Cakewalk slow at adding new tracks and other things

[Noel Borthwick]

Sorry that you are having such a nightmare with Windows.
I have an RME UFX but it runs on one of my older computers with Windows 10 on it. I don't see any significant lags when adding tracks. I tested adding about 50 tracks and it still took about a second to add a new track after that. This is an older PC about 8 years old.

I doubt that this is a Windows issue or RME issue directly. Have you tried resetting your audio configuration to defaults in preferences / Configuration file?  Does the slowness even happen on a new empty project?

One more thing to try. In preferences, disable all audio inputs and outputs except for the ones you are using. See if this makes a difference.

[RexRed]

On 1/9/2023 at 1:14 PM, Christopher Theodorou said:

@RexRed Did you ever sort this issue? I'm experiencing something similar with Cakewalk with RME UFX+ on windows 10.

No,  I never got it sorted out on that PC.

I completely reinstalled the OS and still the same thing happened. It took a few songs but it became over a short time sluggish again.

I fiddled with motherboard/chipset drivers and a myriad of other stuff and it never got fixed. 

It not only was slow putting in new blank tracks (up to 4 seconds) but it was also slow adding certain effects. Lots of things were sluggish only when I used the RME interface.

This did not happen with other interfaces, and only when I used the RME  device on that particular AMD PC.

Because, I MUST have my RME Fireface UCX II device,  I switched from an AMD based PC to and Intel based PC CPU and the problem went completely away.

I can only surmise it was something to do with AMD architecture.

It was not my interface because the interface works perfectly fine on the Intel machine.

It was not necessarily Cakewalk because the problem is not present at all in Cakewalk on the Intel machine.

My RME interface did not like my AMD motherboard and/or CPU.

That is the only thing I can surmise from that total headache.

I suspect there is some trickery going on in the way these CPUs handle caches by default.

Much like  latency in Cakewalk, set the latency slider to one side and recording gets favored and set the slider to the other side and playback gets favored.

I assume how these processors caches work they can either favor adding new devices with smaller computing chunks or favor larger tasks with larger chunks of computational power. But this area of CPU overhead management goes completely over my head. 

All I  know is that my Intel machine has nearly no hesitation when I add a new track in Cakewalk while using my RME interface. It is instant. 

What is really interesting is I used the exact same OS (Windows 11) in my Intel machine (literally).  

I took my M.2 OS drive out of my AMD machine and put it into my Intel machine.

Windows 11 dumped the AMD drivers and detected and installed the new Intel drivers and it also detected my numerous hard drives which I switched also. 

So my OS's program data was completely intact but the RME problem was gone.

If you figure out this problem let me know what you have learned.

Best of luck to you Christopher.

Edited January 10, 2023 by RexRed
typo

[RexRed]

18 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Sorry that you are having such a nightmare with Windows.
I have an RME UFX but it runs on one of my older computers with Windows 10 on it. I don't see any significant lags when adding tracks. I tested adding about 50 tracks and it still took about a second to add a new track after that. This is an older PC about 8 years old.

I doubt that this is a Windows issue or RME issue directly. Have you tried resetting your audio configuration to defaults in preferences / Configuration file?  Does the slowness even happen on a new empty project?

One more thing to try. In preferences, disable all audio inputs and outputs except for the ones you are using. See if this makes a difference.

Disabling or enabling extra audio ports, input and output did not remedy this problem for me.

It seems like a logical step (and thank you for the suggestion) but it does not fix whatever this error is that I encountered. 

This problem seems to make Cakewalk sluggish in many respects like you are always fighting the program and it is very nerving.

It is liberating on my Intel PC. Why? I still don't know. 

This problem is equally as slow adding a new track to a completely empty project as it does working throughout the project. 

The slowness is always there. 

Edited January 10, 2023 by RexRed

[RexRed]

The fact that none of my other 5 audio interfaces have this problem on the same machine, it kind of points to the RME interface drivers for AMD on that particular machine.

This makes me wonder if the RME drivers are worth all the hype that seems to be common place out there in the forums by avid users.

None of the older RME drivers fixed the problem either and RME has not been releasing new driver updates any faster than other audio interface companies.

RME has stated their dedication to driver redevelopment but this problem still looms.

Shall I blame AMD or Windows which have billions of happy users or RME for this? 

My bet is the RME driver.

I assume that may people experience the lag when adding a track and think that is the way it is supposed to be.

I, on the other hand, have been using Cakewalk since Cakewalk for MSDOS and I knew it was supposed to be instant.

Edited January 10, 2023 by RexRed

[RexRed]

Then there is the situation that I tested the RME device on a Mixcraft 9 DAW on my AMD machine and there was no lag when adding tracks...

This then points to the possibility of a Cakewalk incompatibility with the RME device while using AMD hardware and drivers.

I can attest that the RME device works fine with Cakewalk on an Intel based machine.

Yet, the problem could still be Windows as it relates to AMD. Some Windows update a year from now could fix this.

I really don't know.

I am pretty savvy with troubleshooting and building computers and this problem has completely eluded me. 

I have no discrimination with pointing the finger at everyone. lol 

Edited January 10, 2023 by RexRed

[Starship Krupa]

This has me curious. RME has about the best rep in the business in regard to drivers (no personal experience).

Does the same issue happen no matter what driver mode you're using? I mean ASIO vs. WASAPI Exclusive vs. WASAPI Shared?

Not suggesting it as a workaround or anything, but if there's a difference, it might help the folks at Cakewalk and RME if they look into it.

With your position as a creator of YouTube tutorials, there is probably a greater motivation to help you sort it.

[RexRed]

50 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

This has me curious. RME has about the best rep in the business in regard to drivers (no personal experience).

Does the same issue happen no matter what driver mode you're using? I mean ASIO vs. WASAPI Exclusive vs. WASAPI Shared?

Not suggesting it as a workaround or anything, but if there's a difference, it might help the folks at Cakewalk and RME if they look into it.

With your position as a creator of YouTube tutorials, there is probably a greater motivation to help you sort it.

I am sure I tried using other drivers as a workaround for this problem but the lag while using those other drivers left me no other choice but ASIO.

I do not recall if the problem with a lag when adding tracks was there though when other drivers were chosen.

I still use my AMD machine as a streaming rig so, hooking the RME up to it and and testing this would not be too much trouble as I do have Cakewalk installed on that as well.

Thanks for posing this question Starship Krupa, I will get back to you in the next few days possibly with an answer to your inquiry. 

[Noel Borthwick]

Its pretty interesting that the issue occurs only on an AMD machine. I'll look into it some more but adding tracks have much interaction with the audio driver so that part is puzzling to me.  Unfortunately, we don't have any AMD machines anymore to run tests on or I would have tried it.

[hockeyjx]

Early on I had some weird things happen with AMD systems, and since Cakewalk was an Intel partner for a while, so I just went that route with no issues.

Still, his AMD system DID work ...and then it didn't. Weird.

Edited January 13, 2023 by hockeyjx

[RexRed]

5 minutes ago, hockeyjx said:

Early on I had some weird things happen with AMD systems, and since Cakewalk was an Intel partner for a while, and so I just went that route with no issues.

Still, his AMD system DID work ...and then it didn't. Weird.

I thought my AMD machine did work but I spoke too soon. 

The RME device worked with MixCraft on my AMD machine but with Cakewalk the lag when inserting a track (and other items) never went away no matter what I did other than switching to an Intel based machine. Now the tracks and effects, busses insert instantly (in Cakewalk) but only on my Intel machine.  

Edited January 13, 2023 by RexRed