Help - Reaper playback instabilty is killing me

[timryan257]

My Reaper configuration has become unusable of late. I have spent many hours over the last couple of weeks trying different things I have read here to no avail -- Reaper is unstable and I can't use it. Which means I haven't been able to record anything in weeks ! aaarrgh

I've been using Reaper for a couple of years, I think I was on XP when I started, then went to a new machine with Vista. Vista sucked in general, though Reaper ran ok, and I moved to Win7 a few months back to try to improve my overall Windows situation. And overall, I did. But it seems that Reaper has been problematic since the move to Win7, and I'm tearing my hair out [which I can't afford !] trying to get back to a working configuration.

The main problem is that I started getting the "flashing red transport bar" on playback and tracks would drop out. On top of that I also seem to be experiencing very slow project loading at times for some projects [takes forever to load wav files].

Among the things I have tried: Reinstall Win7, delete all traces of Reaper64 and reinstall latest version [several times], remove Reaper64 and run Reaper32, load projects with and without plugins, tried different Reaper buffer settings, turned of indexing on the audio drive, etc. Seems like no matter what I try, Reaper has the same instability and I can't playback without major dropouts and crashes.

System is a Dell 2.33Ghz Quadcore with 8GB ram. The only plugin I use regularly other than the ones that come with Reaper is EZDrummer. My interface is a Line6 UX2, but I haven't had that online for weeks, I've been just using the Waveout device while troubleshooting. Audio files are on a separate physical drive.

just now I tried once again to play back a simple song project I'm working on ... 6 tracks, about 4 minutes, loading with plugins offline, using the WaveOut audio device, only get about 20 seconds into playback before I get the flashing red bar and tracks start dropping out. Soon no tracks audible, though Reaper transport is still "playing". If I hit the stop button, nothing happens -- but both play and stop buttons are depressed at the same time, play continues with dropouts of some or all tracks until some period of time goes by [could be several sec, could be several min] and Reaper finally comes to its senses and actually stops.

Would love any help anyone would like to provide.

[pac-man]

My first guess would be there's something off with your audio drive...
Have you tried running audio from another drive, the system drive for example?

Does WaveOut support useable latency/buffer settings? Never used it myself...

[Fabian]

Originally Posted by timryan257

just now I tried once again to play back a simple song project I'm working on ... 6 tracks, about 4 minutes, loading with plugins offline, using the WaveOut audio device, only get about 20 seconds into playback before I get the flashing red bar and tracks start dropping out. Soon no tracks audible, though Reaper transport is still "playing". If I hit the stop button, nothing happens -- but both play and stop buttons are depressed at the same time, play continues with dropouts of some or all tracks until some period of time goes by [could be several sec, could be several min] and Reaper finally comes to its senses and actually stops.

To me, this sounds very much like buffer overrun. It can have many reasons, including HD wearing down and becoming slow... or fragmentation. Have you tried defragmenting? Backup the important stuff, then use Auslogics defragmenter.

Also... Why are you using Waveout? Ty ASIO, if nothing else at least ASIO4ALL...

[PHLENDOCAT]

+1 on de-fragging your HD. It'll take a long time to get this done, but worth it. Also, de-install your audio device (after the de-frag), and re-install it after a restart.

[Boray]

Hard drives are defragmented automatically in Vista/W7 if you haven't turned that off...

Have you monitored your cpu load to see if that has anything to do with it?

[Boray]

Try adjusting your energy settings to always run the CPU at 100% frequency.

[Fabian]

Originally Posted by Boray

Hard drives are defragmented automatically in Vista/W7 if you haven't turned that off...

Hmm... so it does. I didn't know, but now I see that defrag.exe is scheduled to run "at 01:00 every Wednesday of every week, starting 2005-01-01". I had no idea, and Auslogics defragmenter found lots of files to defrag for me... strange.

Thanks for pointing this out.

[steveo42]

When you get the dropouts, do you see the hdisk light on solid?
If so, it could mean a sick hdisk.
Try the defrag first.

Also run this dpc latency checker:

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

You should never go into the red, or even the yellow.
If you do, common culprits are networking, especially wireless.

[woolyloach]

Also, you might try installing ASIO4ALL and use that instead of Waveout. On my Toshiba laptop, Win7 64-bit, I can run pretty massive Reaper projects without issues.. 16+ tracks, half VSTi and half mangled WAVE files or Acid loops.

And yeah, some wireless network cards can hang the system up sporadically - I turn wireless off on my machine when I'm working.

[70srocker]

Originally Posted by pac-man

My first guess would be there's something off with your audio drive...
Have you tried running audio from another drive, the system drive for example?

Does WaveOut support useable latency/buffer settings? Never used it myself...

That was my first thought. I would try copying a project onto the same drive that Reaper is installed on and try running it from there and see what happens.

[DeyBwah]

Waveout is miserable.. get ASIO4ALL. I use A4A on my laptop with great success.

Also, make sure your audio hard-drive isn't filled close to capacity. I usually try to keep my hard-drives at least 1/3 empty.

[joelsampson]

Do you WiFi? That does very bad things - as I learned the hard way.

[dasombre]

Also turn of "SearchIndexing" of the Harddrives. This might very well be the reason for the red transport as reaper can't read from the harddrive fast enough.
Just right-click on every drive and UNcheck "Index drive for fast search" or something like this.

AND: set your energy-settings to high performance.
There is a handy utility called Game-Booster (which turns off all unnecessary windows tasks, it's made for gamers but applies to DAWs too, if you are too lazy to tweak your WIN 7 :-).

