Problems I have been having with Cakewalk Update 2020.09 and before

[Dav]

Hi there, I've been using cakewalk for around half a year, however I am new to the forum (this is my first post):

So not too long ago update 2020.09 was released. Along with it has come some performance issues, and other things which has made cakewalk complete unusable for my audio production. I have turned here because there is (shockingly) no support email to help with these issues. If possible, can someone please redirect me to whoever I can contact for help?

First of all the cpu performance of cakewalk has taken a massive nosedive. Projects with 20+ tracks used to run fine, are now completely unplayable and just instantly suspend the audio engine (no matter what the engine or the engine settings) upon trying to play the music. My system has fairly good spec (a Windows10, intel 8th gen i5 @ 2.30ghz and 8gb of ram). Upon further use of the program I find it now able to suspend the audio engine with a single track, (this is usually a single pad with a really long reverb time and no other fx). 

I have also found a bug wherein you can't open cakewalk after closing it and putting the system to sleep, or at least I believe these are the circumstances which cause this bug. Cakewalk won't open from a shortcut, a pined taskbar shortcut or from the start/search bar. So I used the last resort option to open it with the (sigh) bandlab assistant. This time I got an error message (see attached image below).

Another problem I have is that often projects wont open and will just freeze up cakewalk and crash, this is really annoying because I have most of time (I'd guess around 80% of the time) I have to open my projects in 'safe mode' and just say  "yes to all", re-save the project without changing anything and reopen the project in regular mode. Idk why this is happening but this is also irritating.

 

Here are some other problems I have with cakewalk which have existed since I shifted to cakewalk (They are from before this update), please tell me what I can do to fix them if they can be fixed.

Cakewalk does not run at smooth fps (I think it only runs at 30fps), most DAWs runs at (at least) 60fps or more.

Automation of parameters are not smooth at fast tempos and it IS audible. They are smooth at slow tempos, but on fast tempos (more than 150bpm) you can see knobs instead of of moving smoothly, follow a S&H of the automation curve and often misses quick changes in the automation. This is the worst thing about cakewalk and (along with these bugs/problems) is the major reason why I am considering changing my DAW.

Automation parameters cannot be chosen without playing the music, I feel the automation write button should pressed and the next parameter changed gets turned into an automation track. Most (if  not all) major DAWs use this functionality to search for parameters, however cakewalk does not have this functionality, this one is also really annoying and fix like this would speed up cakewalk's workflow.

The surround panner does not include 2.1 binaural audio settings.

You can only open fx chain presets if the fx chain is in the ProChannel, I can't seem to open them in the fx rack.

Using the arranger preview causes an audible pause and click when going backward to another section.

 

 

Thanks all for you time, please help my with these problems and help me to find a way to get in contact with support

Dav

Edited October 11, 2020 by Dav

[scook]

the support email is support@cakewalk.com

FWIW, when released there is a feedback thread created for the release. For example, here is the one for 2020.09

When encountering a problem with a new release, it is best to report it in the feedback thread.

When posting problems here and emailing support in addition to PC hardware specs, information about the audio interface and OS is helpful.

19 hours ago, Dav said:

Another problem I have is that often projects wont open and will just freeze up cakewalk and crash

How to report hangs and crashes

19 hours ago, Dav said:

You can only open fx chain presets if the fx chain is in the ProChannel, I can't seem to open them in the fx rack.

The load an FX chain preset in the FX rack use FX Rack context menu. The PC does not have this menu so the preset option is part of the FX chain.

[Will.]

On 10/11/2020 at 11:33 PM, Dav said:

I have also found a bug wherein you can't open cakewalk after closing it and putting the system to sleep, or at least I believe these are the circumstances which cause this bug. Cakewalk won't open from a shortcut, a pined taskbar shortcut or from the start/search bar. So I used the last resort option to open it with the (sigh) bandlab assistant. This time I got an error message (see attached image below).

Another problem I have is that often projects wont open and will just freeze up cakewalk and crash, this is really annoying because I have most of time (I'd guess around 80% of the time) I have to open my projects in 'safe mode' and just say  "yes to all", re-save the project without changing anything and reopen the project in regular mode. Idk why this is happening but this is also irritating.

 

This is purely a windows issue. I have a friend with basically the same specs (just two gen lower.) Normally what happens is, for some reason when the DAW does crash (which is often caused by a free or old 3rd party plugins) windows keep a copy open. 

To get rid of this.

Ctrl+Alt+Del will bring the task menu, where you'll find Cakewalk to still be open under the progams tab. 

On 10/11/2020 at 11:33 PM, Dav said:

Cakewalk does not run at smooth fps (I think it only runs at 30fps), most DAWs runs at (at least) 60fps or more.

Automation of parameters are not smooth at fast tempos and it IS audible. They are smooth at slow tempos, but on fast tempos (more than 150bpm) you can see knobs instead of of moving smoothly, follow a S&H of the automation curve and often misses quick changes in the automation. This is the worst thing about cakewalk and (along with these bugs/problems) is the major reason why I am considering changing my DAW.

Make sure your playback and hardware buffer size are sync'd with that of your interface. By default cakewalk sets this to 256ms  both playback and hardware. 

Lastly: Make sure windows is up to date. Follow steps below.

Follow step 2 and 4 - especially if you're running Windows 10 build 2004 (Which is also the latest version.) It helps a lot. 

Edited October 15, 2020 by Will_Kaydo