Audio wafeforms suddenly stop generating output

[John Roevekamp]

I have a project that has been working perfectly. Then I loaded it today and none of the tracks are making any sound. I mean, I can see the wafeforms, and Cakewalk plays, but no volume appears on any track, zero output. I loaded another project and that works fine, so the driver relationship is fine. 

What could cause this? Mute is off, Solo is off. Is there an OFF switch that I hit by accident?

Thanks, in advance, for your thoughts...

[John Vere]

Did you check your Master bus?  

Edit- Just looked a little closer at the screen shot I see the Audio engine is off. Are you using an interface or just the computer sound card? 

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by John Vere

[reginaldStjohn]

Even if the master bus is muted or has a problem there should still be a reading in the individual track meters. 

You could try to bypass all effects and see if that changes anything. Are you using the pro channel? I have had some times where a pro channel module would cause a track to not play. bypassing or removing the effect would then allow audio to pass.

I would also toggle the mute and solo on and then off just to make sure nothing is soloed.

Edited July 13, 2022 by reginaldStjohn

[John Roevekamp]

Thanks, people. The weird thing is that ALL the channels show no sound, so this cannot be related to effects. I toggled the Mute and Solo buttons and left them both off on the Control Bar.

I see now that the Audio Engine is, indeed, off, and clicking on it does not turn it on. When I run another project, the Audio Engine icon enables as it starts and the sound and visual volumes appear. When I run this project it turns off. What could cause the Audio Engine to turn off like that for this one project?

Edited July 14, 2022 by John Roevekamp

[Lord Tim]

It's possible some effect has gotten itself into a bad state and that's preventing the engine from engaging.

Try opening the problect in safe mode by holding down SHIFT when you open the project. Say NO to loading each effect and see if it plays (don't save the project in this state or you'll lose all of your effects!) - if it plays then, start a process of elimination to see which effect is causing the issue and removing/replacing it.

[imstre]

why is your 96khz so high sample rate?  that's why there is no sound because you changed it
if the project was created in 44.1, then after replacing the sound card
i 96khz can and cannot be replaced if it was started differently.

[John Roevekamp]

Aha! The 96k! I am still new to Cakewalk and have been changing things in Preferences to try and figure out what effect they have. This project was started at 48k why does it say 96k now? Preferences are still set to 48k. How do I fix this? I don't see anywhere to change the 96k display... Might it be because some of the tracks recorded are at 96k? 

And Thanks, Lord Tim, for the tip on Shift-Open, I tried that and it didn't help. I am betting my problem is the 96k. But so how to solve it, other than avoid mixing bit rates in future projects?

[scook]

The DAW permits one sample rate per-project.

Sample rate is set one of two ways.

• Whan a project has no audio, the sample rate is set by reading the default sample rate in preferences. The sample rate of these types of projects may be changed anytime by modifying preferences.
• When a project contains audio, the sample rate is read from one of the audio clip headers. Here is the documentation on how to change the sample rate of projects containing audio.

[John Vere]

I have a tutorial that shows you what to do to change the sample rate of a project if you want to revert back to 48. # 104  https://youtu.be/ZVBNf-jyuzI

 

There's very little if none at all benefit to using super high sample rates in a home studio. I'm a big fan of 48hz these days so if I open an older 44.1 project I convert it right away. But that said, if you created the project at 96 all the audio files should be stored with that as their sample rate. It's not possible to have 2 sample rates in any project.  When you open a new project it will be set to the rate you chose in Preferences for new projects.  Your audio interface will be set to match too.  

Any audio recorded  will be at that rate. If audio is imported into a project will be automatically converted to that rate.  If there are any audio files that are not at that sample rate that's an unusual situation that I'm not quite sure how it could happen.  I found when researching how to change sample rates that it it is not possible if there are any active audio tracks in a project. All audio tracks have to be removed before you can change sample rates. So in theory it is not possible to have any audio tracks showing in a project that are wrong.  

Midi tracks and instruments don't care. You can change sample rate of a huge project if it is just Midi. As long as none of the instruments have been frozen. Those are now considered audio tracks so the same rules apply and the project cannot be converted. 

 

 

Edited July 14, 2022 by John Vere

[John Roevekamp]

Thank you both for the extensive info.

I will try the video as soon as I have a chance and will post the results here. The past few days have been heavily preoccupied...

[bitman]

You spell everything else correctly which tells me you just don't know.

It's waveforms. those are waves, that have form.👍

[John Roevekamp]

Well, thanks for all your input. I followed the steps precisely in the video, but when I bring a wav file in, it still makes no sound. The only mystery I am seeing is that I had to delete all the audio files in order to remove them from the project, but every time I open the project it tries to find the deleted files. I cannot find how to remove these references to the deleted files. All of the files are still there, even though I deleted them from the audio tracks. Maybe that is causing the project to not have its head cleared of the attachment to the old files, which caused the audio to not play... I think I will just go and rebuild the project manually...

[Byron Dickens]

Look up "clean audio folder" in the documentation.

[John Vere]

In the steps in my video-- once you have deleted all the audio at the old sample rate you have to use SAVE AS and to a new location. You still check copy all audio with project even though there is none so Cakewalk will create a new per project folder with a empty audio folder in it. THEN you drag and drop the exported audio track back to the clean project.  Otherwise the old sample rate audio will be all mixed in with the new sample rate audio.  Please watch the video again and carefully follow the steps. 

 

Edited July 22, 2022 by John Vere

[John Roevekamp]

I appreciate everyone's assistance. I have learned many good lessons in the exchange. The project is rebuilt and I am moving forward again, though I could not repair the original project that had gone bad. It was time to cut my losses. Back to making music!

[eric.birchall]

Just for info , last night i had 3 vocal harmony parts on 3 tracks. The middle one was not playing but the others were. The wave form was there!.

I did the old "close CbB close computer and restart". 

I worked fine after that. 

I have the latest version and use 2 roland octacaptures

Ric