No sound in VSL Synchron Player after reopening Cakewalk project

Please double check
- Main Volume, and
- Expression
are not set to 0.
This might be set by your DAW, or a MIDI input device via CC.

Nope, that's the state I'm getting:

Can you send a DAW project file to [email protected] so my colleagues can take a look at it?

OK, I've send the question to VSL support.

Just checked, and it seems to affect only VST3 version of the plugin. Maybe not a problem for small VSL freebies, but I'd rather have it sorted out before plunging into any larger lib.

What am I missing, when launching VST2 version instead of VST3?

There are almost no differences between the VST2 and VST3 versions of the Synchron Player, but how a DAW interacts with a VST2 plugin compared to a VST3 plugin hugely differs.
This said, right now I have no idea why this might be. I'm also not a Cakewalk user, so it will probably not help if I check out this file, but I'm sure my colleagues in support will have a look as soon as they are back from the weekend.

Reviving the thread, since the VSL support was only able to reproduce the problem, but so far did not promise any timeframe for the possible solution.

I think @Simeon is a Cakewalk user, who also occassionally uses VSL Synchron Player. Maybe he can chime in?

Jumping to say that I am seeing identical behavior in vst3 Synchron Player and Cakewalk.

And for some reason, which is likely on Cakewalk side, I cannot get Cakewalk to recognize the Synchron Player vst .dll even though the .dll are in the search path of the the Plugin Utility.

SlHarder said:

Jumping to say that I am seeing identical behavior in vst3 Synchron Player and Cakewalk.

And for some reason, which is likely on Cakewalk side, I cannot get Cakewalk to recognize the Synchron Player vst .dll even though the .dll are in the search path of the the Plugin Utility.

Click to expand...

Cakewalk does recognize the Synchron Player Surround vst2 .dll so I'm using that and the Cakewalk files save and load properly with Synchron Player instruments.

SlHarder said:

Cakewalk does recognize the Synchron Player Surround vst2 .dll so I'm using that and the Cakewalk files save and load properly with Synchron Player instruments.

Click to expand...

What sampling rate are you using in the project and on your ASIO output device?

JohnS said:

What sampling rate are you using in the project and on your ASIO output device?

Click to expand...

Thanks for your interest in my problem.

As of now this is an identical issue reported by several users. The solid workaround is to use the vst2 builds of Synchron player. It's a good workaround as there is very little functional difference between vst2 and vst2 versions.

SlHarder said:

Thanks for your interest in my problem.

As of now this is an identical issue reported by several users. The solid workaround is to use the vst2 builds of Synchron player. It's a good workaround as there is very little functional difference between vst2 and vst2 versions.

Click to expand...

Workaround is not a solution. I still don't know what I potentially loose, using vst2 instead of vst3. And support for the former can be abandoned anytime by either VSL or Cakewalk.
What's your sample rate? I'm looking for some pattern here.

I had a similar problem with Cake and BBCSO after the update. For some reason CW is having trouble with the new schemes that .vst devs are using. This is the procedure I used. It may not apply to you but I hope this helps in giving a few clues.

"I basically got rid of the BBCSO .vst3 sitting on it's own in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. There is also a BBCSO folder there as well. I Renamed the folder (getting rid of the .vst3 suffix.)

I Then went into that folder and pulled out a BBCSO .vst3 file that is in there.

Replaced the earlier vst3 file I had deleted (The one that was sitting on it's own in the common files) with the one I copied. Success!

My guess is the various .vst3 filenames in different spots threw Cake off on which one to use.

I Also made sure to scan when I got rid of the .vst3 and then scanned again after restoring with the new .vst3 so Cake did not get confused."

Ableton did not have this problem and I gather this is a Cake exclusive thing. Until the new Sonar comes out, I'm afraid things like this will be more common for those of us in the current CW wasteland

jazzman7 said:

I had a similar problem with Cake and BBCSO after the update. For some reason CW is having trouble with the new schemes that .vst devs are using. This is the procedure I used. It may not apply to you but I hope this helps in giving a few clues.

"I basically got rid of the BBCSO .vst3 sitting on it's own in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. There is also a BBCSO folder there as well. I Renamed the folder (getting rid of the .vst3 suffix.)

