New DAW, CbB experiencing periodic momentary UI redraw freeze [RESOLVED!]

[Colin Nicholls]

1 hour ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

I know you said in your first post that you've checked you haven't pressed the Pause/Break key inadvertently, but have you checked the Scroll Lock Key?

Haha good suggestion but my clips pane is scrolling okay, just the UI response is being jerked around. The screen grab doesn't do a great job of showing this but there's four places I've noticed the periodic momentary UI freeze behavior now:

1. Rearranging Control Bar modules
2. Aim Assist tracking the mouse
3. Now Time playback
4. Vertical scrolling the Track Pane

I think there must be a common root cause here.

[Promidi]

What happens if you try this.

In preferences | Audio | Configuration File try adjusting the following:

EnableSetThreadIdealProcessor = False
MixThreadCount = {number of cores minus 1}

You might like to exit Cakewalk by Bandlab, go to the following folder and make a copy of the AUD.INI file before doing this:

%appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core

[msmcleod]

It does look like something is interrupting processing somewhere.

I'd start by disabling all antivirus & cloud-sync apps, disable your network adapter, make sure plugin scanning in Cakewalk is set to manual, and auto-save is off.

If none of those make a difference, start looking at other things running in the background.

If you can get to the place where it's no longer happening, start switching things back on until you find the culprit.

[Colin Nicholls]

I think I have found the root cause.

After all the above, I was more convinced it was due to a specific plug-in, probably one i used a lot, that was misbehaving.

I opened the Synth Rack and opened each VSTi properties window in turn, until Modartt Pianoteq 4  informed me that it was not activated.

(I'd previously activated v.5,6,7, and 8, but this project - and many others - still used v.4).

Once I'd cleared the activation prompt, the UI now responds as expected - smooth and un-interrupted. I am relieved.

Given how consistent this visual thing was, and how it went away as soon as I cleared the activation prompt, I'm thinking this must be it. (98% sure)

I would love to ask Modartt exactly how and why this happens, though.

 

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO CONTRIBUTED ADVICE TO THIS THREAD. YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST

[Noel Borthwick]

It's almost always plugins isn't it lol. A plugin should never block the UI that long for seconds at a time or it will block the UI from updating since Windows messages will be backed up. All UI drawing occurs on a single thread so performance issues like this result in choppy UI.

if a plugin needs to do an activation check it should be doing it asynchronously.

[jackson white]

On 7/6/2023 at 9:32 PM, Noel said:

It's almost always plugins

good candidate for a sticky.