Go Back   Cockos Incorporated Forums > REAPER Forums > REAPER for macOS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 02-18-2015, 05:39 AM   #1
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default What can you do ?

Hi,

I would really appreciate some help with this please.

I have not had a single AU plugin to work without issue for me since getting reaper on mac. Even my AU s-gear has got problems ( see most recent bug report ). Basically, reaper constantly transmits midi data to all plugins and this messes up the ones that need a mute ( like s-gears AMP A/B switch ). The dev. of s-gear was very helpful but couldn't sort it and it is apparently a feature of reaper and not a bug ( which i can understand but not sure i agree with ). It has now developed a delay and mute between selecting s-gear and when selecting between AMP A/B which means i can't even live mix automate with this parameter.

I used to have an old version of cubase and a pc and that was rock solid in all respects.

I have had data loss from projects with reaper on a mac. I always save and backup but its not great when it happens and it really slows me down.

I am only using stock plugins except for s-gear and ignite amps ( VSt crashes reaper occasionally but AU crashed reaper every time ). I have tried removing ignite amps plugins but s-gear did not improve.

S-gear is integral to my projects and i don't want to do without it ( i did pay for it and reaper ) so i am wondering if anyone has any ideas how i can improve stability on my system to maybe get rid of some of the s-gear problems and stop data loss.

Cheers

EDIT : forgot to say i am on reaper V4.71, and Lion 10.7.5.
EDIT 2 : Have now upgraded to reaper V.4.77 but still same problems with s-gear.

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-18-2015 at 08:57 AM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 10:13 AM   #2
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

What about using the buggy plugin compatibility mode on every single 3rd party plugin that i use. Will that help ?

What about a fresh reinstall ?

Cheers
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 10:38 AM   #3
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by hermitcrab View Post
I have had data loss from projects with reaper on a mac.
This is a hardware outside of Reaper & OSX. I'd look at the hard drives in use first. All bets are off until this is fixed.

After that...
Sometimes you find a bug in a VST version of a plugin but the AU version is fine and vice verse. There's no pattern. No 'one normally works better than the other' or 'works better in OSX'. It really is a bit like the wild wild west with plugins. That you get two choices here at least puts you ahead of the game.

I can tell you from my experience anyway that you will not find a more stable DAW than Reaper in OSX FWIW.

The one general comment on Reaper and plugins is:
If you have Anticipative fx Processing enabled in Preferences/Buffering, disable it per track for any track with a 3rd party plugin (AU or VST) inserted.
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 11:10 AM   #4
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Thanks man Serr,

I really appreciate your knowledge on this. I forgot that i had recently put on the anticipative Fx processing but taking it off has not helped. I am now getting crackling noises in one of the s-gear channels.

Sorry, i didn't mean data loss i think (?).I still have the audio files , its just the saved versions in reaper have lost a few plugin settings for s-gear.

I am a guitarist primarily and i haven't been able to even get one distortion pedal or amp sim plugin to work properly on this system ( except for amplitube free which i don't use ).

I have not had a single AU plugin to fully work for me in Reaper. I can't find buggy plugin compatibility now....

My experiences of Reaper on mac lion have been very different from yours unfortunately. I might just have to quit reaper and try garageband to see if s-gear works there but it would be a shame after 6 months of learning reaper not to mention all the features i would miss.

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-18-2015 at 11:53 AM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 11:59 AM   #5
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

The data loss thing...
That is without question failing hardware somewhere. I'd suspect a hard drive first. Troubleshooting computer hardware these days isn't as black and white as it used to be. First signs of hardware failure often come across looking like a slight performance hit because everything is so fast now that there's headroom to work around things. Especially with OSX for an OS.

I just had a 2TB 7200rpm HDD go down on me a couple weeks ago and literally the first signs were a very lightweight Reaper project suddenly struggling to keep up. The processor suddenly had a lot of extra work buffering around the hard drive as it flaked out.

FYI, Garageband, you will find, is a very restricted demo for Logic. I suspect you will not think much of it after having your hands on Reaper but YMMV.

Anyway, the data loss part is the critical bit to me. Everything else is up in the air until you get to the bottom of that.
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 12:06 PM   #6
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Oh dear, it looks like the hard drive ( 120 gb ssd on a 2011 macbook air ) might be on its way out then as i have noticed a slight increase in the cpu meter within reaper recently and wondered why that was.

Yes, garageband is very limited. I just loaded AU s-gear into it and it immediately caused garageband to shut down ( crash ).

I don't know what i can do.

yikes
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 12:50 PM   #7
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by hermitcrab View Post
Oh dear, it looks like the hard drive ( 120 gb ssd on a 2011 macbook air ) might be on its way out then as i have noticed a slight increase in the cpu meter within reaper recently and wondered why that was.

Yes, garageband is very limited. I just loaded AU s-gear into it and it immediately caused garageband to shut down ( crash ).

I don't know what i can do.

yikes
I honestly haven't had my first SSD failure personally yet. I thought it was supposed to be a more immediate/instant thing. HDD's often start to fail 'gradually'. And of course it's possible I'm off base simply by not having all the clues in front of me too so don't panic just yet! Just make sure your backup is current is the main thing. Hardware can be replaced.

Your SSD isn't almost full is it? That would explain a slight degrade in performance and would be more of a use management issue for example.

Maybe run a speed test on the SSD and see if anything jumps out as abnormal. You don't just have another slot for another drive to easily A/B some hardware so this could be a bit of a game of cat and mouse until it fails completely (if that's what is going on).

What is your backup drive? Do you simply clone your system drive to it? If it's a clone of your system and the drive is fast enough (maybe USB3?), try booting from the backup drive and see what happens. Even if it's USB3 it will still be significantly slower but if the main drive is starting to have problems you might at least get another clue this way.



I've heard a lot of recommendations for S-Gear. Need to try it myself.
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 01:14 PM   #8
jerome_oneil
Human being with feelings
 
jerome_oneil's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Seattle
Posts: 5,635
Default

Mac's Disc Utility is pretty weak. I use Alsoft's Disk Warrior (and I'm religious about Time Machine backups) and that has helped considerably.

http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

Worth the $100 or whatever it is they want for it.
jerome_oneil is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 01:37 PM   #9
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Thanks for the help fellas,

I just want a DAW that i can use s-gear in to be honest as it is not working properly now in reaper and it almost instantly crashes garageband 11 ( 6.04 ) when i try to load it, so i am out of options.

Regarding the possible drive failure, i can't be sure it is using more cpu in reaper and i still have nearly half the disc left ( 52 gb of a 120 gb drive ).