I've tweaked it but Gamebooster might be a solution for a faster Win7 too.
If you're not to lazy than check out blackvipers win7 tuning guide:

http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/servicecfg.htm

quite a bit to do but brings a lot. I've used the "tweaked" services settings, and my machine runs very slick.

Cheers

[Klemperer]

Originally Posted by timryan257

...then went to a new machine with Vista. Vista sucked in general,

Just a general post here, after all the advice you got. Your statement above might be a bit of an example that many of us know. Things run unstable, so one guesses, as everyone tells you, it's Vista. Whereas it was a fact that in early days Vista was causing many problems (strange and boring ones too), sp1 and sp2 solved many of them, and there are countless users now who can run Reaper without the least problem coming from Vista. So try everything out is what the example says.

I don't have Win7, but get the flashing red transport bar too. After long searches I found out that it's related to NI Akoustik piano in my case (and yes, the same one runs without problems in Studio one artist or Podium, so yes, sometimes things are a problem vst(i) X and Reaper.)
Now I use another piano in Reaper, or record with another host and put the file into Reaper. Same with Reaper and IK Multimedia Amplitube 3 (was a IK problem, got half way fixed, but some bugs still remain, and no side works on it even if you write to the teams or post threads - well, there are many other things to do, I can understand that).

As already pointed out, if your card has no good asio drivers (I have no clue here), use Asio4all.

Try exactly what you do in Reaper with any other host, there are many demos, or free versions, sometimes "light" versions. This way you can save yourself further trouble finding the fault with Reaper, just in case it would be something else...

It's definitely getting on the nerves not to be able to do a song, that's for sure... For me it's easier to first check all basics (a hard disk would have to be extreeeeeemely defragmented if loading times of wavs took ages suddenly, that's for sure). And then, if you went through all the great tips here, soundcard ok, asio ok, usb connections ok, power set to maximum (in Vista you have to do this, in XP it wasn't so important, I always switch from saving energy (all the time) to full power if I make music) - try to make a song in another host. If all problems still exist, the problem wouldn't be Reaper - related...
Hope something from this thread here can be of help to you, and you can start making new songs soon.

[KnightStream]

Out of curiosity, were any of the naughty tracks recorded on your old OS? If you record a fresh project, does it do the same? Are there mismatched bit-depth on simultaneous tracks? Have you considered using an external HD for media(FW 800, preferably)?

[timryan257]

First, thanks for all the great input everyone. You give me hope !

in response to some of the specific questions/suggestions:

1 - I am only using the Waveout in order to rule out my ASIO/Line6 UX2 interface as part of the problem, per the suggestion in the troubleshooting FAQ here on the forum. Results seem very similar whether I use Waveout or ASIO

2 - I have not tried running the audio from a different drive, will do that today

3 - Win7 tells me that there is that both my OS drive and my audio drive are 0% fragmented. Looks like Win7 is automatically defragging once a week. I also ran a full chkdsk on all drives, no errors.

4 - CPU load does not seem to be an issue, not noticing any unusual peaks or correlation between Reaper issues and CPU load

5 - Windows power settings are currently set for high performance -- hard disk does not turn off [not sure if this applies to audio drive ?], no sleep, minimum processor state is 100%

6 - dpc latency checker shows all green

7 - there is no wireless networking on this machine

8 - some of the "naughty tracks" were recorded with the old OS, I'm definitely seeing problems with older projects. But the one I'm currently having problems with, and testing with, was only created a a couple of weeks ago. But in the spirit of science, I should start from scratch again and retest.

UPDATE - I just opened a few of the problem projects from my backup disk [external USB2]. No dropouts ! So seems my internal audio disk is at the root of the problem. But there are no evident problems with the disk itself, so some backplane bus issue ? its a relatively new disk that I added shortly after I got the machine, specifically to use as
an audio disk with Reaper, no apparent problems till recently. So do I replace the disk, or use my external disk as the primary audio device and use the internal drive as the backup ? Will USB2 suffice for the audio drive ? looks like a recent project with 12 tracks and plugins on every track, including ezdrummer, is running fine off the external drive. Will continue testing running off the external disk, but so far this looks promising. yay !

[shoyoninja]

I don't see how a harddisk could go so slow in order to dropout the way you related. I would check the sata cable, maybe trying a different port also...

Oh yes, how are you using your SATA controler? Is it on legacy or AHCI mode?

If it's on AHCI, maybe its driver issue. Try downloading newer ones from you MB manufacturer.

[timryan257]

shoyoninja -- how do I tell if I'm using ACHI or legacy? actually, when I look at my Device Manager, it lists two disk drives that both appear to be ATA, not SATA. Both are using Microsoft drivers from 2006. I bought the PC about 2 years ago, so not too old.

[timryan257]

so it looks like they are SATA drives, at least that's what the ports on the motherboard and the cables say. Still not sure how I determine whether it's operating in legacy or AHCI mode. I switched the audio drive to an open SATA port on the m'board, no change

[Boray]

You could try some disk benchmark program to confirm it's the hard drive.

[timryan257]

after muddling around for a few more days, I finally went out and bought a new hard disk. That seems to have solved the problem. And when I removed it I realized it was the same Western Digital model that had completely crapped out on my on another computer a couple of years ago. No more WD for me ! thanks to all for the ideas. now back to our previously scheduled program, already in progress ...

[Boray]

I regard Western Digital as a good quality brand. The lowest quality brand in my opinion is Seagate. I've had three Seagates dying on me.