Just to give you some idea of my credentials, I've been using sonar / cakewalk for over 20 years and been in the IT industry since mid 1976; I know PCs and windows pretty well; although forgotten most other than win 11. I was having this issue several years ago on one of my computers running win11; and it's now returned. I have 2 computers, both win11, both with (KB5031455) updates. Both have ample cpu power, memory, ssd, and hard drives.
Both work great for all things except the my fastest PC. Cakewalk works slowly, and sometimes hangs when loading mid files.
I have reinstalled cakewalk several times on the problematic computer and still not fixed. I have eliminated the loading of most of vst instruments and still problematic although much better.
What is interesting / puzzling is that, and here's something to try, open cakewalk (do it in administrator mode), with the 'cakewalk start screen' showing, open and close various midi files. These should open virtually instantaneously; less that a second. Close the project, (not cakewalk) and again instantaneous. (On my fastest, newest, most plentiful computer, closing down a project sometimes takes 4-5 seconds. The windows cursor changes to the windows blue circle (hour glass) and this happens more when closing the project, rarely when opening. The more I went through this, maybe 10-20 projects, system became much faster; almost as though it was learning the process!)
It is now acceptable although sometimes still takes 4-5 seconds to close a project. My 5 year old i7 computer does it with no delay.
Start testing with just one vst and increase the numbers.
Still can't advise on what the issue is but think it is cakewalk/hardware implementation related.
