Hello fellow Cakewalkonians,
I thought it might help to post a problem and solution I encountered.
 
My plugins were all greyed out and not receiving the inputs I was sending to them.
Somehow the right-click menu items, "Bypass FX Rack" and "Bypass Effects Rack of This Type"" had been selected.
 
I don't know how I activated those options, maybe a short-cut key-combo that Mr. Thumbs here accidently used, but I wasted 30 minutes figuring it out.
 
Learning the hard way, as usual. LOL!
Ray

The keyboard shortcut is "E"
The FX button in the Mix module also toggles FX bypass.

I did an E instead of an F yesterday and my mix went wonky.
I thought, "Oh no what did I do?" I know I had missed with my finger / brain and used an E so
I hit E again and "Ah... that's better..."
 
Unfamiliar key bindings are an adventure. Maybe I should have my wife test me with keybinding flash cards. I'll bet she'd like that.
 
 

Single key shortcuts are a mixed blessing. For example O for offset mode, a change so subtle users could really mess up their projects before realizing what had happened. This default was finally removed a few versions ago. Fortunately, it is possible for users to do the same with many of the single key shortcuts. If the "Bypass All Audio Effects" binding to E is a problem consider binding E to "Do Nothing: Use to block pre-defined accelerators."

Great info.
It's comforting to know that I am not the only Mr. Thumbs.
And I think I will go to the "Do Nothing" route. Good idea.
 
Thanks so much,
Ray