I Then went into that folder and pulled out a BBCSO .vst3 file that is in there.

Replaced the earlier vst3 file I had deleted (The one that was sitting on it's own in the common files) with the one I copied. Success!

My guess is the various .vst3 filenames in different spots threw Cake off on which one to use.

I Also made sure to scan when I got rid of the .vst3 and then scanned again after restoring with the new .vst3 so Cake did not get confused."

Ableton did not have this problem and I gather this is a Cake exclusive thing. Until the new Sonar comes out, I'm afraid things like this will be more common for those of us in the current CW wasteland

Click to expand...

Thank you @jazzman7
Indeed, I've also found some redundant (older) BBSCO dll from 2021.

Then I've checked all the VST directories specified in Cakewalk for redundant .dll & .vst3 files associated with Synchron Player, but I've only found two instances (one VST2 and one VST3):
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2\Vienna Synchron Player.dll (17.08.2023)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Vienna Synchron Player.vst3 (17.08.2023)

Then I've renamed the .vst3 and rescanned the VSTs in Cakewalk to forget about the renamed plugin and closed Cakewalk. Then renamed the plugin file back to original name, started Cakewalk and rediscovered the plugin. Didn't help.

JohnS said:

Thank you @jazzman7
Indeed, I've also found some redundant (older) BBSCO dll from 2021.

Then I've checked all the VST directories specified in Cakewalk for redundant .dll & .vst3 files associated with Synchron Player, but I've only found two instances (one VST2 and one VST3):
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2\Vienna Synchron Player.dll (17.08.2023)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Vienna Synchron Player.vst3 (17.08.2023)

Then I've renamed the .vst3 and rescanned the VSTs in Cakewalk to forget about the renamed plugin and closed Cakewalk. Then renamed the plugin file back to original name, started Cakewalk and rediscovered the plugin. Didn't help.

Click to expand...

EDIT: O Crap! It suddenly Dawned on me

(After writing all that below!)

that your problem is Synchron is loading fine, but then going dead. I think I know your solution.

Go to your Preferences/MIDI and uncheck "Zero Controllers when play stops".

I have a number of Vst's that just stop dead if that is not unchecked.

You may not have need of anything I wrote after this line!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I forgot I have Synchron Player myself. (Just a few freebies) So have not used it at all lately. Just fired up my .vst3 version and it works fine. Problem is it's an older version.

Make sure to look for any folders that have a .vst3 suffix as well.

Example from the CW forum:

"IKM has included the folder Tonex.vst3 in the install.
For some reason that is confusing CbB.
Rename the folder TONEX. That "fixed" things here. Tonex standalone and the the vst3 is now working."

"THAT fixed it! Thank you! I've been working with IK's tech support and will let them know that appending .vst3 on a folder name is suboptimal."

"Allowing the dot in a folder name has been available in windows for quite some time now, i'd suspect that it's to do with the way cbb is parsing the filepath string and assumes that the dot indicates a file not a folder?"

"ideal solution is cbb handles modern folder naming"


Devs are adding that suffix on updates lately. There are at least 3 or 4 that I'm aware of now.

Sonible SM EQ4 also blows up CW. Even when excluding it. It's mere presence in my system crashed it constantly. When I completely uninstalled, suddenly no more crashes.

Also, What version of CW are you running? I have the next to last update because there have been too many reports of problems with the latest version.

Also remember that the CW plug-in manager is a separate utility. Excluding didn't help me directly, but it was one of the things I did before.

It looks like the CW bakers have left users twisting in the wind until the new Sonar. I hope I'm wrong.

I haven't been this seriously thinking of switching DAWS since Gibson threw us all in the dust a few years ago

I've found this option here:
Edit > Preferences > Project > MIDI > Other Options > Zero Controllers When Play Stops
toggled on/off, re-saved the project, restarted Cakewalk, but didn't help.

Even tho It didn't fix your particular issue, keep the "Zero Controllers" unchecked. It causes me headaches every time I forget this.

I'm afraid I'm out of ideas here. Just make sure to track EVERY instance anywhere in your system that has a .vst3 label connected to Synchron. Especially Folders. Hope you eventually get it fixed. Might be time for us Sonar peeps to shop for a new DAW