ASIO improvements

Automatic Dropout Restart behavior

The most common reason for audio dropouts is ASIO device state changes. This dropout is most commonly triggered if you change latency or sample rate in the ASIO panel.

By default, Cakewalk will now automatically restart the audio engine when certain kinds of benign dropouts are detected. If playback is underway, the dropout is handled and playback resumes automatically from where it left off. This behavior can be changed in Preferences > Audio - Configuration File by setting the RestartEngineAfterDropout flag. Set to False to revert to the prior behavior of displaying a dropout toast notification.

 

Note: If recording is underway when this happens, you will get a dropout notification as before.

Latency updates from ASIO driver panel are reflected in Cakewalk

In prior Cakewalk versions, changes to the ASIO driver panel were not always reflected in Cakewalk until closing and reopening the Preferences dialog box.

ASIO latency can be set from Preferences dialog box

For supported audio devices, the latency slider in Preferences > Audio - Driver Settings can now be used to change the audio buffer size without the need to open the manufacturer’s ASIO panel. For this to work, the driver has to support reporting its latency metrics to the host and respond to preferred buffer size requests. If supported, you will see a latency slider with the min/max latency as recommended by the driver. If unsupported, the slider will be disabled.

 

Note: The Buffer Size slider will move in steps as suggested by the ASIO driver. One of the advantages of this feature is that you may have access to more granular buffer sizes than the driver panel offers. It is not guaranteed that every latency value supplied by Cakewalk will be acknowledged by the driver.

StopEngineOnASIOPanelOpen Aud.ini variable

A few ASIO devices require that the host should not use the device while making changes to device settings. Some devices may display an error or gray out the controls in the ASIO panel while others may silently ignore changes. In prior versions of Cakewalk, the only solution was to exit the app for such devices. In version 2019.11, you can set the variable StopEngineOnPanelOpen in Edit > Preferences > Audio - Configuration File. Setting it to True (default value) will automatically stop and release the ASIO interface allowing you to change settings in Cakewalk.

Change preferences while audio is playing

You are now able to open the Preferences dialog box and change settings even while a project is playing. If a change is made that requires the engine to restart, you will hear a small interruption in the audio while the changes are committed and playback will continue after the change. This has the following benefits:

Inspect or make changes to preferences without needing to stop playback or input monitoring.

Make changes to audio latency while playing audio to adjust audio processing load dynamically. Note: This only works with ASIO devices that can handle real time buffer configuration changes.

 

See:

ASIO drivers

Audio - Configuration File (Advanced)

Audio - Audio Profiles (Advanced)

Audio - Driver Settings

AUD.INI

New features