2021.04 Feedback

[Olaf]

A few firsts, after the successive updates since 2021.04, which now persist even after the rollback.

1. Groove Player missing on template load.

2. The Options and Scan buttons are greyed out in the Plugin Manager, and in the VST Preferences, as well. The VST scan no longer works at all, automatically, on startup, or on demand. Newly added plugins are not detected.

3. The Gloss EQ missing in all PCs, in the Console View. The thumbnail no longer appears in the Insert menu, either. The .dll still exists in its Internal folder.

4. Trying to insert ANY PC module in the Console View crashes Cakewalk with no warning.

Don't know if it's CW or the Win permissions - which all seem to be the right ones, and should not prompt a crash; Defender doesn't report any active block - don't know from which update it comes from, except that it started to happen after the last 1-2 build updates.

Just putting it out there.

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Olaf

[Tez]

Track Folder Buttons: In this and prior versions when an existing project is opened the Track Folder buttons rarely reflect the state of the tracks for all Track Folders.  For example folders that only contain functioning Aux tracks should have the the "Input Echo" button on, and frequently don't. Similarly other buttons may not be properly synchronized with track states and this can occur whilst working on a project. A minor inconvenience, but still, it might reflect CbB GUI rendering  issues that might be of some importance...

Edited May 20, 2021 by Tez

[Olaf]

12 hours ago, Milton Sica said:

Regarding VST scanning, I also had some problems with EA (early version), as the scanning process now includes a scan with more error checking. My vst configuration is this:

Thanks, Milton, I don't have anything added in the Initialization File. I suppose the scan value is the default, but that's not the problem, as it doesn't scan at all. It's not operational. For a brief moment, on opening, Plugin Manager displays the buttons correctly, then they instantly grey out.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Olaf

[msmcleod]

1 hour ago, Olaf said:

Thanks, Milton, I don't have anything added in the Initialization File. I suppose the scan value is the default, but that's not the problem, as it doesn't scan at all. It's not operational. For a brief moment, on opening, Plugin Manager displays the buttons correctly, then they instantly grey out.

Those two options are always greyed out when "Automatic Background Scan" is selected, as they make no sense for automatic background scanning.

They work if you change to "Scan on Startup" or "Manual Scan".

[scook]

34 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

Those two options are always greyed out when "Automatic Background Scan" is selected, as they make no sense for automatic background scanning.

While I generally leave the drop down at the default "Automatic Background Scan" the Scan and Reset buttons have always been available regardless of the setting.

One thing that will disable the Scan and Reset buttons is a bad  VSTScanPath entry in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\Cakewalk\Cakewalk VST

VSTScanPath should contain the fully qualified name of the VstScan.exe. The default VSTScanPath entry is

C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities\VstScan.exe

IIRC, this is one of the registry values restored when running a full personalization (to run hold down the CTRL key while starting CbB) or manually update the registry.

Other issues in @Olaf's post may be related to a bad install too. They may be fixed with a simple uninstall/re-install; if that fails, a clean install. When running a clean install be aware step 9 may remove 3rd party plug-ins. Backup/copy the Vstplugins folders to prevent data loss.

@Milton Sica unless you have intentionally added VST plug-ins to "C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Plugins" (not recommended) this should not be in the scan path. No Cakewalk DAW or CbB install VST plug-ins into that path. Everything in there is DX format.

Also it is a good practice to leave the two rescan options under the scan frequency drop down deselected (the default setting). To deselected them change the scan frequency to "Manual Scan", uncheck both options then restore the scan frequency.

[Simon Wilkinson]

Love the latest build and all the great features that keep getting added, thank you! One thing I've noticed recently on my setup is that certain plugins (2 that I know for sure and I think there might have been 1 other) will have their GUI frozen or become blank after a certain time. The ones I know it happens on for me are Oeksound's Soothe 2 and Baby Audio's Smooth Operator.

They start off working fine but after a random time, when I open their GUI it's either blank (like all whitespace) or it's visible but any real-time feedback (e.g. spectral movement or button animations etc) becomes frozen. The plugins still work but their GUI doesn't respond or update (happens on both VST2 and VST3).  If I quit and restart they work fine again for a while.

These 2 plugins are new for me and I see someone else reported the same issue in a CW Facebook group back in January, so it might not be from the last update. Soothe 2 has the option to turn off OpenGL but that doesn't help.

I have a 3 monitor setup running on an Nvidia GT730 graphics card with all latest updates if that makes any difference.

[Olaf]

20 hours ago, msmcleod said:

Those two options are always greyed out when "Automatic Background Scan" is selected, as they make no sense for automatic background scanning.

They work if you change to "Scan on Startup" or "Manual Scan".

thanks, @msmcleod, but it's not because of the scan mode selection - which hasn't changed - besides, it doesn't scan at all, even automatically. @scook is right. i've checked the registry paths, they're exactly those for my installation, some VST folder paths were missing from the registry, in relation to the DAW settings, I've readded them. I've managed to run a vst scan by running vstscan.exe as administrator in the Shared Utilities folder, and, in consequence, all the VST lists in Plugin Manager are now completely depopulated. On the other hand, the Browser Menu has not registered any change - no new detection, but no depopulation either. Inside the DAW - in the preferences and the Plugin Manager - the scan buttons are still greyed out, so you cannot select anything. Basically, every two or three updates, you need to do a clean reinstall and reconfigure/recustomize everything afresh.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Olaf

[scook]

6 hours ago, Olaf said:

Basically, every two or three updates, you need to do a clean reinstall and reconfigure/recustomize everything afresh.

