Noise & tracks cutting-out

[pacificus]

I'll try and explain this as best I can: I use Reaper primarily for playing the electric guitar. I use it with Guitar Rig 6. As I'm playing, often I would hear crackling/interference-esque noise, and the guitar - all - sound would cut-out. Often it would come back, but sometimes it's just gone for good.

I've just been playing with two Reaper tracks, each assigned a different Guitar Rig pre-set/sound (combining guitar sounds on different tracks at the same time with live playing). One of the tracks cut-out, while the other remained, and was fine. I had to restart Reaper each time that one track (always the same, and always with the same Guitar Rig pre-set assigned to it) went silent, only for the problem to repeat.

I'm using a MacBook Pro, but I'm running Windows 10 on it (in BootCamp, as I hate Apple OS). This makes the situation awkward, I know, but Apple OS is just unusable, as far as I'm concerned (I suffered with it for maybe a year before finally getting BootCamp to install Win-10, but I digress...). I'm also using a Komplete Audio 1 interface, into which I plug the guitar, and am running ASIO.

I've configured ASIO to pretty much the lowest buffer value, but with no luck. Is the problem with the Komplete, or a driver issue relating to it? I've tried updating drivers, but Win-10 tells me they are all current, so what can I do in that regard? I've closed all other programs the computer is running, but it made little difference overall, and the track, as described above, continued to cut-out. I've also been frequently running Window-10's audio trouble-shooter, but it did pretty much nothing (most of the time), and I've set the Komplete as the default audio output device for the computer, again with no luck.

If anyone is able to tell me how I can fix this (without reverting back to Mac OS) I'd very much appreciate it. Thanks.

Edit: I've recently run several antivirus programs, so it's unlikely due to malware, and this has been a problem for around a year now (I've only been using Reaper for 18-months since I started learning the guitar).

[AudioBabble]

I've configured ASIO to pretty much the lowest buffer value, but with no luck

If you're getting dropouts/crackling, you'd want to increase your buffer size, not decrease it.

sound would cut-out. Often it would come back, but sometimes it's just gone for good.

when you say "gone for good", do you mean there's no sound from the guitar or no sound at all in Reaper?

when this happens, check the top right of the screen in Reaper -- if it says [audio device closed], then there's a problem with you driver possibly

Have you checked sound generally in your windows OS -- do other programs play sound OK? Do you have another DAW that uses ASIO drivers -- does the same thing happen?

[pacificus]

Originally Posted by AudioBabble

If you're getting dropouts/crackling, you'd want to increase your buffer size, not decrease it.



when you say "gone for good", do you mean there's no sound from the guitar or no sound at all in Reaper?

when this happens, check the top right of the screen in Reaper -- if it says [audio device closed], then there's a problem with you driver possibly

Have you checked sound generally in your windows OS -- do other programs play sound OK? Do you have another DAW that uses ASIO drivers -- does the same thing happen?

After uninstalling the audio interface, and also increasing the buffer, I have been able to use Reaper with no problem at all. I'll see how long this situation lasts, but will uninstall and reinstall again if it reoccurs. It would be good to know what causes it, and it really shouldn't occur, in my opinion.

Gone for good means that all audio from a given track, if not all of them, disappears, and doesn't return whatever I do other than restart Reaper. Even though I'm not hearing any sound, I can see the graphical level displays moving.

This problem only affects Reaper. Nothing else has ever given me such an issue - not VLC Player, WinAmp, or any browser. I have Ableton Live installed, but I don't use it.

Thanks for your reply.

[AudioBabble]

Sounds like you should be ok with an increased buffer size.

When playing guitar live thru VSTs, I have mine set to 128 samples (process buffer) and 1ms (usb buffer).

This gives me 5.1/7.0 ms latency according to the info in the top right of Reaper window. More than adequate for guitar playing.

If you can't hear any sound but the level meters are still moving, there's a good chance you've activated auto-mute on your guitar track because of too much volume level -- try clicking the mute button and your sound should return.

You'll find the settings for auto-muting in options > preferences > Audio > Mute/Solo.

(you probably have your input gain set too high on your interface -- try reducing it so that the guitar peaks around -18 to -12 on your track level meter when u play your loudest)

[pacificus]

Originally Posted by AudioBabble

Sounds like you should be ok with an increased buffer size.

When playing guitar live thru VSTs, I have mine set to 128 samples (process buffer) and 1ms (usb buffer).

This gives me 5.1/7.0 ms latency according to the info in the top right of Reaper window. More than adequate for guitar playing.

If you can't hear any sound but the level meters are still moving, there's a good chance you've activated auto-mute on your guitar track because of too much volume level -- try clicking the mute button and your sound should return.

You'll find the settings for auto-muting in options > preferences > Audio > Mute/Solo.

(you probably have your input gain set too high on your interface -- try reducing it so that the guitar peaks around -18 to -12 on your track level meter when u play your loudest)

Very helpful. Thanks again.