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Old 03-16-2020, 03:41 PM   #1
The Bunker
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Default Reaper becoming really unresponsive

I don't know why but I am working on a project in Reaper that has become very unresponsive to mouse clicks and simple things like muting/unmuting tracks and sends to the point where there is a good 3-5 second delay between everytime I click my mouse and when the program registers the command and becomes responsive again. It is completely unusable. The thing is when it actually playing back and rendering everything its completely fine there are no glitches and audio dropouts and I am not maxing out my RAM and CPU even though the project is somewhat large its handling all the actual audio processing fine its that everything else is becoming a complete chor. Like for example when I click somewhere on the timeline to select a point in time for playback I have to wait 5 seconds before the playhead moves to the locatopn and Reaper can start playback. Or if I am muting a send or track, again I click the mute button and then have to sit there staring at the screen before Reaper does what its told and is ready for the next command.

My computer is pretty powerful and only less than a couple of years old. I am running Win 10 64 bit on here, I have 32 gig ram, an i9-7920 x CPU.

Edit:

So since posting this I have taken several troubleshooting steps and haven't been able to find a solution. The steps I took were as follows:

- confirmed that moving the playhead around by clicking on different position along the ruler causes massive lag even when Reaper playback is stopped. However navigating by clicking on items in the arangement window does not cause any lag.

- Confirmed that I am not hitting my CPU ceiling at any point when the program slows down but Reaper does report RT CPU spikes of around 200% when the GUI lags, this is when there is when there is not even any audio playback meaning Reaper isn't even doing anything.

- Confirmed that no single plugin was to blame.

- Confirmed that the lagg occurs even when all VSTi have been removed from the project.

- Confirmed that a portable install of Reaper with none of my usual settings, scripts, themes or other tweaks does not fix the issue.

- The problem is present on two different audio interfaces ruling out any issue with one audio interface.

- Anticipative FX Processing and Allow Live FX Processing are both on, and in any case turning it on or off makes no difference.

- There are no sample rate conversions happening in the project.

- All my drivers for my devices and computer hardware is up to date and windows does not report any issues with any hardware drivers.

- Established that removing the couple of instances of 32bit plugins that I had did not fix the issue.

- Running the project with difference buffer settings makes no difference.

- Hiding all plugin GUI windows makes no difference.

- Reducing the RAM usage of the project by removing samplers from the project also makes no difference.

- Established that removing lots of tracks and plugins makes the problem go away, but anything above around 30 plugins and 80 tracks (most of which are empty tracks with some FX return tracks and folders) and the project starts to become sluggish and the more tracks + FX that are added the worse it gets.

- Established that reducing the length of the project does not help improve performance.

- Established that reducing the number of markers does not improve performance.

- Removing and unplugging all control surfaces also makes no difference.

Last edited by The Bunker; 04-19-2020 at 02:09 PM.
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Old 03-16-2020, 05:50 PM   #2
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I've reported a similar problem in this thread:

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=232045

In my case, both Reaper's performance monitor and Windows task monitor show minimal resource usage before and while the lag is occurring, and other apps function normally. I initially see performance issues like those you describe, then if I open a menu, Reaper will go completely unresponsive. I typically wait 5-10 minutes to see if it will recover, then have to force-close it.

Another poster in the thread reports similar behavior when "save undo to file" is enabled in prefs, but in my case it's turned off (the default).
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Old 03-16-2020, 10:04 PM   #3
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I've reported a similar problem in this thread:

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=232045

In my case, both Reaper's performance monitor and Windows task monitor show minimal resource usage before and while the lag is occurring, and other apps function normally. I initially see performance issues like those you describe, then if I open a menu, Reaper will go completely unresponsive. I typically wait 5-10 minutes to see if it will recover, then have to force-close it.

