Optimizing Cakewalk

[RexRed]

I work in a program called Daz Studio and for many years I just used the program with stock settings. Recently I found a video that goes into the Nvidia control panel settings and give Daz Studio full access to many of the Windows system resources. There were actually about 20 or more parameters that needed to be changed to allow Daz Studio in particular to take full advantage of the graphics hardware. 

I am thinking that Cakewalk needs this too. Not only to give full access to the graphical interface in Cakewalk but also my RME Fireface UCX II would also benefit from going deep into the driver and maximizing priority settings for the many resources Cakewalk sound is utilizing in particular.

It would be nice if someone who knows a whole lot about this would make a video or PDF/HTML page, "Optimizing Cakewalk" so we can get the most out of using Cakewalk and so Windows would give full control to Cakewalk in regards to priority and utilizing full system resources. 

If there is already such a resource, please link to it in the replies.

 Thanks.

[Promidi]

Here is a good starting point.

https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/glitchfree/

As for Nvidia optimisations, not much to be done there as we are dealing with audio.

That being said, there are some operations that would benefit from the mere presence of a PCIE graphics card.  Some plugins and even Windows rendering itself benefit from a PCIE graphics card (Either Nvidia or AMD).  Just be aware of fan noise.  If you have an older CPU, then you would definitely benefit from a PCIE graphics card.

There are some other tweaks specific to Cakewalk.

In preferences | Audio | Configuration File try adjusting the following:

EnableSetThreadIdealProcessor = False
MixThreadCount = {number of cores minus 1}
DropoutMsec=-8

You might like to exit Cakewalk by Bandlab, go to the following folder and make a copy of the AUD.INI file before doing this:

%appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core

It also goes without saying.  Keep your Windows fully patched and all drivers up to date.

[Starship Krupa]

ThreadSchedulingModel is another Cakewalk variable worth looking into. Depending on your system, 2 is the more conservative model while 3 is the higher performance model. I usually keep it on 2, although I should probably mess with it some more now that I have a 10 core CPU.

From the day I started using Cakewalk, I've been wishing for more explanation about the various settings. Most of the ones in the INI file only give descriptions like "increasing this setting may help performance." Okay, that's great, but what are the downsides of increasing (or decreasing) the various settings.

The INI file seems to have been around a very long time, My guess is that some of the settings that grant extra buffers use up more memory, which is no longer as much of a tradeoff as it was when 4G was all Windows could even address. Yet I suspect that some of the default settings may be from those days.

Most people doing DAW work have at the very least 8G of RAM installed, the majority probable even more than that. With 32G on my system, most of which never gets touched, I could probably sacrifice a Meg or two for the sake of a smoother DAW.

In the meantime, I've found that Windows can be tweaked in several ways to make DAW's work more smoothly.

Pete Brown is a Microsoft engineer and Cakewalk user. He maintains a guide to tuning Windows systems for DAW use:

https://aka.ms/Win10AudioTweakGuide

In your Windows Defender settings, be sure to exclude from realtime scanning any folders having to do with Cakewalk, plug-ins, and sample libraries.

One favorite is using MSI Tool to set as many IRQ's as possible to use Message Signaled Interrupts. In the process of using it, also check to see if any of your PCIe devices are sharing an IRQ. I found out that my GPU and Firewire card were sharing one(!), and moving the FW card to the next slot down helped with glitches and pops at lower latency settings. Even though IRQ issues are supposed to be a thing of the past, it's still best they not be shared if possible.

On most systems, you'll want to pay attention to the USB controller, but on mine, since I use Firewire, that's the most important.

Another one of my favorites is using PowerSettingsExplorer to adjust Processor Performance Time Check Interval. I think I'm currently using 1500mS whereas the stock setting is 15mS. Many go as high as 5000mS, but I figure that cranking it up to 100X the stock interval is enough.

The last time I tuned my system I sorted out both of those things and saw a noticeable performance improvement in Cakewalk

[Helios.G]

On 4/5/2024 at 4:55 PM, Promidi said:

Here is a good starting point.

https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/glitchfree/

As for Nvidia optimisations, not much to be done there as we are dealing with audio.

That being said, there are some operations that would benefit from the mere presence of a PCIE graphics card.  Some plugins and even Windows rendering itself benefit from a PCIE graphics card (Either Nvidia or AMD).  Just be aware of fan noise.  If you have an older CPU, then you would definitely benefit from a PCIE graphics card.

There are some other tweaks specific to Cakewalk.

In preferences | Audio | Configuration File try adjusting the following:

EnableSetThreadIdealProcessor = False
MixThreadCount = {number of cores minus 1}
DropoutMsec=-8

You might like to exit Cakewalk by Bandlab, go to the following folder and make a copy of the AUD.INI file before doing this:

%appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core

It also goes without saying.  Keep your Windows fully patched and all drivers up to date.

Hey Promidi, what do your tips do.  They sound interesting, but what are they for exactly? Thanks!

[pwal³]

On 4/5/2024 at 10:55 PM, Promidi said:

s for Nvidia optimisations, not much to be done there as we are dealing with audio

Disabling HDMI audio in device manger is sometimes helpful

[Promidi]

2 hours ago, pwal³ said:

Disabling HDMI audio in device manger is sometimes helpful

Yes, true.  That is one thing I have done.  (actually listed under “System Devices” as a “High Definition Audio Controller” entry)