Robert Bone

Hi @razor7music - curious - Noel had asked about what your Configuration File had for the ThreadSchedulingModel paramater, in Preferences. I, too, am wondering what that parameter is set to - can you please go to Edit > Preferences > and under the Audio category, click on Configuration File, and post back with the setting for that parameter? You will need to scroll through the Configuration FIle (not a very large number of parameters to scroll through). Please note - do not use a setting of 3, as that is an experimental value Noel is still working on, so it is not stable at this moment. Please ALSO note - you will need to set Preferences to Advanced (a radio button at the bottom left of the Preferences window), to be able to see the Configuration File as a category on the left side of the screen. I use a value of 2, which is appropriate for most multi-core CPU's. I would suggest you set yours to a value of 2, and then retest and post back with the results.

There are some basic things to look at, generally speaking, with regard to the different kinds of issues that folks have - unless there are widespread reports of the same issue - such as dead in the water crashes, for example, many, if not most, of the issues that folks have, are local to some aspect of their system, 32-bit plugins, behind on maintenance, ASIO4ALL issues, 12-year old computers, BIOS or other drivers out of date, etc... Many folks have extremely stable systems - I have 3 music production computers, all have multiple DAW suites, and approximately 1200 plugins, and I have literally not had a crash in over 3 years. I do not state that about bragging about it - all I am saying that there are ABSOLUTELY a reasonable number of things that can be done, to result in a very stable DAW platform. Yes, there are bugs - yes there are features that they are developing, where some of those will end up rolled out and tweaked over multiple months, depending on the complexity and anything unexpected that they have to tweak - such as the ThreadSchedulingModel parameter 3-aggressive - that is a work in progress, and was stated as such from the moment it was rolled out - but the setting of 2 works FABULOUSLY, to help distribute work load across the now everywhere multiple-cored CPUS's. There ARE some standard kinds of things to review and resolve for most audio glitches, latency, and performance-related configuration modifications, that can be pretty reasonably quickly gone through, with good outcomes. I have helped lots of folks resolve their reported issues, as have other forum regulars, with a pretty good track record of success, as long as the folks we are trying to assist are willing to engage in the process of looking at the areas most likely involved with producing the issues they report. I will continue to do my best to assist anybody willing to work through it - it doesn't generally take very long to go through things, with a good chance for a successful outcome. You frequently voice a different take on it all, which is kewl, I hope that whatever DAW you use or end up using, whether it is Cakewalk, Reaper, Logic, Pro Tools, Studio One, FL Studio, whatever - that you are able to find a good platform to produce music of your choosing. Best wishes for success to you, and to everybody else out there. Bob Bone

@Dennis GavinTHANKS for posting those - I will watch them in a minute, to see if I think they might apply to the OP's issues. There ARE, obviously, videos out there that cover lots of the kinds of things that would help someone avoid or resolve, several kinds of audio issues with Cakewalk. What @Fawudd was pointint out to me, is that those kinds of videos, or documentation, or both, might help more folks, if those videos and helpful documentation, were perhaps kept in a playlist, maintained by Cakewalk staff, perhaps, where there was a link to those videos and maybe documents with those helpful tips on dealing with and avoiding, audio issues, where users wouldn't have to hunt around on the internet for them, but rather, that stuff was maybe kept in a sticky post in these forums, or on the Cakewalk web site, or wherever - more accessible - rather than random YouTube or internet postings. Does the above make sense? He was saying that he was evaluating both Cakewalk and Reaper, and that he found direct links to videos and doc, right on the Reaper site, somewhere, whereas he did not find anything like that on the Cakewalk site or in the forums. He indicated he might have avoided getting so frustrated, with Cakewalk, had he seen such helpful videos and doc in either location - like he ended up finding for Reaper on the Reaper site. Bob Bone

