Noel Borthwick

Some of the most common and complex problems that arise when using a DAW (digital audio workstation) are issues relating to plug-in compatibility. At Cakewalk we take plug-in compatibility problems seriously and all reported issues are investigated. It is however impossible for us to test thousands of plug-ins in Cakewalk. While we follow best practices for VST compatibility, handling plug-in's can be complex since many vendor's do not test their plug-ins in all hosts, and there can be subtle or not so subtle (crash) behavior changes across plug-ins running in different host's. Before drawing conclusions on the cause of a plug-in related fault, its important to properly collect information that can assist with diagnostics. If you encounter an issue with a plug-in here are some tips to diagnose it. Identify the kind of problem. There are a few kinds of issues: Compatibility issues. While this can be wide its important to try and isolate whether the problem appears within the plugin or the host. e.g do you notice the problem in the plug-in UI, does it occur with only certain presets, does the issue occur when loading the project or when exporting audio, etc. Crashes. This is self explanatory but its critical to observe whether the crash report indicates that the crash in within the host program or within the plug-in DLL. The crash dialog will typically list the module that the crash occurs in in the title. If a crash occurs please save the Minidump for the crash since it is the only way for developers to diagnose the issue. Hangs. In a few rare cases a plug-in can cause the host to hang. If a hang occurs you can still capture a dump file while the app is hangling, though it may be a lot larger. Project specific problems. These are cases that result in unexpected behavior only with certain project files. Diagnostics and action If the plug-in crash is listed as happening within the plug-in DLL the first course of action is to contact the vendor of the plug-in. The reason for this is in many cases the the issue is caused by the plug-in running into an unexpected operation from the DAW that can only be fixed by the plug-in vendor. Every DAW is different and unless the plug-in has been specifically tested with a DAW there is a potential for unexpected bugs being discovered. If the crash occurs in the host program (Cakewalk.exe is shown in the crash title) then one possibility is that the host ran into an unexpected condition. This should be reported to Cakewalk. It's important to note that not all crashes in the host are caused by the host. Plug-ins share the same memory space as the host program and as a result of buffer overwrites can corrupt memory, leading to random crashes or app shut-downs. In all problem cases the best way to report it is to provide the following details to all vendors concerned. Write a detailed description of the problem Include a zip file containing the project in which the problem occurs Include all minidump's if the plug-in causes a crash. Please read this for more information on how to capture a minidump In some cases Cakewalk will assist and work with the plug-in vendor to get a resolution to a problem. If you send a problem report to a third party vendor you may also refer them to contact us through our support channel at support@cakewalk.com should they have technical questions or require internal follow up with us.

That article is incorrect. I'll get it changed.

USB mics do not work in ASIO mode because on l they are single endpoint devices. Ie there is no output just an input. since ASIO only supports a single device you must use WASAPI mode to select both an input and output device. Choose WASAPI shared mode and pick both an input and output and it should work. Endure that you pick a sample rate that is supported by both the input and output devices.

@petemus please send a link to the dump file. It is probably instability with the Sonarworks driver if you are using that. Please use the Focusrite driver directly and report back we have been testing with the Focusrite drivers and they have been very stable with the ASIO changes.

@Lemar Sain the plugin crashes are in the plugin code and not related at all to Cakewalk so there is nothing we can do to solve it from our end. Please contact the manufacturer of the plugins for support with those crashes. You can send them the crash dump files. The other issue is also unlikely to be related to Cakewalk. Did you try restarting Cakewalk and playing again - do you still get the silent spots? Try bypassing your plugins and see if it still happens. Is this a MIDI project? If so try raising the MIDI playback buffer size to 50 msec (Prepare Using: in settings | MIDI | Playback and recording)

@RBH does the Apollo respond to latency changes made via the slider when you click ok even if playback is underway?

Yes I think you have been over thinking this Just put the ampsims in the mono tracks and output to the guitar bus. You can use simple track gain and pan to adjust the exact blend of the two amp sims and add other common fx if needed directly in the guitar bus.

