performing live music audio drops out and comes back in

[worshipper]

I'm using DP as a DAW while performing live music. Last weekend our click track disappeared for about a measure, then came back, right in time. This happened multiple times. The tracks continued playing but click was gone. I am sending the click and cues to one side of an audiobox USB and the tracks to the other side. We noticed while looking at the meter bridge, it had peaked for a moment and then returned to normal.
It continued playing, but said I had overloaded the computer's processor. It has never happened in the past and we have been using this method for years. The only thing I have recently changed was adding an automated volume to the channels, so the click is not so loud during the quieter moments of a song. Do you have any ideas or solutions to this problem?
Thanks

[Shooshie]

One thing that helps is to increase the buffer. Buffer overload is the reason for most dropouts. If you are performing live with instruments that are run in DP, I can understand why you might want to keep the buffer short, but try just a little less short.

Also, any kind of automation, including pedals in a piano part, can increase the load and cause the above problem. If you have pre-recorded tracks (MIDI or Audio) that are being heavily processed, consider freezing them to unprocessed audio.

When creating the music, if you can break up the parts a little — give them some breathing room — it can allow the buffer to recover. Of course, when mixing, where live latency isn't a problem, you can make your buffer huge, and the problem will never occur.

Shooshie