Hi @Matt Burnside great idea - I just spent some phone time with @Fawudd, going through his Preferences, and covering a lot of these kinds of things, and some Windows power plan options changes, and antivirus exclusions, etc., on his Surface Pro, which he occasionally uses for some project work, and he made notes about what we covered, and will make those corresponding changes on his desktop, and then will test out the Cakewalk performance later on, after the day-job tasks, so hopefully, some progress will be made with his getting resolution to his issues. He actually has a pretty good handle on a lot of this stuff, so it was a completely painless conversation. After he makes the desktop changes and Cakewalk changes, and tests it all out, he will post back here with the results, so fingers crossed. He did raise a pretty good point - if some of the various kinds of things to tweak for helping Cakewalk run with less trouble, were somehow more available in one or more videos, or in some handy documentation - and while some of it certainly is - his point about knowing where to go to find such helpful info, might help folks like him get less frustrated with getting Cakewalk to behave well, and run without things like crackles and pops, and that might help folks get up and going without so much frustration - not sure I am explaining that well - per his thinking, but I tried to represent his thoughts. Bob Bone

That is a Cakewalk preference to zero all controllers - some instruments for some reason tie volume to the mod wheel, so when the default opton in Cakewalk results in you losing all volume - you can change the preference to not zero all controllers, and that should clear it up.

I have to knock out a couple of things here - only 6 AM, but plenty to do - I will circle back in a little bit, and check out the two files you posted. By the way - I have personally experienced latency issues caused by my WiFi drivers, on a laptop I had, a while back, and others occasionally report similar issues. Did you see any difference when you had them temporarily disabled? And, if you copy/paste the audio clips from the project experiencing the glitches, into a new project's empty audio tracks, and play the new project, are those glitches ineed imbedded within the tracks? If so, then no amount of changing any parameters or conditions will correct that. If this is the case, can you record those affected clips over again, and if Cakewalk isn't continuing to glitch after that, are there any continuing issues? (other than dealing with what was reported by LatencyMon? Also, forgot to ask, when you had your WiFi drivers temporarily disabled, did you run LatencyMon to measure things at that point - and if not, could you do that and post the findings from running LatencyMon with those disabled? Thanks, back in a a bit, not more than a couple of hours Bob Bone

Well, they are a young couple, trying to make a go of it, and I have been online friends with them for several years now, and I already have 3 functioning music production computers, and I was given that one by the owner of it, when the hard drive crashed, and they didn't want the chassis - even though I explained it could be resurrected with just a new hard drive. (I did spring for the new hard drive - a 512 GB SSD, for my friends), so happy to help them out. Bob Bone

Sorry my tablet's auto-wreck added Office I had not typed it, and just edited the subject to remove it. Sorry. And PC World is quite reputable and has been around for a long while. I am likely picking one up later tonight, as I would like to fix up a currently dead desktop that had an OEM Win 10 Home, so new hard drive and $39 yup, time to fix up the desktop and send to a couple of friends that cannot afford a computer. Bob Bone

UPDATE August 10 - Deal seems DONE - Finished - All Through I got this from PC World - 80% off of a regular RETAIL not OEM version of Windows 10 Pro $39, instead of the $199 normal price, available through the PC World web site: PC World Windows 10 Pro Retail $39 through June 30 Bob Bone

Here are the 3 files, and a text doc with destinations for placement, in a compressed folder in my Dropbox acct: AD2 Files and Destination Paths Bob Bone

Sure give me a couple minutes to upload to Dropbox and I will share the link in this thread Bob Bone

Thanks, Noel - I had meant to ask that with my other things for the OP to look at, but am a bit brain dead (little sleep), and my brain melted by number 5 - this should have been number 6. DOH! Bob Bone

