Glitchy Playback post CW update

[Jim Rilling]

So it seems ever since I upgraded to the latest version of Cakewalk a few weeks ago I've had performance issues with the software ever since.  The problem mostly occurs during playback after a few seconds say to the point where if I press stop it will not stop the track (occasionally it will) and the track often has to go to the end of it's audio limits for the button to return from being blacked out and to being able to function.   Most other functions that I attempt to use also seem to stop working - even the cursor freezes sometimes.

Being the deductive trouble shooter that I am, I've tried several things that would reduce processing power and memory requirements assuming this to be the most likely issue.  I've tried shutting off all my plugins etc. including ProChannel EQ to no avail.  It seems to only have started happening on a recording I did recently with 8 tracks of acoustic drums, a doubled guitar track (so 2), and a bass guitar track where I used a slower tempo (110 BPM) vs. the default of 130 BPM (which makes zero sense, I know).  The worst part is it is not always the case.  This morning I loaded my recent 110 BPM track and it was glitchy as hell.  And then another track that is very similar at 130 BPM minus one drum mic (recorded before I bought a pair of matched pencil mics) and no bass guitar (so 2 less tracks) which normally has never been glitchy, is suddenly also glitchy after playing the other track for a bit, closing it, and then playing this one.

So in the mean time that I have been writing this I believe I rebooted my machine due to some wireless keyboard issues (which turned out to be dead batteries lol) now there is no glitchiness - or at least not enough to prevent the play/stop buttons from working and the cursor from not functioning.  I really don't get what's going on and the only real "new" variable in my mind is the recent CW upgrade I did maybe two weeks ago.

My laptop is not by any means near the power of a gaming laptop or a purely audio based one like PCAudioLabs, but it's an i5 processor with Windows 10 and 8 gigs of memory so it's certainly not the worst.

Any ideas from other users what my issue might be?  I noticed there was some recent patch to fix some kind of glitchiness but I figured I loaded the recent update late and that the bugs were worked out of it but maybe I'm wrong there.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Jim

 

[Promidi]

Please list machine specs....  CPU, ram , graphics, audio interface, OS, etc

Have you tried the following?

Updated all drivers (manufacturer's website, not via Windows update)

Installed all Windows updates

Disabled c-states and IEST

Updated Vdist runtimes

Disabled anything that mentions power saving. - Use Highest performance mode

Disabled USB power saving

CPU min and Max to 100%

Disabled Core parking

Makes sure all sound card and applications are set to the same sample rate

Disabled wireless i/f while using CbB

Start+run > systempropertiesperformance , select Adjust for best performance

If you have an Nvidia card, Set power Management mode to Perfer Maximum performance.  Nvidia Control Panel > 3D Settings > Manage 3D Settings

These are some I can think of.  Others may have more

[ClarkPlaysGuitar]

I'm having the same, or very similar issue. I am currently mixing 10 tunes for a new album.  3 of the 10 will become non-responsive during playback, and I cannot stop the playback. This makes working on the mix very difficult as I cannot make adjustments on the fly.

Prior to the next-to-last update this was not happening. I have made no big changes to any of these tracks. That is to say, the 3 trouble tracks have the same number (or fewer) plugins than they did before this issue, I've not added new hardware  or new software, and I have updated my various drivers.

While this is happening, the "performance" window is also non-responsive. It indicates HDD & CPU load is way below 50%, but appears frozen. When I open Win10 resource monitor, it shows all 4 cores are operating at about 85 - 90%.   When the song stops, this goes down to about 75%, but if I close the song and leave CbB open all 4 cores go down to next-to-nothing. If I open one of the non-problematic tunes CPU usage is about 40 - 45% when stopped, & 60 - 70% while playing. The CbB performance window reflects this, as well. Similar or identical track count.

I've looked to see if there is a common denominator in the 3 trouble tunes, such as the same soft-synths, plug-ins, etc, & as of yet see nothing glaring.  Everything that is being used in these 3 tunes is being used in at least one of the other 7, and they seem to be fine. I've looked pretty much everything Promidi has suggested, and there is nothing jumping out. (Although I do not know what "vDist" is - maybe vDisk? ) .

The important thing to note, I believe, is that this did not happen prior to the updates to CbB.  I mixed a little one weekend, did the update, tried to mix the next weekend, and this issue was there. I am exploring the possibility that I tried a demo plugin on these 3 tracks, then decided to not buy it, & that there is some artifact lingering from that, but I'm just grasping at straws with that idea. Not even certain how I would verify that or clean up any mess.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. I gotta go make supper. I'll check in later. 🙂

[ClarkPlaysGuitar]

Update on my situation: I loaded one of the problem projects in safe mode, & watched to see what loaded. It appears there are a couple things loading that I'm not certain as to what they are. One of them was labeled "groove player," which I cannot find in the manual. I am guessing it is related to groove clips, but I don't know. Whatever it is, this track has no groove clips, so it should not be loading, I would think. That said, I did discover that I had moved some transients in one measure on all 16 drum tracks, and maybe it has something to do with that. I don't know.

What I ended up doing was  bouncing all of the drum tracks down to relieve CPU load from dealing with  moving the transients around, then freezing every single track. Transport issues stopped & I can make adjustments on levels & panning in real time. I unfreeze a single track to tweak the effects, & it seems okay. So today that's what I'm doing. Work on the effects one track at a time, freeze that track, move on to the next. Until I discover what the unique combination of plugins is that is causing these issues I will plow ahead this way.

Maybe this technique will work for other folks, maybe not. In the meantime I am forging ahead as best as I can.  See you all later!

[Promidi]

13 minutes ago, ClarkPlaysGuitar said:

 One of them was labeled "groove player," which I cannot find in the manual. I am guessing it is related to groove clips,

 

Groove player is used to render the metronome ....   

[ClarkPlaysGuitar]

2 hours ago, Promidi said:

Groove player is used to render the metronome ....   

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for letting me know!