Robert Bone

There are no 32-bit VST3 plugins, to the best of my awareness, the spec does not allow them. Further, VST3 64-bit plugins MUST be in C:\Program Files\Common\VST3 I place 64-bit VST2 plugins in: C:\Program Files\VST64 and when possible I go on level deeper, with a sub-folder within VST64 for each plugin, as there are often additional files for presets or documentation, etc., and I like to keep it all organized that way, so within VST64, there will be a folder for Arturia, and its plugins and files live there, another folder for Native Instruments (I abbreviate it as NI), another folder for Korg, etc.... I have 32-bit plugins in: C:\Program Files (x86)\VST32, again using sub-folders to group plugins by the company they came from Additionally, I happen to have J-Bridge, so I have a folder in VST32 called J-Bridged Plugins and that is the only 32-bit path in my VST Settings Scan Paths in Preferences - the whole path to that is: C:\Program Files (x86)\VST32\J-Bridged Plugins Bob Bone

Well, yes, generally those steps are correct (except that initial launch does an internal authorization), however, per Wayne's earlier comments in the thread, he did install Bandlab Assistant, and did the installs, and it does not open, nonetheless, so something else is going on.

Compression is also applied to things like drums, (parallel compression), guitars, whatever tracks need taming. I myself try to use it sparingly. I purposefully use dynamics in my songs, so not a big fan of compressing at the master bus level. Others may choose to do it. Bob Bone

With USB-connected devices, Windows will 'turn off' those devices, by default, after some period of inactivity. That then makes the device non-functional. The fix, is to alter the Windows behavior, so that it won't turn off those devices. There are a couple ways to accomplish this. One way is to change the Advanced Power Plan options, under USB Selective Suspend - set it to Disabled. Another way, is to change the Power Management options for any such USB-connected device, and for any USB Hubs, which you can do in Device Manager. To get to the Power Management options in the Properties dialog box, for either a USB-connected device, or a USB Hub, right-click on the Windows 10 Start button, and click on Device Manager. Then, expand the Sound, Game, and Video Controllers tab, and double-click on your USB-connected device, to bring up the Properties dialog box for it. You will see a tab for Power Management there, and once you click on that, you will see an option with a check box for allowing or not allowing Windows to turn off that device to conserve power. Remove the check for that option, and click Apply. Do the same for any other USB-connected device, and for your USB Hubs - (those are under the Device Manager category - Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Please note that some USB Hub entries will have a Power Management tab, in their Properties dialog box, while others will not. If no Power Management tab for a given hug, just move on to check the next one.....). Bob Bone

I have a couple of projects with a number of DI guitar tracks that each have numerous clips in them, and I wanted to execute the Bounce to Track function, with all of the check boxes unchecked, so as to end up with just a single clip in each resulting bounced track, with only the original raw guitar signal, and then I would apply the same FX bin effects and settings used on each original track, to the corresponding bounced track. SO, after completing all of the Bounce to Track operations, I found that each of the bounced tracks has a much higher volume shown on the peak meters for the corresponding original track. Both tracks have Input Gain knobs at 0, and both tracks also have faders set to -5.1, and both tracks have effects turned off, so that I am comparing just the unaltered DI guitar signal. The peak meters show about a 10 dB difference between corresponding tracks. What would cause this?

You might try changing the ThreadSchedulingModel to 2 (do not use 3 it is experimental). Bob Bone

