help Audio Dips During Playback, Bounces and Exports

[Zac Lambe]

Hey Everyone. Need some help badly.

Iv been using cakewalk for the past 3 years and have honestly enjoyed it. But I am having some issues with the playback and any track exporting of any kind.
 

The Issue:
While either listening to the raw file in DAW, Bouncing tracks or Exporting a project, I am being met with audio dropouts. But not like complete dropouts. Just volume decreases. Almost like someone it quickly moving the volume fader down and up again, or some major compression randomly kicks in. I have just recently upgraded to a desktop PC after coming from a laptop and I wasn't having this issue on my laptop

Ill leave an example below
Notice the annoying audio dips in volume and you can visually see the dip in the export.

I have updated my drivers in windows and gone to the manufacturer site to get the drivers. I have uninstalled and re installed. Been through a bunch of support with no avail. I have tried a lot of things and I cant even seem to pinpoint whether it would be some sort of sound card issue not liking my interface, Driver issues or what. I have no idea.


PLEASE HELP, this is a project ruining issue.



PC Specs:

*all mid to high specs*
Windows 10
Ryzen CPU
NIVIDIA GPU

I'm using a focusrite Scarlett 2i2
 

issue track.mp3

[John Vere]

First thing comes to mind is a mastering plug in in demo mode. 

[Starship Krupa]

The second thing that comes to mind is that Zac may have inadvertently written some automation while mixing or recording.

One thing that used to happen with me is that I would pop open an automation lane either by accident, or deliberately and decide not to draw any automation. Then during playback/mixing, I'd have Read Automation enabled on the track and wonder why every time I tried to make a fader move, Cakewalk would immediately set the fader back to whatever level it was when I had opened the automation lane. I didn't realize that Cakewalk creates a volume automation line when you open a lane.

This made for some weird times until I sorted out what was happening. Like The Love Bug or worse, HAL9000.

"I'm sorry, Erik, I cannot allow you to jeopardize this session."

[Zac Lambe]

@John Vere  - You have made me feel big dumb hahaha it was in bloody demo mode.

[Starship Krupa]

4 minutes ago, Zac Lambe said:

@John Vere  - You have made me feel big dumb hahaha it was in bloody demo mode.

Not a sign of dumb, rather an indication of being human.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that every computer recordist who has demo'd commercial software that either ducks or emits hiss has gone through the process of tearing through their systems to figure out where the heck that dropout or noise is coming from. Only to discover/remember that they had neglected to put in the serial after purchasing the plug-in.

Just as we've all been in the situation where we could not get an audio signal to come out of our gear no matter what we tried, where we exported 4 minutes of silence rather than our latest rough mix, and, one of my favorites, have spent 15 minutes carefully tweaking a compressor plug-in only to discover that it was either bypassed or on a track other than the one we thought.

[Xoo]

7 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that every computer recordist who has demo'd commercial software that either ducks or emits hiss has gone through the process of tearing through their systems to figure out where the heck that dropout or noise is coming from. Only to discover/remember that they had neglected to put in the serial after purchasing the plug-in.

Or a purchased plug-in that decides it wants to revert to demo mode because it's Thursday and the moon is full.

[Starship Krupa]

11 hours ago, Kevin Perry said:

decides it wants to revert to demo mode because it's Thursday and the moon is full

Did you see the thread in Deals about how both Waves AND PACE couldn't deal with me disabling (and immediately re-enabling) the network adapters on my notebook? Some of those poor folks wound up traumatized, I think.

I take it in stride that by the time my computer even boots, I've cheated the adage that chances for a system's failure increase in proportion to the system's complexity by so much that every processor cycle that passes without it spitting out springs is a tiny miracle. ?

Judging by the number of bewildered people who used to show up on this forum, I suspect that BandLab Assistant may have had a lunar phase issue, at least at first.

Well, that and the aforementioned people who couldn't get used to the fact that the software they downloaded from the web wants to phone home every 6 months.

BTW, it's been so long since I did a fresh install that I can't remember whether the user is cautioned about that during the process.

Edited June 14, 2022 by Starship Krupa

[John Vere]

This is why my new catch phrase is “It’s always a plug in” That or a workspace ate my buttons 

Edited June 15, 2022 by John Vere

[57Gregy]

4 hours ago, John Vere said:

This is why my new catch phrase is “It’s always a plug in” That or a workspace are my buttons 

What are the keyboard shortcuts for those? ?

[John Vere]

8 hours ago, 57Gregy said:

What are the keyboard shortcuts for those? ?

It should have said ate!!! Stupid iPhones.