I really don't know, really don't know what to do.....

what to do yer i really don't know..... really don't know what to do

( the stones, meatpuppets ) he he.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2015, 04:33 PM   #10
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

Keep your backup current.

Time Machine will work. It's not the best choice as you can't make a bootable 1:1 clone. You'd have to reinstall OSX manually in the event you had a failure and needed the backup. Carbon Copy Cloner is a better choice. Not free anymore but only $40.

FYI, there's no disk utility (Disk Warrior or any other) that can alert you or diagnose an intermittent start of a failure. The thing has to cross the line (or be coaxed into it).

Retrace your steps with the data loss thing. Did you have files on the drive that were fine one day and then you get a Finder error the next day (eg. The Finder can't read or write some of the data in...)?

As for this plugin, start with the theory that this is a performance issue. Look at Activity Monitor when the thing is misbehaving. CPU or RAM maxed out? If not, next thing. This is a 3rd party plugin, so... Proper use of Anticipative fx Processing if used (ie. disabled on any tracks with 3rd party plugins via ctrl-click on track or track menu > Track Processing > Disable Anticipative fx)

If you end up confirming your settings. Confirming you are not even close to maxed out CPU/RAM. And the plugin just doesn't work (neither VST or AU). Then it could be something ugly like they haven't updated it for newer versions of OSX or some such (example speculation there).

I can tell you that there have been a number of cases now on this forum where I'll chime in thinking I know what I'm talking about but come up empty handed. The common theme being a newer OSX than 10.6.

The thing that set me off on suspecting hardware was your data loss comment.

Back to treating this like a processing issue:

What size disk buffer (block size) are you trying to get away with on your system for acceptable latency?
If you (just for experiment) set the block size larger (which would of course be unusable to play), can you arrive at a block size that lets you run the system stable?
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-19-2015, 02:15 AM   #11
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Hi Serr and thanks again,

I back up with time machine regularly thanks.

Regarding the data loss, i honestly can't remember what happened. It may have been user error- ie putting the files in the wrong place but i will keep an eye on it. The only data loss/ lack of memory now is happening in S-gear only - it does not remember some of its settings like mono mode and preset archiving disabled.

I don't have Anticipative fx Processing on thanks ( off globally in preferences )

CPU not overly stressed ( 25 % max ) when acting up or otherwise ( a little higher now i think but then i have more plugins on the project )

Block size is set at 10 000 for lowest CPU hit whilst mixing and 128 when recording thanks.

I have tried a slightly lower block size ( 6000 ) but s-gear still not remembering setting changes.

Tried buggy plugin compatibility mode and then also run - dedicated process. Neither helped unfortunately.

All out of ideas. Will try s-gear dev. again
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-19-2015, 09:28 AM   #12
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

There's another optimization trick I know of.

First, what is the RT CPU (from Reaper's performance monitor) when the plugin starts having trouble? RT CPU is the "real time" audio thread. This thread can easily max out a core while the rest of your CPU goes unused (and you wonder what's going on when your total CPU use is only 12% but you have buffer underruns).


Here's a setup for more power from Reaper for that scenario:
You can split that audio thread into multiple cores.

Order of operation here is critical.
1. Enable anticipative fx processing globally in Preferences/Buffering
2. Disable AfxP per track for every track with a 3rd party plugin inserted.
3. Set the Audio Thread in Preferences/Buffering to the number of physical CPU cores on your system ('auto' setting does the same).

Note it is critical critical critical that AfxP be enabled globally before setting the audio thread higher than 1. Otherwise this will be a shocking downgrade in performance! And then you need to manage 3rd party plugin tracks as mentioned.


Re: your post production disk buffer setting of 10,000 samples.
One normally uses values that are multiples of 32 for this. I've also seen interfaces that will not support a disk buffer of over 2048 samples or even 1024 samples. In that case, you'll notice that the reported disk buffer size at the top of the screen will stubbornly stay at (for example) 1024 when you try entering 2048.

Probably a moot point as your troubles are with 'live sound/performance' mode with the 128 sample buffer. Just an observation.
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-19-2015, 10:01 AM   #13
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Hi Serr,

Thanks again for all your help.

The trouble has been occurring with the higher block size as well as the lower recording block size.

I will definitely try the performance boost you have described thanks.

The s-gear dev. Got back to me quickly like he always does and was very helpful. Some of the problems I mentioned to him are confirmed minor bugs not worth bothering with when he explained them and some can't be explained but have now gone away and good riddens to them. I gave him the crash reports and s-gear hasn't crashed reaper at all. It was ignite amps and kuassa that crashed it. S-gear did crash GarageBand but I don't care about that as I am sticking with reaper. I'm in this for the long haul now baby !

I am still a bit shocked by all the plugins that don't play nice with reaper osx. Never had that problem once with VST's on PC but then I can use internet on Mac without problems. The AU seem particularly prone especially when you look through the top thread on this page but it seems s-gear isn't broken which is great news as I love it ! It has transformed recording guitar for me which is why I was so worried that it was involved in crashes etc.

I will contact ignite amps and give them the crash report as their stuff is brilliant too so maybe they can fix it.

All the best Serr,

Cheers

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-20-2015 at 04:45 AM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-21-2015, 09:37 AM   #14
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Hi All,

Just as an update, stability problems are sorted. The cause was Ignite Amps AU plugins. I knew they always crashed Reaper OSX so always used the VST versions instead but i made the mistake of using some AU ones on the project i am working on.

Ignite Amps team have now been able to reproduce the AU crash and are working on a fix. Apparently it is something to do with the GUI and possibly with the Reaper Midi implementation ( the same thing that is stopping s-gear from being able to use amp a/b switching. )

I have put in a bug report concerning the midi but have been advised to change it to a feature request to be able to change the midi setting to turn off the constant midi stream to plugins.

The basic problem seems to be that Reaper implements some things in a different way to other DAW's and this causes problems with some AU plugins ( and maybe some VST ? ).

So, Reaper is rock solid on my Lion 10.7.5 now but as soon as you start using third party plugins you have to really look out for problems. Thankfully i don't use many.

All the best
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-21-2015, 09:48 AM   #15
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by hermitcrab View Post
Hi All,

Just as an update, stability problems are sorted.
Excellent!

Quote:
Originally Posted by hermitcrab View Post
So, Reaper is rock solid on my Lion 10.7.5 now but as soon as you start using third party plugins you have to really look out for problems. Thankfully i don't use many.
Yep, that really is the deal. I use mostly 3rd party so... I do like and use ReaEQ all the time though for basic eq cuts. I use the stock delay for making reflections all the time too.