Is it possible that your hard drive is failing to deliver the sample file data in a timely enough fashion, to keep up with Cakewalk? This can be caused by having a single hard drive on the computer, where programs, and program data, and app data, and sample libraries, all live on the same drive, and this issue can also be caused by antivirus software scanning every single file that is opened (even in read mode), by default, and for sample library files, that can just murder streaming audio performance. Most antivirus software, might be all, comes with a means of adding a series of file/folder paths to a list of exceptions/exclusions, where the antivirus software will skip the scanning of any file and folder, and sub-folder, for any of the paths entered into that exceptions/exclusions list. There is no need to scan all of those files over and over and over, every time you trigger a sampled sound. ALL of those files and folders, and sub-folders, were already scanned when the sample libraries were installed, they are safe to skip. I also add exceptions, to Avast on my system, for: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\* C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\* C:\Program Files\VST64\* C:\Users\rober\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\* E:\* G:\* Please note that in the above list, the E: drive is a sample drive (I have several other such drives as exceptions, just no need to list them as that only applies to my system, which has 4 separate hard drives with nothing on them but sample libraries. And, the G: drive is the drive where I have all my Cakewalk Content folder, and the Cakewalk Projects folder, so I just have that whole drive as an exception in Avast. Bob Bone

Hi - please download and run a freeware app called LatencyMon, for a couple minutes, without Cakewalk running, so that it can analyze your system's ability to handle streaming audio, which is what DAW software does. Here is the link: https://www.resplendence.com/main Once you have it running, again without Cakewalk running, click on the 'Play' triangle up in the top left of the window, to tell LatencyMon to start analysis of your system. You can stop it after a couple minutes, and it will give you the results - please post back here with what it tells you in its findings. Thanks, Bob Bone

WIth regard to Cakewalk not opening - I think that if Windows Update maintenance is not up to date, it might cause issues with Cakewalk opening. There are some big updates that Microsoft flags as optional, and they do not automatically get applied. Those require the user to actually go into Settings > Update and Security, which gets you to Windows Update, and if there are any such optional updates to install, you have to explicitly click on the button to Install Updates. If there were such updates needing to be installed, then after those updates ARE installed, even if it tells you that you are up to date, there may have been additional updates to the updates you just installed, so I suggest telling Windows Update one more time, to Check for Updates. Repeat the process until after a set of updates finishes installing, you do an additional Check for Updates, and THEN it comes back to tell you that you are up to date. Please give the above a review, and make sure you are up to date on Windows maintenance, and see if that makes any difference with Cakewalk being able to launch. It is also possible that some antivirus software can interfere with the launch and even the operation, of Cakewalk - I have Avast Free antivirus software, and like most antivirus software, it comes with a settings page where exclusions/exceptions can be entered. Those exclusions are paths that I can enter, to tell Avast not to scan any files/folders within that path, or sub-folders and their files. I have several exclusions entered, so I have Avast skipping the scanning for the Cakewalk Project folder, my sample libraries, etc... All of those files that came from installs, were scanned during their installation, so there is no risk in skipping them now. You certainly do not want to have every single sample library file scanned by your antivirus software every time you play a note that triggers a sampled sound to play. That just needlessly slows down streaming audio performance. Anyways, here are the exceptions I have entered for my system, in Avast: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\* C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\* C:\Program Files\VST64\* C:\Users\rober\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\* E:\* G:\* Please note that in the above list, the E: drive is a sample drive (I have several other such drives as exceptions, just no need to list them as that only applies to my system, which has 4 separate hard drives with nothing on them but sample libraries. And, the G: drive is the drive where I have all my Cakewalk Content folder, and the Cakewalk Projects folder, so I just have that whole drive as an exception in Avast. Sorry for the extra discussion about the antivirus stuff - the main point I wanted to get across with that, is that sometimes antivirus software can interfere with the operation of programs such as Cakewalk. And, the main point altogether, for my post, is to suggest that you check to make sure your Windows Update maintenance is all current. That should actually be extended, to make sure that your drivers for your computer are also up to date on driver maintenance, including your audio interface. Bob Bone

