Load of V-Racks Crashes DP

[Studiowerks]

I've been trying to start using V-racks for global reverbs and such, with the intent to have a standard setup that I can load into each new project. The problem is- most of the time when I try to load the V-rack from the "template" project it crashes DP before I get to the pop-up allowing me to select what to load.

Because of this instability, I'm pretty much abandoning V-racks and trying clippings, but thought I'd see if there was anyone out there that hit this issue and resolved it. I'm confused because it sounds like there are a lot of users having no issues with V-Racks...

Thanks in advance!

[musicarteca]

Could it be that the V-rack is so heavy that it is too much for the new project?
It is not the same to have an empty project with a loaded V-Rack than importing it into a file with data. It could load your CPU.

An alternative could be to create several V-racks, one for each group of VIs or aux tracks with plug-ins, etc.

That way you could import only what you need in the project without having to use additional CPU for plug-ins or VIs that you do not need.

For the new files what you can do is create a template that has different V-racks for all your needs, after you create the V-racks, disable them pressing the blue button in the chunks window. That way you could "turn on" and use valuable CPU only in the V-racks you need.

[daniel.sneed]

Shure it won't help directly, but (sorry) I never had a single crash using Vracks.
What would perhaps make sense is I use only very light effects and VIs.

My templates are 2 ordinary DP projects with everything in my most usual job setup including, tracks, mixer, effects, VIs, rewire, colors, ...
They are stored in project hard disks as any DP project.

[Tobor]

I'll echo Alex's suggestion to disable the V-racks in your templates. Then when DP 'fires up', there's much less to do all at once. Your template loads quickly. Then just enable your particular V-racks/VI's as needed.

[Studiowerks]

Thanks for the tips guys! Unfortunately I'm still having crashes. Here are some updates...

I had been loading the V-Rack from a full project with like 20 tracks plus many plug-ins. So I tried a small template project, and it gets to the load dialogue window quicker. I didn't have any crashes loading from the template, but I need to try it a few more times. But, I should be able to load data from any existing project, right?

Turning the V-Rack off in the source project did not improve the ability to load from it.

I need to test things a little more to decide whether to stay with V-racks or not. When they're able to be loaded it's a time saver. I'm starting to wonder if my machine is flaky- like bad RAM or something. If I learn anything new I'll post again.

[zed]

G4 Dual 1.42GHz 1.5GB || OS X 10.4.11

I'm sorry to say it, but I think this might be part of your problem. Not a very fast computer, not much RAM and a big bad operating system.

The V-Rack has never caused any problems or crashes for me. I know you probably don't wanna hear it, but I would suggest that you start thinking about upgrading your setup.

[Studiowerks]

Well, after some more methodical debugging I found the issue (after about 10 tries). It turned out to be a VST Auto-tune applied to a track (thru VSTwrapper) in the project I was trying to load from. Apparently this isn't real stable. I swapped in the MAS version for the track and now loading from any project I have is fine. I haven't had issues with VST Auto-tune up until now- the VST version used a little less CPU than MAS as I recall, so I used it.

As far as the machine, yeah it's older. But, in reality I believe it's as viable as many of the G5s out there given the big L2 cache on the processors. In any case, it performs great for what I do (audio, MIDI, plug-ins; no VIs to speak of). Moving to a MacPro isn't in my near future given 2 kids in college right now!

Thanks for the input everyone!

[zed]

...I found the issue (after about 10 tries)...

Good detective work! Really glad that you managed to find the source of the problem.

I have had expired plugin demos cause some instability and crashes in the past. It is not always easy to figure out what is causing the problem.

[Shooshie]

I've used V-Racks on my old G4 Gual 1GHz with no problems, and I use them now on my MacPro quad with no problems. But they are capable of HUGE problems, though I'm not sure how they get that way. The problems I've gotten from time to time came from corrupted setups or presets. The fix was to go back and reload the presets in all the VI's in the V-Rack. Until I did that, just hitting Play would result in an outrageous noise and a nasty crash that did not seem congruous with a mere preset problem.

You can probably avoid the problem simply by reloading the preset from time to time. (I'm talking about over days or weeks, not a daily thing)

Shooshie

[musicarteca]

not much RAM and a big bad operating system.

What do you mean, what is wrong with 10.4.11?

[zed]

not much RAM and a big bad operating system.

What do you mean, what is wrong with 10.4.11?

Not suggesting that there is anything wrong with 10.4.11. I was only remembering how 10.3.x demanded so much RAM and computer resources that it made everything painfully slow on my G4 (compared to OS9 which I went back to and still use when I need stuff on that computer). I would imagine that running 10.4.11 on a G4 would be even more demanding on the CPU, and not such a pleasant experience.