[solved] Audio drops out, CPU goes insane...

sporkles · Post by **sporkles** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:11 pm

What the hell is this all about? The project worked fine up until yesterday, when
this started happening. I've just worked on it for two hours without problems,
and now it started happening again. This has never happened before. I'm
playing back the song when the audio suddenly drops out. I hear a couple of
pops, press stop - nothing happens for a while. Then, the CPU-meter goes
insane for one second - as can be observed in the picture. I regain control of
Live, but when this has first started happening, it will happen again.

System: Intel QX6700 Quad 2.66 / 2 GB RAM / M-Audio Firewire / Windows XP
Reason 4.0 rewired to Live 6.09
~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT: It was a VST that was causing the spikes. Gee, what a shock. The
culprit is called Cygnus.

sparklepuff · Post by **sparklepuff** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:20 pm

I think you just hit a record.

sporkles · Post by **sporkles** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:23 pm

All right - reply one more time, and at least you'll hit a milestone...

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:33 pm

We should have a contest to see who can get the highest CPU reading...

Corn Swabler · Post by **Corn Swabler** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:38 pm

I can win. I can has most CPU. HIGHER HIGHER HIGHER.

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:44 pm

I'm pretty sure the CPU meter is percentage of AVAILABLE CPU that Live is using.

reboot
run a virus scan
make sure your RAM is still connected and healthy
check for disk space
fun stuff like that

sporkles · Post by **sporkles** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:51 pm

Tone Deft wrote:I'm pretty sure the CPU meter is percentage of AVAILABLE CPU that Live is using.

reboot
run a virus scan
make sure your RAM is still connected and healthy
check for disk space
fun stuff like that

Well everything is fine aside from this. My production computer isn't connected
to the net, so a virus is pretty much out of the question. I've got plenty of
disk space. And I did turn off the computer between yesterday's and today's
session...

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:59 pm

it's gotta be something, right? check your settings in the preferences, check your sound card settings, all that. you're assuming something is setup right that's not, right? assumptions are dangerous.

Corn Swabler · Post by **Corn Swabler** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:49 pm

EVERYTHING WORKS EXCEPT THE BROKEN PART. there is not broken part. FIX IT TONE MAN.

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:54 pm

Joshstrap · Post by **Joshstrap** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:58 pm

this happened to me using an m-audio mobilepre which I'm assuming has a more than a bit in common with your firewire interface.

I dropped the sample rate in live from my max at 48 down to 41 (or was it 44?... anyway the next lowest) and I haven't seen a problem since. Might wanna give it a shot. I'm not noticing enough of a difference in audio quality for it to bother me.

I due miss watching my CPU really put in that extra effort for me. That 900% was inspiring as hell.

sporkles · Post by **sporkles** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:29 am

The sample rate definitely seems to be the likely culprit here - thanks for the
heads up! I dropped it to 44, like you suggested, and I could play through the
track again. Out of curiosity, I raised it to 96, and the problem returned...

Oh, and by the way: I'm not sure if this is a world record, but it's definitely a
new personal best for me:

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:00 am

update your drivers. I couldn't run all the sample rates as advertised on the front of my sound card until I updated, the BOOM they showed up in Live and I did a happy dance. 192kHz and freaky low latency.

aburgener · Post by **aburgener** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:44 pm

holy shit...

sporkles · Post by **sporkles** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:54 pm

It was a VST that was causing the spikes. Gee, what a shock... The
culprit is called Cygnus.