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Tutorial 17
HANDS-FREE RECORDING WITH SONAR 4 OR GUITAR TRACKS PRO


Flash Tutorial 17 [1047K]

Please note – for this tutorial, you must:
• Have a Windows computer running Windows 2000 or Windows XP (Sonar and Guitar Tracks Pro are not Mac-compatible)
• Have installed the USB and MIDI drivers following the procedure described in the GNX4 documentation that came with your unit. If you have not yet installed these drivers, you must do so (as well as connect the GNX4 via the supplied USB cable) before the GNX4 can communicate with your computer.

Many Cakewalk products (including Pro Tracks Plus, Sonar 4, and Guitar Tracks Pro) use a plug-in architecture for control surfaces. So, to support a particular control surface, all that’s needed is to install a suitable plug-in. These plug-ins are located in the C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Surfaces folder.

The plug-in that supports DigiTech Hands-Free Recording is called DigiTechRPX.dll. It is installed automatically with Pro Tracks Plus, but not necessarily with other Cakewalk software. You have three options for adding this control surface plug-in. (Note: We will refer to Sonar, but the same basic procedure applies to Guitar Tracks Pro.)

• Install Pro Tracks Plus and leave it on your computer. However, it’s likely that if you’re a Sonar user, you won’t use Pro Tracks Plus as it is a subset of Sonar.
• Install Pro Tracks Plus, then uninstall it. When you de-install, make sure that you do not delete any shared components. The DigiTechRPX.dll will remain installed even after Pro Tracks Plus is uninstalled.

If you do either of these two options, as of this writing you will need to re-install Sonar 4. It has more current code for handling ReWire; re-installing Sonar 4 overwrites the older ReWire code installed by Pro Tracks Plus.

Although these options will work, I recommend using the following method as it does not require re-installing Sonar 4, and you don’t have to install Pro Tracks Plus 2.2.

Before proceeding, download the SONAR_HFR folder by clicking here, and unzip it. This folder includes the DigiTechRPX.dll file, and a text file, REGISTER.TXT.

Regarding installation, don’t be scared – if you make a mistake, the odds are extremely remote (as in “walking outside and getting hit by a meteor”) that it will mess up your computer in any way. Here’s the procedure.

How to Install and Register the DigiTechDLL
510Kb Preview	285Kb Preview	301Kb Preview
3.54 megs Broadband	3.64 megs Preview	4.08 megs Broadband

Note: The accompanying video demonstrates this procedure, and shows how to install and register the DigiTech DLL. It’s recommended you skim the text as well to get a preview of what to expect. After you’ve finished watching the video, resume this tutorial with the section titled “INITIAL GNX4 SETUP FOR HFR.”

Available video formats are Real, Windows Media Video, and QuickTime. There are two versions of the video — a small-screen, low-resolution “Preview,” and a higher resolution “Broadband” version. If you intend to follow the video, please take the time to download the broadband version, otherwise the computer screens and menus will be difficult to see.

Note that the broadband videos use a larger screen size (720 x 480 pixels) than other videos in this tutorial series. During playback, make sure that your player’s video size is set to 100%.

1. Locate the following folder on your computer: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Surfaces.
2. Copy the DLL into this folder.
3. Double-click on the REGISTER.TXT file.
4. Once Notepad opens, go Edit > Select All.
5. Go Edit > Copy.
6. Exit Notepad.

Now it’s time to register the DLL in its new location by running the RegSvr32 routine. To do this:

1. Go Start > Run.
2. If anything is in the “Open” field, drag over it with the cursor and hit the DEL key to clear it.
3. Type Ctrl-V to paste the contents you copied from the REGISTER.TXT file into the “Open” field.
4. Click on OK.
5. You’ll see a confirmation screen that the DLL was successfully registered. If not, verify that the DigiTechRPX.dll file is located in the C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Surfaces folder, then start the installation procedure over from the beginning.
6. After a successful installation, reboot the computer (it’s always good luck to reboot a computer after installing something).

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