They're definitely getting away with something with their proprietary REA plugins vs. the standard formats like VST & AU. The REA plugins are labeled as VST in the FX browser but they are actually dynamic library resource files (.dylib) stored in the app bundle for Reaper.
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-21-2015, 10:08 AM   #16
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Hi Serr,

Yes, definitely.

I mentioned over in my bug report come feature request that i think its a bit of a shame that the differences between reaper and other DAW's ( AU and VST ) are not better known to plugin developers so that they can account for them in their designs.

At least i understand whats going on now and i hope this is the type of thing that will get sorted eventually as compatibility is very important.

Once again, thank you for your help Serr, it is most appreciated.

All the best and have a good weekend,

Cheers
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2015, 11:56 AM   #17
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Hi Serr and co.,

Well last night had another crash, this time was due to ignite amps VST ( instead of AU ). Removed all instances ( i think ) and tried again from start up and even without any 3rd party plugins in project reaper was very unstable. Tried another project which has had no problems till this point and same horrible noises on the raw audio. I have had this happen 2 or 3 times before already so this is not something new. Even with no plugins on any tracks every track had developed nasty popping and clicking sounds. Reaverb was acting up badly too ( i am aware of its problems like having to press play from beginning and having to tick the right boxes etc but was still not working right at all. Reaper Block size same as always...

Firewire connection / cable / interface problems all excluded as bugs occurred when just using default mac audio device. This leaves 3 possibilities i can think of. Either Reaper is unstable with my lion 10.7.5 or i have a hardware problem as suggested by Serr or i did not fully remove all the buggy plugins ( quite possible ) . Easy way to find this out is to do a few projects in garageband and see how it goes. If it is fine ( and i suspect it will be ) then it is either Reaper at fault or it was due to still having the plugins in project ( even though they were bypassed i may have forgot to remove one or two from the project completely ).

So something in my system at least appears to be unstable. It might just be the ignite amp plugins ( VST this time but i am starting to think reaper OSX just doesn't like 3rd party plugins as that has been my experience so far and for the type of music i do the included plugins do not provide what i need .) Lost project due to crash but have it in backup.

If i can't use the 3rd party plugins that i need to then i can't use reaper really.

Am going to try using garageband. It might be severely limited in what it can do.....I feel like crying by just how limited... but ( so far ) at least it has not crashed or introduced gremlins in the raw audio and i can use the plugins in it. S-Gear did crash it 3 times though but i don't know if i still had Reaper on in the background.

7 or 8 months of my life learning reaper only to realise i don't seem to be able to use it ( at least not with the plugins i want to ) . That's the way its looking for me now as that is my experience so far as soon as i use 3rd party plugins. I have properly learned to use a new DAW ( and paid for it ) only to not be able to use it.

Can't believe i have to go back to garageband after 10 years of using full DAW's but finances prevented me from getting anything other than Reaper this time round. Oh well.

Pretty gutted by this but life's too short and it is all taking me away from making music which is what this is all supposed to be for.

Will give it one last shot to see if all the ignite amps plugins are removed but if i get one more problem.....

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-22-2015 at 01:06 PM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2015, 01:48 PM   #18
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

Just to recap. You are in fact using the settings I noted in post #12? And you didn't accidentally miss step 2 for any 3rd party plugin track? (It's easy to forget. I do it to myself and it's guaranteed to crash Reaper at some point soon after until I look and correct it.) And... this crash acts for all the world like maxing out the system. I say that because incorrect settings and suspect plugins can run error free in smaller projects. Makes this confusing to troubleshoot. I almost gave up myself a few months ago and thought I might have to look for something else for projects with over 150 tracks and just as many plugins.

Do you both relaunch Reaper and initialize the interface connection on the Audio/Device page after it crashes? This is required sometimes. I select the interface I'll be using by habit now first thing when opening a project. Even if it was used last and still selected. Reaper has the ability to lose the connection as a result of an AfxP or PDC crash (or whatever the root cause is - I strongly suspect PDC).

How high is RT CPU use in Reaper's performance meter when it crashes?

I can't remember if we talked about 32 bit vs 64 bit plugins...
Try 32 bit if you are currently struggling with 64 bit.

This comment may be a little based in hearsay but I believe a great number of the upgraded 64 bit plugins were done very quickly and they are buggy. It was a sideways move that basically did nothing functionally or feature-wise and I suspect was grudgingly pushed out just so the marketing team could talk about the 'new 64 bit buzz'. There's some legitimate RAM use needs for a few modern instrument and sampler plugins but that's about it.


Yeah... These forum posts from post 10.6 users are absolutely crushing any motivation I have to build and test a newer OS! (And the new Mission Control still feels like they watered it down from when it was called Spaces.)

You might try parking your current system on your backup drive somewhere and installing a 10.6 system to test. I'd like to see that data point anyway. If I was faced with that vs Garageband (which is a bad demo of Logic Audio Hell), I'd certain rather spend a few hours trying just about anything else. YMMV of course. I just haven't ever recovered from the horror that app was a few years ago when I made the mistake of trying it.

What else...

I've run across this. Some suspect plugins will still only run in a very lightweight project. Like Autotune for one (which I fortunately only use 1. as intended (ie. not as a vocodor) and 2. about once a year). This one happens to be AU only.

Last edited by serr; 02-22-2015 at 01:56 PM.
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2015, 02:40 PM   #19
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Hi Serr,

Once again thank you for your help. I have not tried your post 12 performance suggestion yet as I do not have anticipative fx turned on. should I turn it on and do as suggested ? It's just that I thought you should not turn it on unless you need to ?

Regarding the RT performance I have not seen what that is but I will look into it.

That's interesting about the 32 bit plugins.....I wouldn't be surprised if you are right about that so it might be worth trying the 32 bit version if that is possible on 10.7. .

The 10.6 idea is a good one but again requires more learning and software if I am right as time machine does not backup the boot OS I think ?

Have you tried Logic X ? Any good ? Just wondering why you didn't do logic if on mac ? The only reason I didn't get it was because I needed to get mavericks which would further lower my low spec MacBook Air performance.

I know it seems like a big step back to think of GarageBand and it really is but i am literally spending most of my time now problem solving instead of making music which is not good. Two bounces just to be able to get some fx on the master buss, here I come ! ( and no sends or returns ! )

I Think your point earlier about VST and AU and then reaper with its own propriety format rang a bell with me ( combined with the complexity and options ) as to why I am getting these problems.

Last night problems started with only two tracks and a few third party plugins on each, so it is happening even at low track and plugin count unfortunately.

