Cakewalk will not PLAY old Cakewalk 9 .wrk files

[Gary Wheeler]

When I load an old .wrk file from Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 into the new Cakewalk by BandLab, I can not get it to play. As toon as I hit the play button, it will play one note (if the note/s are at the current cursor position) and immediately stop playback. If I change the window to any other file (unsaved untitled, or other loaded .cwp file) and hit PLAY, it takes right off and does what it is supposed to do. Even if I delete all tracks and unplug all midi from the system, the program will not play (one "tick" and stop) I have compared settings between a functional .cwp file and a non playable .wrk file and I can find absolutely no differences in settings. 

I am using a windows 10 machine with version 2020.05 (build 039, 64 bit)

This seems to be a new problem because I have recently loaded old .wrk files and worked with them. 

When I load the old .wrk files, everything seems normal. Auto sysex files get sent out. Correct colors for the  tracks are displayed. All banks, and patches initiate correctly. it just will not play. Like it thinks it's the end of the song or something similar. Push PLAY, program starts, stops instantly.

If I arm a track to record and push R to initiate recording, same thing. Start-Stop instantly. 

[chuckebaby]

Im not sure if this will work or not... but you could make a copy of the file... Change the EXT of the file name from.WRK to.CWP.

As i said, im not even sure it will work but if it is an extension issue, this might solve it. As i said though.. make a back up so you dont mess with the original /wrk file.

[Gary Wheeler]

Chuckebaby, thanks for the suggestion, but it does not work...

...update... It does not work as suggested. I believe the .wrk and .cwp files are similar enough to be able to interchange the suffix as I have accomplished this with another .wrk file that does work correctly, so the problem is with loading the questionable files into Cakewalk. 

While reading through other questions and comments I discovered this hand workaround;

 

Create a new project in Cakewalk

On the Media browser, change the filter to "Projects"

Navigate to your .wrk file using the Media browser

 Drag the. .wrk on to the clips area

 

Ok, now that I have the actual tracks inserted into the clips pane, I realize that it is the only thing that gets brought in this way. there are no sysex banks, no patch assignments, no effects, nothing but the track data. so although this gets me access to the track data, it still does not fix the problem.

 

Ok, I might have discovered a solution. 

In Preferences/File/Advanced I tried checking the box  "Load Non-Cakewalk Files in Offset Mode" . I don't yet know what Offset Mode is, but this appears to have allowed the program to play the old .wrk files. 

Edited July 24, 2020 by Gary Wheeler
May have found a solution.....

[msmcleod]

The way I've got around this in the past, is to:

1. Create a new Cakewalk project based on the "Basic" template

2. Navigate to your .wrk file via Cakewalk's media browser

3. Drag the .wrk file to the clips view from the media browser.

Save your new project.

[Gary Wheeler]

Ok, i'm still having problems with this issue. There must be some way of telling Cakewalk to play to "end of data" or "play to end of project" or something like that. I believe cakewalk does not know where the end of the "song" is and so it assumes it's at the current cursor position. Am I close? ...Anyone?

[Gary Wheeler]

Surely Im not the only one out there having this problem am I?

 

[David Baay]

IIRC, I have had to go into metronome preferences and enable the Audio metronome to get  .WRK files playing in the past.

[Ted Raven]

This is a strange issue, since on both of my PCs (CW 2020.09 and 2020.10) I can open WRK files and play them, just as any CWP file. Have you tried to uninstall Cakewalk and reinstall it?

Edited October 25, 2020 by Ted Raven

[Gary Wheeler]

On 10/25/2020 at 10:45 AM, Ted Raven said:

This is a strange issue, since on both of my PCs (CW 2020.09 and 2020.10) I can open WRK files and play them, just as any CWP file. Have you tried to uninstall Cakewalk and reinstall it?

yes I have. I am still having problems, and I wish I could find someone who can help. I just can't believe I'm the only one with this problem as it is so prevalent!! Here is a simple example. Try to load it and play. Please tell me if you can play it or if it just starts and stops instantly.

2.cwp

[User 905133]

It opens up on my PC.  I didn't assign a soft synth or route it to a sound module, but in Staff View it looks like music.

The transport scrolls and my usb midi interface led flashes on and off indicating note data is being sent out based on the notes.  I can try turning on a sound module--what instruments should I try?

BTW:  starting at 1:01:000, it plays and then loops endlessly from 5:01:000 to 20:04:119.  That's the way it was when I opened it.  If that were your issue, I'd say turn loop off. But that doesn't sound like its the original issue you had.  So I am not sure. 

Update: It defaulted to a hardware orchestral sound module I have.  The three tracks that show me data played.

Edited January 13, 2021 by User 905133
edited to reflect that I played the midi file data on an external sound module.