Another poster in the thread reports similar behavior when "save undo to file" is enabled in prefs, but in my case it's turned off (the default).
Damn that sux, did you get any solutions to your problems? Is there any word on this from the Reaper team?
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Old 03-17-2020, 07:30 PM   #4
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This is so frustrating I am sitting here trying to drag the playhead around with th emouse as I am making fine adjustments and its practically impossible because there is so much lag between input and visual feedback. It is completely unusable. How is it possible that this is the state of the program?
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Old 03-17-2020, 07:47 PM   #5
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I know it's not much help, but i don't think this is the state of the program for most users.
Is there any more info you can give that might help to track down the problem - are you running any scripts, plugins etc? What is Reaper's performance monitor showing you?
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Old 03-17-2020, 09:15 PM   #6
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Yea well believe it or not I am trying to upload a screen grab to show you what I am dealing with and I can't seem to upload it...

Anyway one thing I noticed now which I captured and tried to upload was that when trying to move the playhead by clicking somewhere on the ruler or an empty space in TCP window I get massive lag but for some reason clickin somewhere on an item there is no lag. Why would this be happening?
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Old 03-17-2020, 11:00 PM   #7
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Look at your 'Performance' tab (I believe it's docked with the mixer and a few other things by default, if not go up top and look under 'View' for it). See if there's one track that's eating a ton of CPU or has really high PDC compared to the others.

If there is a track like that take a look at what plugs are on it and try disabling them one at a time to see if things improve. If things get better with a particular plug bypassed it's almost certainly the culprit.

Right click on that plug and find the option to run it as a separate process, then see if things hold up better. Some plugs just need to be run separately.

If you don't find any tracks with plugs with this behavior, check how much latency you're running the project at. Even with a solid computer you might be bogging things down if you're trying to run a complex session with lots of plugs at 3 ms.
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Old 03-18-2020, 12:00 AM   #8
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Look at your 'Performance' tab (I believe it's docked with the mixer and a few other things by default, if not go up top and look under 'View' for it). See if there's one track that's eating a ton of CPU or has really high PDC compared to the others.

If there is a track like that take a look at what plugs are on it and try disabling them one at a time to see if things improve. If things get better with a particular plug bypassed it's almost certainly the culprit.

Right click on that plug and find the option to run it as a separate process, then see if things hold up better. Some plugs just need to be run separately.

If you don't find any tracks with plugs with this behavior, check how much latency you're running the project at. Even with a solid computer you might be bogging things down if you're trying to run a complex session with lots of plugs at 3 ms.
I am not sure if you read the things I posted above at all but I don't actually have any problems running the project. The lag is present even when I am not playing anything back and just want to reposition the playhead with playback stopped. It doesn't happen when I click on an item, it only happens when I click on the ruler. Its definitely some sort of bug or optimisation problem.
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Old 03-18-2020, 12:00 AM   #9
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Also why is the stash not letting me upload my gif?
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Old 03-18-2020, 12:59 AM   #10
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Ok so I have uploaded a screen grap to google photos and hopefully ppl can see it here... So as I mentioned above if you click somewhere on the ruler or an empty space on the tracks to change the playhead's position there is a big lag but if you click on an actual item to change the position of the playhead there is no lag.

What you see in this screengrab is the noise floor of some plugins being shown by the SPAN plugin, when I click somewhere on the ruler, the Reaper engine just stops for a good 5-10 seconds and the noise floor dissapears, but when I click on an item as you can see the noise floor doesn't dissapear because the Reaper engine doesn't stop working.

There are other commands that cuase lag such as muting and soloing tracks but lets just work on one thing at a time...
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Old 03-18-2020, 01:06 AM   #11
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Ok no idea why the link didn't work in the above post, I could see it in the comment preview but not after I posted it. Here is the link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZbpreT8jpPN6hVWp6
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Old 03-18-2020, 08:34 AM   #12
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Bunker, it looks like your issue is probably not directly related to mine. I'd say that if your lags occur primarily during actions that cause audio to play (or not play), I'd be looking more specifically at your audio interface, its drivers, and the Reaper settings that control it.

I also second the previous poster's suggestion to open Reaper's performance monitor and see what's happening to resources when you perform any of the actions that create lag.

Second to that, I would try closing Reaper and renaming your preferences ini file. This will cause Reaper to generate a new one with default settings upon next launch.

