2019.07 Feedback

[sabo fx]

12 hours ago, Chuck E Baby said:

Have you tried opening Cakewalk in Safe mode ?

 

Thanx Chuck E Baby for your reply!

Safe mode can only be used to selectively choose which VST to load or skip when opening a project.

However, my problem occurs at launch of Cakewalk prior to even having the ability to navigate to the "File" pull down menu. And the problem also happens after closing a project in cakewalk. I never had any of such issues before the 07 2019 release.

I'm curious to learn if I am the only person experiencing this problem.

[chuckebaby]

1 hour ago, sabo fx said:

Thanx Chuck E Baby for your reply!

Safe mode can only be used to selectively choose which VST to load or skip when opening a project.

However, my problem occurs at launch of Cakewalk prior to even having the ability to navigate to the "File" pull down menu. And the problem also happens after closing a project in cakewalk. I never had any of such issues before the 07 2019 release.

I'm curious to learn if I am the only person experiencing this problem.

you are correct, sorry I misinterpreted that.

Possibly its the Audio interface/Soundcards initializing process. Or a device (midi device) that cant synch with Sonar.

What devices, soundcard are you using ?

[sabo fx]

1 hour ago, Chuck E Baby said:

you are correct, sorry I misinterpreted that.

Possibly its the Audio interface/Soundcards initializing process. Or a device (midi device) that cant synch with Sonar.

What devices, soundcard are you using ?

Focusrite scarlett 6i6 2nd gen (Using most recent drivers)

Using ASIO driver mode in Cakewalk

Other possible relephant system specs:

Windows 10 Pro build 1903 (with latest updates)

32GB memory / AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.20 Ghz

 

[chuckebaby]

6 hours ago, sabo fx said:

Focusrite scarlett 6i6 2nd gen (Using most recent drivers)

I would ditch that and re install the old one. There has been aq known issue with the new Focusrite Scarlet drivers.

Read more here-

 

[Eve Ripper]

Quote

 

Recording

Loop recording on a track in Comp record mode will now automatically crop clips using the comping rules

 

I would say it needs to be updated.

In situation when you're recording alone you press rec button, then you play your takes. After you've finished you take away your fingers from guitar to touch stop button. So you're recording empty or noisy thing which of course should not be in the take.  

My request is to add function to delete unfinished takes and save only finished

[Eve Ripper]

also in scenario when you're adding takes like layers like adding hi-hat closed and open as different takes it would be good to update clip gain. I would like to adjust gain of different takes (not with automation).

 

Edited September 30, 2019 by Eve Ripper

[sabo fx]

On 9/20/2019 at 8:24 PM, Chuck E Baby said:

I would ditch that and re install the old one. There has been aq known issue with the new Focusrite Scarlet drivers.

Read more here-

 

Hiya Chuck,

Thanx again for your reply! I downgraded my focusrite driver as is recommended on the forum. This resolved some of my other strange issues i was recently experiencing (BSOD and such). But unfortunately it has not resolved my problem with having to wait for minutes, each time i launch Cakewalk :-(

[chuckebaby]

1 minute ago, sabo fx said:

Hiya Chuck,

Thanx again for your reply! I downgraded my focusrite driver as is recommended on the forum. This resolved some of my other strange issues i was recently experiencing (BSOD and such). But unfortunately it has not resolved my problem with having to wait for minutes, each time i launch Cakewalk :-(

Does your Focusrite driver installation require a handshake while installing ? Plug the USB cable into the same port as drivers were installed to.

Also important... Make sure you are not plugging it into a USB 3.0 port. Use a USB 2.0 instead.

Might even want to check your cable as well my friend.

We'll get it and figure this thing out  Its a like a puzzle with round pieces

[Noel Borthwick]

4 hours ago, sabo fx said:

Hiya Chuck,

Thanx again for your reply! I downgraded my focusrite driver as is recommended on the forum. This resolved some of my other strange issues i was recently experiencing (BSOD and such). But unfortunately it has not resolved my problem with having to wait for minutes, each time i launch Cakewalk ?

@sabo fx if you haven't yet resolved it yet can you please capture a dump file from task manager while the app is in a wait state. This may shed some light into whats taking long. The dump file will be large so you will need to zip it and upload it to dropbox or some other file sharing service. When you do that send me a link to the file and I will look into it.

[sabo fx]

2 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

@sabo fx if you haven't yet resolved it yet can you please capture a dump file from task manager while the app is in a wait state. This may shed some light into whats taking long. The dump file will be large so you will need to zip it and upload it to dropbox or some other file sharing service. When you do that send me a link to the file and I will look into it.

Hi Noel,

I really appreciate your help! I've send you my memory dump.

Thanx again!

[Noel Borthwick]

Hi @sabo fx I looked at your dump file. This is definitely not an issue in the 07 release.

What's happening is that the start menu is taking very long to populate the recent files list because it appears that some of your files are on a network drive.
You can see below that the code is attempting to launch the start page. However it encounters this UNC file path:

"\\192.168.178.21\workspace\Cakewalk\Projects\190901-Astatics\190901-Astatics.cwp"

When it encounters this path we're trying to check whether the file actually exists by calling the Windows API PathFileExists. After that we attempt to read some meta data from the project file for the start page. The PathFileExists operation is taking very long and likely timing out. Is this network path still active on your system?

     ntdll.dll!NtQueryAttributesFile()    Unknown    Non-user code. Symbols loaded.
     KERNELBASE.dll!GetFileAttributesW()    Unknown    Non-user code. Symbols loaded.
     KERNELBASE.dll!PathFileExistsW()    Unknown    Non-user code. Symbols loaded.
     Cakewalk.exe!CStartPage::CopyUserData() Line 1008    C++    Symbols loaded.
     Cakewalk.exe!CStartPage::LaunchStartPage(HWND__ * hWndHost, int) Line 585    C++    Symbols loaded.
     [Inline Frame] Cakewalk.exe!CCakewalkApp::LaunchStartPage(HWND__ *) Line 452    C++    Symbols loaded.
     Cakewalk.exe!CCakewalkApp::InitInstance() Line 4463    C++    Symbols loaded.
 

