home studio 2002™

(for windows 98/98 se/me/2000)
readme.rtf
copyright © 2001 by twelve tone systems, inc. all rights reserved.
cakewalk is a registered trademark, and home studio
is a trademark of twelve tone systems, inc.

contents

audio performance issues........................................3

latest sound card information................................................................................................... 3
midiman/m­audio delta 1010 wdm driver port names are labeled by number..........................3
potential problems when recording audio with low disk space...................................... ..........3
turn off system sounds when using home studio........................................... ..........................3
windows system sounds may cause problems with certain multi­port audio hardware............4
audio clicks/pops during edit operations when input monitoring is enabled......................... ...4
accessing dropdown menus during playback may cause glitches............................................ .5
dropouts and other audio problems........................................................................................ ..5
reducing mixing latency......................................................................................... .................5
wave profiler issues............................................................................................. ....................6
configuring home studio for proper 24­bit operation................................................................ .
real­time effects and processor speed.................................................................. ....................7
audio data “queue buffers”................................................................................... ...................7
avicap32.dll may cause problems when using real­time audio effects....................... ..............8
directshow error may appear as a result of patching maximum number of audio effects.........8
home studio 9 pan envelopes are interpreted as track envelopes............................................ ..8
midi issues................................................................................................................................... ...8
loading and saving standard midi files in home studio........................................ ....................9
“virtual piano” application is installed separately................................................................. ...9
problems loading the virtual piano.......................................................................... ................9
ntonyx style enhancer micro 2.0 mp3 demo song.................................................... ................9
ntonyx style enhancer micro 2.0 lite plug­in may cause midi tracks to stutter..................... ...10
heavy scrolling of dense midi data can cause playback to slow down.......................... ..........10
doubled notes when echoing through mfx plug­ins.............................................................. ..10
“always use sysx bank instead of sysx data” for midi files............................................. ........10
quantize and midi event filter midi plug­ins stops midi input from being heard.................... .11
dump request macros..................................................................................... ........................11
software synthesizers........................................................................................................... ........11
using dxi software synthesizers with aux buses and virtual main buses........................... ......11
 soloing tracks when using dxi software synthesizers........................................ .....................11
“pre fader” playback meters will not respond to dxi synths.............................. .....................12
problems with yamaha sxg soft synth.................................................................... ................12
home studio will not recognize the reality software synthesizer wave driver.........................12
dreamstation presets may not initially display under win2k........................................ ...........12
an audible “splat” of midi data sounds after stopping playback................................ .............12
the ends of midi notes are truncated when exporting or bouncing to tracks...........................13
general.............................................................................................................................. ............13
home studio online help requires internet explorer......................................... .......................13
note to windows 98 and internet explorer 4.0 users................................................................ 13
home studio 9 files sound louder/softer in home studio.............................................. ...........13
“create track envelopes using linear shapes” option...................................................... .........14
responsiveness of record meters depends on audio buffer settings................................ .........14
edit­apply trimming command........................................................................................... ....15
groove­clip looping permanently trims the clip............................................. ........................15
“create a send submix” cannot be used with groove clips........................................ ..............15
the default normal.tpl template is stored in the installation directory................................. ....15
snap acts as a “magnetizer” when slip editing and editing envelopes....................................15
home studio “buffer size matcher” audio plug­in appears in other cakewalk products...........16
track pan is not sent to aux bus when aux send is set to “post” fader.....................................16
video issues........................................................................................................................ ....16
reject loop take command does not work with audio............................................................ .....
opening home studio projects with stereo tracks in earlier versions of pro audio......................
special keys reserved in lyrics view and effects property sheets........................................... ..19
hardware notes.................................................................................................................... ............
midiman/m­audio delta 1010 wdm driver port names are labeled by number........................19
problem using 1 millisecond latency with echo darla card.............................................. .......19
must disable “wavepipe” when using digidesign digi001 hardware.......................................19
roland (edirol) ua­3 wave profiler issue when using wdm drivers................................. .........19
no audio extensions support for certain devices............................................................... ......20
frontier design wavecenter issue......................................................................... ...................20
arming an audio track from the console view with the frontier wavecenter isa card causes 
errors............................................................................................................... ......................20
lexicon core2 issues.......................................................................................... .....................21
changing the sampling rate within home studio does not change the rate of the soundscape 
mixtreme card........................................................................................................... .............21
limitations of early sound blaster cards............................................................... ......................
creative labs awe sound cards may be noisy in home studio......................... .........................21
awe wave synth and audio output............................................................................ ..................
midi time piece tips and tricks................................................................................................. ..

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 gravis ultrasound.......................................................................................................... .............
instrument definitions......................................................................................... ...........................
upgrading to home studio from an earlier version of a cakewalk product........................... .......
roland sr­jv80 series expansion boards.......................................................................... ............

audio performance issues

the following issues concern improving and troubleshooting audio performance in home studio.

latest sound card information

please read the web page http://www.cakewalk.com/support/docs/soundcardtips.html. if the soundcard 
you are using is listed on this page, please follow the instructions listed there for configuring and 
using your soundcard with home studio. if you don’t follow those instructions, home studio may 
not work properly with your soundcard. 

midiman/m-audio delta 1010 wdm driver port names are labeled

by number
the delta 1010 wdm driver version 5.12.001.6 and later labels ports by number instead of by
name. go to options-audio-drivers; the ports are as follows:

1/2=input1/2
3/4=input 3/4
5/6=input 5/6
7/8=input 7/8
9/10=s/pdif
11/12=monitor mixer

potential problems when recording audio with low disk space

make sure you have enough space on your hard disk when recording digital audio. running out of
hard disk space when recording can lead to unpredictable results.