Howdy, John - I copied/pasted in, below, my comments from another post, regarding initial authorization, and besides those comments, there is a Bandlab/Cakewalk requirement once every 6 months, for it to be reauthorized - which if I recall correctly means launching Cakewalk from Bandlab Assistant. Anyways, here are those comments I posted in another thread: "I just yesterday installed CbB on a friend's laptop, and after doing the install from BA, I opened CbB from the desktop icon - first launch - and I got an error message telling me CbB was not authorized, so I did, in fact, need to do its 1st launch from the Open button in BA, for it to decide it was properly authorized. I have installed CbB on 3 or or different computers, for both myself and a couple friends, and I guess that was the first time I hadn't done an initial launch of it from BA right after install, as I had not seen that message before." My comments in this post do not directly address the thread's subject - I just wanted to pass along what I experienced with regard to an initial authorization. Bob Bone

Quick question - I work with mostly soft synths, as a keyboard player, but am working with a guitar player on some projects, and have a couple of quick questions about bouncing, and also bringing over associated audio files when doing a copy/paste of tracks from one project to another. SO, the guitar player sent me a project folder, with his guitar tracks in the project file, and the associated audio clips in that project folder's Audio sub-folder. For every one of his recorded guitar tracks, what is actually recorded is only the raw input signal from his guitar, and any effects are inserted into the FX bins of those audio tracks, and each guitar track has numerous audio clips. SO - I want to merge those tracks into my master version of our project, and before doing that, I want to get each of his track's multiple audio clips bounced into a single track-length clip for each track, and then copy/paste each track into my master version. 1) Should I use Bounce to Track, or should I use Bounce to Clip, to result in a given track having all audio clips combined into one long clip for the whole track? I do NOT want to 'print' the inserted audio effects (modeling and various effects), I just want the clips combined into one track-length audio clip that still only has the original raw guitar input signal. I see on the Bounce to Track doc, it says it will apply automation and FX, and it does not do that for Bounce to Clip, however when I actually enter the Bounce to Track dialog, there are check boxes for all kinds of stuff, that presumably would remove it from the Bounce to Track processing. Guidance? 2) Once I accomplish the above, and I want to copy and paste those tracks back into my master version of our project, will that result in CbB saving the associated audio clips into my master version, as well, or do I need to manually copy those into my master version's Audio sub-folder? Thanks, Bob Bone

Thanks, Jean. @msmcleod, I think is also may be a Mac-given extension for MIDI files, but as noted here, and in my post - certainly from Cubase, and apparently other programs, as well. SO - seems like one of the easiest tweaks to make to CbB, just expanding the list of files shown in File Types, for the 3 dialog boxes, File > Open, Import MIDI, and in the Media Browser. Bob Bone

A friend of mine sent me some *.midi files that were created in Cubase. So - can you guys please just add *.midi to the Fie Types for the Open dialog box, to the Import Midi dialog box, and to the Media Browser? Literally, that would be the extent of it - no logic needed, just expand the filters for File Types in those 3 places, to include type *.midi - that is all I am looking for. I DO have a workaround of renaming the extensions back to just *.mid, and would just like to not have to do that, if possible. THANKS Bob Bone

I have seen posts about 8.5.3 on Win 10

Please read this thread - likely solution there:

I forgot - those files also do not show in the Media Browser. I will add that to my feature request.

Howdy - thanks - as I understand it, the change you made, would launch CbB with the ability to open a midi file with the *.midi extension. I do not think that is the issue, as CbB can already be launched to open a file with that extension because of Windows being told to associate CbB with files with that extension. The issue I am referring to, is that if I launch CbB, and want to import a midi file to a track in a project, OR, if I am in CbB but not in a project and click File > Open, neither dialog box that opens has the list of files, used as filters, set to include the *.midi extension, so neither dialog box ever displays any of those midi files with that extension, thereby preventing either dialog box from being able to open or import them. They are just not shown to select. SO - I put a feature request out there a couple of minutes back, simply asking them to add the *.midi extension to the filters used in the Open and Import MIDI dialog boxes - no other programmatic changes or logis is needed. CbB can indeed properly attempt to open those files, if one were to double-click on the midi file outside of CbB, because Windows has the association of using CbB to open *.midi files, so this is really a super duper easy programmatic change for them to implement, if they get a minute. The workaround, for the time being, is to rename those *.midi files to *.mid, but it would be more complete for them to just fix the 2 dialog boxes. Bob Bone