Basically I will do without the ignite amps plugins and stick purely with reaper plugins and s-gear. If it still is not stable then I have no choice but to go back to GarageBand at least until I can get the huge wad of cash together to get a new computer, DAW and current supported interface. I will be getting logic if I can in the future and the GarageBand tracks can be loaded into them apparently.

Cheers
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2015, 03:01 PM   #20
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by hermitcrab View Post
Hi Serr,

Once again thank you for your help. I have not tried your post 12 performance suggestion yet as I do not have anticipative fx turned on. should I turn it on and do as suggested ? It's just that I thought you should not turn it on unless you need to ?
This configuration is mission critical for me. If I don't do that (and in the exact order of operations I described earlier), Reaper starts crashing after 100 or so tracks and 3rd party plugins and is basically DOA for my post production needs. Actually, depending on the plugins it can crash with a small project even.

AfxP is used by other elements of Reaper, not just it's plugins.

Quote:
Originally Posted by hermitcrab View Post
Regarding the RT performance I have not seen what that is but I will look into it.
A very useful telltale.
If it hits 100%, your main audio thread has maxed out a CPU core (and it matters not that you still have 80% or whatever of the rest free). Game over.

If it's under 60% and you still start having issues, that's a plugin crash 100%.

Want to break Reaper and turn it into a 100% useless crashing clicking and popping mess (complete with seizure inducing red flashes from the transport)? Set the audio thread in Audio/Buffering higher than 1 core and leave AfxP off globally. This would be the worst possible configuration you could dial up. You're not doing that are you?

Quote:
Originally Posted by hermitcrab View Post
The 10.6 idea is a good one but again requires more learning and software if I am right as time machine does not backup the boot OS I think ?
Use Carbon Copy Cloner (it has a free trial) if you go down this road. Make a sparseimage if you don't have an entire volume partition to use.

Try the other stuff first. And then try 32 bit. I have seen a LOT of posts about 64 bit plugins being bug riddled. Get CCC anyway. It lets you make a 1:1 clone of your system (and any other) volume. That means you have a big RESET button to get you back exactly where you were no matter what you break with some R&D.

Quote:
Originally Posted by hermitcrab View Post
Have you tried Logic X ? Any good ? Just wondering why you didn't do logic if on mac ?
Because I still haven't recovered from my first experience with it back when it was owned by eMagic and truly the most bug riddled disaster of an app I've ever used! Just looking at the screen makes smoke start coming out of my ears. (I don't seem to fit in with the normal Mac users any more than the Windows users apparently! )

Last edited by serr; 02-22-2015 at 03:20 PM.
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2015, 05:22 PM   #21
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Right i have pulled my finger out

Quote:
Originally Posted by serr View Post

Order of operation here is critical.
1. Enable anticipative fx processing globally in Preferences/Buffering
2. Disable AfxP per track for every track with a 3rd party plugin inserted.
3. Set the Audio Thread in Preferences/Buffering to the number of physical CPU cores on your system ('auto' setting does the same).

Want to break Reaper and turn it into a 100% useless crashing clicking and popping mess (complete with seizure inducing red flashes from the transport)? Set the audio thread in Audio/Buffering higher than 1 core and leave AfxP off globally. This would be the worst possible configuration you could dial up. You're not doing that are you?
That is exactly what the default settings are when i have checked them ! There could be some hope left after all !

Regarding number 3. above, i have the 'Auto-detect number of needed audio processing threads' ticked and it is set at 4 by default, BUT i have a 2011 macbook air. I am pretty sure it does not have 4 cores. I don't know how many cores it has. It has a 1.7 Ghz intel core i5 processor. I am thinking that this is in fact a single core machine and not a 4 core like the auto detect function is 'detecting' ?

I have now unchecked the auto detect and changed the audio reading/processing threads to : 1. as it recommends 1 per CPU core. This seems to be important fundamental stuff that reaper has auto detected wrong i think ?

Because i only have one core ( i think ) is it still important to tick anticipative fx processing ?. It mentions this gives superior multiprocessing but i only have one processor ?
If i am to tick it, do i leave the render ahead at 200 ms ?

I have now ticked anticipative fx processing ( again this was off by default ). There are 3 more boxes in this section. Should i tick the 'allow on tracks without Fx' and 'allow on tracks with open midi editors' ? Lastly there is 'allow live fx multiprocessing on...4 CPUs' ( default ). When i change this to 1 it will not allow me to keep it and changes it to 2 when i go back and check. Should i just leave it unchecked please ?

I have got the RT CPU set up now so i will keep a close eye on it if /when i get problems again.

I had a problem before with the midi editor where the default settings were wrong and it made the midi editor unusable. I think you might have sorted that for me a while back.


Just to recap buffering preferences i have :-

Unchecked Auto-detect number of audio processing threads and changed the value to 1 core / CPU.

Left media buffer size at 1200 ms and 100%
Disabled media buffering for tracks with oped midi editors ( recommended )
Left default value of 200ms for 'media buffer size when per take fx UI open'

Ticked anticipative Fx processing.

Unchecked 'allow live fx multiprocessing'


When i checked the RT CPU and Total CPU after changing the buffering settings both values dropped very slightly but when i then unchecked anticipative fx processing the RT went from 3.5% to 18%. When i ticked it, it went back down but when i then ticked 'prevent anticipative fx' for every track with 3rd party plugins on them the RT went up a lot to 18% from 3 % and that was only for 2 tracks !

From this, am i right in assuming that i should tick anticipative fx ( in the preferences > buffering section ) but leave it on all individual tracks ( including those with 3rd party plugins on them ) ?

After doing this projects seem to be loading a bit faster which is a good sign maybe.

One thing i have noticed lately is the red bar that shows gain reduction on the ReaComp now flashes horribly when in use. This is still happening after i have changed the above settings. I don't remember it doing that before, i thought it used to be a solid bar but i could be mistaken.

Many thanks

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-22-2015 at 05:57 PM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2015, 06:07 PM   #22
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

Your i5 has 2 physical cores. If your Activity Monitor shows 4, then you have hyperthreading enabled. Reaper as well, will see the 4 virtual cores. I had not mentioned hyperthreading because I (obviously incorrectly) thought it was only enabled on the server class i7 machines.

I had come to the conclusion that Reaper likes to manage CPU threads itself and having hyperthreading enabled just makes it fight with the OS. *

So... Try this:

Disable hyperthreading with a commandline in the Terminal.

Code:
sudo nvram SMT=0
To re-enable hyperthreading, use the command:

Code:
sudo nvram -d SMT
Changes take place on a reboot.


