Getting music into Waveform 9

[Orb8]

Hi guys,
I just bought Traction Waveform having used Reaper previously. What im trying to do on my Win 7x64 machine is something that was real simple in Reaper, which is... To record music from a Windows audio file or Spotify into Tracktion Waveform and record it whilst I play along with it on guitar and record that also. This is purely for my own use as I am learning guitar and like to listen to my own playback and timing etc to various tunes.

Previously in reaper I just set this up by setting my audio device etc as Windows audio, then went from there choosing my Asus D2X sound card for output etc, rather simple and it worked immediately anabli g me to record anything from my computer or Spotify etc whilst also recording my guitar.

However in Tracktion Waveform I have set it up the same, IE using Windows Audio etc, but It won't record any playing music from my computer or Spotify etc.. I can drag my own music onto the timeline then play it whilst I record my guitar from there, but I want to practice many many various songs that I don't have on computer and record those whilst I play along.

I have an audio mixer and an audio interface but nothing I do seems to enable me to recording two stuff playing on my computer slong with guiter.

Is there a way to do this pleasse guys or am I now going to have to use Reaper again after buying Tracktion?

Thankyou for any help.

[AGreen]

I can' give a definitive answer on this as I'm still on Waveform 8, but I think in 9 you can use the sampler to record and listen to any input such as a browser, music player etc. You would probably monitor and record spotify in the sampler and record your own playing on a track. I don't think you can do this by recording spotify to a track as I don't think the track inputs have that kind of internal routing but I may be wrong.

[Peter Widdicombe]

This should work; but what are you expecting to get? Do you need the guitar on a separate track from the browser "background"? How are you getting the guitar into the computer (microphone, line in, USB interface)? How do you HEAR what is playing, both guitar and audio tracks?

If using a microphone, you may have been just picking up everything in the room, so that would include guitar, and whatever else was going on at the time.

If line-in, then you may need to adjust the Windows Mixer to include "computer audio" as an input device EXTERNAL to Waveform. That way computer audio track PLUS your microphone come in as part of the audio track (but all into one track).

[zzz00m]

In Reaper (Preferences > Audio device settings) with WASAPI audio system (Windows 7/8/10/Vista) using "Shared loopback" mode will let me monitor and record anything I can hear on the Windows audio system. If I am using ASIO in the audio application, I need to switch my audio device settings to WASAPI to access this function.

I can do the same thing with Audacity, as it can access the Windows WASAPI loopback recording device here as well.

So with either of these apps I can record any audio being played back in the browser or a media player.

WASAPI (Windows Audio Session API) https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... dio/wasapi

I cannot find any WASAPI audio device settings in Waveform. Actually I see "Windows Audio", but nothing regarding WASAPI specifically.

Loopback Recording: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... -recording

WASAPI provides loopback mode primarily to support acoustic echo cancellation (AEC). However, other types of audio applications might find loopback mode useful for capturing the system mix that is being played by the audio engine.

Bottom line, I am not certain how common this feature is available in a DAW. Reaper is the only DAW that I have seen so far that can be set up to do this.

[Orb8]

Sorry for late reply guys, wasn't notified of posts even though it's selected correctly in UCP :/

Anyway, thanks for helping me.

@ AGreen.. Do I just open the sampler and expect it to play? Or are changes to audio device type etc required, I only ask this as ASIO seems to prevent everything external from playing in TW9. I think perhaps you're correct with the internal routing part though, which I wish was like Reaper as that will do anything it seems.

@Peter Widdicombe.. All I would like to do (NOT for any professional reproduction or anything) .. Is to record music as it plays from say YouTube or my Spotify account etc, whilst at the same time recording my guitar to a separate track. This is purely so that I can listen to it played back to check my guitar timing etc as I learn guitar.
I can drag/drop my own music files from my computer into TW9, but I'm limited by my music library as I don't have all the tunes I'd like to play along with, so I started to listen to YouTube music & got a Spotify account so that I had a far larger music library available to practice with in Reaper. But as I've just purchased TW9 I'd like to do the same as I much prefer the GUI.

@zzz00m .. Yes I was doing that myself In Reaper buddy. I'd just like to do it in TW9 as I've just bought it

Please jump in if you know of a way to do this in TW9.

Thank you

[zzz00m]

Do I just open the sampler and expect it to play? Or are changes to audio device type etc required, I only ask this as ASIO seems to prevent everything external from playing in TW9. I think perhaps you're correct with the internal routing part though, which I wish was like Reaper as that will do anything it seems.

The sampler plugs into a track just like any other plugin. If you wrap the sampler in a plugin rack you will see that it gets its audio inputs (L+R) the same way as any other track does. So the available track inputs are dependent on the audio device (ASIO, etc.) that you have configured in the Waveform settings. So that is what you will see for available audio inputs in your sampler track. To get external audio into the sampler, you would patch your audio cable into your audio interface analog input, and it will get passed along to the track inputs.

The sampler will play back any loaded samples through the default audio outputs available for that track, just like any virtual instrument would.

@zzz00m .. Yes I was doing that myself In Reaper buddy. I'd just like to do it in TW9 as I've just bought it

Please jump in if you know of a way to do this in TW9.

Sorry, but I don't see any way to get WASAPI loopback recording running in Waveform, as I described in my last reply. As far as I am aware, that is the only way to get an internal Windows audio mix recorded.

Perhaps a Tracktion developer will chime in here that this is something that they could add to their feature request list.

[whyterabbyt]

I believe Reaper might do this by doing some clever stuff 'behind the scenes'.

