SOLVED! Cakewalk hangs, freezes and sends "Audio engine dropout has occured" message.

[Tommi Vihermaa]

Hi all!

I know there are lots of topics and suggestions about this problem, but either I don't understand what to do, or it doesn't work.

I have had Cubase 5 for years, recording midi as well as audio up to 50-100 tracks with no problem with this same computer. I decided to switch to Cakewalk, because it seemed more modern and more suitable to my current, reduced needs. However I have encountered a few big problems that really frustrate me.

First this series of events occurred when I was just fooling around, trying to learn the UI of Cakewalk. I had only 5 tracks in the mix, with 3 VST plugins. Then it started. Some minor glitches began to show themselves, so I decided to save the project, close everything and start over with loading the project. It loaded nicely and everything seemed normal, until when I started to play the mix. It crackled and glitched a lot and then I got the "Audio engine dropout has occurred"- message. Every time when I tried to load that project, it did the same thing. I tried disabling all FX, opening it in safe mode, modifying buffer size etc. Nothing worked. 

I thought that it was just some bad, minor fall with the project and I didn't sweat too much to save it. Later on I decided to format my computer. Just start from a clean table with no garbage hanging in the dark corners of the hard drive.  Installed Cakewalk and a few essential plugins. NB: At this point I don't have the same plugins installed as the previous project had when it crashed. 

Just to test it, I recorded two midi tracks. First was a lead piano, and the other was a bass. Fully different plugins than previously. No effects or anything like that. When played back, it started to glitch and the audio engine again, had a dropout. Mildly infuriating. 

If you could help me in any way, I would be forever grateful!?

 

My specs:

Processor: i5-4430 3.00GHz

RAM: 8gb DDR3

Operating system: Win10 64-bit

Current AI: Behringer Xenyx Q802 (This device uses ASIO4ALL driver)

Edited April 12, 2020 by Tommi Vihermaa

[reginaldStjohn]

Sorry that I don't have any immediate solutions for you but here are some ideas.

Have you checked your system lately with Latency monitor? https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon 

This should help you see if there are any system things that could be causing this.

Since you mention that your interface uses ASIO4All you could try using one of the other driver modes (WASAPI or WDM). ASIO4ALL just wraps one of those drivers up anyway.

Also, check your power settings to make shure that USB devices are set to not sleep or power down etc. Sometimes a Windows update will change those settings.

You don't mention what video card you have either. The reason I ask is that I had an NVidia card that would cause pops and clicks because it would hold on to the CPU too long. This showed up for me in latency mon.

 

Good luck

[Tommi Vihermaa]

@reginaldStjohn Thank you for your fast answer! 

I have not checked my system with the LatencyMon. I will do that. I'm guessing I have to check the LatencyMon when the glitches etc. are happening?

I'm really bad with all this diagnosing and reading computer language. What exactly am I looking for in the LatencyMon? If some glitches happen,  where will it show if it is system related fault?

I will try with the other drivers. 

Power settings for the USB devices are all good.

Yes, as a matter in fact I have my trusty old Nvidia GeForce 660. 

[Tommi Vihermaa]

Quick update!

I tried the Latency Monitor. It had clear info on what's happening atm with my computer. 

I had the monitor open when I opened Cakewalk and the LM told me "Your system seems to be having difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks" and it advised me to go and turn the CPU throttling off from the BIOS. For those who wonder, it's the kind of a system that cuts off the performance of your CPU when it's detecting heat (Not necessarily overheat). Which means, as I understood it, when your DAW requires massive amounts of processing power i.e. when buffering, the processor may be heating just enough for the CPU throttle to kick in and try to cool down the processor by reducing it's current usage. And that possibly leads to glitches and freezes in the DAW.

And lord almighty was that the issue for me. 

After turning off the CPU throttling, I started Cakewalk and the LatencyMon. This time it all seemed good. I quite quickly recorded 10 heavy MIDI tracks, and played them back several times without any issues. LatencyMon only showed thumbs up, and didn't show any problems with anything. 

I hope this was the only reason for my problems! We will see.

Thank you @reginaldStjohn so much! 

[Robert Bone]

Yay!  Can you please edit the initial post in the thread, and add something like 'Solved' to the subject line? 

Thanks,

Bob Bone

[brandon]

On 4/11/2020 at 10:29 PM, Tommi Vihermaa said:

Quick update!

I tried the Latency Monitor. It had clear info on what's happening atm with my computer. 

I had the monitor open when I opened Cakewalk and the LM told me "Your system seems to be having difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks" and it advised me to go and turn the CPU throttling off from the BIOS. For those who wonder, it's the kind of a system that cuts off the performance of your CPU when it's detecting heat (Not necessarily overheat). Which means, as I understood it, when your DAW requires massive amounts of processing power i.e. when buffering, the processor may be heating just enough for the CPU throttle to kick in and try to cool down the processor by reducing it's current usage. And that possibly leads to glitches and freezes in the DAW.

And lord almighty was that the issue for me. 

After turning off the CPU throttling, I started Cakewalk and the LatencyMon. This time it all seemed good. I quite quickly recorded 10 heavy MIDI tracks, and played them back several times without any issues. LatencyMon only showed thumbs up, and didn't show any problems with anything. 

I hope this was the only reason for my problems! We will see.

Thank you @reginaldStjohn so much! 

Hi can you advise how to turn off CPU Throttling? Many thanks.

[Tommi Vihermaa]

7 minutes ago, brandon said:

Hi can you advise how to turn off CPU Throttling? Many thanks.

Hi!

 I disabled it from my computers BIOS. Google how to access BIOS, if you’re not familiar with it.

Look for a power management feature in the BIOS, disable it and save the settings. Look for a setting labeled with something generic such as "Power Management" or with something more specific such as "Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology," "Enhanced C1," "Enhanced Halt State" or "Cool'n'Quiet."

Mine was called ”Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology”. Once I disabled that, I haven’t had any problems since.

Hope this helped!

 

Br,

Tommi

Edited April 29, 2020 by Tommi Vihermaa

[brandon]

Thank you