Then set audio threads to auto (should be 2 now).
Then enable AfxP. Leave the buffer at 200ms.

Then go through the mixing board and disable AfxP for every track with a 3rd party plugin. (You can select all said tracks and then do that motion once.)

Close Reaper and then relaunch.
When you open a project, open the Preferences/Audio/Device page and select your interface and hit apply. Even if it already appears selected.

Now try it.


* I stated that that way because I had read such. Turned it off on my i7 and it made an improvement. But it was after that that I discovered the order of operations thing with AfxP and splitting the audio thread into multiple threads. I never went back and tested everything again with the new settings but with hyperthreading enabled because it simply works like this.

I also read many times over that splitting the audio thread is NOT a thing to do and to always set this at 1. However, Reaper's AfxP feature in combination with multiple audio threads is it's own animal and clearly has more headroom this way. You will still see your total CPU use nearly double when setting the audio threads parameter to anything higher than 1. However, the show stopping single thread getting maxed out thing simply stops happening.

Part of what made me revisit that (which basically saved Reaper for me) was a barrage of forum posts insisting that splitting the audio thread to all your CPU cores was the thing to do. Then I finally discovered the order of operations thing with AfxP.

Last edited by serr; 02-22-2015 at 06:18 PM.
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2015, 08:31 PM   #23
Don Schenk
Human being with feelings
 
Don Schenk's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 253
Default

Hi hermitcrab and serr,

I've been following this thread, and I'm not sure I can add much, other than I do learn a lot by reading what serr writes.

However, as for backup I've learned an important lesson - the hard way.

Always make two backups, doing so on different drives or discs. I've had backup hard drives go bad and turn themselves into doorstops. I've had backup, data disc DVDs and CDs be bad, and I didn't know it until it was too late.

During the years I owned a photography studio, I became a very early adopter of digital photography. At first I and/or my employees would always make a backup of a client's work on data DVDs. We always would run "verify" to check the disc before putting the disc into the filing cabinets.

Then one day we needed a file from one of the discs - the disc was dead. That is when we started making 2 backup discs.

We also had it happen with a hard drive backup - a bad backup drive - more than once.

How would we know whether a backup drive was good unless we try using it to restore a backup?

I do have a question for serr about the AfxP setting. I know we can set it globally before adding tracks, but to set it for individual tracks do we simply select the tracks and then go back into preference and set AfxP again? I kept thinking preferences were always acting globally.

I ask because many of the 3rd party plug-ins I use are from Universal Audio, and in Reaper it says: "Anticipted FX processing - superior multiprocessing and lower interface latencies [may not be compatible with certain FX (UAD), live monitoring is not multiprocessed]"

So should I leave AfxP turned on globally before adding tracks, then turn it off for each track that uses a UAD plug-in?

BTW hermitcrab, I also use some Native Instruments brand plug-ins, and a few others I got from heaven knows where. So far, Reaper has been working fine with them in a MacBook Pro.

BTW what is th processor speed of the i5 in your MacBook Air?

:-Don
Don Schenk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2015, 10:33 PM   #24
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post
I know we can set it globally before adding tracks, but to set it for individual tracks do we simply select the tracks and then go back into preference and set AfxP again? I kept thinking preferences were always acting globally.
Turn it on in Preferences/Audio/Buffering and leave it on.

Then select a the track(s) with any 3rd party plugins inserted. (You can select multiple tracks.) Right-click or ctrl-click one of the selected tracks, select 'Track performance options' and then 'Prevent Anticipative FX'.

Note: If you open Reaper while the global setting in Preferences/Audio/Buffering is off and then turn it on, you must quit Reaper and relaunch it for it to take effect (even though you hit 'apply' and even though it appeared to work normally and even though you don't need to do that normally for anything else).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post
I ask because many of the 3rd party plug-ins I use are from Universal Audio, and in Reaper it says: "Anticipted FX processing - superior multiprocessing and lower interface latencies [may not be compatible with certain FX (UAD), live monitoring is not multiprocessed]"
Which if funny as the Waves and Soundtoys plugins crash much harder than the UAD when you neglect to disable AfxP.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post
So should I leave AfxP turned on globally before adding tracks, then turn it off for each track that uses a UAD plug-in?
Yep. Exactly that.

All your comments about backups are right on point!
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-23-2015, 07:50 AM   #25
Don Schenk
Human being with feelings
 
Don Schenk's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 253
Default

Thank you serr.

@hermitcrab
What is the RT latency in Reaper's performance meter?

I asked serr about the AfxP settings, because I was curious about that. Did you set AfxP on globally and turn it off for the tracks with s-gear plugs?

Did you relaunch Reaper and your interface after a crash or after changing global settings?

My wife's MacBook has the i5 (a little bit faster one), and it runs Reaper with 3rd party plug-ins without a glitch. It is even running 4 threads. I tested Reaper with UAD plugs and other plugs first before buying a MacBook for myself.

Quote:
So something in my system at least appears to be unstable. It might just be the ignite amp plugins ( VST this time but i am starting to think reaper OSX just doesn't like 3rd party plugins as that has been my experience so far and for the type of music i do the included plugins do not provide what i need .) Lost project due to crash but have it in backup.
Thousands, if not tens of thousands of musicians are running Reaper on a Mac, and using various plug-ins The problem is not Reaper. It is something in your Mac causing the problem.

Have you turned off EVERYTHING not related to recording - every piece of software the Mac runs in the background? Even the wifi? Take a look at this: http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/...-optimization/

Quote:
7 or 8 months of my life learning reaper only to realise i don't seem to be able to use it ( at least not with the plugins i want to ) . That's the way its looking for me now as that is my experience so far as soon as i use 3rd party plugins. I have properly learned to use a new DAW ( and paid for it ) only to not be able to use it.
Eight months. Yikes! Obviously something worked for a while.

Quote:
Once again thank you for your help. I have not tried your post 12 performance suggestion yet as I do not have anticipative fx turned on. should I turn it on and do as suggested ? It's just that I thought you should not turn it on unless you need to ?
Have you now tried them?

Quote:
Last night problems started with only two tracks and a few third party plugins on each, so it is happening even at low track and plugin count unfortunately.
So..... What happens if you record a lot of tracks without any plugs? I realize you want to use the s-gear, but just for testing purposes, create a project with 24 or even 30 tracks. They don't need to be long - 30 seconds is fine. Play guitar into each track - even playing the same 2 chords on each track if you wish. It's is not about the quality of music for this test. The purpose is to get a group of tracks into Reaper without any plug-ins of any kind.

What happens when you do this?

Now add one s-gear plug-in. What happens?