Finally, you could try a portable installation of Reaper and see if the problem still exists

Does the problem occur on all projects, or just some? Do the problematic project(s) use any 32-bit FX or CPU-hungry FX? Do they have a high channel count? Are you recording in a high res or compressed (flac or mp3) format? Do you run any scripts like DrivenByMoss or external device controllers?

I'd be looking at those questions first.
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Old 03-18-2020, 03:32 PM   #13
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Bunker, it looks like your issue is probably not directly related to mine. I'd say that if your lags occur primarily during actions that cause audio to play (or not play), I'd be looking more specifically at your audio interface, its drivers, and the Reaper settings that control it.
I have two audio interfaces here and the problem is present on both so it can't be related to audio drivers.

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I also second the previous poster's suggestion to open Reaper's performance monitor and see what's happening to resources when you perform any of the actions that create lag.
Ok so when idle the performance meter shows that Reaper is sitting at around 26% CPU. Then I click somewhere on the time line and the CPU start fluctuating it goes to around 40%, then drops to around 10% then goes back to its normal idle state. But at no point does it shoot past 40% when I do this and still I get this horrible lag.

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Does the problem occur on all projects, or just some? Do the problematic project(s) use any 32-bit FX or CPU-hungry FX? Do they have a high channel count? Are you recording in a high res or compressed (flac or mp3) format? Do you run any scripts like DrivenByMoss or external device controllers?
No its not all projects, its the current project I am working on now. I had two instances of one 32bit plugin in there, disabled both and still no improvement, the channel count is high but nothing that I would consider excessive, also a lot of the channels are just sitting empty right now or just being used as busses and folders etc... I am recording to WAV, I do run some HeDa sripts but I have been running them throughout the life of this project and the problems only started to happen recently.

This is clearly a GUI related issue and still noone can explain to me why when I click on a time line to navigate there is this huge lag but when I click on an item to navigate there is no lag. I don't see how this could be related to plugins and such.
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Old 03-18-2020, 04:42 PM   #14
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Ok so when idle the performance meter shows that Reaper is sitting at around 26% CPU. Then I click somewhere on the time line and the CPU start fluctuating it goes to around 40%, then drops to around 10% then goes back to its normal idle state. But at no point does it shoot past 40% when I do this and still I get this horrible lag.
That part (plenty of available resources during the lag) does sound like my issue. You're not running any Arturia plug-ins by any chance?

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This is clearly a GUI related issue and still noone can explain to me why when I click on a time line to navigate there is this huge lag but when I click on an item to navigate there is no lag.
I also came to suspect a GUI problem, so I upgraded my video card, only to later learn that Reaper doesn't interact directly with the video card - it leaves that to Windows. The upgrade didn't fix the issue.

Since the lag issue started, I've turned to Ableton Live Lite and have successfully been recording projects with it using the exact VSTi's and hardware controller as my lagging Reaper project - in fact I can easily run the Lite version's max of 8 channels with Arturia Analog Lab 4 on each channel. With Reaper, the lag begins when I have more than 2 tracks running Analog Lab, though, like you, the system shows plenty of resources available. I have no idea if Reaper's problem is specific to the plugins, or if it's a larger issue relating to the GUI or processing in general.

I agree that you can likely rule out the audio interface if you've tried it with different models. Did you try renaming the ini file to test with default settings?
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Old 03-18-2020, 06:01 PM   #15
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That part (plenty of available resources during the lag) does sound like my issue. You're not running any Arturia plug-ins by any chance?
I do have some Arturia plugs but none in this project. I can't even remember the last time I used an Arturia plugin.

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Since the lag issue started, I've turned to Ableton Live Lite and have successfully been recording projects with it using the exact VSTi's and hardware controller as my lagging Reaper project - in fact I can easily run the Lite version's max of 8 channels with Arturia Analog Lab 4 on each channel. With Reaper, the lag begins when I have more than 2 tracks running Analog Lab, though, like you, the system shows plenty of resources available. I have no idea if Reaper's problem is specific to the plugins, or if it's a larger issue relating to the GUI or processing in general.
This is very useful confirmation that the problem is indeed with Reaper. If you are running the same project in another DAW then this is really just not good enough and nobody has even addressed why I am getting lag by clicking on the ruler and not when I click on items.

