're trying to install.
2. Download this file. DirectXUtility.exe Save it to your Desktop
3. Double-click DirectXUtility.exe to begin the installation. 
   NOTE - The utility does NOT actually revert you to DX 8 or uninstall DX 9.

Every time I start Music Creator, I get the message ''You have not selected any MIDI outputs"

1. Select 'Choose MIDI Outputs Now' or go to Options | MIDI Devices
2. In the Outputs box, select the MIDI hardware you wish to use as your output and press 'Move Selected Devices to Top'. (In most cases, you will only see one output selection in addition to 'Microsoft MIDI Mapper'. Microsoft MIDI Mapper cannot be used as an output. If this is your only selection, or you are not seeing any output selections at all, please move on to the FAQ topic "I can't see my Audio or MIDI hardware in Music Creator" below)
3. Click OK.

I can't see my Audio or MIDI Hardware in Music Creator

• By default Music Creator shows only the audio cards on your system that have WDM drivers installed. Follow the steps to enable Music Creator to access all of the audio drivers on your system.

  • Start Music Creator 2002, click Options | Audio | Advanced Tab and select "Always Use MME..." Close Music Creator and restart. You should now see all MME audio devices.
  • Enabling this option will force the WDM driver to go through the slower MME interface. If you use only WDM driver devices, leave this option unchecked for optimum performance (lower latency).
    
• Music Creator's AUD.INI file may have become corrupted.

  Easy Fix - Close Music Creator and delete the AUD.INI file from the Music Creator folder. After restarting Music Creator you may need to point the app to your WaveData folder. (Options | Audio | Advanced Tab | Data Directory field)

  
  Advanced Fix - Close Music Creator. Open Music Creator's AUD.INI file in Notepad. Delete everything listed beneath the line PictureDir=C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache 
  Save the file and restart Music Creator.

How can I eliminate 'Dropout'?

If SONAR suddenly stops producing audio during recording or playback followed by the appearance of a red dropout indicator light, you've very likely experienced a dropout. Sometimes instead of a dropout, you may experience a stutter during playback (a small section of audio repeats itself once or twice before normal playback resumes). Or, you may occasionally experience a glitch or pop during audio playback (a brief interruption or clicking noise is heard, but audio playback then continues normally from that point). 

Eliminating Dropouts 

1. Complete all the steps listed in the SONAR Help file under the category Dropouts and Other Audio Problems. 
2. There may be a bad setting in the AUD.INI file. Try one of the following methods:
   Easy Method - Close SONAR and delete the AUD.INI file from the SONAR folder. After restarting SONAR you may need to point the app to your WaveData folder. (Options | Audio | Advanced Tab | Data Directory field)
   Advanced Method - Close SONAR. Open SONAR's AUD.INI file in Notepad. Delete everything listed beneath the line PictureDir=C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache 
   Save the file and restart SONAR.
3. Go to Options | Audio | General and move the Latency slider toward the Safe setting.
4. Click on the Advanced tab and set the I/O Buffer Size to 256.
5. Open a file that has this problem and run the Tools | Compact Audio Data command.
6. Make sure nothing else is running while SONAR is open. Choose Start | Run and type MSCONFIG. Click OK, then click on the Startup tab at the upper right of the window that opens. Uncheck all items listed, click OK, then restart your computer. You can always recheck those items again at a later time.
7. If, and only if, you have an UltraDMA hard drive, make sure it's in DMA mode. Go to Control Panel | System | Device Manager and click the plus next to Disk Drives. Double click on your hard drive, click Settings, and make sure the DMA box is checked. If it is not, check it, restart, and make sure it stays checked.