if the disk space goes to 0, home studio reports that it cannot save all the data and stops recording. 
since there is not enough disk space to create the waveform image files for the audio, the newly 
recorded audio clips may appear to be empty when in actuality the data is all there, but can’t be 
viewed.

turn off system sounds when using home studio

we recommend that you set the windows system sound “scheme” to “no sounds” when using 

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home studio. this will ensure that no unexpected system sounds are heard when working in home 
studio, and will also ensure that windows and home studio are not trying to access your audio 
hardware simultaneously.

windows system sounds may cause problems with certain multi-

port audio hardware

the windows system sounds may conflict with home studio’s audio engine. the symptoms are
dropouts, inability to mixdown, and crashes upon closing home studio. please note that this
problem has only been reported in extremely rare cases, and should not affect most users.

the problem stems from using system sounds with certain multi-port audio cards that do not
properly handle a system call to one port (by windows for the system sound) while home studio is
using another port on the same physical card. you may run into this problem if windows is
configured to play system sounds through port a on your audio hardware while home studio is
playing through port b on the same physical audio hardware. for example, if you try to access a
home studio menu during playback, windows will try to play the system sound for “menu
command”.

the result will be that the “port b” driver gets corrupted, causing home studio to dropout. this is
caused by a bug in the audio hardware driver; but most multi-port audio hardware are not affected
by this issue. if this happens, the audio hardware driver is left in an indeterminate state and home
studio’s audio engine cannot be re-engaged by pressing play or the audio engine button in the
transport. the file will never play again.

if you try to perform a mixdown it will fail because the mix code needs to stop the audio engine, 
but it cannot because the driver is in this indeterminate state.  it generates a failure message "error 
generating mixdown file." closing the project typically results in a hard crash, typically hanging 
the system and sometimes causing a spontaneous reboot.

as you can see, the problem is severe and stems from the audio card driver bug that does not
properly handle multi-client usage (windows using port a while home studio uses port b).

in summary, if you are playing audio tracks through output b of the audio hardware (with system
sounds playing out output a), and do any gesture which triggers a system sound, audio in home
studio will dropout and be forever lost until you shutdown and restart.

this is an extremely rare problem, but to ensure that you will not be affected, we recommend that
you always disable windows system sounds when using home studio, or use systems sound with a
physically separate card from the one you use in home studio.

audio clicks/pops during edit operations when input monitoring

is enabled
during certain editing operations, such as deleting a part of a clip by time selection, you may
experience audio clicks/pops if input monitoring is enabled. when input monitoring is enabled,
the “pauser” that is executed on every edit command is closing/reopening its drivers. some
drivers produce a click/pop whenever they are opened, which is something that must be addressed

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in the driver itself.

if you are experiencing this problem, please check with you audio hardware manufacturer to see
if an updated driver is available.

accessing dropdown menus during playback may cause glitches

it is possible to experience glitches, such as audio stutter, dropouts or windows system sounds,
when accessing menus during playback.

this problem is likely to happen under windows 2000 if “use transition effects for menus and
tooltips” is enabled in display-properties-effects.

the scrolling menus steal valuable cpu processing that is required by home studio during
playback, so we recommend that you disable “use transition effects for menus and tooltips” when
using home studio.

dropouts and other audio problems

after installing home studio, if you experience dropouts, stutters, glitches or other unexpected 
interruptions while recording or playing back audio, please consult the online help built into 
home studio for assistance. locate the help topic entitled “dropouts and other audio problems”.

note: to locate an online help topic, select help­helptopics from the home studio menu, click the 
“index” tab, and enter the desired topic into the textbox provided.

reducing mixing latency

if audio playback is working properly, but you find that home studio is slightly “sluggish” when 
responding to adjustments you make during playback (e.g., when changing volume levels, muting 
or soloing tracks, adjusting panning, etc.), you may be able to improve home studio’s 
responsiveness by consulting the online help built into home studio.  locate the help topic entitled 
“latency” for assistance.

note: to locate an online help topic, select help­helptopics from the home studio menu, click the 
“index” tab, and enter the desired topic into the textbox provided.

when you first run home studio, the latency slider control in the options-audio… dialog box will
be set to a value that will provide a balance between reliable playback of an adequate number of
audio tracks and a reasonably low latency when moving a volume or pan knob in home studio's
track view or console view. as explained in the online help topic, you may wish to experiment
with the latency slider setting in order to further lower the mixing latency time. if you choose to
manually configure the latency slider please note the following points:

• moving the latency slider too far to the left (minimum value) may put home studio in a state 
where it can no longer playback audio or midi data. while in this state home studio may 

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 briefly attempt playback before dropping out, or the application may visually appear to be 
playing back but no audio will be heard. to resolve this problem, simply move the latency 
slider back to a higher value (i.e., move the slider control to the right).

wave profiler issues

use the latest driver for your sound card

to properly configure home studio for your sound card, the wave profiler depends on you using
the latest driver for your sound card. please contact your sound card manufacturer to ensure that
you are using the latest driver.

wave profiler does not query audio devices to find out if they support 48khz

be aware that there is no error message when trying to record 48k audio on a card that doesn't 
support 48khz sampling rate.

some sound cards will crash if they are queried for >44.1khz sample rates, so the wave profiler 
determines the correct settings at three sample rates: 11khz, 22khz, and 44.1khz. it assumes that 
the same settings should be used for 48khz and 96khz sample rates. because of this, it is possible 
to load a 48khz project and use a sound card that doesn’t support 48khz. this scenario does not 
present an error message, so home studio may appear to record audio while no audio is actually 
recorded.

