Please help...buffering and stuttering problems in reaper

[drawbackwards]

I am hoping someone can help me. I am getting far into finishing a project on a very new pc. Hp Intel i7, windows 10, 16mb of RAM. Focusrite 18i20 interface on a computer that I mostly use for music production. Performance meter is showing 60% of power used and my windows task manager is at 90%. I have about 80 tracks with plugins on most. Some plugins are hungrier than others. I changed my buffer size to 512 and it is barely workable and I've had to start freezing tracks. If I go to 1024 it gets WAY worse. Does anyone know why that is? I'm mixing exclusively at this point. Also I'm not the most computer savvy person so I dont know if I am expecting too much out of the system given how hard I'm pushing it. I need someone's advice who has more knowledge than me and this forum has always come through for me. I've gone through most windows 10 tutorials for maximizing cpu performance like high performance options and various things like that. I'm very frustrated as it is a new pc and I'm thinking I should be getting better performance out of it, but maybe I'm wrong. Thanks in advance....Mike

[ivansc]

Did you download & run resplendence.com `s latency monitor? Its a good way to set a baseline before you start hunting stuff down & bearing in mind this is a new computer, it could well have some cute little bit of bloatware hidden away that is affecting performance.

[drawbackwards]

Thank you for taking the time to help me I really appreciate it. I downloaded the resplendence.com latency monitor and it said, Your system appears to be having trouble handling real time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as dropouts clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appeared to be executing for to long. 1 problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in control panel then BIOS set up. Check for bios updates.
I am running high performance option and did what it said to address throttling. I tried to attach a picture of the diagnostic but I think the file was too big to upload. I don't know anything about BIOS updates or setup. What do you think? Thanks again, Mike

[michi.333]

Originally Posted by drawbackwards

...16mb of RAM...

...you probably meant 16 GB RAM?!
ok, 8 tracks with let's say two or three effects per track is of course not exactly little, but should be feasible. What makes me wonder: you wrote that increasing the buffersize makes the problem even worse ... for me it's the other way around: I record with a small buffersize to get low latency and increase the buffersize when mixing, in order to be able to play the project properly with many effects ... very strange ...

[valy]

Are you using the latest ASIO driver for the 18i20? And is that the one that Reaper is set to use in its Preferences?

[drawbackwards]

Yes I did mean 16 gb of RAM...goes to show how much I actually know! Haha. Yeah there's about 80 tracks so I know it's a lot. Your process is similar to mine where I record with low buffer size and increase as I mix. The newest development is that I unplugged my interface and ran Latency Mon and it didn't detect any issues.I thought maybe an issue with the interface driver. So it turns out that there is an updated driver for my focusrite 18i20. I downloaded it and installed it and now I have 2 somewhat different issues. Playback on all apps reaper, amazon music etc all have crackles and don't play smoothly. Before, those apps would all play fine but reaper was inoperable. Stuttering but no crackles. Now crackles on everything. And the most notable is that I can not change the buffer size to anything but 256. If I change to 512 or 1024 it automatically just changes back to 512. I am at a loss and I need help from someone with knowledge. I recently installed sonarworks reference 4 if it's any consolation and not sure if that means anything or not in terms of drivers.

[valy]

First of all, exit the Sonarworks program while you troubleshoot the regular sound. It adds a further layer of complexity that makes it harder to get problems sorted.

What is the sample rate of the Focusrite set to?

[valy]

Another idea: Focusrite interfaces don't play well with USB 3.0 ports, or USB cords longer than the ones that come with it.

Do you have it plugged into a 2.0 port?

[drawbackwards]

Yes latest ASIO driver and Reaper is set to use that one

[drawbackwards]

Yes original cord and tried both usb 2.0 ports. Thanks for brainstorming...

[drawbackwards]

Sample rate is 256 but I can not change it to anything else. It won't allow any other sample rate

[drawbackwards]

If it means anything to anyone while running latency Mon the biggest offenders are
HDAudBus.sys - High definition audio bus driver and
Wdf01000 - Kernel mode driver framewok runtime.

[valy]

256 is your buffer size, not your sample rate.

Sample rate will be 44100, 48000, etc.

[drawbackwards]

Sorry...my sample rate is 44100

[valy]

Can you check the manufacturer website for your motherboard and see if there are any newer drivers for the USB controller on it?

[drawbackwards]

I have an hp pavilion desktop 460-p274

This is the page I've found but I'm not sure what I'm looking for

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers...model/28868299

[valy]

Also, do this:

Open an elevated command prompt (press Windows+X then choose "Windows PowerShell (admin)")

Enter this: reg query HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\ /s /f hdaudbus

Copy-paste what it says here

[drawbackwards]

Good God, thanks for your help...I'm in way over my head here
Here's what it says

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\P CI\VEN_8086&DEV_A2F0&SUBSYS_82F2103C&REV_00\3&1158 3659&2&FB
DeviceDesc REG_SZ @hdaudbus.inf,%hdaudio.devicedesc%;High Definition Audio Controller
Service REG_SZ HDAudBus
Mfg REG_SZ @hdaudbus.inf,%msft%;Microsoft

End of search: 3 match(es) found.
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

[valy]

Originally Posted by drawbackwards

I have an hp pavilion desktop 460-p274

This is the page I've found but I'm not sure what I'm looking for

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers...model/28868299

The one to try installing would be the "Intel Chipset" one, but let's try something else first.

