IainThompson

Many thanks for this helpful reply. Although I used the latest version of the installer from the Bandlab site, the libcef.dll file was missing from the folder that you referred to. (The installer did give an error referring to this file). I copied the file over from another PC that has Cakewalk on it and now everything starts up OK. Once again, thanks for your help.

Evening All. I needed to do a clean re-install of Windows 10, and hence I had to re-install Cakewalk by Bandlab ( as in the free one). I got a few error messages on the re-install of which the most persistent one is that I get an error message on starting Cakewalk saying that "the code execution cannot proceed because libcef.dll cannot be found". I've raised the issue with Bandlab, but as yet have not had a reply. Any ideas from the great and the good of the Cakewalk community? I've been a long term user of Cakewalk ( and had the original lifetime subscription for Sonar), so have used the software on this machine without any issues previously.

I had a similar problem a few days ago (see thread "Cakewalk not opening - Solved"). For me it came down to a corruption in a control surface file, caused by trying to install a new controller. The crashes are probably creating dump files ( .dmp) and these can be sent to Cakewalk technical support ( see details in the other thread ). My experience was that they were pretty quick to try and help, so this might be a better route to go before major re-installation of Windows etc.

And that, my friend, wins the prize! Your suggestion worked, so I have updated the thread title accordingly. Many thanks.

Thanks Will and scook. I saw the article from Noel, hence I found the dmp files. I have sent them off, following the link in Noel's article. I've been searching my mind trying to think what might have changed. I did try to install the drivers for a Korg NanoKontrol 2, so may be this caused a problem. The only reason I discounted this was because my Windows restore point was set before I downloaded the Korg drivers, and on return to this set point the problem didn't resolve. Hopefully the Cakewalk tech team will be able to help.

Some further investigation shows that the crashes are creating so call mini dump files (cakewalk.exe.XXXX.dmp where X = numbers ). Can these be interrogated to investigate this problem further? They are 10Mb files though, so I can't attach them here.

I do have a second monitor, and had already checked for it being in that one (but it isn't). When I have task manager open I can see cakewalk appear in the Apps list and then instantly disappear as the program appears to shutdown.

Thanks Will. Unfortunately it still doesn't open, having taken the steps you mentioned. I also thought it might be something to do with an antivirus, so had disabled this already. It didn't open in safe mode. I had a restore point from a few days ago, which I went back to, but still the same issue with Cakewalk. Any other suggestions?

When I launch Cakewalk the program tries to start and then just disappears again. Specifically, I get the Cakewalk by Bandlab banner and the program tries to open on the screen then it just disappears before it gets the screen where you can open existing projects etc. No error message appears or anything ... it just completely disappears. I have the latest version installed and it was working fine last week. I have re-installed the latest Cakewalk version but have the same problem. On a separate machine it is still working fine. Any ideas out there? I'm running Windows 10, 21H2 version on an i7 machine with 16 GB of RAM, so I don't think there should be any problems with the PC spec.

Thanks John for the confirmation. Your workaround is close to what I was planning to do, which is to duplicate the midi track and use the volume automation lane to control the output from each of the inserts of the VST. My only hesitation is that my piece is for double choir ( SATB x 2 ) so that will be a lot of duplicated midi tracks!

I have a user question about the Originals Epic Choir ( as I think quite a few people on this post have actually bought the VST ). If I have a single midi track with sections of legato and staccato singing, is it possible to switch between the “long ahh” and “short staccato” of the Epic Choir without splitting up the midi track and using multiple inserts of the VST. As far as I can tell, it is not possible to use an articulation map in CWB to drive the changes from a single midi track. Is this correct ( and if so, is there a smart way to automate the changes in singing style)?

Many thanks for the quick responses. You gave me the clues I needed to sort this. I had forgotten that I used an external drive for the IK downloads ( to prevent my SSD becoming full during the group buy! ) and this wasn't still connected. Once I reconnected it, the updates worked. As ever, this forum is the business.

Hi there. Does anyone else have a problem with getting the IK Product Manager to install the updates. I see that an update is available ( orange "Update" is visible ) but when I click on it nothing happens and eventually I have to just close down the product manager. Any help gratefully received.

Some great recommendations in this thread. I don't think I have seen any vocal recommendations though. Any thoughts on good options ( involving Kontakt if necessary) for chamber choir type of music (so SATB arrangements ). Obviously there is the Eric Whitacre material from Spitfire, which probably sets the gold standard, but are there good free / nearly-free examples out there?

I also hesitated because of the resource pull. Does anyone on the forum have experience of using the Eric Whitacre voices with only 16GB of RAM. I know it is a 160GB download, which is another issue, but I don't want to invest only to find it a problem on my machine (Intel Core i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz with 16GB RAM)