Wow! Where do I start? I've learned a lot over the past year about recording in general, mixing, mastering and especially about Cakewalk software (among others).
December 27, 2006
FAQs
Q. I can't get my MIDI songs to play. How can I get them to play?
A. Just from experience, I would guess you're using you computer's onboard soundcard. If you are, then change your driver mode to MME and then select MS GS Wavetable Synth as your MIDI OUTPUT. Here's the instructions:
OPTIONS>AUDIO>ADVANCED>DRIVER MODE = MME
close Cakewalk
restart Cakewalk
let the wave profiler run
OPTIONS>MIDI DEVICES>OUTPUT = MS GS WAVETABLE SYNTH
try playing the MIDI tracks again.
finish the tutorials. you'll get much better sounds out of the synths after you've learned to install EDIROL VSC in tutorial #8.
If you are not using the onboard sound card, then you really have to visit the forums and give as much info about what software, hardware and computer specs that you can as well as exactly what you are doing and how you're doing it.
February 5, 2007
Q. How do I remove the vocal track from a commercial song?
There are some vocal remover free plugins available, and I've tried a couple of them, but have never been able to find one that really works. In order to remove the vocals (or anything) from a song that already is completed, you have to try to use the frequency of that vocal against itself using the stereo field as a center point and trying to phase out the difference across that center line. As you might guess, this doesn't remove just the vocals.
here's one that's fairly inexpensive:
http://www.elevayta.com/product13.htm
Here's a free one:
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/audio/vremover.htm
here are some articles that Scott Garrigus wrote:
Eliminating the Lead Vocal
http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/tip.asp?ID=4
Extracting the Lead Vocal
http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/tip.asp?ID=5
I like Robomusic's quote on this, tho:
"You can't take the eggs out of a cake once it is baked." 
December 9, 2007
Q. I can't hear anything!
A. This could really be a multitude of problems. First we have to determine if you can't hear AUDIO or MIDI or both. If you can't hear AUDIO, however, then it's not likely you can hear MIDI either.
We'll assume at this point you can't hear AUDIO. Now we need to determine what soundcard you have and what driver mode you're using. Usually folks who start out with Cakewalk products and can't hear anything are starting out using their onboard soundcard. That's usually a Realtek, Soundmax or AC'97 compatible soundchip on the motherboard. Cakewalk defaults to WDM driver mode and if you're using the onboard sound chip, it doesn't necessarily work with WDM driver mode, so we'll change to MME/32 driver mode.
Go to:
OPTIONS>AUDIO>ADVANCED>DRIVER MODE = MME
close Cakewalk
restart Cakewalk
let the wave profiler run
Now you should be able to hear your AUDIO files in your Cakewalk product.
Q. I still can't hear MIDI files!
OK, different beast. Now you need to do either one of two things. Either select the MS GS Wavetable synth as your MIDI OUPTPUT DEVICE, or learn to use softsynths. Selecting the MS GS Wavetable is covered above, but it's NOT intended for someone who has a "prosumer" sound card like the ones listed as recommendations here on this site.
The best way and the way with better sounds and easier use of bouncing to tracks when ready to create an audio track out of your MIDI, is to learn to use softsynths. To learn to use softsynths, you simply need to open Cakewalk, open the help files (it is an option on the popup if you've not disabled it when you first start the program - or you can press F1 after Cakewalk starts). After opening the help files, go to Tutorial #8 and follow the directions. It will walk you thru inserting a softsynth so that you can use that information in your projects for MIDI tracks.