:-Don
Don Schenk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-23-2015, 01:54 PM   #26
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Hi Serr,

Many thanks for all your help. Again, very much appreciated.

Apologies for treading over the same ground but i get confused easily.

I will get CCC when i can as that just seems sensible thanks ( a bit short on cash at moment )

The data loss thing was only after reaper has crashed. It looses all the wav files for the crashed project and so asks you to find them from an alternative source. I have done that before but find its just easier to load a backup project with them intact. The crashes always seem to happen when i am using 3rd party plugins ( ignite amps seems to be the culprit mostly ).

I will keep a close eye on the RT from now on whenever there are problems but could you just clarify something for me please. Should i change the hyperthread setting and the anticpative fx even if i don't know if the RT maxes out when problems / crashes ?

I ask this as using the anticipative fx increases RT CPU considerably ( gone from 3% to nearlly 50% at times ) and the fan seems to be blowing all the time now as it is working hard.

I have done the steps exactly as you described Serr except for changing the hyperthreading in terminal just because i would feel more comfortable doing it when i have a bootable backup ( am i changing the OS with the hyperthread action ? ) Instead i have unchecked auto and entered 2 cores in manually in preferences>buffering.


cheers
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-23-2015, 02:38 PM   #27
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Double post

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-23-2015 at 02:47 PM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-23-2015, 02:45 PM   #28
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Hi Don, many thanks for helping.

My processor is a 1.7 Ghz, intel core i5.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post
Thank you serr.

@hermitcrab
What is the RT latency in Reaper's performance meter?
RT CPU is around 43 % after doing Serr's tips with only 6 tracks with 3rd party plugins with anticipative Fx turned off. 10 tracks in total. Previously RT CPU was 3%. I Did exactly what Serr said except for disabling hyperthreading. Will try that when i get CCC. Total CPU seems to have gone up a bit like Serr said.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post
I asked serr about the AfxP settings, because I was curious about that. Did you set AfxP on globally and turn it off for the tracks with s-gear plugs?

Did you relaunch Reaper and your interface after a crash or after changing global settings?
Yes to both questions.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post
My wife's MacBook has the i5 (a little bit faster one), and it runs Reaper with 3rd party plug-ins without a glitch. It is even running 4 threads. I tested Reaper with UAD plugs and other plugs first before buying a MacBook for myself.
Can i ask which OS is that please ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post
Thousands, if not tens of thousands of musicians are running Reaper on a Mac, and using various plug-ins The problem is not Reaper. It is something in your Mac causing the problem.
This is what is frustrating me and the reason why i am working so hard to to solve these problems before i conclude ( albeit very speculatively and sadly - as i will be missing out ) that reaper is not stable with Lion 10.7.5. I had everything set to default within Reaper until I started to get help from this great forum but I cannot say how much my OS problems ( if i have any ) are contributing to instability - i would love to know what they are ! I really wish i was one of those that reaper just works for without problems but that has not been my experience so far.

My poor knowledge with computers in general may well be responsible for some of my current performance issues ( OS related ) but certainly not all regarding reaper. There is a long list of plugins that have problems at the top of this page and it is not comprehensive. I have had it verified from the developers that the only two 3rd party plugins i now use have either bugs on reaper ( ignite amps AU, VST not yet verified but it is also looking to be crash related ) or are unable to/excluded from doing certain actions ( amp A/b swiching in S-Gear) due to unusual midi implementation by reaper. I have put in a bug report/feature request for this to Reaper. It is debatable whether the later ( midi ) problem is a bug in reaper or an unusual feature but it is certainly responsible for s-gear not being fully functional within reaper. I have given crash reports to s-gear dev and identified the problems for Ignite Amps AU which they are now working on a fix for ( after being able to repeat the bug on their new osx system ).

I probably do have some problems in my OS as it is over 3 years old now and with little maintenance unfortunately due to lack of knowledge ( not lack of trying ! ). I don't know how to diagnose and remedy them unfortunately but my system has been and still is totally stable except for with reaper. It is starting to get a little slower to startup and possibly do intensive tasks but i don't know how to solve that problem. If you have any suggestions then i would really appreciate them thanks.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post
Have you turned off EVERYTHING not related to recording - every piece of software the Mac runs in the background? Even the wifi? Take a look at this: http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/...-optimization/
Wow, thanks for that. That is a lot of things to check. I have previously done most of them ( from focusrite's recommendations ) but will look into the rest asap.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post
Eight months. Yikes! Obviously something worked for a while.
Reaper has not been stable from early on ( possibly from the start ) for me unfortunately but i started using 3rd party plugins early as well so i don't know how much is due to that.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post
Have you now tried them?


So..... What happens if you record a lot of tracks without any plugs? I realize you want to use the s-gear, but just for testing purposes, create a project with 24 or even 30 tracks. They don't need to be long - 30 seconds is fine. Play guitar into each track - even playing the same 2 chords on each track if you wish. It's is not about the quality of music for this test. The purpose is to get a group of tracks into Reaper without any plug-ins of any kind.

What happens when you do this?

Now add one s-gear plug-in. What happens?

:-Don
The trouble is that most of the problems have always been intermittent and sporadic ( although getting more problematic lately ) and so difficult to diagnose. These include crashes, pops and crackles ( not recording related and even in raw audio without plugins added) , latency on playback and plugin problems ( both third party and Reaverb and ReaDelay and now to a small extent ReaComp ). The ignite amps AU problem was easier to solve as every time i swapped I.A plugins around in the signal chain on a track, Reaper crashed. It was repeatable. Thats the thing, most of these problems are not easily repeatable, and if they are repeatable the exact conditions to cause them have alluded me so far.

I have done as requested by Serr except for the hyperthreading. As mentioned it has dramatically increased RT CPU ( to ~43 % from 3 % i think ) but i cannot comment yet on stability as i have not had enough time to try it all out due to health problems. I also get confused at times so apologies to both you and Serr if i get mixed up or don't reply very soon. I will definitely let you know what happens though.

I should mention that both ReaDelay and ReaVerb have not worked properly for me since getting reaper v4.71 and now v4.77 but only recently ReaComp's meter has started flashing / flickering in an unpleasant way and i don't recall it doing that until recently. I have read the user guide sections on these and forum posts here related to these problems ) and implemented the preferences and problem solving tips gained but still no luck. Both cause all tracks within a project with sends to them to be delayed badly ( not latency or setting's related ) and have exhibited instability ( whilst in use ) preventing me from using them.

Thanks again.

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-23-2015 at 06:31 PM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-23-2015, 06:23 PM   #29
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Have tested this out tonight and no obvious improvement unfortunately.

