Track spikes in volume on playback (sudden clipping on quiet track)

[SB3000]

I was unable to find any previous documentation or posts about my issue, so thought I would try posting it here in the forum.

I'm working on mixing a song in Cakewalk, and one percussion track will suddenly clip, showing a spike in volume all the way into the red, maxxing out the master volume and stopping playback. The track in question is very even and low in volume by itself - it's a shaker. There are no peaks in the waveform - and it should be nowhere near the red. The track has compression and reverb on it. The sudden peak tends to happen immediately on starting playback, or when restarting after pausing, not at any specific point in the song. I then have to close Cakewalk and reopen to continue mixing. I was able to do a test mixdown and the percussion track sounds normal in the mix. Seems to be some kind of glitch only during playback. Coincidentally or not, the problematic track is the most recent one I recorded. 

Any thoughts, or additional info that would be helpful? Any ideas would be much appreciated.

[Edit: bypassing reverb on playback seems to prevent the issue from occurring] 

Edited February 2, 2021 by SB3000
additional information

[John Vere]

What reverb plug in as this is obviously the issue. Don't use it. If you want a good freebie try Acon Digital  Verberate. https://acondigital.com/products/verberate/

If Cakewalk freezes up 99% of the time it's  a 3rd party plug in. 

[Jeremy Murray-Wakefield]

Is it possible you are accidentally massively over-compressing it?

- that can cause an overload on starting and resuming. Bypass the compressor and see if it still happens.

[SB3000]

Thanks, I'll try bypassing and/or adjusting the compressor in addition to trying to fix it via the reverb. Both are just the Sonitus effects that came with Cakewalk, but I'll give Verberate a try. 

[John Vere]

Oh, well then that is not the issue, Sonitus are very stable with Cakewalk so that shouldn't make a difference. So much for that idea.   

I'm mostly trying to focus on why Cakewalk would crash on you. Over compressing and distorted sounds don't crash Cakewalk, They just suck. 

Run Latency Monitor and lets see what's going on in the background.  A peak level should not crash Cakewalk. 

https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

 

 

[SB3000]

I confirmed that the reverb was the issue. I adjusted some settings within the reverb - basically dialing back a few parameters - and that solved it.