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I agree that you can likely rule out the audio interface if you've tried it with different models. Did you try renaming the ini file to test with default settings?
I am reluctant to just flush all my settings unless someone can explain to me which settings may be the culprit or why they think a particular setting in question might be causing issues. I would much rather tweak specific setting manually than just resetting. That way at least if i can resolve the issue I know exactly what caused it and I am not forced to just reset all my settings every time I come across this issue again.
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Old 03-18-2020, 08:20 PM   #16
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I am reluctant to just flush all my settings..
Make a portable install, if the issue is still there then use the portable install to troubleshoot.
That will leave your main install intact while you pinpoint the issue.

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Old 03-19-2020, 06:13 AM   #17
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The point of renaming your ini file and letting Reaper create a default is to narrow down whether it's a setting that's causing the problem. If you don't have the issue with the defaults, then you can open up the two files side-by-side in a text editor and quickly compare what's different.

You don't lose your old settings because you can always delete Reaper's default and rename yours back to the original file name.
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Old 03-19-2020, 11:45 PM   #18
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I am not sure if you read the things I posted above at all but I don't actually have any problems running the project. The lag is present even when I am not playing anything back and just want to reposition the playhead with playback stopped. It doesn't happen when I click on an item, it only happens when I click on the ruler. Its definitely some sort of bug or optimisation problem.
I did read it, it's just that there's a few tried and true methods to solving problems in Reaper and the kind of lag you're talking about points to something getting hung up, some kind of bottleneck somewhere. I don't think you've maxed out 32 gigs of RAM so the first place to start looking is at CPU usage and latency, and the first places to look for both of those is plugins and interface settings.

Sorry if it came off as unhelpful, sometimes we can read a post and see something we might be able to help with and zoom! We're off typing and we don't always connect back to the original post in a way that's logical to others, lol.

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I also second the previous poster's suggestion to open Reaper's performance monitor and see what's happening to resources when you perform any of the actions that create lag.

Second to that, I would try closing Reaper and renaming your preferences ini file. This will cause Reaper to generate a new one with default settings upon next launch.

Finally, you could try a portable installation of Reaper and see if the problem still exists

Does the problem occur on all projects, or just some? Do the problematic project(s) use any 32-bit FX or CPU-hungry FX? Do they have a high channel count? Are you recording in a high res or compressed (flac or mp3) format? Do you run any scripts like DrivenByMoss or external device controllers?

I'd be looking at those questions first.
See, it makes sense to us!

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Ok so when idle the performance meter shows that Reaper is sitting at around 26% CPU. Then I click somewhere on the time line and the CPU start fluctuating it goes to around 40%, then drops to around 10% then goes back to its normal idle state. But at no point does it shoot past 40% when I do this and still I get this horrible lag.


No its not all projects, its the current project I am working on now. I had two instances of one 32bit plugin in there, disabled both and still no improvement, the channel count is high but nothing that I would consider excessive, also a lot of the channels are just sitting empty right now or just being used as busses and folders etc... I am recording to WAV, I do run some HeDa sripts but I have been running them throughout the life of this project and the problems only started to happen recently.

This is clearly a GUI related issue and still noone can explain to me why when I click on a time line to navigate there is this huge lag but when I click on an item to navigate there is no lag. I don't see how this could be related to plugins and such.
At this point I doubt it's a plug, but if the two 32 bit plugs are VST2 and not VST3, you could try removing them rather than just turning them off. VST3 code requires that plugins don't process when no audio is going to them but with the older VST2 standard they just run all the time. Worth a try, maybe.

There shouldn't be any kind of CPU usage spike just for clicking somewhere on the GUI that only moves the cursor. Have you changed your mouse to GUI interaction settings from the defaults at any point?

Do any of your scripts affect anything related to this? Change what a mouse click does based on where it's hovering? Could there be a conflict with your overall mouse to GUI settings?

The fact that it's only occurring on the one project eliminates a lot of variables. It means the problem is IN Reaper but not WITH Reaper, or else all your projects would be affected as well (unless you change settings with each project). But that's a very good thing; the fact that you have other projects that work fine means we just have to go through some process of elimination until we find the problem.

