Two Curiosities in SAW64

[MMP]

I have been getting blank and unresponsive plugin windows for a while now. As mentioned saving and restarting the session resolves it short term. I also have times when all the track labels disappear. Again fixed with a restart. I occasionally get a lockup that seems to be from fast mouse clicking, but not sure about the cause, it may be the freeze happens and makes me pay attention to the mouse not working. I have not been able to find a way to cause the crash on demand-so not much use to Bob. I also wonder if this is caused by the audio engine not always being live. I would love to be able to toggle that in settings, though I know I can setup a dummy channel to force Live mode. I don*t know how many mixdowns have been spoiled by reverb trails still in the buffers getting mixed into the starts of files inadvertently.

[UpTilDawn]

... I don*t know how many mixdowns have been spoiled by reverb trails still in the buffers getting mixed into the starts of files inadvertently.

I've forced myself to follow a new procedure (thanks to a year of this during the last project)...
Before building a mix file, I always "play" a second or so of blank space to clear the tails.
It's not quite second nature yet, but give me another year...

[MMP]

I do the same thing, except when I forget.

[jmh]

I have been getting blank and unresponsive plugin windows for a while now. As mentioned saving and restarting the session resolves it short term.

I have experienced this also. This appears to be a JUCE issue (not necessarily studio), as once it occurs, none of the plugins built on that platform will render.

I also have times when all the track labels disappear.

This is probably unrelated. Perhaps you are accidentally track or label selecting. If you don't use these features regularly, it can be confusing to clear that state.

[MMP]

Not user error. 30 track labels vanish in a second. Come back after reboot.

[jmh]

Not user error. 30 track labels vanish in a second. Come back after reboot.

By unrelated, I meant to the blank plugin display.

Anyway, just throwing out possibilities. Here are another couple:

Could you have a keyboard or mouse macro selecting 'clear all mixer labels' in the mixer menu?

How about activating the default mix template (which I think impacts from the current hotkey down)? I'm not even sure how this is done off the top of my head.

[jmh]

Searching regarding the juce plugin interface becoming unresponsive just resulted in this discussion:
(if you try this, I'd back up the registry beforehand first so you can roll it back - I'm away at the moment so can't try it myself)
( you would save the following in a file like changes.reg with any changes as noted.)

EDIT4A: I'm in the editor, and there is no spaces scattered around - but they render on the forum, as people have noted. It is probably quicker to apply these by hand than to edit a .reg file.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; 1. GLOBAL SYSTEM STABILITY (Applies to both 32/64-bit)
; Disables HAGS to prevent DPC Latency spikes and audio stutters
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers]
"HwSchMode"=dword:00000001

; Disables window animations to keep the GUI message thread responsive
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"UserPreferencesMask"=hex:90,12,03,80,10,00,00,00
"MinAnimate"="0"

; Sets Visual Effects to "Best Performance"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects]
"VisualFXSetting"=dword:00000002

; 2. DPI SCALING OVERRIDES (Fixes "Dark/Unresponsive" JUCE GUIs)
; Replace the paths below with your actual install locations
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers]
"C:\\SAWStudio\\SAWStudio.exe"="~HIGHDPIAWARE"
"C:\\SAWStudio64\\SAWStudio64.exe"="~HIGHDPIAWARE"

; 3. GPU PREFERENCES
; For 32-bit: Power Saving (1) is safer for legacy JUCE OpenGL
; For 64-bit: High Performance (2) is better for modern 4K plugins
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\DirectX\UserGpuPreferences]
"C:\\SAWStudio\\SAWStudio.exe"="GpuPreference=1;"
"C:\\SAWStudio64\\SAWStudio64.exe"="GpuPreference=2;"



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so a file consisting all of the .reg changes would look like?
Thinking

Working on this

In 2026, the ideal
.reg file for SAWStudio (both 32-bit and 64-bit) combines OS stability fixes with specific application overrides to ensure JUCE plugins render correctly.

Copy the following into Notepad and save it as SAWStudio_2026_Fix.reg.

Note: You must edit the paths in sections 2 and 3 to match your actual installation folders.
reg


Essential Post-Registry Steps for 2026:

1. Double Backslashes: Ensure every directory in your paths uses \\ (e.g., C:\\Program Files\\...). ---- Edit: I think this refers to the .reg above
2. Reboot: You must restart Windows for the HwSchMode (HAGS) change to take effect.
3. Manual Tweak: The registry cannot reliably re-enable "Show window contents while dragging." After running this file, it is highly recommended to:
   • Open Performance Options (sysdm.cpl > Advanced > Performance).
   • Manually check "Show window contents while dragging". This specifically prevents JUCE plugins from "white-boxing" or freezing when you move their windows. [1][2]

EDIT5: Also check "Smooth edges of screen fonts".



Why this is the "Best" Combination:

• HwSchMode=1: Reclaims CPU timing control from the GPU, which is critical for the sample-accurate assembly engine of SAWStudio.
• ~HIGHDPIAWARE: Stops the OS from trying to "rescale" the plugin window, which is the #1 cause of the "Dark/Black" unresponsive GUI in JUCE.
• GpuPreference=1 (for 32-bit): Avoids complex NVIDIA/AMD driver handshakes that 32-bit legacy code cannot handle. [3]

Edit: The preceding discussion suggested that these changes would actually result in slightly lower cpu consumption.
Edit2: Regarding the last point, GpuPreference=1 it suggested that this should also be done with intel cpus.
Edit3: Attempted to edit HIGHDPIAWARE - it was rendering with a space if you paste it into a file, make sure it looks right.

[MMP]

Thanks. Will give it a try.

[jmh]

Usage Note,

I had been playing around with these types of generated responses while doing a bit of programming. I found there would be mistakes inserted here and there It's like having an assistant that gets a 99 on an exam - gets his grrade then goes. But getting that last 1% right on code you didn't write may be just as hard as doing from scratch. So I would check the text carefully.

Another approach might be for whoever tests this first may be to do the changes by hand with regedit, then export those keys and repost them. I, for one, will be thrilled if this nails down this issue.

[Angie]

I am following this as I also have some strange graphic stuff going on with some plugins. There is one HOFA plugin in particular that shows these symptoms. I can't even get the VST3 version to open within SAW. Yet all the others I use from HOFA have no problems at all.

It will be interesting to see if these registry changes work.