Not my experience at all. I have applied every update since CbB was released, some several times using the rollback installers.

Not once has it been necessary to perform a clean install or reconfigure CbB.

Also, I do not run CbB as administrator, never have.

 

[Canopus]

The Tempo Track is a great addition. However, the Tempo Inspector doesn’t respond to decimal commas, only decimal points. When trying to enter a tempo containing a comma as a decimal separator, the decimal is simply ignored. However, when entering a decimal comma for a node in the Tempo Track context menu, it is indeed acknowledged as a decimal separator. Would it be possible to make the Tempo Inspector acknowledge the regional setting Decimal Symbol as set in Windows? Almost all of Europe and also e.g. South America uses comma as decimal separator, so that's what you will find on the numeric keypad on your keyboard. And, after all, it already works that way in most other parts of CbB.

Edit: This issue was later fixed in CbB 2021.06.

Edited June 18, 2021 by Canopus

[gmp]

The addition of the arranger inspector Tempo inspector seemed to have affected whether we can see Pro Channel in Inspector. I have some Pro Channel EQ and FX on one of my busses by default and the only way I can view Pro Channel now is by undocking the Inspector. 

It seems part of the problem is not enough space at the top of the Inspector Show/Hide Arranger Inspector, etc. Because if I undock the Inspector, I can then see the Pro Channel tab at the top right. With it docked, you can't see that tab

There's also a check box for Pro Channel - compact EQ module. That doesn't affect this problem. I did a search for Inspector and didn't find any other posts about this. So has this been reported yet?

 

 

[Colin Nicholls]

2 hours ago, gmp said:

 the only way I can view Pro Channel now is by undocking the Inspector. 

It seems part of the problem is not enough space at the top of the Inspector Show/Hide Arranger Inspector, etc
 

Check your theme. Are you using a custom theme? Does this happen when using Mercury or Tungsten, the default themes?

[scook]

53 minutes ago, Colin Nicholls said:

Check your theme. Are you using a custom theme? Does this happen when using Mercury or Tungsten, the default themes?

When testing make sure CbB session starts up loading Mercury or Tungsten.

If the custom theme is loaded first, swapping to Mercury or Tungsten will still have image size problems. 

After changing from a custom theme to Mercury or Tungsten shut down and restart CbB.

[Glenn Stanton]

use the default themes - there are several themes that worked correctly up to build 175 and need some tweaking (flat white, minimalistic orange etc) but the default mercury works correctly in 175. i had problems with all themes in build 141 and then 155 - but the "EnablePluginMenuFix=1"  in the cakewalk.ini addressed that issue with the spacing on the inspector. so that may help until the theme you're using is updated

[Richard Hunter]

Cakewalk is now crashing on me whenever I insert a MIDI track and try to trigger a synth with it, and whenever I attempt to bounce a to a track.  in short, the program is basically unusable.  

 

I have yet to expernience a Cakewalk update without experiencing very serious problems afterward.  It's enough to make me try another DAW.

 

 

[Richard Hunter]

I can no longer trigger any synth via MIDI input.  The input and output settings are appropriate; MIDI metter is triggering with notes, so MIDI is being received, but the synth does not show any response, and the app will hang if I try to bounce.  

I have reversed the update to the Jan,. 29 version; same issue.  Re-installed the May 17 version; same result.

Tried loading the project ion Sonar X3; the application hung.

TH=his is a lot more than a minor inconvenience.  This is core functionality.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Richard Hunter
fuller explanation

[gmp]

I changed to the Mercury theme, closed and reopened CbB and it worked. I then tried the cakewalk.ini entry EnablePluginMenuFix=1  I entered it correctly, then changed to my custom GP Logic 21 theme, closed and reopened CbB and still have the seam problem. I double checked the Preferences and they're done right. At least I have a workaround of undocking the Inspector.

IS this something that will be fixed in a new version of CbB, or do I need to edit my theme and fix it? It's been right at 4 years since I messed with Themes. When I installed 2021.04 it said my Theme needed to be updated. I did that and it now has worked fine, but now I have this problem. If I need to update my Theme, any guidance would be appreciated.

Any more suggestions?

[scook]

The images in the user theme must be modified to their new size.

This may be done by using the images from Tungsten, any user theme that has already been updated or removing the images allowing the theme to use the Mercury images.

Maybe this post may make more sense now

It did not seem to be very well received when originally posted.

[gmp]

47 minutes ago, scook said:

The images in the user theme must be modified to their new size.

This may be done by using the images from Tungsten, any user theme that has already been updated or removing the images allowing the theme to use the Mercury images.

Maybe this post may make more sense now

It did not seem to be very well received when originally posted.

Yes that was my post and what you said worked fine, so my theme is updated and has a new date on it. CbB stopped saying I had an outdated theme. So shouldn't it work with the Pro Channel Inspector?

[scook]

If images identified in the post I linked were modified the theme should work.

There was no indication in the thread what was done other than opening and resaving the theme. This does nothing to correct image sizes.

New images must be added to the theme. the current images must be resized with an image editor or the images removed so that the theme uses the Mercury images.

 

[gmp]

I opened my custom theme in Cakewalk Theme editor, the new Theme editor, that I installed from Bandlab Assistant when I made that other post. I saw Inspector in the folders on the left and selected it and saw the Arranger tab and Tempo tab icons that look exactly like the ones I see in the Inspector using 2021.04. So I would think because of this that my Theme is updated otherwise those new tabs wouldn't be there. 

So what am I supposed to change as far as images, there appear to be hundreds of them? Has there been a system outlined to explain to users like me how to do this? If not maybe they need to update the Theme Editor again so it takes care of these things