Waveform Display Loss

  • Thread starter Thread starter mark4man
  • Start date Start date
mark4man

mark4man

MoonMix Studios
In Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, I normally open 3 or 4 tracks in Audio View (for organized editing purposes.) Lately, the waveforms are disappearing from the audio clips, with only the zero axis remaining. The sound is fine, but the waveform is lost from view. If I save, exit the app; & re-open the app, they're fine. Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks.

mark4man
 
Cakewalk keeps copies of the waveforms in its picture cache directory. If the directory gets full, it overwrites some of the waveforms, and then it needs to redraw them when you open another project (which at times can be quite slow). If you wait, the waveforms will probably appear. However, if you provide for a larger directory, this won't happen as often.

Find the file called "aud.ini" and open it in a text editor. Look for the line:

PicCacheMB=20

Change the 20 to something larger (50, 100), depending on the size of your hard drive, and you should have less problems.
 
thanks also

Dachay I'd like to thank you - I'd been getting pretty sick of waiting for those waves to be drawn too and always thought it was my graphics card, but now it all makes sense. Cheers.
 
...That's cool, but I can't find that in SONAR. How to do that in SONAR ?
 
...That's cool, but I can't find that in SONAR. How to do that in SONAR ?
Click to expand...
I find it...

My aud.ini in the beginning of the file:
[Aud]
DataDir=D:\Cakewalk\Audio Data
PictureDir=D:\Cakewalk\Picture Data
PicCacheMB=100
PicCacheZoom=128
CopyOnImport=1
.......
.....
.....
 
James Argo said:
...That's cool, but I can't find that in SONAR. How to do that in SONAR ?
Click to expand...
What is it you can't find, James? The aud.ini file, or the particular setting within the file?

The aud.ini file should be in the same directory that Sonar is installed to.
 
No, no...
I can find aud.ini just well, but there's no such line like :

PicCacheMB=100

Is is okay to add some ? I swear it's just not there... But my SONAR works well.
 
James Argo said:
Is is okay to add some ? I swear it's just not there... But my SONAR works well.
Click to expand...
That's very odd. I don't think there would be any problem in adding that line to the .ini file, however, if your Sonar is working well then personally I would just leave it alone.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. :)
 
Just curious...
Here's my original aud.ini looks like in SONAR 2 XL:

[Aud]
DataDir=C:\Cakewalk Projects\Audio Data
PictureDir=C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache
[Creative SB Live! Series (WDM) (1 in, 1 out)]
Name=SB Live! Wave Device
WDM.0=110 110 480 480
WDM.1=220 220 480 480
WDM.2=441 441 480 480
WDM.3=480 480 480 480
WDM.4=480 480 480 480
WidePacking=0
........
..........
............

I did uninstall, clean all files & registry entries related and reinstall SONAR. Check the aud.ini, still no PicChaceMB=.... I found by adding that line, doesn't have any effect to it's work. Is it common thing or what ? Not to scare away, but just curious... :confused:
 
James - Every install of Sonar I've ever done (even going back to PA9) always had set the picture cache to 20 mb (PicCacheMB=20 ). This seems to be the default size, and it was established by the Sonar installation. I have always found 20 mb to be too small, and it often slowed down the appearance of the waveforms.

I'm not sure what happens if that particular line is missing from the aud.ini file. Maybe it simply means there is no limit. That would be a good thing, except you could end up wasting a lot of your hard drive space storing pictures of waves. I'm guessing that even when you deleted projects, the waveforms from those projects (.wov's) would stay on your hard drive.

Why don't you take a look in your picture cache directory (C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache) and see how much stuff you have stored there. If it's over 100 MB, you might want to think about adding the PicCacheMB line to your .ini file.

Also, on another topic, I assume you only have one hard drive in your system? If not, why are you using your C: drive to store your audio files?
 
dachay2tnr said:
Why don't you take a look in your picture cache directory (C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache) and see how much stuff you have stored there. If it's over 100 MB, you might want to think about adding the PicCacheMB line to your .ini file.

Also, on another topic, I assume you only have one hard drive in your system? If not, why are you using your C: drive to store your audio files?
Click to expand...

Dachay brother, I wanna thank you for keeping in touch.
I have opened the Picture Chace folder, and only found 218kb of single .wov file. I open some of my .cwb file, make some editing and see what's going on. Okay, there's couple files created within the Pic folder. When I close SONAR, boof... they're gone. I didn't even flush 'em. Once again, I never had any problem with that, just curious if this is right or wrong. May be this is what came up with version 2 XL, since I just use it for one and half months. Still digging on it anyway. I use 2 physical HD, usualy one for OS, and other for audio, but I just haven't configured 'em again yet since I reinstall SONAR. Glad to know there's somebody to share. Thank's. :cool:
 
I don't know, but I think Sonar is supposed to erase the temporary wov's and wav's when using bundles. If you're only using bundles, that may be the case...
 
Moskus raises a good point. I know this is the case for your .wav files. If you open a Sonar bundle file, it will create a .wav file in your audio directory. When you close the bundle file, the .wav file will be removed from your hard drive (assuming you did not save this as a work file in the interim). I've never checked if this is the case for .wov files, but it most certainly could be.

I also checked my system last night. I went into my picture directory and deleted all the .wov files. I then opened a project file (.cwp). Upon first opening it there were, of course, no wave pictures in Sonar. A minute or two later the waves appeared. After they appeared I closed the file and shut Sonar down, and checked the picture directory. Sure enough, there were 10 or 12 new .wov files there.

-----------------

The other thought that occurred to me, James, is that possibly not having the PicCacheMB line in your aud.ini causes Sonar not to save ANY .wov files. However, if that were the case I would think you would have noticed it performance-wise, since everytime you opened a file you would have to wait for the wave pictures to be created. If your wave pictures are there immediately upon opening up the project, then I would discount this thought.

One final comment for anyone reading this thread: not having the wave pictures does not cause any playback problems. The files will still play fine - even without the pictures being present. However, it does make it a bitch to try and edit some things. :)
 
You made it clear Dachay... and I wouldn't mean to accept this. I can always have the wave picture right there in no time... Thank's for the explanations... This is why she didn't forget your act... :D :D :D
 
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