I don't know why it only occurs in the timeline and not over an item, but as I've mentioned here there's settings in Preferences that can change what a mouse click can do depending on whether it's hovering over an item or timeline or many other things.

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Make a portable install, if the issue is still there then use the portable install to troubleshoot.
That will leave your main install intact while you pinpoint the issue.
::
This man give great wisdom. Portable install eliminate many variable, make troubleshoot very good for big happy success.

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The point of renaming your ini file and letting Reaper create a default is to narrow down whether it's a setting that's causing the problem. If you don't have the issue with the defaults, then you can open up the two files side-by-side in a text editor and quickly compare what's different.

You don't lose your old settings because you can always delete Reaper's default and rename yours back to the original file name.
This man also possess wisdom beyond mortal world. INI file contain many setting for make Reaper great noise creation machine for rock with balls out.
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Old 03-21-2020, 02:05 AM   #19
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Make a portable install, if the issue is still there then use the portable install to troubleshoot.
That will leave your main install intact while you pinpoint the issue.

::
This is a good idea, so if I make a portable installation on a removable drive it will not in anyway interefere or write over any of my files belonging to the local installation right? If so then I will definitely try this. Thanks for the suggestions.
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Old 03-21-2020, 03:13 AM   #20
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The point of renaming your ini file and letting Reaper create a default is to narrow down whether it's a setting that's causing the problem. If you don't have the issue with the defaults, then you can open up the two files side-by-side in a text editor and quickly compare what's different.

You don't lose your old settings because you can always delete Reaper's default and rename yours back to the original file name.
Ok I will try this as well but first I'll do a portable install...
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Old 03-21-2020, 03:25 AM   #21
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Sorry if it came off as unhelpful, sometimes we can read a post and see something we might be able to help with and zoom! We're off typing and we don't always connect back to the original post in a way that's logical to others, lol.
its fine no need to apologise, I just didn't want to start going through generic troubleshooting steps if it wasn't relevant to what is actually happening here.

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At this point I doubt it's a plug, but if the two 32 bit plugs are VST2 and not VST3, you could try removing them rather than just turning them off. VST3 code requires that plugins don't process when no audio is going to them but with the older VST2 standard they just run all the time. Worth a try, maybe.
To be clear, I am not merely bypassing the 32bit FX I was taking them offline completely. Is that not essentially the same as completely removing them? Or should I try also removing them completely?

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There shouldn't be any kind of CPU usage spike just for clicking somewhere on the GUI that only moves the cursor.
Exactly! Hence why I am so annoyed with this, if it was grinding to a halt when it was chugging along and just couldn't handle the track count or FX count I would at least know where I stand, but this is just bizarre...


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Have you changed your mouse to GUI interaction settings from the defaults at any point?
I have of course changed some of the mouse modifiers, pretty basica stuff really, I don't see how that could effect anything though, I am literally just clicking on the ruler without holding any other modifiers. Are mouse modifiers known to cause issues?

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Do any of your scripts affect anything related to this? Change what a mouse click does based on where it's hovering? Could there be a conflict with your overall mouse to GUI settings?
I have some scripts installed that do things like draw curves in CC lanes in the MIDI editor but none of them are actually active, this issues is not happening in the MIDI editor window and I have never used these scripts in this project... would an installed script that is nto active cause any issues? If so then why is it only hurting some projects and not others?

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I don't know why it only occurs in the timeline and not over an item, but as I've mentioned here there's settings in Preferences that can change what a mouse click can do depending on whether it's hovering over an item or timeline or many other things.
Are you referring to the mouse modifiers or something else? I have only changed the behaviour of some mouse modifiers and don't think I have tweaked anything else mouse + GUI related...
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Old 03-21-2020, 03:36 AM   #22
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Ok so I am trying to go through this troubleshooting process and have just installed a portable version of reaper. Just a quick question, can I use the same license I use with my main installation or does each installation need a unique license?
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Old 03-21-2020, 03:49 AM   #23
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Ok so I am trying to go through this troubleshooting process and have just installed a portable version of reaper. Just a quick question, can I use the same license I use with my main installation or does each installation need a unique license?
My understanding is that the license allows multiple installations on machines you own, but only one instance of use at a time.
Regardless, you have grace period as well.

