Sound dropout

[Mad Musicologist]

Hi all,

I have a track almost finished, many instruments, an original audio track with the singer, quite some VSt-FX, at the bottom of the mix I have been "collecting" the audio outs to busses, the last before "Master" is "MasterPreview", where I inserted a VSt-FX for room / space, and the LB-EQ to have the mastering section completely in the project.

When I hit the play button, sometimes I get the full sound, but sometimes, especially after doing some adjustment in the automation lanes, I only get a terrible SMACK (the meters in the master bus show something like 25 dB + (!), followed by silence. However, I see the meters of other buses show activity. I am a bit puzzled.

When I turn off the 2 FX in "Master Preview", after the second try (with more deafening smacks) the track would sound again, upon turning the FXson, yet another smack, followed by silence. But I do no see something like "Audio engine has been stopped".

At least I found out that, after saving the session and doing a reboot, things work again as expected.

What's the story, please?

If you need more details, please let me know.

Thankx.

[Larry Jones]

If you're ready to mix you might want to increase the buffer settings for your audio interface, which should smooth things out for you. If you're still tracking and you need super low latency, press "E" on your keyboard. That will disable all effects. If this lets you hear the project you probably have a plugin -- most likely a comp/limiter -- that is "looking ahead" on your timeline and so is causing the whole project to stutter. You'll need to use trial and error to find which one(s), and don't use it while tracking.

[CJ Jacobson]

On 4/6/2019 at 6:52 AM, Mad Musicologist said:

I have a track almost finished, many instruments, an original audio track with the singer, quite some VSt-FX, at the bottom of the mix I have been "collecting" the audio outs to busses, the last before "Master" is "MasterPreview", where I inserted a VSt-FX for room / space, and the LB-EQ to have the mastering section completely in the project.

I see a lot for improvement, but lets start here. Gain staging and signal flow.  The common way to do this:

Tracks go to the Master Bus and Master Bus goes to your Main Outs 1/2.  Sends go to buses and all buses go to the Master bus. 

What effects are you using for those +25dB spikes?

Ok, got that out of the way. 2nd, Drop outs are due to improper driver settings and lack PC performance. so what is your sound card, what settings are they set up to and what are your PC specs. If you have a good PC ,it can be as easy as raising your ASIO buffer to from 64 to 128 or 128 to 256 or 256 to 512 or 512 to 1024.

You could also have the dropoutsec in your .ini file set to low

[Mad Musicologist]

Thanks to all for answering.

Meanwhile, the solution came when I had that notification "audio engine unexpectedly stopped" for the first time. There was a link to the help site, where I had found what you both recommend: increase buffer.

And I located the plugin responsible. Is was the LB-EQ. Indeed, it has a "lookout", but I hadn't activated that. It wasn't a great loss to the mix quality, since LB-EQ is fantastic for "even" mixes, like classics or jazz. For the dub sound with heavy bass, it is too nivellating, the bass loses punch dramatically - it might be I did not find out how to avoid this when using LB-EQ. 

Only one question @ CJ Jacobson: "You could also have the dropoutsec in your .ini file set to low" - you mean; too low, or should I change it to "low"? Anyway, I did not yet dare to change anything in the .ini file. 

So everything is ok so far, issue solved.

Thankx again.

[CJ Jacobson]

18 minutes ago, Mad Musicologist said:

Only one question @ CJ Jacobson: "You could also have the dropoutsec in your .ini file set to low" - you mean; too low, or should I change it to "low"? Anyway, I did not yet dare to change anything in the .ini file. 

I meant that it could be set to low, but its fixed, so do not worry about it

 

20 minutes ago, Mad Musicologist said:

Is was the LB-EQ.

Do you mean LP-EQ? The only LB EQ i know is the Neve hardware EQ. Do you have the vst version of that?

Anyway, if that'LB EQ is glitchy, try out the Fab Filter Pro Q3 EQ. I can run over 100 of them in Cakewalk with no problem what so ever and its a great EQ. you can do mid and side and independent left and right channel edits

[abacab]

When using the Cakewalk LP EQ, you can disable the LP "look-ahead" buffer by using the "non-linear" setting under "Precision" in the plugin's Expert menu.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by abacab