I did not have a crash but other than that all the old problems are still there plus a few new ones.

ReaEQ is now intermittently popping when it is engaged and i have the seizure inducing red flashes in the transport bar that serr mentioned earlier.

I have not been clear enough about my problems. Some of the problems are intermittent but seem to be becoming more common and some are constant. For instance,
I can only very rarely mute a track and engage a track without unacceptable latency / delay, making live mix automation impossible to judge. The same terrible delay can be said of ReaVerb and ReaDelay ( not due to settings ). It is just as if automatic latency compensation gets turned off on the channels and then randomly turns itself back on again occasionally. I have tried disengaging PDC on tracks but that didn't help. Sometimes it all just works as expected, but that has become much rarer lately.

Reaper seems to be becoming more and more corrupted as time goes by without any obvious OS problems ( i am a novice here though ).

RT CPU very high ( 70+) now but engaging anticipative FX on all channels ( including 3rd party plugin channels ) sorts that problem out and RT CPU then drops to ~13%.

All i can do is try removing the hyperthread and if that doesn't work then i really don't know.

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-23-2015 at 08:29 PM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-23-2015, 08:23 PM   #30
Don Schenk
Human being with feelings
 
Don Schenk's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 253
Default

The Mac operating system here is Mavericks - and it's the same on my wifes i5 MacBook.

Serr is the Mac expert here. I am not. While I've been computing for some 30+ years, and building computers for 25 of those years - even built the workstations my employees were using when I had the photo studio - but I avoided Mac because I couldn't buy Mac parts to build my own.

A little over a year ago my wife decided she wanted a Mac. That was the first one. Six months later I bought one for myself after seeing (hearing) how well an Apollo Quad worked on her Mac.

Now I need to do a Mr. Spock type Vulcan mind-meld with serr so I can better figure out Mac.

While I do abhor violence, have you tried threatening your Mac with a 12 pound sledge hammer. The computer doesn't need to know you won't really smash it, but you just might frighten it into working correctly. :0

Quote:
I probably do have some problems in my OS as it is over 3 years old now and with little maintenance unfortunately due to lack of knowledge ( not lack of trying ! ). I don't know how to diagnose and remedy them unfortunately but my system has been and still is totally stable except for with reaper. It is starting to get a little slower to startup and possibly do intensive tasks but i don't know how to solve that problem. If you have any suggestions then i would really appreciate them thanks.
Perhaps Googling to learn more about Mac issues.

I've never tried the hyperthreading "disable" trick. I haven't a clue.

So creating a new project without using any plug-ins doesn't work? Even 1 or 2 tracks? When you start adding more tracks, at what point does Reaper began to malfunction? Again, this would be with a new project and no plug-ins.

:-Don
Don Schenk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-24-2015, 02:21 AM   #31
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Hi Don and Serr,

RT CPU continued to slowly rise over the period of an hour or two last night. I turned on all track anticipative fx ( including those with 3rd party plugins ) after it went to over 70 % and it then dropped right back down to 3-17 % but still with same delay and instability ( flashing transport, pops on engaging plugins - both reaper and 3rd party ). This is with 2 cores manually selected, 'auto' unchecked and anticipative fx turned on in buffering settings.

I tried this with a three track project this morning. I turned off all plugins. Muting a track on and off does not give noticeable latency / delay. When i engage reaper only included plugins on all tracks ( including one instance of ReaVerb on one of the tracks ) and try to mute a track on and off there is a bad delay. If i turn ReaVerb off , the delay is still the same. When i then engage 3rd party plugins on all tracks, the same delay occurs. If i turn off PDC on ReaVerb the delay is still the same when muting any tracks on and off. This has all been checked using default audio device ( made sure to confirm it after returning to reaper after changing global settings as recommended by Serr ), so interface latency / stability is excluded. I obviously have the same issues on both of my interfaces.


If i mute all tracks except one and try the above test on only one track the same happens.

If i change the block size from 8960 ( a multiple of 32 ) down to 128 and then reload and reselect the default device i get much lower latency on playback mutes etc. The delay is still there and problematic but it is much less so. The only problem then is the CPU load which can't handle many tracks or plugins but its a workaround. Automatic delay compensation does not appear to be working at all.

The delay is now is a constant problem and is preventing me from using reaper. it was previously present most of the time anyway, with only occasional periods of no latency, but after an hour or so it would pretty much always act up again.

So, the delay and instability are present from the start, even when RT CPU is at 3% and even on tiny projects and even without using 3rd party plugins. It seems PDC is involved like Serr suspected but i don't know how to proceed. I have tried to disable PDC on all plugins but some ( like s-gear and some reaper plugins) don't have the option when right clicking over 2 in 2 out.

I noticed the ignite amps plugins also have adjust automation as an option below disable PDC.

Is there any way to globally disable PDC ? Would this not just cause different delays anyway between plugins due to the plugins different inherent latencies ?

I fear this is the end of the line with reaper on 10.7.5 unless removing the hyperthreading removes all these problems but I am not hopeful.

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-24-2015 at 06:39 AM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-24-2015, 05:59 AM   #32
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

10.6 is only available on DVD from Apple so that is a pain as I don't have a DVD drive on my Air and you can only download the latest OS from Apple which my air would struggle with surely.

Not sure if I could use a PC with DVD drive to send the OS to my mac ?

Softtonic.com seem to do a free download of snow leopard but I don't even know if it is legal and safe ?

Really can't see how to proceed with my current mac and my old XP PC system is not supported by s-gear. Looks like its GarageBand or a whole new set up.

It seems like you can only move forward with apple OS and not back without a lot of hassle.

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-24-2015 at 06:20 AM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-24-2015, 06:43 AM   #33
Don Schenk
Human being with feelings
 
Don Schenk's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 253
Default

Three questions...

1. What interface are you using?

2. Are you monitoring through your interface, or directly from the computer's headphone jack?

3. Do you have "Input Monitoring: Off" or "Input Monitoring: On?"

:-Don
Attached Images
File Type: gif hermitcrabGIF.gif (52.4 KB, 210 views)
Don Schenk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-24-2015, 06:49 AM   #34
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Hi Don,

Input monitoring OFF and as mentioned i am using default systems device as the audio device ( headphones or mac built in speakers ). The same problems happen with both of my interfaces when connected so this is not an interface issue.

The best i can do is 1280 block size. That gets rid of some of the latency when plugins are engaged - even just reaper plugins ( not most of it though, even with this most basic project - 3 tracks ) whilst providing just enough CPU for slightly larger projects. However, it has not solved instability problems - still seeing flashing red bar randomly ( most of time ) when press a channel mute on or off and get nasty distortion and audio drop outs ( momentary loss of audio ).