wave profiler doesn’t open drivers at 24-bit settings

the wave profiler doesn't open drivers at 24 bit settings. if you see dma buffer size values
reported that aren't exact multiples of 3, then you may have problems with playback. symptom
would most likely be random dropouts, i.e., the audio stops even though cpu and disk meters
aren't red-lining. you can safely multiple these values manually in options-audio-device profiles.

for more information on how to configure home studio for proper 24-bit operation, please see
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/24bittips.html.

wave profiler will report errors when profiling optical channels that are not
connected

the wave profiler may present a "the following drivers do not support the current audio
format/sample rate" error message when trying to profile optical channels on your audio hardware
if the optical channels are not connected to anything. home studio can’t open a digital­only device 
if it is not connected.

wave profiler will not work with the digidesign digi001 unless “wavepipe
acceleration” is disabled

when using the digidesign digi001 hardware, you must disable “wavepipe acceleration” in 

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options­audio­driver profiles in order to use the hardware properly. this should be done before 
running the wave profiler.

roland (edirol) ua-3 wave profiler issue when using wdm drivers

the ua-3 wdm usb audio driver reports incorrect dma setting to the wave profiler. the ua-3
profiles with dma settings of 520, and should be manually changed to 920. this is a hardware
issue, and cannot be changed by the wave profiler.

changing the value to 920 allows for reasonable playback at lower latency using wdm drivers, but
even with the settings at 920, input monitoring may severely stutter regardless of the latency
slider settings.

configuring home studio for proper 24-bit operation

if your sound card is capable of recording/playing at greater than 16-bits per sample (e.g., if it is
advertised as having 18-, 20-, or 24-bit capability) and you wish to take advantage of this
capability, you should try to configure home studio for 24-bit operation. do this by selecting
options-audio, clicking on the general tab, and choosing 24 in the file bit depth list and the
audio driver bit depth list before you start recording any audio. always try these 24-bit settings
unless your soundcard driver “complains” in some way; only then should you adjust the “audio
driver bit depth” field down to 20, or 18, as needed to satisfy your soundcard driver (for normal
16-bit operation, both lists should be set to 16, which is the default when first installed). for
additional information about configuring home studio for proper 24-bit operation, please visit the
web page http://www.cakewalk.com/support/24bittips.html.

real-time effects and processor speed

to properly use real­time audio effects, you need a computer with a pentium 400 mhz or faster 
processor. even with such a powerful cpu, there is a limit on the number of effects you can use 
simultaneously. furthermore, different types of effects are “more expensive” in terms of how 
much cpu they consume. for example, reverb is relatively expensive, whereas the 2­band eq effect 
is relatively inexpensive.

a good strategy is to use an expensive effect like reverb in an effects loop (aux/mains bus pane in 
the track view or the aux section in the console view). that way, you can have several audio tracks 
share one effect. you can then individually adjust each track’s send and return levels.

finally, no matter how slow your cpu is, you can always use any effect by applying it to the audio 
as an off­line edit command. 

audio data “queue buffers”

some directx plug-ins maintain a "queue" of audio data buffers while they are processing, and do
not produce any audio output buffers until several input buffers have been received. for home
studio to handle this situation properly, we need to create extra buffers to make up for the ones

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being queued by the plug-in. this aud.ini variable controls how many extra buffers we create:

[wave]
extrastreambufs=<n, default=4>

avicap32.dll may cause problems when using real-time audio

effects
the symptom is a crash when using real­time audio effects, particularly during quiet or silent 
passages.  if this happens under windows 98/98 se or windows me, the problem may be rooted in 
this file.  the fix is to go to the \windows\system directory, and rename this file to something like 
avicap32.old.

directshow error may appear as a result of patching maximum

number of audio effects
when attempting to exceed the maximum number of simultaneous directx effects, you may see the 
following error:

directshow error
the filter does not support the current audio format. it may require a different number of 
channels(e.g., stereo instead of mono) or a different sample rate.

the message is harmless; just press ok to proceed, after which you will receive the friendly error 
message of:

allowed number of audio effects exceeded. please remove one first.

home studio 9 pan envelopes are interpreted as track envelopes

when importing previous pro audio projects into home studio, please note that pan envelopes are 
interpreted as track envelopes, not clip envelopes.

although home studio 9 allows you to create clip level pan envelopes, home studio 9 renders them 
as track envelopes. thus, home studio 9 pan envelopes are migrated as track envelopes in home 
studio.

midi issues
the following topics cover some midi performance and installation issues.

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loading and saving standard midi files in home studio

if you load a standard midi file into home studio, home studio strips out any initial volume and
pan settings and sets the volume and pan controls for any affected tracks to those values. initial
volume and pan settings in a standard midi file are those that occur within the first measure. any
affected volume and pan controls will show the initial values that home studio loaded from the
standard midi file. any volume and pan controls that are not affected, in other words that don’t
have initial values stored in the file, will show their current values in parentheses. these controls
are disabled until you move one of them and therefore give it a value, at which point the control
becomes enabled and the parentheses disappear.

if you save a file as a standard midi file, home studio saves the values of all enabled controls as
initial values. however, as a project plays, home studio’s controls do not display midi controller
values that change throughout the track-home studio’s controls only display automation values,
i.e. shapes (envelopes). if you want home studio’s controls to display midi controller values
throughout the project, use the edit-convert midi to shapes command.

