VST Plugins won't open in project window

[Ann Ominous]

Hope this is the right forum to post in.

It's the weirdest thing, but suddenly I can't get my plugins to open when I'm working on a project. I double click on the plugin name in the FX rack, but nothing happens. Sometimes, but not every time, I see a blank window pop up for about the minimum amount of time needed to even be able to realize it happened, but that's it.

The plugins load into their respective tracks, and they're working, but since the plugin window won't open, I can't edit any settings. The vast majority of the plugins are NI's Guitar Rig 6, but I'm also using, for example, the Multivoice Chorus/Flanger DX plugin, and it won't open either. I've checked all of my projects and it's the same in all of them. I've tried shutting CW down and re-opening it, and even gone so far as to reboot my system, but none of that helped.

This came out of nowhere, I haven't had any issues with my plugins before, but I'm at a complete loss. If anyone has any ideas, they're greatly appreciated.

[mettelus]

Try cycling ALT-Tab (hold the alt key) and see if there is a plugin window in that pop up. You may have it hidden behind the app or out of view if you used multiple screen monitors at some point.

[Steve_B]

Does this problem just apply to plugins that are already loaded in a project? If you try adding a new synth track or just a new(different) effect to a track does the plugin UI window open?  If it does, then the multi screen thing is a very likely cause of this problem and  the plugin windows are there but hidden on another (possibly now missing) screen. Have you had any extra device plugged into the video output? Video projectors count and I think some graphics tablets might as well.  

Could Display resolution / text size settings in windows system settings play a part in this? Anyone?   Has that changed at all?  

Steve

[Ann Ominous]

13 hours ago, mettelus said:

Try cycling ALT-Tab (hold the alt key) and see if there is a plugin window in that pop up. You may have it hidden behind the app or out of view if you used multiple screen monitors at some point.

Mettelus, thanks. Should have called out in my original post that I already tried that. When you hit <ALT<TAB> and look at all of the apps it shows as open, Cakewalk appears as one of them, but there's not a separate one for the plugin window. Even then I still cycled through every window, and there wasn't one for the plugin.

[Ann Ominous]

7 hours ago, Steve_B said:

Does this problem just apply to plugins that are already loaded in a project? If you try adding a new synth track or just a new(different) effect to a track does the plugin UI window open?  If it does, then the multi screen thing is a very likely cause of this problem and  the plugin windows are there but hidden on another (possibly now missing) screen. Have you had any extra device plugged into the video output? Video projectors count and I think some graphics tablets might as well.  

Could Display resolution / text size settings in windows system settings play a part in this? Anyone?   Has that changed at all?  

Steve

Steve_B, thank you. The problem did occur with both plugins added to new tracks and to plugins already loaded into the project.

But your response did get me to try a troubleshooting step I hadn't thought of, which was to connect to and power on my second monitor and, sure enough - there it was. Now, this is weird because I haven't used my second monitor for a couple of months now (literally have had it powered down), and this behavior just started happening last night but, hey, the problem's solved. Welcome to the wacky world of PC behavior. ?

Anyway, thanks again, appreciate the assist.

[Ann Ominous]

@mettelus, and I just realized, you basically called that out as well. You specifically reference multiple monitors, and I glossed over that. So thanks to you as well!

[mettelus]

No problem. I can be pretty terse if typing on my phone (I hate typing on a phone). CWP files save the location of child windows when they are saved, so if a second monitor was being used for child windows during that save, they will be out of view if opened on only one monitor. I think someone posted a quick trick to reset those to the main monitor a long time ago, but I forget what it was! I have always had to resort to turning the other monitor on as well.

[Michael Tyshchuk]

Hello, guys, i`m somehow having the exact same problem. i did recently start using a second monitor, so i suspect it might have something to do with that, but the windows do not appear there either.
any ideas what else might be causing this or how i could troubleshoot?
EDIT: nvm, i fixed it.
Apparently if the second monitor is powered off but the monitor setting is set to "extend", the windows just blip out of existence.

Edited July 18 by Michael Tyshchuk
problem solved

[Ben Staton]

CbB/Sonar remembers the positions of plugins when a project is saved, and restores them when the project is re-opened. It also remembers the position of the last opened plugin, and uses it when deciding where to place newly opened plugins. This generally works pretty well and intuitively.

But, if you power off a monitor that was previously hosting a plugin (just turn it off, leaving it plugged into your PC), CbB/Sonar has no way of knowing it's currently switched off. So when you re-open your project, plugins may still 'appear' on that monitor. And if the last plugin you used was on that monitor, CbB/Sonar will open new plugins in that same position going forward too.

This isn't so much a CbB/Sonar issue as it is a Windows issue (I expect the same would happen in other DAWs too). If you look at Windows display settings, you'll see that Windows itself still considers the switched off monitor to be present and usable. Indeed, your mouse cursor will disappear into it if you move it over there! As far as Windows is concerned (and, therefore, any apps running on it, including CbB/Sonar), it seems the power state of the monitor is irrelevant!?‍♂️

It's a tricky one to deal with from our perspective. There isn't a convenient way for us to ask Windows if a particular monitor is on or off, and the plugin positioning logic is otherwise sound.

However, there's a way to avoid the issue altogether. In Windows display settings, select the monitor and choose "Disconnect this display" (as opposed to "Extend desktop to this display"). Alternatively, physically unplug it from your PC! In either case, your plugins will appear on your primary monitor even if they were positioned on the disconnected monitor before.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

Edit: Of course, if you're seeing unexpected behavior that can't be explained by this, let us know and we'll investigate. 

[mettelus]

2 hours ago, Ben Staton said:

However, there's a way to avoid the issue altogether. In Windows display settings, select the monitor and choose "Disconnect this display" (as opposed to "Extend desktop to this display"). Alternatively, physically unplug it from your PC! In either case, your plugins will appear on your primary monitor even if they were positioned on the disconnected monitor before.

Thanks for the response. Quick question, does this behavior occur when shifting from extended back to a single display in Windows, i.e., shifting Windows itself from Extended mode to Display 1/2? In that situation the unused display goes into standby mode (with power), but I forget now if the plugin windows pile back onto the single display or not. I seem to recall that was the "quick fix" but wanted to verify when you get a moment.

[Ben Staton]

41 minutes ago, mettelus said:

Thanks for the response. Quick question, does this behavior occur when shifting from extended back to a single display in Windows, i.e., shifting Windows itself from Extended mode to Display 1/2? In that situation the unused display goes into standby mode (with power), but I forget now if the plugin windows pile back onto the single display or not. I seem to recall that was the "quick fix" but wanted to verify when you get a moment.

If you have two monitors, for example, and the secondary monitor is either physically unplugged from the PC, or you change it from "Extend" to "Disconnect"/"Duplicate" in Windows display settings, then it's basically gone as far as CbB/Sonar is concerned. As soon as you unplug it or change the setting, Windows automatically moves any windows on the secondary display back to the primary, and CbB/Sonar will position newly opened plugins on the primary display afterwards too. That's what I've seen during testing on Windows 11, anyway.

IOW, Windows and CbB/Sonar should handle that scenario gracefully. It's only when an 'extended' monitor is powered off but its video cable remains plugged into the PC that things get confusing. Even unplugging the monitor's power cable isn't enough for Windows to consider it truly removed!

But again, if anyone is having issues that don't fit with all of this, then I'm happy to investigate further.