Audio interface switches back and forth between two sample rates

[Christophe Perus]

Hi Everyone,

I have this weird issue today (it worked fine yesterday) : When I load a project that has a sample rate of 88.2, cakewalk seems to fight against an invisible force : I see the sample rate on my interface switching back and forth between 44.1 et 88.2, like if another program was trying to get access to the interface simultaneously, making Cakewalk unusable.

I don't see anything in task manager that would give me a hint.

Here's some additional information :

At first, I'd like to mention that I also installed Cubase LE 12 this morning (before the problem happened). I don't think this could be the issue, since I already have other DAWs installed on my computer, as far as I know, they don't run tasks in the background and take ownership of the interface.

I tried the following : I changed the windows configuration for the interface to be at 88.2. I checked that the internal audio card was the default output for my system. As long as I don't start any program, my interface stays at 88.2. The moment I start Cakewalk, it switches to 44.2 for the startup menu, even though the default setting in cakewalk is 88.2. Then if I load a 88.2 project, the switch between 44.1 and 88.2 begins.

Any idea ?

 

Thanks.

Edited October 14, 2022 by Christophe Perus

[Christophe Perus]

Hi,

I finally found a solution to my problem. When I installed Cubase LE, it also installed a generic low latency ASIO Driver. This driver, even if it wasn't used by Cakewalk, did interfere with the ASIO Driver for my audio interface.

Once the generic driver uninstalled, everything returned to normal. 

Cakewalk doesn't seem to be very fond of multiple ASIO drivers installed on a single computer.

Christophe.

[scook]

There is no problem when multiple ASIO drivers are installed as long as there is at most one ASIO driver per device.

Having multiple drivers for the same device is a problem and this is one of the issues with "generic" ASIO drivers.  Because
"generic" ASIO drivers work with practically all audio interfaces, they often conflict with manufacturer ASIO drivers.

[Glenn Stanton]

i went through and removed every ASIO driver that various software had installed: ASIO4ALL, Generic Low Latency ASIO, MAGIX 2016, etc... even my UMC driver. i think 8 total. then i reinstalled my UMC, and the ASIO4ALL (2015 release).

oddly enough, most of the amp sims (TONEX, TH-U, Guitar Rig, and the older (32-bit) standalone keyboard apps all play very nicely with low latency on the ASIO4ALL and are worse on the UMC and the WASAPI. long buffer delays (even when trying to set them low), stuttering, crackling.

but then, when i play them through CbB - ASIO4ALL - not bad but not great latency, WASAPI exclusive - nice, better latency, WASAPI shared - pretty much the same as exclusive, and UMC - best. low latency, no stuttering and crackling.  generally speaking i've seldom used the ASIO4ALL but when using my standalone apps, i've made it the default for those.

[Christophe Perus]

22 hours ago, scook said:

There is no problem when multiple ASIO drivers are installed as long as there is at most one ASIO driver per device.

Having multiple drivers for the same device is a problem and this is one of the issues with "generic" ASIO drivers.  Because
"generic" ASIO drivers work with practically all audio interfaces, they often conflict with manufacturer ASIO drivers.

Ableton and Cubase don't seem to bother, but the internal logic of each DAW is different. And it makes sense to have only one driver per Device.

[Bill Phillips]

On 10/14/2022 at 5:00 PM, Glenn Stanton said:

i went through and removed every ASIO driver that various software had installed: ASIO4ALL, Generic Low Latency ASIO, MAGIX 2016, etc... even my UMC driver. i think 8 total. then i reinstalled my UMC, and the ASIO4ALL (2015 release).

oddly enough, most of the amp sims (TONEX, TH-U, Guitar Rig, and the older (32-bit) standalone keyboard apps all play very nicely with low latency on the ASIO4ALL and are worse on the UMC and the WASAPI. long buffer delays (even when trying to set them low), stuttering, crackling.

but then, when i play them through CbB - ASIO4ALL - not bad but not great latency, WASAPI exclusive - nice, better latency, WASAPI shared - pretty much the same as exclusive, and UMC - best. low latency, no stuttering and crackling.  generally speaking i've seldom used the ASIO4ALL but when using my standalone apps, i've made it the default for those.

How do you find ASIO drivers? I have two I know of Focusrite and MOTU but neither are identified under Control Panel > Programs and Features. I searched Programs and Features for ASIO and found none. I have 390 programs installed.

[Noel Borthwick]

On 10/14/2022 at 3:22 PM, Christophe Perus said:

Hi,

I finally found a solution to my problem. When I installed Cubase LE, it also installed a generic low latency ASIO Driver. This driver, even if it wasn't used by Cakewalk, did interfere with the ASIO Driver for my audio interface.

Once the generic driver uninstalled, everything returned to normal. 

Cakewalk doesn't seem to be very fond of multiple ASIO drivers installed on a single computer.

Christophe.

Even before you posted this I was going to ask if you had the cubase generic low latency driver installed.
It has nothing to do with Cakewalk and multiple drivers. The generic low latency driver is a wrapper driver for WDM that tries to manage the audio device and causes bugs like this when cakewalk simply enumerates the ASIO drivers, which happens at startup time. Most likely what happens is this driver is initializing the device to 44.1 and conflicting with your settings in Cakewalk.
You should report this to Steinberg.

[Glenn Stanton]

17 hours ago, Bill Phillips said:

How do you find ASIO drivers? I have two I know of Focusrite and MOTU but neither are identified under Control Panel > Programs and Features. I searched Programs and Features for ASIO and found none. I have 390 programs installed.

i went through my apps first - find all of the ones listed as ASIO. then go through the registry and finding all references to those or others not listed in the apps. then rechecking to see if any more were cropping up and hunting those down. and lastly, finding all the program files and removing those (most are in directories, some were individual files)