Intel NUC 7i7 16GB RAM
ESI Maya22 USB interface
Cantabile Solo
Use-case is a single master song with toggled embedded racks for a handful of instances of Pianoteq, VB3, OBXD and Poise.
Has been running very well until the last few days when the following issue developed:
Works as normal for circa 30 secs after loading
There is a standstill for a few seconds, followed by huge increase in latency
No glitching, but toggling the OBXD instances on/off causes an audible trail in my delay rack (not there previously)
Clicking “factory defaults” on my USB interface’s control panel solves the problem, but it recurs shortly thereafter.
I’ve set up everything as per the Glitch-Free guide.
Substituting a difference interface also solves the problem, but I need to use this interface as it lives inside my keyboard!
Running the same VSTis in Reaper, using the same interface, I have no such issues - same true of running the VSTis standalone i.e. there doesn’t seem to be a problem with the interface, rather in how Cantabile is implementing it.
Have had a helpful email dialogue with Brad but we are left scratching our heads.
Addendum: when I select factory defaults in my USB interface’s panel, it tunes up just north of a semitone! It’s perfectly in tune when the latency issue is present.
Something very odd happening! But again, no issues with this interface in Reaper
I assume you did deep diagnostics in Cantabile and wonder if they detected the event(s) that occurred previous to the crash? Also what version number are you running? Did you update Cantabile recently? Did you you update the audio card drivers recently? If Reaper works with the same interface then that rules out cables so it seems like it has to be the driver not liking Cantabile in some way.
I’ve tried reinstalling Cantabile (latest version), older and newest sound card drivers, all to no avail.
I’m suspicious that Windows made some changes when I accidentally went online. “Never” doesn’t seem to be an option for Windows Update in my version - only a few weeks - I shall set myself a calendar reminder to keep moving the date back!
Sadly I can’t find a way to rollback to the settings prior to this problem.
Thanks to the observation from @dave_dore that this sounds like a driver Vs Cantabile situation, I went back through the legacy drivers for my interface and found one which eliminates the issues described above. Fingers crossed…
I never had a single positive experience with ESI devices. If changing the interface solves the problem, you have your answer. Having to returnn to a legacy device driver is never a good sign in regards to the commitment of the vendor to assure a bright future! I would start to plan a replacement solution sooner than later…
This looks suspiciously like a sample rate issue - 44.1 vs 48 kHz - between Cantabile and your interface drivers. Playing 44.1 kHz audio at 48 kHz causes exactly this “roughly semitone” effect.
First: make sure that the sample rate is the same between your audio interface control panel and Cantabile’s audio driver settings.
Second: check the vst instruments you are using for sample rate incompatibilities - I have come across some that only play nice at 44.1 or 48 kHz.