In general loading projects off a network drive via an IP address is not recommended since it could change if it isn't a static IP.
This is the reason for your hang. This is also why closing a project hangs - because its trying to load the start screen. You can improve startup by turning off the start page in preferences or loading a bunch of local projects so that the UNC paths are dropped from the MRU in start menu.

Let me know if this helps you resolve it.

[sabo fx]

36 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Hi @sabo fx I looked at your dump file. This is definitely not an issue in the 07 release.

What's happening is that the start menu is taking very long to populate the recent files list because it appears that some of your files are on a network drive.
You can see below that the code is attempting to launch the start page. However it encounters this UNC file path:

"\\192.168.178.21\workspace\Cakewalk\Projects\190901-Astatics\190901-Astatics.cwp"

When it encounters this path we're trying to check whether the file actually exists by calling the Windows API PathFileExists. After that we attempt to read some meta data from the project file for the start page. The PathFileExists operation is taking very long and likely timing out. Is this network path still active on your system?

Let me know if this helps you resolve it.

Hi Noel,

I'm really grateful that you (being a longtime hero to me) have taken the time to sort out my issue. I apologize for blaming my problem on the latest version of cakewalk. As you have shown, clearly it was not related at all!

I found the MRU entry that you referred to in the registry at
"HKCU\Software\Cakewalk Music Software\Cakewalk\Core\Recent File List"

I replace the value with the path to an existing local file. This totally solved my problem!!! Cakewalk finally launches lightning fast again.

Root cause analyses:
On the same day I updated my Cakewalk, I had a visit from a friend. We connected to his machine over a VPN to collaborate on a track. I guess that the problems started from the moment i disconnected from his VPN and the network location was no longer available.

Cheers,
Joost

PS: Also big thanks to Chuck for his advise on the focusrite driver issues.

[winkpain]

On 8/21/2019 at 1:28 PM, winkpain said:

Interesting!

So, what I am saying is, when "Zapping all" and returning to the default shortcut assignments, there seem to be some bindings that remain that are not represented in the Preferences-Keyboard Shortcuts window. In other words, the keystroke shows as "Unassigned" and nevertheless has a very obvious function.  Specifically, and one that has caused me literally years of confusion until today, is the number keypad NUM 0 key. This is hard-coded to an obscure (to me) "Enhanced editing with keyboard" function that I had never heard of or seen talked about, nor is there even  a corresponding menu item in the menu bar!

I have to say that inadvertently hitting the NUM 0 key, a very easy thing to do, causes profound confusion in regards to cursor behavior when editing clips. This NUM 0 key engages Enhanced Keyboard Editing with no indication other than a secondary cursor line appearing at a track row (and only on one track) location somewhere in the project that can very easily be completely hidden to the user given whatever zoom level or screenset you may be using. And then, being completely oblivious to the fact that you are in keyboard editing mode, the normal cursor no longer behaves as one expects with edits and inserts happening at locations that seem totally random.

Wow, has this driven me nuts! And I'm happy to now know the cause. But... what of this keyboard editing function?  Why no mention in the menus and otherwise no indication of the mode being engaged or not? Why is such an important default keystroke (NUM 0) shown as unassigned??

@Noel Borthwick The issue outlined in the above interchange between us last summer has reared its ugly head again! Perhaps it's a bit of a niche issue, but if it comes up, wow!

After the years of suffering the confusion it causes and the in-depth weeding it out last year (by un-binding it from key bindings), this "Enhanced editing with keyboard" function mysteriously started showing up again for me this week. For no apparent reason, this function started engaging whenever I hit the NUM 3 (numberpad 3) keystroke, which I have always had bound to the Nudge Right one bar function since time immemorial and thus is a very useful and oft-used keystroke for me.

Now pressing the NUM 3 key will engage Enhanced Editing, and pressing it again will not disengage it, unlike pressing NUM 0 in the default keystroke assignment. Then the only way out of this enhanced editing state is to either "Zap all" key bindings and then press the re-established default NUM 0 to toggle on/off Enhanced Editing, or otherwise to close and reopen the project.

Does anyone use this Enhanced Editing function??

And why, oh why does it want to persist even when I route it out? 

And most importantly, why is it a function that can only be turned on with a default key binding and is not otherwise configurable or controllable from the Menu (from the Edit menu, perhaps?) or in any other way?

 

For curious readers,  if you've not had the experience of the confusion it causes, just press the (number pad) NUM 0 key (provided it is on its default binding - achieved by "zapping all" and applying, if you've changed it like I finally did) and go back to editing your session - clicking, cutting, pasting, inserting. A strange, slightly thicker cursor appears somewhere on one track only (which may even be out of your current view) and is the only indication that you are in this other editing mode and shows (if you happen to notice it) the new location where any of your inserts/pastes/etc. will take place no matter where you click your mouse!

Now imagine having hit that NUM 0 key inadvertently, and never having ever used this, or even heard of this "Enhanced editing with keyboard" function, being completely confused as to what is going on!  Bloody hell !

Sorry, I'll stop.