Strange dropouts

[M_Casey]

This is a issue that I have been having for a while, across both Sonar and CbB (and two different computers). I will have a particular project running fine and then at some point it "breaks" and from then on it will experience consistent dropouts. the strange part is that it always occurs after 4:17 of playback. this happens no matter where in the song I begin playback. If I undo to where I know it was working properly it has no effect and the issue persists. Track count/ project size doesn't seem to affect the issue. I have had some success with removing softsynths (Rapture pro or BFD3  and/or Guitar Rig 3) so I assume its related to plugins. there are always workarounds so I'm not looking at critical failures, but I'm wondering if anyone had any ideas about the cause or any solutions. I'm also running thru a Roland Octa-capture if that helps. Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

[reginaldStjohn]

I have herd of others having this or a similar problem. I can't find any of the threads right now. However, it seems to be related to projects getting corrupted somehow?  I know that doesn't help answer the why but if you create a new project and drag your audio files and midi files into it does it still do the same thing? How about doing a "save as" to a different folder and make sure that "copy project audio" is checked?

[Promidi]

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Edited October 5, 2020 by Promidi

[Promidi]

We really need more information.

What are your machine specs and OS level. 

Have you installed the latest drivers? (using manufacturer's websites rather than Windows updates)

Exactly what Windows optimisation tweaks have you applied.

Tried disabling C-stated and Intel Speedsteep? (This is done in the PC's BIOS and the method varies between PCs)

Tried Start + run "control powercfg.cpl,,1" (without quotes) and set CPU Min and Max to 100% ?

In preferences | Audio | Configuration File Tried adjusting the following

EnableSetThreadIdealProcessor = False
MixThreadCount = {number of cores minus 1}

You might like to exit Cakewalk by Bandlab and make a copy of the following file before doing this:

%appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\aud.ini

Edited October 5, 2020 by Promidi

[M_Casey]

Sorry for the delay in responding. 

Promidi:

Computer is an off the shelf HP pavillion desktop. i5-7400 @3.00 Ghz     12 gig RAM   64bit

118 GB SSD hard drive for OS and programs 1Tb drive for Projects/samples   

Windows 10 home

No tweaks beyond basic "no windows sounds" "no power saving options"

99% of the time it works perfectly

I tried your suggestions in the audio config, and the "controlpower cfg....."  but no luck

I try to stay out of bios stuff until a last resort

 

 

reginaldStjohn:

I have been able to drag audio and midi files around to different projects and they seen to be fine. 

tried your "save as to a new project/location" suggestion and still saw the problem. I broke a "broken" project down to one affected track an one clean audio track to try and troubleshoot. The only thing that worked was either deleting the affected track or Archiving it. I also tried to "bounce to track" the affected track and it stopped during the fast bounce at the 4:17 mark with the warning "Not enough memory resources to complete this operation" 

 

 

[Promidi]

2 hours ago, M_Casey said:

118 GB SSD hard drive for OS and programs 1Tb drive for Projects/samples   

 

Can you post the specs of that 1TB hard drive.   Is it a 5400rpm?

You can use a program like CrystalDiskinfo to find this out

[Will.]

2 hours ago, M_Casey said:

118 GB SSD hard drive for OS

 

 

This right here could be your problem. Everything you install from your second drive get's installed on your OS drive and in return taking space - therefore causing your SSD to run slower/block, when reading your second drive to grab the samples on playback, causing the dropouts (assuming the 1TB is not an SSD as you didn't mention if it is.)  

My dropouts disappeared since I've copied all my samples on the same drive - keeping the originals on my external. My projects get saved every 1min automatically on my OS driver, but do the necessary manual Ctrl+S to save it on my second drive. I also only increase sample rates when I bounce/render/export the final product on both plugs and CbB. 

In return NO DROPOUTS for me on 60 + tracks. 

 

Edited October 7, 2020 by Will_Kaydo

[M_Casey]

The 1TB drive is a 7200 rpm SATA drive

Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0 Gbps 3.5 64MB Cache Hard Drive

this seems to be pretty much a consumer level drive. May have to upgrade when I finish some almost completed projects.  but, as I said,  I never seem to have problems with reading samples even on large projects. 

 

[John Vere]

I have a very similar system. Off the self HP  i7 12GB RAM etc. I also have  a similar data drive and possibly the biggest difference is my OS in on a 250 ssd.
I haven’t done much to tweak it same as you and I have no issues.  If I do have an issue it’s always a 32 bit plug in.  

I run my projects from the data drive and most of my sample data is in the default location of the C Drive. 120 is just a bit too small for a DAW. I am planning on updating my data drive to a ssd but right now everything is fine so will wait a bit longer. The price keeps going down and the size going up.