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Old 03-21-2020, 06:20 AM   #24
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My understanding is that the license allows multiple installations on machines you own, but only one instance of use at a time.
Regardless, you have grace period as well.

;:
Ok anyhow I just loaded the project with the portable installation and it made no difference. The project is as laggy as before, with the same weird behaviour where clicking on time line causes lag but clicking on an item does not.
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Old 03-21-2020, 09:50 PM   #25
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I am guessing since the portable installation is different from the local installation there is no point to resetting the ini file either right?
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Old 03-21-2020, 11:02 PM   #26
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Ok so the next thing I tried was starting the session with all plugins offline, and the lag was gone. So now I am trying to go through and turn the plugins on one by one, track by track and testing to see at what point the lag comes back, but its mnot exactly a smooth and efficient process as Reaper sometimes randomly crashes as it tries to bring a plugin online... forcing me to start from square one each time. Also somehow I can't save a project with all FX offline because even when I open the project with all FX offline and then go and save that project the next time I open it all the FX are online again. This seems odd and not very intuitive.
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Old 03-21-2020, 11:09 PM   #27
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If you're still using the 32-bit plugins, when you're in the FX browser you can try right clicking over the plugin and choosing "run as dedicated process" or (I think it's called) "buggy plugin mode" to help avoid crashes--and maybe even the lag.
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Old 03-21-2020, 11:43 PM   #28
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So I am about half way through bringing the FX online and I am bringing some Waves FX online, and now I am starting to notice some audio tearing and crackling when I am seeking during playback. This is with smooth seek turned on. So I am starting to notice some performacne degradation but not to the same level as before yet. So I can mute/unmute tracks without noticeable lag and also repositioning playhead when project is not playing back is still not an issue yet...
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Old 03-22-2020, 01:59 AM   #29
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Silly, obvious suggestion but one that gets overlooked when in panic mode. You DID download and run resplendence.com`s latency checker? It will usually point out if you have any specific issues with doing multitrack recording/playback, so useful to set a baseline.

FWIW you dont need to put a portable install on another drive. All it does is create a self-contained version of Reaper on your system disk in it`s own little folder, so it doesnt interfere with your existing install & can easily be removed once you dont need it any more.

Also it might help to give us a little detail on your computer. What are you using for your Audio/MIDI interface & are you sure the drivers are up to date? Your comment on Waves plugs causing "tearing" is what prompted me to think of this. Also might be worth running Waves Central to make sure all is well, then doing a clear/rescan in reaper just in case there are any internal problems with your plugins that arent showing up as faulting currently
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Old 03-22-2020, 02:43 AM   #30
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Silly, obvious suggestion but one that gets overlooked when in panic mode. You DID download and run resplendence.com`s latency checker? It will usually point out if you have any specific issues with doing multitrack recording/playback, so useful to set a baseline.
I have run Latencymon on this system before and from memory everything as fine. the system was built from the ground up for audio work so it is definitely capable. Haven't ran it since I have run into this problem though...

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Also it might help to give us a little detail on your computer. What are you using for your Audio/MIDI interface & are you sure the drivers are up to date?
Other than what I already mentioned in the progoinal post I am using a Steinberg MR816X as an audio interface, but I also have a Fractal Audio Axe FX 2 which I tried as an interface as well. That didn't improve anything. As for drivers, I just updated my graphics card driver since my last post and it made no difference. All other drivers are up do date. Not sure what else is relevant in terms of what hardware I am using, if there is any specific hardware you'd like to know about just ask.