[valy]

Originally Posted by drawbackwards

Good God, thanks for your help...I'm in way over my head here
Here's what it says

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\P CI\VEN_8086&DEV_A2F0&SUBSYS_82F2103C&REV_00\3&1158 3659&2&FB
DeviceDesc REG_SZ @hdaudbus.inf,%hdaudio.devicedesc%;High Definition Audio Controller
Service REG_SZ HDAudBus
Mfg REG_SZ @hdaudbus.inf,%msft%;Microsoft

End of search: 3 match(es) found.
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

OK, now enter this into the PowerShell and tell me what it says:

reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&D EV_A2F0&SUBSYS_82F2103C&REV_00\3&11583659&2&FB\Dev ice Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties"

[valy]

Remove the space between the V and the I in "Device" though, I don't know why the forums does that.

[drawbackwards]

I removed the space and it said this

>> ice Parameters\Interrupt Management\MessageSignaledInterruptProperties

[valy]

Yeah, the forums are being annoying with the formatting of this long string. Let's try a different way.

Press Windows+R then type regedit.exe and hit Enter

Navigate to here -- note that you are looking for this key on your computer:

VEN_8086&DEV_A2F0&SUBSYS_82F2103C&REV_00\3&1158 3659&2&FB

What does it show in the right pane? Do you see MSISupported?

[drawbackwards]

I made it up to the PCI part and I don't have the same VEN code you have

[drawbackwards]

oh wait i just read your whole reply sorry....give me a sec

[drawbackwards]

Ok I got there. Yes it says MSI supported. My screen looks exactly like yours

[valy]

Right-click MSISupported and go to Modify

Change the Value Data field to 1 and hit OK

Then restart your PC and see if that helped anything.

[drawbackwards]

Ok I did that and no improvement in reaper. Some slight improvement globally like amazon music and youtube. So it has been bugging me that since i reinstalled the driver for the focusrite 18i20 I can not change the buffer size like I used to be able to. Ironically even though sonarworks is disabled if I go into their settings it will let me adjust the buffer size therefore effecting the interface and making changes in reaper. It's like sonarowrks (even though disabled) has the ultimate control. Any other thoughts? Thanks for all your help today

[valy]

You should exit Sonarworks entirely, not just disable the correction EQ.

[valy]

Are you saying that other Windows stuff like streaming services and YouTube now plays correctly? Or just semi-correctly?

[drawbackwards]

Wow, that was it. I had sonarworks systemwide disabled and the focusrite as the audio selected. But it wasn't until I hit quit on it and couldn't select it at all that reaper could play back properly. So the crackling is now gone with sonarworks totally quit. So sonarworks systemwide was effecting reaper even though it wasn't active. But now i can change my buffer settings on the focusrite in reaper. 1024 still sounds way worse with more buffering from 512 for some reason.

[drawbackwards]

So normally when I go to manage sound devices I could select sonarworks systemwide but since quitting it its not available but I can operate reaper without crackling. Also in manage sound devices i see input devices- stereo devices realtek high definition audio. I have the option to disable that. Should i?

[valy]

Alright, here's the thing.

Don't use Sonarworks Systemwide in Windows when you have Reaper open.

What I do is use Systemwide when I'm not in a DAW. Then when I open a DAW like Reaper, I exit Systemwide completely.

In Reaper, there is a tiny button up at the top right called Monitor FX. That's where you want to put your Sonarworks VST plugin.

[valy]

You can disable Realtek. You aren't using it because you are using the 18i20. I don't think that's causing your issues, but it doesn't help anything to leave it enabled I guess.

[valy]

You shouldn't have to go into the Sound Devices part of Windows settings once you get it working right.

What I do:

Start the computer (have Systemwide set to start with Windows).

Watch YouTube videos or whatever with Systemwide open

Now I want to work in Reaper. Right-click Systemwide in taskbar tray and choose Exit

Start Reaper. Your sound should already be set to Focusrite USB because you quit Systemwide

Because Monitor FX is global (not project-specific), my Sonarworks EQ correction plugins are always there. I don't have to think about them at all.

[valy]

So that should solve your Reaper issues, right? The only problem is that you can't change the buffer size anymore?

[drawbackwards]

You are a lifesaver man. I completely understand what you are saying about using systemwide. So the issues in reaper have been fixed but i still get the stuttering while using systemwide with amazon music and stuff like that. If I turn it off it is fixed but now I don't have the systemwide room correction anymore. But the most important is the room correction in reaper through the VST. And I have it in monitor fx. Since you have systemwide, do you have the audio buffer size set to the same buffer size you have the interface at in reaper? In my case 512. 1024 in reaper is still more buffering.
Also systemwide has the safety buffer size and something called debug mode. Do you use any of those?

[valy]

What it's set to in Reaper doesn't matter per se, but I think you need to make sure that your Focusrite is set to the same sample rate as Systemwide, like this:

[valy]

I guess buffer size doesn't have to match since you can see mine doesn't at the moment and I was playing Spotify just now with no problems.

[valy]

No as you can see I don't use the safety buffer, and my debug mode is off (it just creates a log for their support to check if you ask them for help).