Latency increases while playing along in loop

[donrowlett]

1st time posting here, please be gentle!

I have a very simple project where I recorded a single 2-minute midi track chord progression. I disarm recording, set a loop on the first 12 seconds, hit play and then experiment with various melodies using my Yamaha keyboard. No latency problems on the first three iterations, but midway through the 4th iteration a latency shows up, and gets progressively worse with each iteration.

By the 6th or 7th iteration it takes more than 10 seconds between pressing a piano key and the time the sound is heard. I discovered that I don't even need to play during the first three iterations, if I start in the 4th iteration the latency is there. No latency if I click keys in the piano roll.

I am using Windows 11 ver22H2 with the WASAPI Shared driver. I have no hardware audio interface. Tried ASIO4All and other software audio drivers, no joy. Fiddled with all the settings Mike mentions in the "How to Fix Latency in Cakewalk" video, no joy. There is nothing out of the ordinary when I analyze system performance in Task Manager.

I'm stumped. The only workaround at the moment is to loop no more than three times, stop and start the playback again for another three loops. Suggestions?