Boss br532 compatible with Cakewalk music creator 3?

[jules metcalfe]

Hi folks, just bought a copy of cakewalk music creator 3 to try with Br532, the 532 came with a cakewalk disk but i have lost it, i think it was sonar le.  Is there any difference and if music creator 3 is not compatible where could i get cakewalk sonar le software?  Also, is it just easier to use the edits in the 532 and audacity than going down the cakewalk route?
Any advise would be thanked,
Cheers, Jules

[64Guitars]

I think any DAW software is a trade-off between powerful features and your willingness, time, and ability to learn how to use those features. I've never used Cakewalk Music Creator but I just had a quick look at the website and it seems to be a good DAW. As for compatibility, any DAW that can import and export WAV files (and practically all do) is compatible with your BR. So, if you spend enough time learning all the features of Music Creator, I'm sure you'll be happy with it. But if you don't have the time, then you'd be better off using Audacity. It's not as powerful as Music Creator, but that makes it much easier to learn.

What is it that you hope to gain by using Music Creator? Will you use it mainly for editing and mixing? Or will you be doing more advanced processing of your tracks? I use Audacity all the time for editing and mixing the tracks from my BR-864. It's perfectly adequate for that. But if I wanted to use VSTs or MIDI sequences, for example, I'd use a more powerful DAW since Audacity doesn't currently support MIDI, and the linux version (which I use) doesn't support VSTs.

[suburban behemoth]

When I had my computer set up, I used Music Creator for building drum loops and synthesized music tracks. I liked how easy it was to paste loops into place.  I haven't used it with either the Tascam or the BOSS, though.

[jules metcalfe]

Hi 64 guitars, cheers for info.  I was gonna try and midi sync the 532 into cakewalk so i could mix the edit separate tracks and then mix together.  Can audacity edit separate tracks from the 532 and then mix? Cheers J

[64Guitars]

I was gonna try and midi sync the 532 into cakewalk so i could mix the edit separate tracks and then mix together.  Can audacity edit separate tracks from the 532 and then mix?

You most likely can sync the BR-532 with Cakewalk Music Creator via midi but I don't think there's much to be gained by doing so. It would only act as a transport control for the software. Basically, the Stop, Play, and Rec buttons on the BR would control the corresponding functions in the software. But the BR's faders would not control the software, so you'd have to adjust levels with the mouse.

Whether you're synced via midi or not, you have to use BR Wave Converter to export your BR tracks as WAV files, then import them into Cakewalk Music Creator. I do the same thing in Audacity all the time. For example, my latest recording here has over 15 tracks recorded on the BR-864. I exported them as WAV files using BR Wave Converter, then imported them into Audacity along with the vocal tracks from oldrottenhead and my drum track from Hydrogen. I then edited and mixed all of these tracks in Audacity and exported the final mix as a stereo WAV file. I loaded this WAV file back into Audacity to trim the ends and adjust overall level, then exported it as an MP3 for uploading.

Audacity's mixer board isn't as impressive as those in other DAWs but it does the job. Here's a screenshot of Audacity's mixer board from a different project of mine:

(Click to view full size)

[jules metcalfe]

Cheers for the info 64guitars, do i convert each track from the 532 into wav and load into audacity individually? Or is there another method? Think i'm gonna leave cakewalk for now, gonna try using the 532 and audacity.  I've been bouncing to stereo then converting to audacity, this allows me to add overall effects but individual, if you could give me any advise on how to do this it would be greatly apprieciated.  Cheers J

[64Guitars]

Use the BR Wave Converter software. It lets you export each track as a separate WAV file in a single batch operation. Just select the tracks you want and it will make a separate WAV file for each one. You can download the software, manual, and tutorials here:

https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Software%20-%20Wave%20Converter.html

If you have a USB card reader attached to your computer, you can speed up the export process by removing the SmartMedia card from your BR-532 and inserting it into the card reader (assuming that the card reader supports SmartMedia). The BR Wave Converter software will see the memory card as a BR-532 and function normally with it.

Once all of your tracks are saved on your hard drive as WAV files, you can import them into Audacity with File/Import/Audio (or Shift-Ctrl-I). You can select all of the WAV files at once, then click the Open button to begin the import.

To view the Audacity mixer board, select "Mixer Board" from the View menu. The icons for each channel are determined from the track name (which you can change). If the name contains "guitar" or "gtr", for example, the icon will be a guitar. If the name contains "vocal" or "vox", the icon will be a microphone. And so on. See the following page for details:

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/View_Menu#Mixer_Board...

And here's a link to the Audacity manual's home page:

http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

[jules metcalfe]

Many, many thanks, will do it!