“virtual piano” application is installed separately

in home studio, the virtual piano application is not automatically installed as part of the home 
studio installation.  rather, the virtual piano application is installed separately, using its own 
installation program.  you can find this installer in a folder named “virtual piano”, located in the 
root directory of the home studio cd.  simply double­click on the installer’s icon to initiate the 
installation process.

problems loading the virtual piano

if for some reason you are experiencing problems with loading the virtual piano, you will receive
an error message stating that you need to change a line in the system.ini file, which is located in
the c:\windows\system directory. the error message tells you to enter the following line:

midi=vpiano.drv

however, there may already be a midi= entry (for example, midi=mmsystems.drv), in which case
you must enter midi1=vpiano.drv. if there is also an existing midi1= entry, then you must choose
the next available number (midi2=vpiano.drv, midi3=vpiano.drv, etc.).

important: virtual piano is not compatible with windows 2000 and will not install on that
operating system.

ntonyx style enhancer micro 2.0 mp3 demo song

the home studio cd-rom includes a demo song in mp3 format, titled stranger_in_the_park.mp3.
the demo file can be found in the ntonyx directory on the cd, and will give you an idea of the kind
of results that can be achieved with the style enhancer micro 2.0 midi plug-in.

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ntonyx style enhancer micro 2.0 lite plug-in may cause midi
tracks to stutter
during dense sections in midi tracks, the style enhancer micro 2.0 lite plug-in may
generate a lot of events (expression, wheel, modulation, pan, notes, etc.). it is possible
to generate so many events that home studio can’t render all of the events in time
without a stutter.

one solution is to change the auto optimization settings within the style enhancer plug-in
(click the options button) so fewer events are generated. increasing the auto optimization
settings will cause style enhancer to generate fewer events. you can also use the style
enhancer as an offline process.

heavy scrolling of dense midi data can cause playback to slow

down

heavy scrolling of dense midi data can cause playback to slow down dramatically when using 
certain video drivers and graphics “hardware acceleration” set to full in windows. this can happen 
if, for example, a maximized event list view for a very dense midi track (many note events and 
pitch wheel events, etc.) is scrolling during playback.

the root of the problem is that some video hardware manufacturers intentionally hog the pci bus to 
achieve better video performance, but real­time applications like home studio get bitten by this. 
when you're working in an application like home studio, timing is more important than screen 
updates.

to address this, click the start button in windows and go to settings­control panel­system­
performance­graphics, and lower or disable “hardware acceleration”.

doubled notes when echoing through mfx plug-ins

when (auto) echoing midi data through an mfx midi plug-in, you will normally hear doubled
notes. this is because home studio echoes the original note, and you are also hearing the note after
it is processed by the mfx plug-in.

for example, if you’re using the transpose mfx plug-in set to transpose up 1 step, and you play a
c4 note on your midi controller, you will hear both c4 and c#4.

if you want to use mfx plug-ins to modify live input, you need to disable midi echo in home
studio (options-project-midi input).

“always use sysx bank instead of sysx data” for midi files
if you check this option in options-global-general, home studio puts any sysx data contained in
imported midi files into sysx banks instead of a stream of sysx data events (except for auto-send
data, which is sent before playback starts). these banks show up in the event list as bank events. if

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you don’t check this option, imported sysx data remains as sysx data events if the length of the
sys-ex data block is 255 bytes or less; if the sys-ex data is 256 bytes or more in length, it is still
placed into a sysx bank.

quantize and midi event filter midi plug-ins stops midi input from
being heard
mfx midi plug-ins support real-time midi input. for example, you can add the delay/echo midi
plug-in as a track insert effect, play your midi controller, and listen to the results of the plug-in.
however, if you add the quantize, chord analyzer, or midi event filter to a track insert, you will not
hear the results of the effect(s).

dump request macros

when you press the receive button in the sysx window, you may pick from a list of dump request 
macros. these are short system exclusive messages sent to a synthesizer to make it dump (send 
back) system exclusive data. drms are defined in your cakewalk.ini file in the [dump request 
macros] section. you may add your own drms or modify the ones that we have provided. use the 
windows notepad to edit the file.

please note that many drms have been donated by customers who are using the particular 
equipment. in some cases we have not been able to test those drms because we do not have access 
to that equipment. we are redistributing such drms on an as­is basis.

software synthesizers
the following topics cover some issues affecting the use of dxi software synthesizers and software 
synthesizers in general with home studio.

using dxi software synthesizers with aux buses and virtual main
buses
dxi software synthesizers may be patched in aux buses and virtual main buses, but please note
that the dxi synth(s) will not play unless at least one audio track containing data is assigned to the
same virtual main bus or one audio track is sending data to the same aux bus.

soloing tracks when using dxi software synthesizers

if you patch a dxi into an audio track (rather than a bus), and you solo the audio track, you must 
also solo the midi track that is patched into the audio track in order to hear playback. you may 
wish to group the solo buttons in both the midi track and audio track.

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“pre fader” playback meters will not respond to dxi synths
a dxi synth is basically an effect/plug-in, and will be treated as such when patched in a fx bin. if
the playback meters are configured to “pre fader”, the dxi synth output can still be heard, but the
meters will not respond to the dxi synth.

the reason is that that “pre fader” is prior to the fx bin, hence nothing shows on the meter when
the audio is generated by a dxi synth.

problems with yamaha sxg soft synth

if you experience problems with the yamaha sgx soft synth driver when launching home studio 
(one symptom is that home studio will freeze on the startup splash screen), you should either 1) 
disable the driver, or 2) end home studio by following these steps:

1. press ctrl­alt­delete
2. select “home studio”
3. click “end task”
4. restart home studio

home studio should then start properly.

home studio will not recognize the reality software synthesizer

wave driver
the seer systems reality software synthesizer exposes a virtual waveout driver, so that host
applications can play audio and synthesized midi at the same time.

by design, home studio will not recognize this driver, since all audio hardware must support full
duplex. home studio will not recognize any output driver that does not have a matching input
driver, or vice-versa. since reality is such an “output only” driver, it is not available in home
studio.

dreamstation presets may not initially display under win2k

dreamstation presets may not display after initial installation. in order to correct this, simply rerun 
the home studio installer only selecting the dreamstation dxi from the dx instruments component 
list. 

an audible “splat” of midi data sounds after stopping playback

when playing midi tracks patched through dxi soft synths, a “splat” of midi note data sometimes 
occurs after pressing stop.  this “splat” represents the release parts of the midi notes and only 
occurs when “play effects tails…” is not enabled.  

