David Grammerstorf

Ok, looks like a new interface did the trick. Switched to the Scarlett 18i8. Installation was far easier than any interface I've owned previously. I was up and recording in minutes, and despite my imperfect Latency Mon reports, I spend a couple of hours recording and playing back music in Cakewalk without a hitch. Why does the Tascam US 4x4 and its drivers play nicely on my on my five year old, slow Surface Pro but not on the new HP Spectre? Who knows. All I know is this new interface is working, and I can finally stop trying to troubleshoot. Thanks to each and every person that offered advice. I am willing to bet that the steps I took to reduce my DPC latency scores in Latency Mon likely helped.

Although I don't necessarily need to make an interface purchasing decision based on Zoom and Google Meet, it's worth noting that even with Tascam's latest drivers, I experience issues when trying to use my US 4x4 for video chats. This is apparently common with other Tascam users. Perhaps that's a sign.

Yes, I'm still at it. I've done as many things as I can think to reduce DPC Latency scores in LatencyMon, and I've brought them down overall. I'm disabling my wifi adapter when I record, I've removed all power throttling settings I can find, removed bloatware... While performance has improved a bit, the Tascam US 4x4 interface is still unable to get clean playback of audio from Cakewalk. Buffer size settings have no effect. Next I borrowed by buddy's Scarlett 18i8, uninstalled my Tascam, and installed the Scarlett 18i8 on my computer. Sure enough, I used it all night with narry an issue. For whatever reason, the Scarlett's drivers are playing nicely with my system. I'm going to get my own Scarlett 18i8 and test it out. That may be my solution. We will see!

Hatstand, I can't recall whether I tried that or not (I've done so many things!). I'll give it a go. Thanks. John Vere, I'm seeing the same thing. It does seem crazy that a laptop built in late 2020 can't handle real-time audio recording, but a Surface Pro 4 from 2015 can. Oh well.

I give up. The only step I haven't exhausted is to do a wipe and clean Windows install, which I just don't feel like doing. It's the wdf01000.sys and ACPI.sys drivers that are killing me according to Latency Mon. My old Windows Surface Pro 4 still manages to run Cakewalk and record four drum tracks simultaneously, so I will continue using that. Very disappointing. Bottom line: Don't ever try using an HP Spectre as a DAW, no matter the specs.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. I'll give these steps a shot.

Sadly, killing HP Command Center and a couple of other little HP programs didn't do the trick. I'm still getting some windows drivers as the culprits in the reports from LatencyMon.

On it!

It also says, "Highest reported DPC routine execution is from wdf01000.sys- kernel mode driver ramework runtime, Microsoft Corp" Is that the issue?

Okay, I ran LatencyMon. I'm getting the following conculsion: "Your system seems to be having difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks. You may experience drop outs, clicks or pops due to buffer underruns. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setups. Check for BIOS updates." So... what now? In HP's "Command center" I've set the Device Mode to "performance." (This seems to be HP's system for managing power throttle/battery management). Look for a BIOS update?

Thanks slartabartfast... I was hoping running in airplane mode would avoid issues from the LAN, but I will download this and try it shortly.

Thanks John! I've fiddled with the buffer quite a bit, starting a 256 and going both up and down. I also just ran through the list on the Motu PDF you uploaded. I'm still getting those issues oddly. Since I've toyed with all of the settings I can think of in Cakewalk, I'm thinking it's probably Tascam-hardware related. I'm going to try posting there as well.

Ok, this is driving me crazy. I'm getting clicks and momentary dropouts during playback, both when listening and trying to record. I've tried adjusting the buffer size from my Interface, as well as playing around with the File System I/O buffer size, but to no avail. Here's what I'm running: Latest version of Cakewalk Tascam US 4x4 Interface (latest drivers) 2020 HP Spectre x360 laptop with 11 gen i7 processor, SSD, 16gb ram I'm not asking a lot right of the software and hardware right now... just recording drums in three channels while listening to one guide track. I'm nowhere near peak CPU usage. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.