Chapter 7: Getting It All To Work In - Yamaha SW1000XG Advanced Manualbook

Chapter 7
Getting it all to work in...Cakewalk Pro Audio
The Cakewalk range of software packages is one of the longest standing and most widely used sequencers on the
PC. As a program which started out on the PC running in DOS, through to the Pro Audio Deluxe versions available
today, it has a huge user-base and rightly so!
This chapter mainly focuses on the flagship PRO AUDIO version of Cakewalk, however most of the topics covered
can be applied to other versions in the Cakewalk range.
Again the SW1000XG is lucky in that so far as Cakewalk goes. There are various methods of controlling and
supporting its features, and whilst there are limitations to how much you can do with some of them, hopefully this
chapter will explain how to work around most of them and get the best out of the SW1000XG inside Cakewalk.
Using Hubis and Cakewalk to run XGEDIT in tandem
As you may have seen from the previous chapters, the use of XGEDIT and Hubis loopback is one of the preferred
methods of working with applications such as Cakewalk or Cubase. With Cakewalk however, there are a few extra
rules and points that one should be aware of before embarking on this way of working.
Again, as we did with Cubase VST, we need to make sure that the correct options in Cakewalk are active to allow full
communication with XGEDIT and the SW1000XG.
Cakewalk prior to release version 8.03 did not have the ability to pass system exclusive data for 'real-time'
monitoring. This meant that if you were using a remote application such as XGEDIT with Cakewalk, you could record
your edits to the SW1000XG, but if the parameter relied on sysex data, you would not be able to hear them whilst
recording. Thankfully this problem has now been fixed in versions after and including 8.03 of Cakewalk, so if you are
using a version of Cakewalk prior to version 8.03 Yamaha recommend that you update it as soon as possible.
When you launch Cakewalk it will ask you to profile the SW1000XG's wave ports. This should be a trouble free
experience with SW1000 Wave 1-6 all profiling quickly.
You should make sure that the SW1000XG is recognised by Cakewalk as a Direct Show (Windows soundcard). As in
previous versions of Cakewalk (6.0 & 7.0), running the wave profiler without this option ticked in the Cakewalk setup
menu, could result in the SW1000XG not being recognised as a full duplex device. (Capable of simultaneous record
and playback – which of course it is!)
Once you have this set-up correctly, you can now go ahead and optimise the SW1000XG's audio playback for
Cakewalk. This is done in the 'audio-properties' dialog box. The SW1000XG is capable, as we have discussed earlier
of recording audio at 24bit resolution. This in Cakewalk is done using a mode known as 'Unpacked Audio Mode'
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