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to enable the playing of effects tails, select options­audio…, then choose the ‘advanced’ tab and 
check the box labeled “play effects tails after stopping.”  click ‘ok.’  midi tracks patched through 
dxi soft synths will now play through the entire release segment of the midi note. 

the ends of midi notes are truncated when exporting or

bouncing to tracks
midi tracks patched to some dxi soft synths will not render the synth’s effects tails when
exporting or bouncing to tracks, even with “play effects tails after stopping” enabled. this occurs
when the end of the clip is flush with the end of the time selected for which events are being
bounced.

to ensure that midi notes render their complete tail, select an extra amount of time in the timeline
beyond the end of the final note events. this should allow sufficient time for the midi notes to
render their release tails completely.
general
the following topics cover general issues in home studio.

home studio online help requires internet explorer

home studio uses an html based online help system, and requires microsoft internet explorer in 
order to use the context­sensitive online help. internet explorer is most likely automatically 
installed on all home studio­compatible operating systems (windows 98/98 se/me/2000).

note to windows 98 and internet explorer 4.0 users

in order to view home studio's context sensitive html help, you must download and install the
html help update from microsoft's web site. click on the link below then download, install and run
the file 'hhupd.exe' from the 'products download' section.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/tools/htmlhelp/wkshp/download.htm

if you are currently using windows 98 and internet explorer 5.x, this update is not required.

home studio 9 files sound louder/softer in home studio

home studio 9 has a setting in the audio options dialog box called midi volume mapping. this
setting determines how many db that a movement of a volume fader produces. this setting is not
stored in each project file, so home studio can’t tell precisely what db scale was used to produce
the file you’re opening. if the volume sounds incorrect:
1. open home studio’s AUD.INI file (find it in your home studio folder and double-click it).
2. change the line that says volmethod=”n.” if n=1, change n to 0; if n=0, change n to 1.

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3. save the file and close it.
4. reopen the pro audio file in home studio. if the volume sounds correct, save the file in home
studio.
5. if other home studio 9 files were opening correctly in home studio , change the volmethod=n
line in home studio ’s AUD.INI file back to what it originally was, and re-save the file.
another, although extremely rare, case is due to the fact that home studio's audio trim range is +/-
18db and pre-home studio files had a audio vel+ track parameter whose range is greater (in the
quiet direction) i.e. a home studio 9 file could have a vel+ (on an audio track) of -127 which
would make the track silent, whereas in home studio the audio track would only be reduced in
volume by 18db.

“create track envelopes using linear shapes” option

the envelope tool dropwdown menu has a “create track envelopes using linear shapes” option. this 
option specifies whether home studio should create a dotted line or a linear shape when creating a 
track envelope. if the options is enabled, a new track envelope will use a linear shape for the 
duration of the project (longest track) instead of a dotted line.

home studio will automatically insert automation when the user attempts to drag any horizontal 
dotted line that appears before the last shape event. a linear shape will replace the horizontal 
portion of the dotted line.

responsiveness of record meters depends on audio buffer

settings

the responsiveness of record meters in home studio depends on the buffer size set up in the audio
configuration dialog (options-audio-general). if you want responsive record meters and you are
not running low latency wdm drivers, you can set the "buffer size" between 10-20 ms and boost
“buffers in playback queue" to a number such that the "effective latency" is as determined by the
profiler (i.e. as low as your hardware can handle without dropouts).

by keeping the buffer size low you can maximize the record meters responsiveness while still
keeping the effective latency high enough.

the home studio record meters (and input monitor meters) are metering the live data stream as it 
exists within the mix engine. because of this the meters response is gated by your latency buffer 
size. all meters live directly in the data streaming path.  as a result of this, meters are actually 
measuring every single sample that flows through the audio engine. since there is no polling 
involved, there is no way the meters can miss even very high transient clips. however, in the case
of record meters, since the input data stream is buffered by the latency size, you may see a lag in 
the meter response with regards to what you are hearing, which is equal to this size. at lower 
latency sizes (10 ms or less) this should be imperceptible, but you will notice this if you are 
running at around 40ms or higher latencies.

14
note that if you have input monitoring turned on, the meters will be in sync with what you hear 
through the bus, since you are also hearing audio delayed by the latency size.

edit-apply trimming command

using the edit­apply trimming command permanently deletes any data from a selected clip(s) 
that is hidden by a slip editing edit. 

the command looks to the selection to determine which edges to process: only edges on partially
or fully selected clips are processed, and then only those edges which lie between the selection
start/end times.

groove-clip looping permanently trims the clip

if you slip­edit an audio clip to make it shorter, then groove­clip loop enabling the clip (in the 
loop construction view, or by pressing ctrl+l), the clip will be destructively trimmed. this means 
that you cannot disable groove­clip looping on that clip then slip­edit it back to its original 
duration.