Latency is still very slightly noticeable even with 128 block size when plugins are engaged and when muting a track on or off there is even worse horrible digital distortion to accompany it. This distortion and the flashing red transport and ReaComp gain reduction meter goes away if i remove global anticipative fx processing but the RT CPU is high.

Engaging global anticipative fx processing definitely causes a worsening of stability problems on my system but taking it off does not solve the stability and plugin problems that i started the thread because of, and increasing the block size in this state causes the problems to worsen ( reintroduction of red transport bar etc ).

I don't see why longer block sizes would cause such latency if Reapers Automatic delay compensation is working. Having come from cubase i know that long buffers should cause no noticeable latency whilst massively increasing CPU available for tracks and plugins.

Serr, could a corrupt OS cause these problems ? I have not noticed any OS problems though and no way to get a fresh install as i don't have bootable backup....learned that lesson well too late !

thanks

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-24-2015 at 09:52 AM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-24-2015, 09:51 AM   #35
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

I've tried one last setting and it seems to be much more stable with less latency. I changed the block size to 1024 and did everything Serr said.

Fingers crossed.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-24-2015, 06:42 PM   #36
Don Schenk
Human being with feelings
 
Don Schenk's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 253
Default

Crossed here too, 'cause I'm stumped.

Maybe prayers to St. Babbage - he invented the programmable computer back in the 1,800s.

:-Don
Don Schenk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-24-2015, 09:51 PM   #37
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

The only thing I can add after reading some of the last posts is to approach this more methodically. You have too many variables changing and it's easy to start going in circles.

If you're still having trouble that is.

Put these project files aside. They'll still be the ultimate test files at the end... But first...

You already set your block size to 1024 samples which I was going to suggest as a good 'large' setting. No live mixing/monitoring/performing at this setting but post production mixing at full throttle. (Some interface drivers might not support over 1024 so this is safe and still very large.)

Make sure the interface settings are proper as discussed.

Then make a simple project with just 8 tracks. No plugins at all. Just play back and record.

If that works, then start testing plugins.

Start over with no plugins after that but set your block size to 128 samples for the live performance setup. This is what you'll need to make work to play through the sims live. Test the basic system first and then add plugins.

Understand the difference between the i/o buffer (block size) provided for the audio interface and the PDC (plugin delay compensation) are two separate things. Both are needed. The interface i/o to allow your system breathing space to keep an uninterrupted audio thread going and the PDC to keep all your tracks in sync with each other with plugins that all have different latencies themselves.


Two things should happen here. You should both find the limits of your hardware and become familiar enough with the system to come up with any workaround as the need comes up.
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2015, 06:24 AM   #38
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Don,

I am following the mac optimisation guide you gave me. It asks you to drag and drop the mackintosh HD icon on the desk top into areas. I don't have this icon on my desk top and don't know where i can find the HD other than in utilities but dragging that icon doesn't work.

Could you tell me where the HD icon will be located please ?

I did not realise you had to turn off system updates. I have done it now but that might be one of the reasons i am getting trouble.

cheers
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2015, 07:27 AM   #39
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,559
Default

I looked at that so called optimization guide. I don't really strongly disagree or anything but it's a little overly paranoid (or perhaps more aimed at dealing with Protools in desperation). Some good but pretty obvious advice.

Not letting your system or hard drives go to sleep goes without saying of course.

Bluetooth and wifi?! These are so lightweight they have zero impact on a DAW. I use 2 channels of wi-fi to run the computer when I mix live sound. SOP. Been doing it for 6 years and I've never had so much as a glitch. I've even used the built-in laptop wi-fi a few times (but it's range is basically too terrible to be that useful for the connection I need).

You can show/hide the icons on the desktop for connected hard drives (internal and otherwise) in the Finder preferences. Must have got turned off as it's usually on by default. But... something is telling you to drag (ie copy) your entire system volume to a different location?!?! Um... that would be pretty disastrous (but fortunately would not allow itself to copy to a subfolder of itself and just scold you). What the?

Disabling App Nap is a real thing.

Going to disagree on disabling the sudden motion sensor in a laptop. If you're beating on your laptop (as in physically) to the point that the motion sensor is parking the hard drive, you want to be scolded into stopping that by the drive parking itself. You don't turn off the 'warning' and keep killing your hard drive.

System updates can and should be turned off. Still pretty low key stuff, but no need to waste CPU cycles on it. The thing to look out for that can slow your system down is other apps that like to call home a lot. I use Little Snitch (It's what you need and all you need for security.) It's a network monitor that lets you make the rules for what gets to use the network. You'll see right away what apps like to call home. If you downloaded something obnoxious like Google Chrome for example which likes to call home every 20 minutes, you'll find that it goes into a loop of trying to call home every 10 seconds when you deny it network privileges. You should remove any apps and launch agents like that. See, this is the kind of stuff any optimization guide should be talking about!
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2015, 09:47 AM   #40
hermitcrab
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 365
Default

Hi Serr,

I will leave that pro tools advice then thanks. I do use chrome so i will get rid of that too thanks.

I can't record tracks at the moment due to health but i have used a backup copy of the project that has 8 tracks. Here's what i've found with new default settings of anticipative fx on and 2 core threads selected and interface activated ( default system, no interface connected).

With all Fx removed there is no obvious delay when muting tracks on and off but doing this does make the transport bar flash red occasionally.

Tracks 7 and 8 are auxiliary tracks. If i send track 2 to them there is no delay present. If i then insert reaEQ on track 7 but disengage it ( Fx green light on channel but eq unchecked ) i get a delay on track 2 when muting on and off, the transport bar flashes violently and i get digital distortion and signal drop out and stuttering.

When i turn off channel 7's Fx, the problem stops. If i then try the same thing on channel 8, this does not happen. There is no difference between channels 7 and 8 so i don't understand it. This is all happening by putting one cockos eq on one specific channel ( 7 ) with no other fx in project so i am getting problems even without any 3rd party plugins or active reaper plugins. This is repeatable. Is this suggesting a bug in reaper or otherwise ?

Total and RT CPU is negligible when this happens.

If i remove track 7 and then replace it and do the same, it happens just the same. I don't know why this is happening ?

I have found that the anticipative Fx does seem to have worked by reducing RT CPU from very high at times to 25 %. I have not had a crash since doing this so i think it has worked for that and increased power so thank you very much Serr.


thanks

Last edited by hermitcrab; 02-25-2015 at 11:24 AM.
hermitcrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 09:19 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.