Dropouts no matter what latency I choose

[Laurence Levin]

I just started having this problem. 

I see the disk load meter turn on and off while recording. I've tried fast/slow performance. My computer's sleep mode is set to high performance. 

My 7200 rpm hard drive is 85% full. Could this be it?

I have a quad core processor Intel i5 4460. 

I have a Focurite Scarlett 4i4 audio interface. 

I'm trying to record a MIDI that Cakewalk is sending to my keyboard and the keyboard is relaying to my audio interface. 

Help! I have a great creative idea I want to record!!!

 

[John Vere]

My 7200 rpm hard drive is 85% full. Could this be it?   

  Yes it could. Go get a back up drive and start cleaning junk out. 

 

 

[msmcleod]

There's a number of things that could cause drop-out, although since you're recording MIDI and not audio, the fact that your 7200rpm disk is 85% full shouldn't really have too much of a bearing... however:

1. If this is your system drive, and you've not got at least 16GB memory, disk activity could be high due to memory being swapped out.
2. If you've got audio tracks streaming from your disk (or samples for your VSTi's), then this could slow things down... especially if your audio tracks are on the same drive as your OS.
3. Do you have CPU hungry VST's on any audio tracks, or any CPU hungry VSTi's that could be causing dropouts?  I'm assuming you're using ASIO on your Focusrite?  If not, make sure you are.  You can try increasing your ASIO buffer size to reduce CPU load. Another option would be to freeze any tracks that are causing drop-outs due to high CPU usage (although you then might have [2] to worry about).

Your CPU is more than capable of coping with most projects (it's pretty much on par with mine). So personally I'd recommend:

• Consider investing in an SSD for your system drive. You could then re-purpose your 7200rpm HDD for audio.  Having your audio on a separate drive from your system drive can make a huge difference.  If you can afford to get an additional SSD for audio/samples do so.  For me, swapping to an SSD was like night & day -  Omnisphere could take 45 seconds to load a patch from an HDD, whereas the same patch on an SSD is 2 seconds.
• Look at your memory usage in Task Manager and in particular the swap file usage. If there's a large amount of swap file activity, or your memory is over 75% usage, consider getting more RAM.

Before you make any purchase though, try to ascertain what is causing the drop out.  Look at the drop out code, and refer to this chart: https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=AudioPerformance.24.html  . This should give you some indication as to what the underlying cause is.

[Stavv]

I am also experiencing latency problems, It started when I down loaded the last version of Cakewalk I went back to previous projects that I had no problem with and some of those were now giving me glitches and dropouts. I recently downloaded the latest version of Cakewalk and the problem is worse.

The issue seems to come when I have tracks with Kontack on them. If I record the Kontack't track and then delete the Kontact instrument then the issue goes away.

I am using Apollo 6 interface, windows pro 10 , Kontact programs are stored on SSD, not the SSD drive of my system. I have 32 gig of Ram. 

I think with the new enhancements from Bandlab  the efficiency has been compromised.

 

[Noel Borthwick]

What is the dropout code being reported?

[Laurence Levin]

I am recording audio from my MIDI keyboard. I don't get a dropout code. The audio engine isn't stopping. I'm just getting occasional crackling. 

Will performance improve if Cakewalk content is on a 2nd hard drive? 

I just installed the 2nd hard drive, so I'll report ASAP. 

[Laurence Levin]

So ... I'm happy to report that migrating data to a 2nd hard drive + moving Cakewalk content to the 2nd hard drive resolved my audio issue. 

This has also resolved a latency issue that I had with my VST, Pianoteq.