“create a send submix” cannot be used with groove clips

when using directx audio effects offline, the “create a send submix” option on the mixing page is
disabled if the selection includes any groove clips. if you wish to use this option with groove
clips, you must either groove-disable the clip or use the edit-bounce to clip(s) or edit-bounce to
track(s) command before applying the audio effect offline.

the default normal.tpl template is stored in the installation

directory

previous cakewalk programs have stored the default normal.tpl template along with the other 
template files. home studio, however, stores the normal.tpl template in the same directory where 
the home studio application is installed.

if the normal.tpl template is located in the home studio directory (as it is by default), home studio 
will always use this template when you start home studio, even if you create a new normal.tpl file 
and store it in the template directory (as specified in options­global­folders).

if you delete or rename the normal.tpl template in the home studio directory, home studio will 
start with a blank template (no tracks).

snap acts as a “magnetizer” when slip editing and editing

envelopes

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when moving clips or note events, the snap resolution is always obeyed, and the clips/events can 
only be moved to/by the snap resolution.

however, when slip­editing (trimming) clips and editing envelopes, snap acts as a “magnetizer”. 
this means that you can move the clip boundaries and envelope nodes to any location, regardless 
of the snap resolution, but you will notice that the clip boundaries and envelope nodes will “snap” 
into place as they approach the snap resolution, just as if they were being pulled by a magnet.

home studio “buffer size matcher” audio plug-in appears in

other cakewalk products
this plug-in is only intended for home studio, but will show up in other cakewalk products (such
as home studio 9) that support directx audio plug-ins. the buffer size matcher plug-in is only used
internally, and is not listed in home studio’s list of available directx audio plug-ins. home studio
knows about this special-purpose plug-in, and is smart enough to suppress it, but it will show up
in other directx host applications since it is a standard directx plug-in. simply ignore this plug-in
if you see it in other directx host applications.

track pan is not sent to aux bus when aux send is set to “post”
fader

when an audio track’s aux send is set to “post” (post fader), the audio track’s pan control will not 
be sent to the aux bus.

video issues

video optimizations

poor video frame rates may be caused by a variety of circumstances:

• always load video files from a hard drive that is separate from your audio drive.
• if you have a lot of meters visible in home studio try hiding playback meters.
• the following cakewalk.ini variable allows you to tweak the frequency by which home
studio updates the user interface in response to time changes. changing this to higher
values such as 50-100 may improve video frame rates, by reducing the load on the
system.

the ini entry should be created under the "wincake" key in cakewalk.ini as below. set it to a value
in milliseconds. smaller values cause the user interface to update less frequently and larger values
cause more frequent updates. the default value is 40 ms, which works well for most applications.

[wincake]
newtimeupdatedeltams=40

compatibility issues

16
some mpeg files captured on pinnacle systems mirovideo and shark video capture cards may not 
load properly in home studio. to load these files into home studio, you should use a video program 
to convert them to avis in a "generic" codec like the radius cinepak codec or intel indeo codec.

pinnacle systems mirovideo dc30 pro:

windows 9x/me:

the windows 9x drivers for this board are incompatible with home studio. attempting to load a
video file compressed with the mirovideo hardware codec will cause the system to freeze on
loading the file itself or on stopping playback of the video.

windows 2000:

the windows 2000 drivers for this card appear to be compatible with home studio. video files
compressed with the mirovideo hardware codec will load and play in home studio. however to
take advantage of the hardware codec you will need to add the following entry to your aud.ini file
(found in your home studio installation directory):

[video]
useavidecoder=1

this entry forces home studio to use the avi decoder filter which wraps the mirovideo codec.

dv video playback

home studio supports playback of video files encoded for dv. note that the display of these files by 
default is set to half resolution by directshow for performance reasons. you can change this default 
so that the files display at full resolution by changing the dv video decoder properties as follows:

open the video properties dialog, and access the decoder property page from the video settings tab
by clicking the "decoder..." button. from this property page you can change the default to full
frame ntsc. note that you will have to reload the dv video after changing this setting to see the
video at full resolution. if you wish to always view dv videos at full resolution, you may check
the "save as default" box in the decoder properties dialog. note that this saves the settings system
wide for all directx applications.

multi-monitor video support

home studio supports multi­monitor video playback. to view a video on a separate monitor, you 
must first float the video view, and then move the view to a secondary monitor. once the video 
view is on a second monitor, you may now switch to full screen video mode on the second 
monitor.

video adapter issues

if you are using one of the following video adapters:

17
• matrox millenium
• hercules dynamite 128
• stb velocity 
• any video card based on the s3 chipset 
• any video card based on the nvidia riva tnt or intel i740 chipset

or you experience audio problems during times of high graphics use, please visit the web page 
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/videocardtips.html for important information about how to 
configure your video adapter when working with home studio. if not properly configured, these 
particular video cards can cause “bus contention,” disrupting normal audio recording and 
playback within home studio.

some users have reported errors in home studio’s studioware view when using certain types of
video cards. specifically, video cards based on the nvidia riva tnt or intel i740 chipsets are known
to cause illegal operation errors when opening the studioware view. cakewalk has found that this
problem can be remedied by downloading the most recent reference drivers from nvidia and intel
directly.

to download reference drivers for riva tnt-based video cards, please visit nvidia's website at:

http://www.nvidia.com/products.nsf/htmlmedia/software_drivers.html

to download reference drivers for i740-based video cards, please visit intel's website at:

http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/intel740/

(please note that nvidia and intel provide these reference drivers "as is", and as such the drivers
are not supported by the manufacturer of your specific video card.)

for the latest information on video adapter issues, please see

http://www.cakewalk.com/support/videocardtips.html.

reject loop take command does not work with audio

at present, the transport­reject loop take command only works when recording midi data.

opening home studio projects with stereo tracks in earlier

versions of pro audio
files containing stereo audio tracks created using home studio cannot be opened in home studio 8 
or earlier. if you wish to transfer such a file into an earlier version, you must first manually split 
any such stereo audio tracks into separate mono tracks (using the edit­bounce to track(s) 
command) before saving the file. you may wish to save this file under a different name, so that 
your original file will continue to contain the stereo audio tracks.