Yup. Same issue, confirms it for me. No current fix, because it is in the CbB Open dialog box that this issue occurs, and it is something only controlled by CbB. Bob Bone

Quite bizarre - Tonight, I wanted to play around with a MIDI file a friend made, and sent me. Firstly, I double-clicked on the file, and it was opened in CbB, and configured to play using TTS-1, as expected. (Beautiful piece) Secondly, after listening to it, per the above, I decided to set up a new project and import the same MIDI file to an empty MIDI track. to play around with it. Denied. CbB does not 'see' *.midi files as being something it can open, despite the fact that *.midi files are set in Windows default apps by file type, to open in CbB. CbB just does not have the *.midi extension in its list of files it can open/import. I can rename the file to have a *.mid extension, which IS in the list CbB presents for opening files, but it sure seems strange that when CbB was installed, (unless I changed this and do not recall doing so), it DID know enough about *.midi files to set the default app to open such files, to CbB. So, that being the case, why isn't the *.midi extension included in CbB's known file types, in its 'Open' dialog box? Can someone else please confirm this behavior, so I can rule out having set that file/app association, with no recall of having done so? THANKS! Bob Bone

Glad the crashes seem to be on vacation, or quietly resolved. When you DO see a crash, where there is any kind of displayed error message, please please please make sure to either write down, save, or take a picture of whatever error message detail is presented, because that helps the rest of us help you figure out what happened and why. I have a friend, musician, who does music production on his desktop using Cakewalk, and he used to use Sonar. He used to drive me crazy, telling me of some crash, and when I would press him for details, he would literally tell me stuff like: "Well, it some kind of error" when there had been an actual message with crash details in it, that I could have used to help solve his issue - but could not help him, because he did not bother to write any of the error message down, or even just take a phone pic of the screen and the error message. 3 years later, I FINALLY have him trying to capture that information for me - was like pulling teeth, but hs is finally giving me that information - been a while since he crashed, but when he does now, I get that info. SO - if you have any additional crashes, please also post whatever error message and any associated detail as was presented to you in the message, so we can better help you to get it fixed, if possible. THANKS! Bob Bone

Avoid using ThreadSchedulingModel 3, per Noel, because it is experimental and not working properly. Usually, setting it to 2 is best for multi-core processors.

Are you running overclocked? What type of cooling are you using? Are all fans running? You can also adjust your max CPU state, in Advanced Power Plan options, though I always have mine set to 100%. I have a liquid CPU cooler, and a liquid graphics cooler, and my case has 21 fans in total (it is a monster PC with 128 GB of memory and 7 hard drives (2 PCIe M.2 2280 NVME, 1 2TB HDD, and 4 2TB SSD), but do not overclock, and everything runs nice and cool, no matter what I am doing. Bob Bone

I posted the link to the download a few posts above

Also, with Cakewalk NOT running, please download and run Latencymon, for a couple minutes, and please post back here with the results of its monitoring, to make sure something outside of Cakewalk is not causing latency issues. Here is a link to the page where you can download Latencymon for free. Once you download and run it, click on the green arrow (like a Play button) up at the top left of the window, and that will begin the monitoring process. It will tell you if things are OK or not, for handling streaming audio, which is what Cakewalk does. Again, have Cakewalk not running, when you run Latencymon, so that it measures just your system. https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon Thanks, Bob Bone

Can you please list the exact name every effect plugin your project is using? (only the ones in the project, not asking for a list of all the effects plugins installed on your computer). Please also include any ProChannel components that you are using, like Breverb, for instance. I have a feeling one or more of those reverb plugins are convolution reverbs. Thanks, Bob Bone