Old 10-19-2019, 12:46 PM   #1
interceiver
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Default Audio choking (stuttering)

I'm on an older Macbook Air (mid-2013) running OSX 10.9.5. I run very small sessions, rarely bigger than 10 audio tracks. No MIDI tracks. Reaper version was 5.22, just updated to 5.983 (same problem). This problem happens regardless of whether I use the Apogee Duet, Apogee Ensemble or just the headphone output of the Macbook.

Very sporadic audio choking (slowing down of playback and digitally stuttered audio output). Recently, it has become almost constant. I can't get through playback of more than a minute or two without the stuttering/choking happening.

In a session with comped vocals (9 takes, total audio tracks=3, total plug-ins=6), it stutters and chokes BETWEEN the singing sections (where I've cleaned up the audio by trimming the wav to only leave the lines that are sung). Very strange. If the system was overloaded in any way, it would choke during the audio bits, not in between them?

Any thoughts or insights would be great. Ultimately, I am probably due for a new machine or a serious upgrade. Thanks.
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Old 10-19-2019, 01:08 PM   #2
cfillion
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You can find useful details in the Performance monitor window. Have you tried increasing the block size?

For example, for the common glitches caused by the CPU not having enough time to process the entire buffer:
- RT xruns would increase when the audio stutters
- RT longest-block (6.71ms in the screenshot below) would be larger than the maximum block processing time (10.67ms below)
- RT CPU would likely be on the high side
- Total CPU is not really relevant here
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Old 10-19-2019, 02:26 PM   #3
interceiver
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Default Performance Meter Data

Thanks for this info!

My performance meter shows a lot less than yours. Only overall CPU, RAM use and disk read and write speeds. How do I get it to display more info?

Re. Block size, I changed it from 512 to 1024 and that didn't seem to help.

If I consolidate all the individual wavs in one track, the stuttering goes away. It's only when it has to navigate through an empty section that it starts to choke.
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Old 10-19-2019, 02:28 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by interceiver View Post
How do I get it to display more info?
Right click on the top area of the window.
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Old 10-19-2019, 02:35 PM   #5
interceiver
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Hm. I've right-clicked on every part of the window. Nothing. There is a small white pushpin on the top right but nothing seems to happen when I click on that...
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Old 10-19-2019, 02:41 PM   #6
interceiver
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Another clue: when I stop playback (after some stuttering), there is an echo of the stuttering that continues for a second or two after stopping. Could it be plug-in related?
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Old 10-19-2019, 03:10 PM   #7
interceiver
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It seems like it was a plug-in issue. Bypassing the Decapitator plug-in solved it. I think that plug-in doesn't react well to processing no audio.

Thanks!
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Old 10-19-2019, 03:22 PM   #8
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Are you using the latest version of Decapitator? That bug should have been fixed in 5.2.3/5.2.4. As a workaround I used to insert one of REAPER's built-in Dither JSFX (set to produce a 24-bit noise floor) on each FX chain containing an instance of a Soundtoys plugin.

Quote:
Originally Posted by interceiver View Post
Hm. I've right-clicked on every part of the window. Nothing.
https://i.imgur.com/eMfTt2M.gif

Last edited by cfillion; 10-19-2019 at 03:35 PM.
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Old 10-19-2019, 03:43 PM   #9
interceiver
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Okthanks so much! I'll check the version of Sound Toys and adjust accordingly.

Cheers!
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