| Better Cakewalk Timing Fix [message #107989] |
Sun, 08 December 2013 05:56  |
mikeaudet
Messages: 476
Registered: February 2009
Location: Canada
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Senior Member |
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Hi Guys,
I'm not sure how many of you use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 for your MIDI needs, but I found that every Cakewalk update after Pro Audio 9 only addressed audio tracks and virtual instruments, neither of which I care about. So, I've kept using version 9.
There is one problem that Pro Audio 9 has: it was written before a command was introduced that switches Windows into a low-latency mode. The tricky part about this fix was that it isn't enough to just switch Windows into the low latency mode; only applications that specifically call for a low latency mode are affected by the change. All other apps get the same 16ms clock intervals.
I got about half of this fix done a while ago, but I wasn't really happy with it. The old fix required changing the registry, and every app that loaded would load cakewalkfix.dll, and if it was Cakewalk calling, timeBeginPeriod(1) would be called. This new way doesn't require a registry change, and nor other applications are affected.
This approach uses a small application that:
1) Loads cakewalk, but suspends the main thread.
2) Injects the cakewalkFix.dll into the cakewalk process.
3) Cakewalk fix calls timeBeginPeriod(1), setting the timers to 1 ms resolution for cakewalk
4) The main thread in cakewalk is released, and cakewalk loads as usual.
All you have to do to install this fix is copy the two attached files to the cakewalk folder (the one that has cwpa.exe in it) and change your cakewalk shortcut to point to startCakewalk.exe instead of cwpa.exe. You'll see a dos box open for a second, but otherwise, Cakewalk will open as usual.
I hope this helps someone else get better MIDI timing. When synching Cakewalk to PARIS via MTC, I get 1 ms variance in MIDI timing vs. 16 ms without this fix.
I put the same fix into the PARIS application via a change to the PSCL in the last release of the driver.
Cheers!
Mike
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| Re: Better Cakewalk Timing Fix [message #107997 is a reply to message #107989] |
Tue, 17 December 2013 09:17  |
mikeaudet
Messages: 476
Registered: February 2009
Location: Canada
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Senior Member |
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I guess there are only three of us that still use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9! That's fine. 
I started the DAW journey with a Digidesign Session 8. I bought it for close to $5000 back in 1996. I was using Cakewalk 5, if I remember right. The midi timing was very tight until I started running on Windows 95. Then, the midi sync with Cakewalk sucked.
I upgraded from Cakewalk 5 to 6 to 7 to 8 to 9, and the smpte synch didn't get any better.
When I switched to PARIS, on version 1.8 and before 32 bit MTC, the timing was even worse. People were using SMTE tracks and external boxes to sync a MIDI sequencer to PARIS (including me). When 32 bit MTC and then PARIS 3.0 came out, the synch with Cakewalk was much better, but still only as good as the Session 8 was under Windows 95 when syncing to Cakewalk - which wasn't what it should have been.
Now, all these years later, the sync is rock solid.
That makes me happy.
Mike
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