For other software, if your hardware doesnt have any routing options, then a virtual audio cable is what you need. like this one:

https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/

once that's installed, you have to set it up to be the output device for whatever software you want to record from (or your default Windows audio device if the software doesnt have any such option but be aware that all other Windows audio goes too), then set up Waveform to input from the virtual cable.
Note that this doesnt work with ASIO, you'll have to use DirectSound or somesuch.

[Orb8]

Sorry, but I don't see any way to get WASAPI loopback recording running in Waveform, as I described in my last reply. As far as I am aware, that is the only way to get an internal Windows audio mix recorded.

Perhaps a Tracktion developer will chime in here that this is something that they could add to their feature request list.

Ok thank you. It would be great if TW would have the options for and availability for this sometime. I'll look into the Sampler method too.

[Orb8]

I believe Reaper might do this by doing some clever stuff 'behind the scenes'.

For other software, if your hardware doesnt have any routing options, then a virtual audio cable is what you need. like this one:

https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/

once that's installed, you have to set it up to be the output device for whatever software you want to record from (or your default Windows audio device if the software doesnt have any such option but be aware that all other Windows audio goes too), then set up Waveform to input from the virtual cable.
Note that this doesnt work with ASIO, you'll have to use DirectSound or somesuch.

Ah.. This is interesting, Thank you. Would using Direct sound have any influence over latency? I'm just wondering as If I use Windows Sound the sync if I have recorded two tracks is way off during playback.

Thanks again

[zzz00m]

A workaround could be to first make an audio recording of the Windows audio mix you wish to play along with using Audacity (and WASAPI loopback), and export that recorded audio clip as a wave file. Reaper could work too, but Audacity is simple plug and play tool for this task once you have it setup. One click to record and maybe three clicks to export. Done.

Then just drag the wave file onto an empty track in Waveform and you are good to go for playback. No sampler required!

[Orb8]

A workaround could be to first make an audio recording of the Windows audio mix you wish to play along with using Audacity (and WASAPI loopback), and export that recorded audio clip as a wave file. Reaper could work too, but Audacity is simple plug and play tool for this task once you have it setup. One click to record and maybe three clicks to export. Done.

Then just drag the wave file onto an empty track in Waveform and you are good to go for playback. No sampler required!

Hi, Yes there's no problem doing that my friend. I can actually do that via Reaper then import anything I like to TW9. I guess I'm just trying to make everything work in TW9 alone, which it seems is not easily possible at present. Thanks though

[whyterabbyt]

I believe Reaper might do this by doing some clever stuff 'behind the scenes'.

For other software, if your hardware doesnt have any routing options, then a virtual audio cable is what you need. like this one:

https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/

once that's installed, you have to set it up to be the output device for whatever software you want to record from (or your default Windows audio device if the software doesnt have any such option but be aware that all other Windows audio goes too), then set up Waveform to input from the virtual cable.
Note that this doesnt work with ASIO, you'll have to use DirectSound or somesuch.

Ah.. This is interesting, Thank you. Would using Direct sound have any influence over latency? I'm just wondering as If I use Windows Sound the sync if I have recorded two tracks is way off during playback.

Thanks again

Yeah, Directsound isnt great for latency. I'd just do this to record into Waveform, then switch to ASIO to work.

[Orb8]

I believe Reaper might do this by doing some clever stuff 'behind the scenes'.

For other software, if your hardware doesnt have any routing options, then a virtual audio cable is what you need. like this one:

https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/

once that's installed, you have to set it up to be the output device for whatever software you want to record from (or your default Windows audio device if the software doesnt have any such option but be aware that all other Windows audio goes too), then set up Waveform to input from the virtual cable.
Note that this doesnt work with ASIO, you'll have to use DirectSound or somesuch.

Ah.. This is interesting, Thank you. Would using Direct sound have any influence over latency? I'm just wondering as If I use Windows Sound the sync if I have recorded two tracks is way off during playback.

Thanks again

Yeah, Directsound isnt great for latency. I'd just do this to record into Waveform, then switch to ASIO to work.

Just tried that vb-audio my friend.. It works, in that it will allow me to play Spotify and TW9 together which I couldn't previously.. However I can't select a Track Destination in TW9 to make it record Spotify audio.. Oh well. Thanks though for the suggestion

I can still do the drag drop file method with online audio, it just means using two programs. Not a huge issue but I wish TW9 could do it alone.

Thanks guys for your advise

[Peter Widdicombe]

I just tried, and found the same - what's playing in the computer isn't available - in fact, if Windows is playing youtube, when opening Waveform there is no input device (unless you have an extra audio interface, which CAN be highly useful...). Anyway...

I went into the windows audio device properties (and this probably does depend on the sound card you have...). Anyway, see the shots below (if this works).  Basically, in the audio card properties, I enabled the Input properties being the "stereo mix", which appears to have been defaulted to disabled.  Then, as I'm playing in Youtube, the input device in Waveform can be recorded easily.:


 

[Orb8]

Was that using the VB-Audio drivers Peter? As I believe I tried that type of setup previously, however that was just using the standard drivers for my soundcard, without the Vb-Audio software driver. So I'll try agin tomorrow if you got it working WITH the VB driver.

I am uing an Asus Xonar D2X sound card so its a good one, but I have tried all sorts of setups and connections really as I have a Xenyx audio interface and also a Tascam US 2x2 too.

However the ASIO drivers are what seems to be the bottleneck here, ive even tried the ASIO multiclient driver but couldn't get it to work, ive got another version to try tomorrow though.

Thanks Peter