Anomalies/hiccups on Bounce to Disk

[HeartwiseRecords]

Running the DP 9.02 demo on my 2010 Mac Pro (10.10.5) - I was a DP user back in the version 3-5 era, have been using Logic & Reaper mainly for composing work since then. I recently had a mix project come in on DP and was excited to see an old friend. Going great so far, but I'm experiencing issues on bounce to disk.

About fifty percent of the time, the bounce ends up with dropouts on certain tracks, usually at clip start points or when new sections come in (background vocals at the beginning of the chorus, for example). The audio on these tracks cuts out for a moment then comes back in.

My only thought was to try turning off the plug-in pre-gen mode, but that didn't affect anything. Also tried bouncing to a different format, no luck. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Need more info on VIs in use and distribution across cores, as well as which specific plugs might be in play. Track counts, etc.

[HeartwiseRecords]

Track count is minimal - this is a hip hop record with a handful of layered background tracks, plus vocals. Maybe 10-15 tracks on average.

Plugins - SoundToys, Slate Digital, Stillwell, Stock DP. No VIs.

Not sure how to determine core distribution, but I'm barely touching the CPU as far as I can tell. DP processing meter is hovering around 10-15%. It does spike when I hit play for a split second, otherwise steady.

[HeartwiseRecords]

Oh, and the Slate Digital bundle.

[HeartwiseRecords]

Update - the dropouts are occurring at pretty much any edit points, including crossfades between clips.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

THe "across cores" thing is when you have intense VIs on the same channel as or in the same instance of a VI. IOW, high sample count and/or highly scripted VI instruments should be in their own instance (instantiation) of a VI. That way multi-threading can take advantage of the multi-core aspects of the machine. Doesn't seem to apply here.

You might try freezing tracks and real time recording DPs output to see if that helps. Merging audio tracks with lots of fades might also solve the problem if computing the fades is the problem. I BTD all the time and don't see those issues unless the VIs are as described above (and they almost always are). I know some folks around here don't like BTD because of the very issues you are encountering. Others, like myself, don't see that kind of problem; we see different kinds of problems. LOL

Maybe one of the BTD gurus will chime in...?

[dinobass]

I used to experience the same thing when I had some cpu intensive plugs in the mix. I would merge the soundbites so there were no edits or fades. Also, make sure there is a little bit of silence in front of all soundbites (doesn't need to to be more than a half second or so). I haven't experienced any BTD dropouts on my current rig, though.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Oh, and I forgot... duh! Set you buffer as high as possible when bouncing and as low as possible while tracking. A low buffer will also cause BTD problems.

[Shooshie]

Update - the dropouts are occurring at pretty much any edit points, including crossfades between clips.

There is a current bug in DP which causes fades to become dropouts when bouncing to disk. I'd hoped they would have that fixed by now, but I think it's still there. This has caused me to have to record all my "bounces" in real time. Here's how I do it:

1) make a stereo audio track called "Bounce."
2) create a stereo bus called "Bounce."
3) set the above track's input to Bounce and output to Main Out.
3) change my final Submaster aux output from Main Out to "Bounce,"
4) set up the mix to play whatever I want to bounce to disk, which will require record enabling and play enabling the "Bounce" track, which now is functioning as the final output submaster track, though it's really an audio track. Be sure to set the start and stop selection/memory range.
5) hit RECORD.
6) when done, name the take what you want for the final bounce, then drag that track to the Finder, where you'll have to name it again.
7) if you want to export other formats, you can now bounce to disk this final track. It has no fades on it (they are recorded into it as audio, not fades), so the bug does not affect this track. Bounce as many tracks or formats as you wish, using this track as your only source from DP. Make sure you do not have it playing through a Master Track with plugins on it. This track should be self-contained; no plugins required.

Until they fix the bounce feature, this is the method I have to use to create final output. I sure miss the bounce-to-disk feature!

Shooshie

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Wouldn't merging solve this none pass?

[HeartwiseRecords]

Will give the real-time bounce a go with the high buffer. I'm having zero playback issues, so that seems like the most straightforward solution. Glad to hear it's a bug and not unique to my rig.

Really enjoying working in DP again. I may well pick up a copy before this demo runs out, especially after the quick help from you guys!

[mikehalloran]

BTD problems can be a symptom of bad RAM. Probably not but if none of the other solutions work, use a tool to test for a bad stick. I use TechTool Pro. I take care of a large number of Macs and find one or two bad sticks a year. RAM can be suspected if BTD is inconsistent—with multiple passes on the same file, some work and others don't.

[HeartwiseRecords]

I haven't experienced any bounce issues in Logic, Reaper, or Adobe Audition, which I use daily, but I'll run a RAM check just in case. Thanks for the tip!

Does anybody here use Audio Hijack Pro to do their real-time bouncing? I've heard of people using it for this purpose, but haven't tried it myself. Would be a nice solution, kinda like a digital master tape.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Audio Hijack is great. Well worth every penny and yes, I've recorded from there with great success.