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Your comment on Waves plugs causing "tearing" is what prompted me to think of this.
Actually I just went back and turned off the other FX that I had turned on before turning on the waves FX, and then tried running the project and the latency went away. So it is making me think whatever it is, its some sort of accumulative problem and not to do with any specific FX plugin and rather to do with the total number of plugins it is trying to process. But it is weird because I am in no way maxing my CPU usage or RAM usage so there are resources there to be used but are clearly not being utilised by Reaper. Also increasing my buffer size does nothing for the performance, it makes no difference whether I am running at 256 samples or 2048samples. The only difference it makes is that at higher buffer sizes it takes even longer for Reaper to respond to transport commands.
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Old 03-22-2020, 03:10 AM   #31
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Here you can see the resources being used by Reaper both in the performane meter of Reaper itself and the task manager in windows. Reaper is not in the screenshot but all I am doing is pressing play and letting Reaper run so you can see how much CPU/RAM it is using, a few seconds in there is a fluctuation and spike in CPU usage. That corresponds with when I try to do some "smooth seeking" inside Reaper while it is playing back and the audio tears and stutters. Note that even at that point the resource usage does not even go beyond 70% so the computer should be able to handle this. Also I noticed in the Task Manager Reaper is reported to be having "very high" power consumption, not sure if this is normal or related but there it is anyway...

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Old 03-22-2020, 04:38 AM   #32
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Do you use Hardware Output FX Monitoring?
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Old 03-22-2020, 04:49 AM   #33
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Read here for a possible cause if you haven't updated to the latest dpmeter4 version https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=232833
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Old 03-22-2020, 04:52 AM   #34
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Do you use Hardware Output FX Monitoring?
Do you mean FX on the master track? Not sure what you mean...
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Old 03-22-2020, 04:56 AM   #35
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Read here for a possible cause if you haven't updated to the latest dpmeter4 version https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=232833
I don't use dpmeter, not sure what it has to do with my issues.
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Old 03-22-2020, 05:15 AM   #36
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I don't use dpmeter, not sure what it has to do with my issues.
ah ok...it is because it had a bug causing memory leak and probably high CPU usage as you are having in that gif that shows the task manager. But it is fixed in the latest version. I have no idea what can be causing your problem but it is probably a plugin somewhere or a script? Check in the monitor fx chain too.
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Old 03-22-2020, 05:38 AM   #37
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ah ok...it is because it had a bug causing memory leak and probably high CPU usage as you are having in that gif that shows the task manager. But it is fixed in the latest version. I have no idea what can be causing your problem but it is probably a plugin somewhere or a script? Check in the monitor fx chain too.
As I mentioned a couple of posts above, I put all the FX offline, turned about half of them back on and it started getting sluggish, I thought it was the waves plugs because they just happened to be the last ones I turned on at that time, but to make sure, I went back and kept the waves plugs on but turned off a bunch of the other fx and the performance improved so it wasn't any specific plugin but seems to be resulting from the accumulative stress of a high plugin count but I feel that considering my hardware has resources to spare I should not be seeing this degradation of performance so something somewhere is not working as intended. Hope that makes sense.
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Old 03-22-2020, 06:04 AM   #38
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I am doing more experimenting and turning FX on and off, and right now I have 32 instances of plugins online, most of which are just fabfilter EQs, 1 is a Valhalla Reverb, 2 of them are instruments and the rest of a variety of compressors and saturation plugins and already Reaper is starting to get noticeably laggy and the issue with navigation has come back whereby I click somewhere on the ruler with the playback engine idle and have to sit there waiting for a few seconds for Reaper to catch up. Once again, if I do the exact same thing but click on an item instead of the timeline Reaper responds instantly. I can't believe that Reaper is freaking out with just 32 plugin instances being active, that is an incredibly low number for today's computers to handle.
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Old 03-22-2020, 06:20 AM   #39
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Also having Fabfilter EQs in Zero Latency mode rather than Linear Phase seems to make an improvement but not by much. and even then I only have 3 of those turned on at this stage.
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Old 03-22-2020, 06:58 AM   #40
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I think you're getting there.

My lag issue, which manifests a little differently than yours, also appears related to the number of plugins, but in my case it's only three or more instances (on separate tracks) of a plugin known to be fairly resource-hungry, Analog Lab 4. And like you, both Reaper's monitor and Windows show CPU at about 30% peak/avg and plenty of RAM available. Aaaand, I'm able to run 8 or more instances of that same plugin in Ableton Live Lite without any performance issues.
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