18
special keys reserved in lyrics view and effects property sheets

the shortcut keys for starting and stopping playback (spacebar), recording (r), and rewinding (w), 
do not work in the lyrics view or effects property sheets, since these keys are used instead to enter 
text.  when the lyrics view or an effects property sheet is the active window, use the buttons in the 
transport toolbar to start, stop, record, and rewind.

hardware notes
midiman/m-audio delta 1010 wdm driver port names are labeled
by number
the delta 1010 wdm driver version 5.12.001.6 and later labels ports by number instead of by
name. go to options-audio-drivers; the ports are as follows:

1/2=input1/2
3/4=input 3/4
5/6=input 5/6
7/8=input 7/8
9/10=s/pdif
11/12=monitor mixer

problem using 1 millisecond latency with echo darla card

home studio may have problems if you configure the darla card to use a latency of 1 millisecond 
in options­audio­general. to solve this problem, make sure the latency is set to at least 2 
milliseconds when using the darla card.

must disable “wavepipe” when using digidesign digi001

hardware

when using the digidesign digi001 hardware, you must disable “wavepipe acceleration” in 
options­audio­driver profiles in order to use the hardware properly. this should be done before 
running the wave profiler.

roland (edirol) ua-3 wave profiler issue when using wdm drivers

the ua-3 wdm usb audio driver reports incorrect dma setting to the wave profiler. the ua-3
profiles with dma settings of 520, and should be manually changed to 920. this is a hardware
issue, and cannot be changed by the wave profiler.

changing the value to 920 allows for reasonable playback at lower latency using wdm drivers, but
even with the settings at 920, input monitoring may severely stutter regardless of the latency

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slider settings.

no audio extensions support for certain devices

home studio 8.0x provides custom support for certain audio hardware, including the digidesign 
session8, audiomedia iii, soundscape sshdr­1, and digital audio labs v­8.

home studio does not provide extended “hardware­specific” support for the session8, audiomedia 
iii, sshdr­1, and dal v­8 devices.

going forward, cakewalk software products will communicate, configure, and control the 
proprietary on­board hardware of advanced audio devices by using audiox.  audiox is a newly 
emerging industry standard, introduced by cakewalk in 1999, which enables audio applications 
(like home studio) to directly access an audio device’s advanced onboard hardware through a 
standardized mechanism, rather than requiring special custom programming for each device.  over 
time, cakewalk expects an increasing number of advanced audio devices to offer audiox support, 
which will allow their advanced onboard hardware features to be controlled directly from within 
home studio.  the first device to offer such audiox support is the yamaha dsp factory audio 
hardware (an audiox driver for this device is included on the home studio cd).

frontier design wavecenter issue

when using the frontier design wavecenter card, you may experience the following error
messages:

“home studio caused an invalid page fault in module cw10aud.dll…”

­and/or­

 “home studio caused an invalid page fault in module kernel32.dll…”

this problem is related to the wavecenter driver, and does not indicate a problem with home 
studio. this problem will only occur when all wavecenter drivers (adat+spdif) are enabled. the 
wavecenter does not allow you to open both adat and spdif channels at once, and this problem 
occurs when home studio is trying to open all drivers for input monitor. to address this problem, 
disable either the adat or spdif driver.

arming an audio track from the console view with the frontier
wavecenter isa card causes errors
this is caused by a limitation with the frontier wavecenter isa card. the wavecenter isa card does
not permit you to open both adat and spdif channels simultaneously. the solution is to disable
either the adat or spdif channel.

20
note: this is not an issue with the frontier wavecenter pci card, which will not allow you to enable
the optical spdif and adat optical device at the same time.

lexicon core2 issues

the current lexicon core2 driver does not work properly with home studio’s wavepipe technology. 
please check with lexicon to see if an updated driver is available.

to use the lexicon core2 in home studio, go to options­audio­driver profiles, and disable 
wavepipe™ acceleration. disabling wavepipe™ will result in a slight increase in latency.

changing the sampling rate within home studio does not change
the rate of the soundscape mixtreme card

please note that changing the sampling rate within home studio does not change the actual 
sampling rate on the soundscape mixtreme sound card. if you change the default 44.1khz 
sampling rate in home studio, you must also change the rate in the soundscape mixtreme mixer 
software.

limitations of early sound blaster cards

certain early models of the sound blaster cannot do both midi input and wave output at the same 
time. thus, if you've selected "creative labs" as a midi in device in home studio 's options­midi 
devices dialog, wave audio won't work.

note that midi output will work fine along with wave audio: you can select "creative labs" from 
the list of midi out devices. the problem occurs only when you've selected the "creative labs" midi 
in device.

creative labs awe sound cards may be noisy in home studio

you may experience excessive background hiss when using an awe sound card in home studio. this 
is because home studio requires the use of true full­duplex audio hardware, and the awe sound 
card is not a full­duplex sound card. the awe sound card will record in 8­bit mode, and plays back 
in 16­bit mode.

awe wave synth and audio output

you cannot use the awe as an audio device if you use the “s/w synth” or “wave synth wg midi” as 
a midi output device. audio playback and the software synthesizer won’t work at the same time, 
because the software synthesizer ties up the awe audio device. in order to use the awe as an audio 
device, go to options­midi devices, and make sure “s/w synth” or “wave synth wg midi” is not 

21
selected as an output device.

this is a limitation of the awe software synthesizer driver, not home studio.

midi time piece tips and tricks

below are comments to help you use the midi time piece (mtp) made by mark of the unicorn 
(motu.)

system exclusive tips

"fast 1x" mode of the mtp may exhibit strange behavior with system exclusive send. this is a result 
of the mtp's "middle­man" processing techniques. the mtp windows driver won’t send system 
exclusive through the mtp byte by byte; instead, the mtp stores system exclusive in a buffer to be 
sent out in larger, faster packets. this causes checksum errors on a sound canvas, for example.

