How many physical ports (ASIO) can Cakewalk address

[norfolkmastering]

I'm beginning to use quite large numbers of physical audio ports with Cakewalk and I'm having issues above 32 ins and outs.  Of course it might be an interface driver issue but I wanted to find out what the Cakewalk limit is?

[Glenn Stanton]

CW is software -- so no physical limits except what the machine can handle: throughput - IO, sample rate + word length?, RAM, busses, disk, and CPU all play a role in limiting the IO as well as those of any drivers (like HW specific ASIO - which is what you should be using for a large number of inputs for (supposing) best performance possible). using USB? so USB 3.1 = ok, USB 3.2 = best (at the moment), other things operating on your USB? wireless keyboard, mouse, disk drives, keyboards, etc.? # of CPU, # of RAM gb per CPU core? Perf vs ECO cores? numa channels? etc etc etc

i know people have posted on the forum with 500+ track projects so i'd look to ensure your hardware paths and processes are capable.

[msmcleod]

I'm not aware of any limit as such.

I use 32 ins  / 34 outs without issue (RME Digiface USB using USB 2.0), however the more input ports you have open, the slower some operations will be such as arming tracks on the fly.

You can mitigate this to an extent by enabling "Always open all devices", which will open them all on project start up, but that's doing is moving the wait to the start.  This is the best option however (IMO) if you always use a lot of inputs.

Really, the best thing to do is only have the inputs checked in preferences that you actually need.  Quite often I leave mine at around 8 inputs, and only enable the rest if I'm actually using them.

TLDR :  Opening each audio port for recording takes a up to a second or so (depending on the interface/driver), so think about which time is least of an issue for you, and set the options accordingly.

I've never found the number of outputs to be an issue or cause any additional delays.

FYI - I've recorded 32 simultaneous tracks on a 2GHz "silent" PC  (it's around the size of an old audio cassette case), through USB using the RME without any dropouts or glitches.  It was a USB 3.0 port, but the AFAIK device is only using USB 2.0 speed.

[Glenn Stanton]

14 hours ago, msmcleod said:

You can mitigate this to an extent by enabling "Always open all devices", which will open them all on project start up, but that's doing is moving the wait to the start.  This is the best option however (IMO) if you always use a lot of inputs.

i seem to remember that this (when not using all of them) caused a significant number of file to be opened and some allocation which was causing severe performance degradation... of course if you need them open, then you need them.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Glenn Stanton

[msmcleod]

1 hour ago, Glenn Stanton said:

i seem to remember that this (when not using all of them) caused a significant number of file to be opened and some allocation which was causing severe performance degradation... of course if you need them open, then you need them.

Yes - this is to get them set up for writing to when recording.  A reasonably sized file / buffer for each audio input port is needed to ensure glitch-free recording.

The earlier this is done, the better really - waiting until you actually hit record would be problematic if you wanted to manually punch in for example.

[Milton Sica]

6 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

Yes - this is to get them set up for writing to when recording.  A reasonably sized file / buffer for each audio input port is needed to ensure glitch-free recording.

The earlier this is done, the better really - waiting until you actually hit record would be problematic if you wanted to manually punch in for example.

Hello, I don't know if I'll make myself understood, but the question remains:

1) You are saying that if I keep this configuration.....

Will I find better performance than this? Since I only use channels 1/2 and only one of them?

[msmcleod]

37 minutes ago, Milton Sica said:

Hello, I don't know if I'll make myself understood, but the question remains:

1) You are saying that if I keep this configuration.....

Will I find better performance than this? Since I only use channels 1/2 and only one of them?

It depends on what you mean by performance.  It will take longer to open 3 input ports than 1 input port.  If you have "Always open all devices" checked, this is done once, otherwise it's done on demand when you arm a track.

Once the ports are open however, there is no difference in performance.


 

[Milton Sica]

30 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

It depends on what you mean by performance.  It will take longer to open 3 devices than 1 device.  If you have "Always open all devices" checked, this is done once, otherwise it's done on demand when you arm a track.

Once the device is open however, there is no difference in performance.


 

The device is the same (TASCAM US 600)!
Is there a difference in whether it opens all the ports or only the ones I will actually use?

[msmcleod]

Just now, Milton Sica said:

The device is the same (TASCAM US 600)!
Is there a difference in whether it opens all the ports or only the ones I will actually use?

sorry I meant ports... I'll edit my original post.