8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

filler1
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8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by filler1 » Sat Sep 22, 2012 3:41 am

I am having frequent audio drop outs. I am running 8GB ram Windows 7 64 bit. The audio drop out lasts indefinitely, until I close the project, and reopen it. :roll:

mcnelson
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by mcnelson » Sat Sep 22, 2012 4:33 pm

I'm experiencing something similar - the audio drops and will not return unless you close the project and re-open OR you change the audio driver via the preferences (i.e from ASIO to MME or vice versa).

Strangely I have pretty much the same config - Windows 7 HP, 8GB Ram. I tried to remove plugins to see if it was a particular one was at fault but couldn't determine this to be the cause (some of the plugins were bridged using jbridge, default settings)

It only seems to happen with one particular project (so far), so I'm wondering if it has something to do with opening a project in 8.3 as well as 8.4, which this project has been?

NMG
Ableton Live::Audio Damage::Sonic Charge::Sugar Bytes

davidebattista
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by davidebattista » Sun Sep 23, 2012 9:19 pm

Yes it's same for me, the only to way it's close to project and reopen!!!
I was editing notes in midi file.
Win 64 16Gb 8.4b7

[mal]
Posts: 515
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by [mal] » Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:38 pm

Hi,

Is this new for this version or did it happen with previous betas aswell.

When it starts to become worse over time, thats normally a leak. Please inspect your memory monitor (windows activity monitor) or the activity monitor on mac and have a look.

Since both of you report that changing the audio driver eliminates the error im proned to think the audio buffer is filling up for some reason. Can you reproduce it with an onboard soundcard?

Best,
Mads

mcnelson
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by mcnelson » Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:40 pm

I can reproduce it with any soundcard (internal, external) and any driver (ASIO, MME). It's only been the past couple of beta's that I've noticed it - it coincided with a new external USB soundcard so my immediate suspicions centered on that, but more testing revealed this not to be the case.

TBH I'm far from a power user; 2 young kids and a fairly busy life means I don't get much time to devote to making music, or testing why Live has suddenly started crapping out on me. I'll keep my eye on the resource monitor and see what's happening whilst I do some more tests. Are there any log files to consult which might help to betray the culprit?

Thanks

NMG
Ableton Live::Audio Damage::Sonic Charge::Sugar Bytes

filler1
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by filler1 » Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:46 pm

Im working now, but I will try and reproduce why its happening when I get home. I have a feeling its moving too quickly when navigating vst's and Live's gui. I work fast, and pressing stop/play with the space bar while using the mouse to navigate, I have a feeling its making the audio drop

mcnelson
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by mcnelson » Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:01 pm

OK, I've done some testing, I can confirm the following:

Using 8.4b7 in a particular project, I can reproduce an audio "kill" by solo'ing a track when there's no clip active or audio playing in that track. What's really quite strange is that the "Test Tone" from the preferences dialog still works, so assume that uses a different audio output?

Will keep testing.

NMG
Ableton Live::Audio Damage::Sonic Charge::Sugar Bytes

filler1
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by filler1 » Tue Sep 25, 2012 2:52 pm

I believe it has to do with memory leaks. I am also beta testing FL Studio 10.6.1, and that is riddled with memory leaks. The same audio drop outs happen with FL, and it happens when I press stop and play too quickly while working. Its almost as if the program needs to catch up to what I am doing, so the audio just craps out.

The same thing happens with this version of Live. I was working on my project last night, running audio through ASIO on my focusrite interface, and 15 minutes into the project, I was moving through a midi piano roll with a vst loaded, pressing play and stop quickly, and shifting through the screens, and the audio crapped out.

[mal]
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by [mal] » Thu Sep 27, 2012 9:24 am

Hi,

When you experience dropouts and artefacts in another host, it is most likely due to a system specific problem and not pr se a live problem.

For the windows users, please download this monitor.
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

It shows you driver problems on your machine when streaming audio. Here you will see red spikes when the driver does not deliver the audiobuffers correctly and you have dropouts.
Please run sound and have this monitor open, have a look if you have general streaming problems on your machine.

You can go to device manager and disable following that are known culprits when streaming audio.
- ACPI battery compliant method
- Bluetooth devices
- Wireless network cards
- Ethernet network adapters.

Best,
Mads

filler1
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by filler1 » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:25 pm

Sounds good, I will try this later when I get home from work.

mcnelson
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by mcnelson » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:53 pm

Tried DPC Latency checker. No dice. All green. Can still reproduce problem as per my previous post.

NMG
Ableton Live::Audio Damage::Sonic Charge::Sugar Bytes

filler1
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by filler1 » Fri Sep 28, 2012 3:24 am

The DPC Latency checker had me in between 2000 and 4000. I disabled most of the devices, but still showed the same readings.

greekpeet
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by greekpeet » Fri Sep 28, 2012 3:42 am

Same issue here (for a while now prior to the beta) on OSX 10.6 .8

Kind of not usable for a 'live' situation, eh...

8) :roll:

filler1
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by filler1 » Fri Sep 28, 2012 1:59 pm

(mal)

After testing the stop and play theory I had, I dont think this causes my issue. I disabled the
- ACPI battery compliant method
- Bluetooth devices
- Wireless network cards
- Ethernet network adapters.

I am still in between 2000, and 4000 on the latency program. The audio drop out doesnt happen frequently though. Are there any other recommendations you may have?

Fanu
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Re: 8.4b7 Audio Drop outs

Post by Fanu » Sat Sep 29, 2012 9:15 pm

Im getting dropouts in the last beta, too.

I have a live set, which plays OK on the last release version, but with same audio settings etc, launching its scenes leads easily in dropouts in the last beta.

I did a topic about it, too.
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=184767

Can't pinpoint the problem there.

I think I'll send a status report of it to Ableton.

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