ASIO and metronome completely out of sync

[Volker Schmid]

Hi,

I have ESI Juli@ PCI soundcard running on Windows 8.1 PC (64 Bit). I currently run most recent Cakewalk by Bandlab 2019.05, Build 31 64Bit).

Check the uploaded Video. I simply dragged a beat (145 BPM) to the project, copied it once and activated playback metronome (Audio). As you can hear, it is completely out of sync. The screenrecorder recorded some 'crackling' which were not in the original. Currently, it is impossible to make music.

I recognize it to be out of sync the most time. Also, repeating the loop at the end seem to also create a small pause.

The video also showing my settings.

I already switched the mainboard (new PC) and re-installed ESI Juli@ drivers. I switched ASIO latency from 256 to 512. I activated "enable read caching" and "enable write caching" in "Sync and caching" settings, but all without success ?

Any idea about what else I can do?

Thanks!

[chuckebaby]

12 minutes ago, Volker Schmid said:

I simply dragged a beat (145 BPM) to the project, copied it once and activated playback metronome (Audio).

Just because you drag an audio file to a project doesn't mean it will synch the metronome to it. The audio has to have groove clip property's and the metronome set accordingly.

 

12 minutes ago, Volker Schmid said:

Check the uploaded Video

I cant it is of unsupported format.

 

12 minutes ago, Volker Schmid said:

I already switched the mainboard (new PC) and re-installed ESI Juli@ drivers. I switched ASIO latency from 256 to 512.

Probably little to do with soundcard, more with the clip.

[Volker Schmid]

Hi, thanks for the reply. The audio is just a WAV file with a drum, recorded and cut at exactly 145 BPM in 2 measures. There is no groove clip property. I tried it in energy XT and n-track and it works with no problems. There I can play with metronome and loop and it starts and stays in sync. Also, in Cakewalk the offset varies randomly. Most time, it is in sync the first time. After the first loop it gets out of sync. The third loop is worst (completely off) and the 4th loop is back in sync again. Really strange.

For the video, this is sad. It is very small (<4MB), maybe you can "save as" and view it locally?

[Matthew Sorrels]

50 minutes ago, Volker Schmid said:

There is no groove clip property.

The in-situ video player above won't play any sound for me (I can see the video) but I was able to save it locally and hear it that way.

You might want to try a different metronome sound.  Some of the one's that come with SONAR have bad timing.  There was a set of better ones on the old forum.  I have that same loop (from The Loop Loft's Dry Drums Vol 4) and it plays in sync for me if I use ping hi/ping lo.  Route the metronome to a new aux track and record it (be sure to turn the metronome to play during recording) and see what it's generating.

I don't think any hardware/audio interface settings will effect the metronome timing.  The 100% showing on the clip seems a bit odd (I don't get that when I drag it in) can't remember what it means, but perhaps there is some stretching enabled.  May want to check the clip's properties very carefully.

 

[Base 57]

For me a couple of things come to mind.

First, Cakewalk/Sonar sometimes has a problem with projects that start at time 00.00.000 (Measure 1 beat 1). Many of us leave an empty measure or more at the beginning of projects. This is one of several reasons my main feature request is negative measures.

Second, I never use the metronome. Instead I drag in a drum loop (why would I sync a metronome to a drum loop... nevermind) or more often a step sequencer pattern.  I find this to be a more accurate and musical way to lay out the timing of a project in Cakewalk or any other DAW. So...

Try copy and pasting the clip out more than 4 measures (after moving it over to start at measure 2). Do the clip boundaries line up with the measure boundaries after 32 measures? 

3 hours ago, Volker Schmid said:

The audio is just a WAV file with a drum, recorded and cut at exactly 145 BPM in 2 measures

If so then clip and measure boundaries will line up even after hundreds of measures.

Keep in mind that Cakewalk is designed for a more linear approach than something like Abelton. So to do loop oriented things, normal clips should be converted to Groove Clips and then dragged out. Then the metronome will sync properly.

 

 

 

[Noel Borthwick]

I'm not sure if its the video but I hear a bit of a stutter and the audio is out of sync. It sounds like your audio clock is unstable somehow but I cant be sure.
Can you try running at a higher latency to test? Also play just the metronome or just the audio alone and see if you hear a stutter.

 

[Volker Schmid]

Hello. Thank you all for the reply and help. I tried to move the parts, so that the first measure is empty. But the problem is the same.

I'm already using the Ping Hi, Ping Low sounds for metronome.

Higher latency did not help. Increased to 512 and even 1024 samples, but with no noticeable effect.

I then tried to do a MIDI track with Cakewalk TTS-1 and a percussive instrument. I used a measure with 1/4 beats and copied 4 times. And the issue is the same! WAV and MIDI playback is completely out of sync.

I then clicked through the track properties and tried every option. And I found it! As soon as I switched the rendering method from "Elasticqe" to "Groove", the sync issue seems gone! Also, the loop playback seems way better. I now made this the default in Preferences.

I then just also tested with built in metronome and it also works fine now!

So for the moment it seems good. ?

PS. If I select "Percussion", Cakewalk immediately crashes if I start playback. Strange...

[Noel Borthwick]

@Volker Schmid I tried to repro this and cannot see any timing drift using elastique or reproduce your crash.

I made a manual click from a loop and set the tempo to match that. Then I stretched it using elastique to 100% of its original tempo. 
It plays back perfectly in sync with the audio metronome.

Can you upload your test project and share it with me so we can look into it? There is something else going on.

[Grégoire Jeay]

I have the same problem of sync wave/virtuals synth. Specially when the beat is sliced on each bars. I have the same problem with the 2 computers, 2 differents soundcards. So I stop the sequence, then restart and it's ok for a while.

It's remind me the old Emagic on PC when the syncro was a mess. Come on Bandlab, fix this please. I think seriously to change for cubase or an other more stable!

[Byron Dickens]

It has to be user error.

If this was a real problem with Cakewalk itself, there would be enough people complaining about it that you wouldn't have to bring a thread that died over three years ago back to life.

[David Baay]

1 hour ago, Grégoire Jeay said:

I have the same problem of sync wave/virtuals synth. Specially when the beat is sliced on each bars.

Sync problems can have many causes - often user-error/misunderstanding as bdickens suggested. Start a new thread and share a copy of the clip/project.