OK @Helos Bonos - I have a couple of questions for you: 1) What version of the device drivers are you running, for your 896MK3? Link to download page - look under MOTU Audio Installer section at bottom left of page looks like v4-06-6814 is latest ALSO at the above page, click the '+' sign next to where it says Firmware and Manuals, and find the link for your 896MK3 there, and there IS a firmware update - to v1.02 if you are not running that, you should download it and go through the installation of the firmware, and the installation of the latest Windows device drivers for it. 2) What happens if, after the above are installed, you start a new project and record just vocals - no effects, to see if any glitches? 3) What happens if you change the ASIO Buffer Size to 128 Samples, and then try recording just vocals in a new project, no effects? 4) Just for a test, please go into Windows Device Manager (right-click on Windows Start button, and click on Device Manager), and then just for testing purposes, expand the Network Adapters category. Then, right-click on whatever WiFi adapter drivers you have present, and again just for testing, make sure you click on Disable Device - NOT uninstall (there will also be a warning message telling you the device will quit working if you disable it - click OK for the message, as you meant to disable the device, which will only be temporary). You may have more than one WiFi driver shown - Disable all of them that are for WiFi. Afterwards., launch Cakewalk, into a new project, and again, test recording just vocals, no effects, with an ASIO Buffer Size of 128 Samples, and see if the issues go away. When done with the testing, go back into Device Manager, right-click on any WiFi drivers that you disabled, and click on Enable this device. Then, post back the results of this set of tests. 5) Manually check for any outstanding Windows Updates. Hit the Windows Start button, then click on the gear icon to get into Settings, then click on Updates and Security, and that will place you in Windows Update. Look below the Check for Updates button, for any maintenance shown there. You will likely have to manually explicitly click on a button or link to tell it to Install Updates, or Review and Install - etc., unless you see updates are in the process of downloading - anyways - you need to make sure that any and all of these outstanding updates are installed. Sometimes these updates, particularly big rollup maintenance, or version upgrades, require that manual clicking on the Install Updates button to get those installed. Afterwards, if restart is required, go ahead and restart, and in any case, launch Cakewalk, into a new project, with ASIO Buffer Size at 128 Samples, and record vocals, no effects, and post back here with the results. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO - please review, perform, and respond to, all 5 of the above items, and post back to this thread with your results, and we can go from there. Kewl? Bob Bone

I will try to help - it is the wee hours, like 3:45 AM here, so I will review the entire thread in the morning. and see if I can help you get squared away. I just need to get up to speed on the issues and the thread posts first, as I had posted once i the thread a while back, but got away from following the progress, so I want to read through all the posts with a couple of good fresh cups of coffee once the sun comes up. Bob Bone

I have both the M1 and the Wavestation from the Korg Legacy collection - please be aware that Korg shut down their original licensing for the Korg Legacy Collection, and they offered free Upgrade Certificates for any products purchased from the old Korg Legacy Collection, and those certificates were their mechanism for transferring the old licenses, to their new Korg Collection 2 licensing. I think you should contact Korg support, as I believe at the end of May, that old system was to have shut down - please go to the Korg site online, to verify the shutdown date, and if that is indeed the case, I suggest you contact Korg support with your dilemma, to see if they can still fix you up. I use both of the products - GREAT sound - all the time, and if you can get the licenses transferred over to their new licensing scheme, you should remain good to go. Bob Bone

Hi - was there any specific error message? Was a mini-dump produced? What version of the Nectar plugin are you using? VST2 or VST3 (if available) Bob Bone

By the way - I can take the ASIO Buffer Size all the way down to 32 samples, which results in about 1.6 millisecond latency - WAY kewl. Not sure if my friend is going to get his laptop and interface back....... well, the interface, anyways (kidding - besides I have a UAD Arrow Thunderbolt 3 interface for my laptop, but WOW is that Quantum 2626 T3 NICE too) Bob Bone

Hi - I just ran into this, helping a friend who just bought a new Intel-based laptop with a Thunderbolt 3 port, and a brand-spanking new Presonus Quantum 2626 Thunderbolt 3 audio interface (BEAUTIFUL, and a beast). Anyways, he reported to me hearing pretty evident pops and crackles for anything running through the Quantum 2626 headphones, so after trying a few obvious things, effects, latency, ASIO Buffer Size, etc., I had him run both the laptop and the interface up to me, so I could take a better look into things, and work through Sweetwater tech support, on his behalf, if needed. SO - after confirming the rather horrendous pops and crackles for myself, I did some digging, and found a promising article on the Presonus web site, which is at the following link: Presonus article on Quantum series interface pops and crackles Sure enough, when I followed the steps in the above article, downloading the little freeware utility program, and disabling a couple C-State Idle settings, and applying the changes, the pops and crackles instantly went away, so I consider the issue resolved and that should be that. I just thought I would post the issue and its solution here, in case anybody else had purchased one of the Presonus Quantum series Thunderbolt interfaces. (the new 2626 is brand new and really just starting to ship, as of 2 weeks ago). The article was from 2019, so may apply to earlier Quantum series audio interface models. Hope this helps someone else, too Bob Bone