There is no loss we just removed the chance of that happening unintentionally. Much better to be explicit about such a dangerous operation to prevent someone accidentally modifying a full mix.

@marled can you share a link to the project file used for your test?

Its not broken. This functionality was intentionally removed because it caused numerous unexpected behaviors for users who accidentally had CTRL pressed. If you want to change across all tracks, first select them all by pressing CTRL-A and then do the quick grouping.

@RBH good to know that it works with the Apollo. Do you get an active latency slider in Audio Preferences with the Apollo as well?

@PeterMc Yes the driver exposes 8 samples as a minimum but when we set it it rejects it. Probably an oversight from the manufacturer. I'll let Focusrite know. However they have the best implementation for allowing dynamic latency changes.

@Michael McBroom please check out Ben's post above.

I recommend checking out Brian Eno's OBLIQUE STRATEGIES quotes... Originally released as a deck of cards with 500 quotes, these have grown and been updated. I've put them into a text file that you can conveniently use to replace the stock built in ones in Cakewalk. (We added affirmations to the startup toast notifications last year) To check these out, simply copy the attached ProjectOpenNotification.txt file to this folder: %APPDATA%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core Just type that path into the Windows search bar and it should take you to that folder. Then save the attached text file to that folder. This will override the default built in notifications. You should get a sometimes cryptic but always thoughtful random oblique quote the next time you open a project file. (assuming that you have notifications enabled in preferences | customization | display) You can even add your own quotes to that list or make up your own list of creativity tips. I've had these on for a long time now and they never fail to entertain or inspire. YMMV PS: The original Oblique Strategies deck is still available from Brian's website. ProjectOpenNotification.txt

In case you missed it, the 2019.11 Early access release is available. We plan to release this early next week so if you would like to try it out and report any showstoppers we'd appreciate it. There are some significant improvements to our ASIO support as well as a ton of fixes as reported in the notes.

Yeah same here. Node selection behavior has not been changed.

@btbrockNot seeing any issues with lasso selecting nodes on either clip envelopes or track envelopes on the main track irrespective of whether lanes are closed or not. Are you potentially confusing track envelopes with clip envelopes? If you are still seeing issues please submit a repro project with a video or detailed steps you are taking. There has been no change to the lasso select behavior of envelope nodes.

No changes to the start screen so not sure why you would see a difference. Regarding midi please try raising your midi buffer size to about 50msec and see if it improves performance. We're still experimenting with the new defaults.

I agree that 2/4 is the most musically sensible outcome. Most likely the operation is getting tripped up by the order in which the deletions occur internally. We'll take a look.

Yep we can see what every user is doing onscreen now in real time ?

WASAPI should be available on all Windows installations. Its the default Windows driver model. Click on Playback and recording and then choose "Wasapi Shared" as the driver mode. That should work with Realtek sound devices. >>As well as the observed symptoms, using ASIO mode against the onboard Realtek HD Audio causes hundreds, then thousands of threads to accumulate in the Cakewalk process. Wow thats bizarre sounds like a serious driver bug. The threads cannot be from Cakewalk and are likely being spawned by the driver itself. Unfortunately we don't have the Realtek ASIO driver since I think it only ships with some OEM PC's.

For DX plugins it should automatically load the 64 bit version assuming it is installed and working properly.

It is possible that you may see an improvement when switching lenses since there are some optimizations in the load code that prevent track settings from being updated among other things. I don't follow how you imagine workspaces would assist in the other thread. Workspaces essentially act like a filter for visible features and store positioning information for views and toolbars. It won't allow you to move where a feature itself is visible.

@Colin NichollsNicholls can you post your report here please? Early access is better handled here rather than the support channel.

100 ms isn't that much for bounce. Plugins should be able to tolerate any buffer size. I suspect one of the plugin's in the project has a bug with large buffer sizes and is corrupting memory when its set high. Since your audio interface won't go higher than 20 msec you can try switching to WASAPI exclusive or MME. Both those modes allow the audio buffer size to be set as high as 200 msec. If the export crashes with those settings then we know that its related to some plugin in the project..