Time line and now time display hitches and glitches

[Skelm]

Hi,

I recently migrated to a new PC with an Intel Core i7 14700k CPU, using the internal GPU and Windows 11. I have noticed I am getting a lot of hitching and stuttering on the time line (vertical now time indicator) as well as the now time display in the control bar, especially when in piano roll view. Not constantly, but fairly often.

The audio always plays perfectly, this is a graphics display only issue. I have checked the performance monitor and the CPU and GPU usage both remain very low (less than 10% GPU and less than 20% CPU) when this happens. RAM usage is also very low with loads of headroom. All drives are fast SSDs. There doesn't appear to be any corresponding resource shortage causing this. Drivers etc. are all up to date.

This is more of an annoyance than a show stopper, but I would like to clear it up, especially considering I never once had this issue on my old 3rd generation core i7 machine with half the RAM, also using the internal GPU. Does anyone have any idea why this would be happening and how to resolve it? Thanks.

[Chaps]

Try pressing the PAUSE key on your keyboard to see if that makes any difference.

[David Baay]

What are you using for an audio interface? Using WASAPI with onboard audio is more prone to this kind of thing and more prone to vary from one system to another, especially if it's WASAPI Shared rather than Exclusive. In any case make sure your Playback and Record Timing Masters are set correctly under Preferences > Audio Driver Settings.

[Skelm]

18 hours ago, Chaps said:

Try pressing the PAUSE key on your keyboard to see if that makes any difference.

Hi, pressing the pause key just seems to slow down the rate that the timeline updates, it doesn't fix the issue. Thanks.

[Skelm]

9 hours ago, David Baay said:

What are you using for an audio interface? Using WASAPI with onboard audio is more prone to this kind of thing and more prone to vary from one system to another, especially if it's WASAPI Shared rather than Exclusive. In any case make sure your Playback and Record Timing Masters are set correctly under Preferences > Audio Driver Settings.

Hi, I am using the real Yamaha/Steinberg ASIO driver - it is a Yamaha mixing desk which interface via USB to the PC. My setup is exactly the same as before except with a new PC, and this never happened on the older, supposedly much slower PC. This isn't an audio issue - it is a graphical display problem. Thanks.

[David Baay]

9 hours ago, Skelm said:

This isn't an audio issue - it is a graphical display problem.

I understand why you might think that, but unless your entire display is failing to update smoothly, I would wager this is actually not a graphical issue but an issue with the driver reporting the sample position consistently to CbB. It's a little unusual to have the Now Cursor position move erratically without also having audible glitches, but not unheard of. The Steinberg "Generic Low Latency ASIO" driver is actually known to cause exactly this kind of issue. There should be a Yamaha-provided driver for your mixer that will work much better, and you will want to remove the Steinberg driver from you system, not just disable it in Preferences.

[Skelm]

18 hours ago, David Baay said:

I understand why you might think that, but unless your entire display is failing to update smoothly, I would wager this is actually not a graphical issue but an issue with the driver reporting the sample position consistently to CbB. It's a little unusual to have the Now Cursor position move erratically without also having audible glitches, but not unheard of. The Steinberg "Generic Low Latency ASIO" driver is actually known to cause exactly this kind of issue. There should be a Yamaha-provided driver for your mixer that will work much better, and you will want to remove the Steinberg driver from you system, not just disable it in Preferences.

Hi, I am definitely using the correct driver - this isn't the generic driver you mention. This same driver was working perfectly in my previous computer, which was a lot slower (the driver provided is for Windows 10 and 11). Thanks for the suggestion, though. Happy to hear any other ideas.

 

[Sock Monkey]

I will verify the Yamaha drivers that come with the mixers are top notch. Im pretty sure Steinberg knows what they are doing with ASIO.  
The generic version only comes with Steinberg software. And it works fine with their software. It might only be Cakewalk that gets messed up by it. 

A lot of Yamaha gear like some of their fancy keyboards are also audio interfaces and are used professionally by many top players.  

I used a Yamaha mixer as an interface and it worked better than my Focusrite.  

Do you have this issue with other Daw’s?  Waveform is free and super easy to figure out. Try that to test. 

aAnd it doesn’t hurt to run Resplendence Latency monitor test. 
And make sure you are using the real video card driver and not a generic MS. 
 

[David Baay]

4 hours ago, Skelm said:

I am definitely using the correct driver - this isn't the generic driver you mention.

Though you may not be using it, the Yamaha-Steinberg installer likely installed the Generic Low Latency driver. Check is there's a key for it under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO in the registry and remove it if found.

[Sock Monkey]

6 hours ago, David Baay said:

Though you may not be using it, the Yamaha-Steinberg installer likely installed the Generic Low Latency driver. Check is there's a key for it under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO in the registry and remove it if found.

Easy to check. Go to The Yamaha site and download the ASIO driver. 

Edited January 13 by Sock Monkey

[Skelm]

15 hours ago, Sock Monkey said:

I will verify the Yamaha drivers that come with the mixers are top notch. Im pretty sure Steinberg knows what they are doing with ASIO.  
The generic version only comes with Steinberg software. And it works fine with their software. It might only be Cakewalk that gets messed up by it. 

A lot of Yamaha gear like some of their fancy keyboards are also audio interfaces and are used professionally by many top players.  

I used a Yamaha mixer as an interface and it worked better than my Focusrite.  

Do you have this issue with other Daw’s?  Waveform is free and super easy to figure out. Try that to test. 

aAnd it doesn’t hurt to run Resplendence Latency monitor test. 
And make sure you are using the real video card driver and not a generic MS. 
 

Hi Sock Monkey,

Latencymon runs with no spikes and considers the system good for real time audio, which it is - I don't have any audio problems whatsoever. As for the GPU driver, I am using the internal GPU on the intel Core i7, mainly to minimise fan noise. I am not against buying a separate GPU but I haven't needed one for the last 10 or 15 years - I thought the current internal GPU would handle at least as well as the one in my previous 3rd generation Core i7. The GPU drivers are also by intel, not MS.

I will do some testing on other DAWs to check if the issue persists, thanks for the suggestion.

[Skelm]

14 hours ago, David Baay said:

Though you may not be using it, the Yamaha-Steinberg installer likely installed the Generic Low Latency driver. Check is there's a key for it under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO in the registry and remove it if found.

Thanks, I will check my registry for this entry.

[Skelm]

On 1/13/2025 at 7:29 PM, David Baay said:

Though you may not be using it, the Yamaha-Steinberg installer likely installed the Generic Low Latency driver. Check is there's a key for it under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO in the registry and remove it if found.

Hi, no such key in the registry, just the Yamaha Steinberg USB ASIO driver.