Play stops for no reason - can't restart. Have to go into options to reset

paulcola · 05-01-2016, 08:20 AM

When playing audio to edit, the cursor will simply stop. When I click play, nothing happens. The behavior is very much like when you have the wrong audio device selected, so I go into Options... Preferences... Audio... Device and just click OK, then suddenly I can play again.

This has happened multiple times. Just stops playing, so I do the Options trick and it plays again. I don't even change anything in Preferences, I just click OK and it works again. Puzzling.

I'm on Windows 7 with an i7 processor and 16GB of RAM.

ivansc · 05-02-2016, 12:09 AM

what is your interface? what driver are you using for it? (eg ASIO or other)

I assume you already did all the stuff recommended for setting up your computer in the first part of the user guide?

Sounds to me like you have something set wrong in your audio device prefs.
Either that or you have something else running in the background that is stealing your selected audio driver from time to time.

paulcola · 05-03-2016, 11:50 AM

Thanks ivansc. I'll double check the guide and make sure I set everything up right.

I suppose it's possible something is stealing the audio device back, but I'm thinking not likely.

My "Audio System" is WaveOut" and my input and output device are the same, as I use a Scarlett 2i2.

Besides the input / output devices, I just left the rest as defaults since day 1. Everything was working and now it just stops and I have to click OK on that screen.

Grr, thanks for the reply. I'll go through the manual and make changes if needed. Just doesn't make sense for it to stop. The only other program running is Skype, maybe I'll stop that and see if it makes a difference.

ivansc · 05-03-2016, 02:08 PM

Most significant thing you can do in general is to load up the ASIO drivers for your scarlett and start using them.
You will see a stunning improvement in general performance.
But you WILL have to configure the ASIO buffer.

Once you have installed the ASIO drivers, go to Options/preferences/Audio/device/ and you will see several I/O options (including the wave one you are currently using) Select ASIO in and out and set your inputs and outputs in the next two drop down menus.
Then click on the ASIO configuraton box and the ASIO config utility window for your scarlett will open up.
From memory focusrite show the buffer size in ms, so set it somewhere in the middle, see if everything is working OK and if it is, start shortening the buffer size till it starts crapping out playback, then back it off a notch.
Good luck.

paulcola · 05-10-2016, 07:47 AM

Thanks so much for this info! I'm experimenting now. I appreciate the details.

New Info: My Scarlett is starting to act buggy... I think I found the culprit. I found that I couldn't play videos online, nor get any sound on anything. After resetting the Scarlett, both video and audio started working again.

Bummer.

Thanks again!

haervo · 05-10-2016, 11:20 AM

Most of the times it is this "Have you tried to turn it off and on again?"-thing...

cyrano · 05-10-2016, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulcola

The only other program running is Skype, maybe I'll stop that and see if it makes a difference.

IMHO, look no further. This is known behaviour for Skype. And unless you need it, fi to record Skype conversations, it shouldn't even be installed on a computer used for audio.

If you need to record Skype conversations, your best bet is using a second computer for Skype and connecting a hardware audio input to record.

ivansc · 05-10-2016, 11:51 AM

So embarrassed I missed the reference to Skype running as well!

Instant PITA if you try and run it AND a DAW.

paulcola · 06-12-2016, 10:30 AM

I changed USB ports from the back of the PC to the front. I don't know if their location in order of IRQ or perhaps their location on the hardware bus has anything to do with prioritizing those particular USB ports over the others, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

So far, only one time has the problem happened. And it was right after playing an audio file in VLC player. I'm wondering if Windows 10 is having trouble letting go of the hardware after it used in one port?

Either way, it's a lot better. Thanks for the replies here.

avocadomix · 06-12-2016, 01:46 PM

Some audio interfaces can not mix ASIO input with anything else. Others nominally can but tend to act up in this situation because of driver bugs.
Try updating the driver. If that doesn't work, likely to solve this, you will need to use the Scarlett exclusively for Reaper and configure Windows to output everything else through your onboard sound card (or a different audio interface). Either that or get a better interface with better drivers.

Edit: another thing you can try is to make sure that Windows outputs its audio through Scarlett at the same sampling rate as Reaper.