we are able to send system exclusive to the sound canvas in fast 1x mode by lowering the 
ttsseq.ini's sysxsendpacketsize parameter to 344. however, note that if you want to try this 
yourself, you’ll need to find a number that works on your computer system. in short, use fast 1x 
mode with system exclusive "at your own risk."

motu starting template

motu provides a starting template for their setup software called windows.mtp. make sure that this 
is loaded before using the mtp as an interface in home studio. the mtp driver will access the mtp's 
current state as configured by windows.mtp rather than reinitializing it. this will let you customize 
the provided template using motu's mtp software, and then access this setup in the windows 
driver.

connecting two mtps

when connecting two mtps together for 16 input/output ports, put the unit assigned to ports 1­8 
first in the chain. then connect the network cable from the back of the first unit to the network 
input on the second unit (ports 9­16.)

gravis ultrasound

home studio supports sound cards that use "patch caching," such as the gravis ultrasound. these 
cards load sounds from your hard drive as needed. if you are using this kind of sound card, the 
update patch cache command on the transport menu will be enabled. when you choose this 
command, home studio examines your song to see which patch numbers you have used. it gives 
this list to the sound card, which loads the required sounds. this process can take some time, so 
home studio lets you decide when to use update patch cache to "recalculate" the patches used. 
(home studio also performs the "recalculation" when you use file­open or file­new to open or 
clear a song file, and when you switch between multiple open files.)

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if you are using the play list view, please be aware that there may be a delay between songs, 
because the sounds required for the next song need to be loaded. this doesn’t mean that there is a 
problem with home studio. this is just the way such a sound card must work.

instrument definitions
instrument definitions help home studio understand the way a particular synthesizer works. this 
enables home studio to adjust some of its features, making them easier for you to use. if a 
definition doesn't exist for your particular synthesizer, that doesn't mean that it's incompatible 
with home studio. certain features (like choosing patches) won't be quite as easy or automatic, but 
they won't be impossible. remember too that you can create your own instrument definitions for 
use with your midi gear.

upgrading to home studio from an earlier version of a cakewalk

product

home studio setup does not overwrite your existing master.ins file. that file contains the instrument 
definitions that home studio loads every time it starts. setup installs new .ins files for each 
supported manufacturer. these files contain the latest complete set of available instrument 
definitions.

roland sr-jv80 series expansion boards

home studio includes instrument definitions for many of the roland sr­jv80 series expansion 
boards. in order to use these patch lists properly, you must add banks to existing roland jv/xp 
instrument definitions.

note: the roland jv/xp instrument definitions that are included with home studio have been 
updated to include all of the expansion banks for the corresponding instrument. this makes it 
easier to assign a specific sr­jv80 bank to a jv/xp instrument definition. if you are using a jv/xp 
instrument definition from a previous version of a cakewalk program, you might want to import 
the updated version that is included with home studio.

this section will show you how to add banks from these expansion boards.

1. open home studio, and go to options­instruments. click on the define button to open the 
define instruments and names dialog box.
2. click the import button.
3. select roland.ins, then click open.
4. select one of the "roland sr­jv80…” instrument definitions, then click ok.

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 the selected roland sr­jv80 patch names have now been imported, but this instrument 
definition will not work by itself. it is just a placeholder for the individual expansion board 
patch names. you can safely delete the imported roland sr­jv80 instrument definition if you 
wish, since the individual patch name lists will remain.  to use the expansion board patch 
names, you must add the patch name lists to an existing roland jv/xp instrument definition 
(e.g., roland jv­1080, xp­50, or xp­80.) 

the expansion board slot bank numbers are:

bank #: expansion board slot:

10752 a1 (patches 1­128)
10753 a2 (patches 129­255)
10754 b1 (patches 1­128)
10755 b2 (patches 129­255)
10756 c1 (patches 1­128)
10757 c2 (patches 129­255)
10758 d1 (patches 1­128)
10759 d2 (patches 129­255)
10760 e1 (patches 1­128)
10761 e2 (patches 129­255)
10762 f1 (patches 1­128)
10763 f2 (patches 129­255)
10764 g1 (patches 1­128)
10765 g2 (patches 129­255)
10766 h1 (patches 1­128)
10767 h2 (patches 129­255)

the steps below show you how to add one of the expansion board patch name lists to an existing 
instrument definition. for example, if you have the roland xp­50 with the sr­jv80­04 vintage synth 
expansion board installed in slot a, do the following:

1. import the roland xp­50 and roland sr­jv80 expansion boards instrument definitions (if you 
haven’t already done so.)
2. expand the roland xp­50 branch until you can see the patch names for banks branch.
3. expand the names tree so you can see all the individual patch name branches.
4. drag the sr­jv80­04 vintage synth 1­128 list from the names tree to the 10752 = xp­a1  branch 
in the patch names for banks folder. release the mouse button. the proper bank number is 
already displayed (10752), so click ok.

note: if you’re using an older jv/xp instrument definition that doesn’t already include the 
expansion banks, drag the sr­jv80­04 vintage synth 1­128 list from the names tree to the patch  

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 names for banks folder (or over an existing bank.) release the mouse button, and enter the 
proper bank number. according to the list above, we know that patches 1­128 in expansion slot 
a uses bank # 10752, so enter that number.

5. drag the sr­jv80­04 vintage synth 129­255 list from the names tree to the 10753 = xp­a2 
branch in the patch names for banks folder. release the mouse button. the proper bank number 
is already displayed (10753), so click ok.

you can repeat this process for any other expansion boards that you have.

end

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