Is it me, or a bug ? with Cakewalk Export Audio

[noynekker]

I seem to keep getting this issue happening, I keep causing Cakewalk to crash instantly when exporting to audio. Doesn't happen all the time, but a lot, and I think it might be me, something I'm doing that breaks the code ?

I just want to make a new version of my mix, so I click File, Export . . . and in the "Filename and Location" box, I give it the new name . . . click on the right settings I want, click Export, instant crasho ! I look in the folder, and it has created a 4k file with the name I gave it. So I re-open Cakewalk and try exactly the same thing again, and select that 4k file, click Export . . . it asks me to Overwrite, I say OK, and it works as expected.

Tonight, I was working on a very lightweight project when this Export issue happened again  . . . so it made me wonder.

Hopefully, I have described this clear enough, has anybody else run into this at all ?

[Will.]

11 hours ago, noynekker said:

I seem to keep getting this issue happening, I keep causing Cakewalk to crash instantly when exporting to audio. Doesn't happen all the time, but a lot, and I think it might be me, something I'm doing that breaks the code ?

I just want to make a new version of my mix, so I click File, Export . . . and in the "Filename and Location" box, I give it the new name . . . click on the right settings I want, click Export, instant crasho ! I look in the folder, and it has created a 4k file with the name I gave it. So I re-open Cakewalk and try exactly the same thing again, and select that 4k file, click Export . . . it asks me to Overwrite, I say OK, and it works as expected.

Tonight, I was working on a very lightweight project when this Export issue happened again  . . . so it made me wonder.

Hopefully, I have described this clear enough, has anybody else run into this at all ?

It is possible that a plugin is causing it - a synth or its preset. Try to export each tracks one-by-one | preferable any synths. The audio tracks you can do as a batch. 

I've had this happen one time only with a free synth. So I did my diagnosis as described above - it was a tedious job, but ultimately found the culprit and replaced it with a similiar one. 

Edited October 19, 2022 by Will.

[bitflipper]

It's not due to any mistake on your part. Presumably, you have dumps from those failed exports (%appdata%\cakewalk\cakewalk core\minidumps); the answer will be in there. Ask the CW folks to take a look at it. If it's a plugin raising the error, they'll be able to tell you which one it is. If it's a CW bug, only they will be able to identify it.

If you're impatient and like to solve puzzles on your own, you can always grab a copy of Windbg and look at the dump yourself. Here's an old post I made about using Windbg. Scroll about halfway down the first page of the thread.

 

 

[noynekker]

19 hours ago, Will. said:

It is possible that a plugin is causing it - a synth or its preset. Try to export each tracks one-by-one | preferable any synths. The audio tracks you can do as a batch. 

I've had this happen one time only with a free synth. So I did my diagnosis as described above - it was a tedious job, but ultimately found the culprit and replaced it with a similiar one. 

Hi Will, thanks for responding . . . I would never have thought a plugin might cause this, since the track plays and sounds fine . . . and as I mentioned, it happened on a very simple project with just a drum synth and a bass guitar synth, a few FabFilter EQ's . . . stock stuff I use frequently . . . but, I tried bitflipper's suggestion below , and it may be BFD3 drum module.

[noynekker]

10 hours ago, bitflipper said:

It's not due to any mistake on your part. Presumably, you have dumps from those failed exports (%appdata%\cakewalk\cakewalk core\minidumps); the answer will be in there. Ask the CW folks to take a look at it. If it's a plugin raising the error, they'll be able to tell you which one it is. If it's a CW bug, only they will be able to identify it.

If you're impatient and like to solve puzzles on your own, you can always grab a copy of Windbg and look at the dump yourself. Here's an old post I made about using Windbg. Scroll about halfway down the first page of the thread.

 

 

@bitflipper I found your suggestion very interesting, so I installed Windbg, and loaded the recent minidump files to analyze.

It found an exception . . . so I clicked to analyze that exception and it came up pointing to my BFD3 drum synth . . . hmmmm . . . maybe the results pasted below will mean more to you, but either way, BFD3.dll appears to be the culprit , , , so what next, reinstall ? live with the crashes ? contact the new giant corporation that assimilated BFD3 ? ask on the BFD3 forum if there are any Cakewalk users having this issue ?