Could Windows have hijacked the audio interface ASIO drivers? That happens sometimes, where Windows automatically assigns an audio interface's ASIO drivers as the default sound device for Windows, for playing of Windows sounds, and Windows Media Player, and YouTube videos, etc.. I always go into Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Manage Audio Devices, and disable any and all devices shown for my audio interface, under both the Playback, and Recording tabs. That stops Windows from hijacking the audio interface's ASIO drivers, as I only want Cakewalk, or other stand-alone instrument software, to have access to my audio interface.

Great idea.

Thanks - sorry - I have been helping someone for 5 hours, thus far, (configuring laptop remotely, and dealing with audio interface drivers and such, NOT any trauma from Cakewalk by Bandlab on that system), and was hoping you could dig that thread up and help out, because I am currently tearing my hair out on this other set of trauma. TRULY appreciate your help, Bob Bone

Kewl beans, your having sent the dump file to Noel. Also - yeah - for some of the bundled plugins that came with Sonar, you can indeed use those in Cakewalk, but only if Sonar is also installed alongside Cakewalk - like Dimension Pro, Session Drummer 3, etc.., Sonar is not so huge, that if you like those old Sonar plugins that are not present in Cakewalk by Bandlab - go ahead and install Sonar, however you might then want to also temporarily uninstall Cakewalk by Bandlab and then install it again, as that would be the natural order of how they would have been installed had you not uninstalled Sonar. They modified VstScan.exe for example, and you would get the new updated one with Cakewalk, but if you install Sonar over the top, without installing Cakewalk by Bandlab again, then I believe the VstScan.exe version would be the Sonar version. Small things like that. Perhaps someone like @scook, or someone else, could offer some wisdom on installation order. And, the above only matters if you are interested in using some of those Sonar-only plugins that are not present in Cakewalk by Bandlab, so if not interested in those plugins, just ignore my thoughts above. Bob Bone

I ran into the duplicate ID situation 3 years back, when I bought two identical midi controllers, and couldn't properly control the 2nd one. Called Sweetwater and they then additionally involved the maker of the midi controllers, and none of them had ever considered that someone might try to use 2 identical controllers - turns out that that broadcast ID info the midi controllers send out, cannot be manupilated, so Sweetwater swapped out 1 of the controllers for one from a different company. Worked out fine - AND I got an extra bag of candy out of the deal, as Sweetwater includes a little bag of candy in every box of music gear they ship. Bob Bone

I am not sure what info is needed to keep things connected or to be reconnect. I think it is because of the internal way Windows keeps track of which device is plugged into what port, some kind of numbered identifier, I think, because Cakewalk does not know which port a device is plugged into, all it knows is a device is present, so if the port changes, Cakewalk doesn't know if the connecting USB port is the same or not. I dunno. I will shoot an email to Noel or someone else, and ask what info the have available about USB-connected devices and about the ports, and I will ask for details on what they have been trying to get from Microsoft - I will post back when I get a reply, and try to dig up whatever info it is that Cakewalk needs. Maybe if I dig into whatever it is they say they need and don't have, I can help find something out. Bob Bone

It's OK - the internet won't run out of ink anytime soon, so all is well. Perhaps seeing a similar report of the issue of the Bandlab update failures will help draw attention to it, that leads to a resolution - ya never know...... Hopefully, you are all set now, by going to grab the newest version straight from the web site, and just manually running it to install the updated version. Bob Bone