MODULE_NAME: BFD3

IMAGE_NAME:  BFD3.dll

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  HEAP_CORRUPTION_c0000374_BFD3.dll!Unknown

OS_VERSION:  10.0.19041.1

BUILDLAB_STR:  vb_release

OSPLATFORM_TYPE:  x64

OSNAME:  Windows 10

IMAGE_VERSION:  3.4.3.7

FAILURE_ID_HASH:  {0e14b251-d941-395b-e486-91b18ec6077c}

Followup:     MachineOwner

 

. . . Dave, so glad to have a resource like you here on this forum . . . thank you for all you do here !

[Will.]

Just replace the BFD3 with a similar Drum Synth. 

FWIW: I have found recently that most times it is actually an effect on the "affected" track, these bugging programs give. So, try to bypass the effects bin and do a test export. If it exports without failing, you know its an effect. The job then will be - to replace each effect one-by-one with another giving it the same settings. 

If this test still fails, go ahead and replace the entire synth on the channel. 

Edited October 20, 2022 by Will.

[bitflipper]

Unfortunately, there is only limited information that users can glean from a dump analysis. Specifically, which module raised the error (BFD3.DLL) and the type of error (heap corruption, very common in plugins). More detailed information can only be determined by fxpansion, as only they will be able to correlate your dump info to the exact area within their code that failed. It is always a program bug that causes this type of error (the dll attempted to write to a place in memory it wasn't supposed to), so only the vendor can fix it.

[HIBI]

Is your BFD version 3.4.3.7 ?
Just in case, you might want to update to the current latest version 3.4.4.31 and try to expot again.

[Noel Borthwick]

For what it's worth, try turning off this setting by setting its value to 0.
Some plugins don't behave well when we try and flush them prior to doing a bounce. 
Also please attach the dump so I can have a look at the stack.

[noynekker]

6 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

For what it's worth, try turning off this setting by setting its value to 0.
Some plugins don't behave well when we try and flush them prior to doing a bounce. 
Also please attach the dump so I can have a look at the stack.

@Noel Borthwick . . . Hi Noel, thanks for the tweak . . . I'll surely give that a try, and report back here.

Here's a WeTransfer Link with a few recent dumps if you want to have a look:

https://we.tl/t-AqW3hX3CIR

[noynekker]

18 hours ago, Will. said:

Just replace the BFD3 with a similar Drum Synth. 

FWIW: I have found recently that most times it is actually an effect on the "affected" track, these bugging programs give. So, try to bypass the effects bin and do a test export. If it exports without failing, you know its an effect. The job then will be - to replace each effect one-by-one with another giving it the same settings. 

If this test still fails, go ahead and replace the entire synth on the channel. 

Hi Will, to simply replace, the only other drum synths I have is the Cakewalk Session Drummer, and some Kontakt sets . . . and they fall well short in capabilities compared to something like BFD3 . . . it's like having intricate control of a fully mic'd real kit, when you don't have room in your tiny studio. I do have FabFilter EQ, Cake Adaptive Limiter, and Craig Anderton KickMaster in the FXbin, and have used those for many years before this Export issue appeared, somewhere around the time they updated the Export module.

[noynekker]

7 hours ago, HIBI said:

Is your BFD version 3.4.3.7 ?
Just in case, you might want to update to the current latest version 3.4.4.31 and try to expot again.

Hey HIBI . . . I am on 3.4.3.7 . . . thanks for the suggestion, I'll try to do the update this weekend.

[noynekker]

9 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Unfortunately, there is only limited information that users can glean from a dump analysis. Specifically, which module raised the error (BFD3.DLL) and the type of error (heap corruption, very common in plugins). More detailed information can only be determined by fxpansion, as only they will be able to correlate your dump info to the exact area within their code that failed. It is always a program bug that causes this type of error (the dll attempted to write to a place in memory it wasn't supposed to), so only the vendor can fix it.

Hi bitflipper . . . thanks for that.

Fxpansion sold BFD3 to InMusic Corp . . . so not sure if they intend to develop or fix issues.

[Noel Borthwick]

14 hours ago, noynekker said:

@Noel Borthwick . . . Hi Noel, thanks for the tweak . . . I'll surely give that a try, and report back here.

Here's a WeTransfer Link with a few recent dumps if you want to have a look:

https://we.tl/t-AqW3hX3CIR

Nothing in the dump file other than the line that says its heap corruption. I would try disabling the flush tails setting.

Unhandled exception at 0x00007FFB7662F6A9 (ntdll.dll) in Cakewalk.exe.2592.dmp: 0xC0000374: A heap has been corrupted (parameters: 0x00007FFB766997F0).