Laptops Live Problems...

Vinnydude

Vinnydude

Clunge Monster
So Iposted a few weeks ago about a problem I was having and I thought I'd solved it. Unfortunatly for me though I haven't, but I may have an idea what it could be.

When playing live, I play to a backing track in Reaper. Along with midi controlled soft synths and ampsims, with all effects automated.

Now, the problem is, every once in a while, I will loose audio, then it'll carry on playing after a very nervous second or 2. When it does recommence, i've lost all midi.

So. I'm thinking that it could possibly be due to resonance due to the volumes of the live shows.

Has anyone else had this? Would increasing buffer/cache within reaper help?

Anyone thats had these problems I would LOVE to hear from you please :)
Or any other suggestions what else it could be.
 
It's unlikely to be due to resonance from the venue.
Does it do this dropout stuff when you are just messing around at home?

It's more likely to be within the laptop itself.
It sounds to me like some other process in the laptop taking control off the resources (for example, like a virus checker or something).

Have you noticed whether the bar/position indicator in Reaper flashes red? This would indicate a shortage of resources.
 
Its only ever done it live from what I can remember. I could just be really unlucky! :P

I've just noticed that the actual backing tracks are in 32 bit, which is totally unnecessary for live work. So i'm going to resample them.

Virus scanners had crossed my mind as an issue as well. If I set up a separate user account within windows, i'm assuming I can disable it for that user.

Unfortunatly, I haven't had time to see whats going on on the laptop when it happens :(

Any idea if reaper holds a log of anything like that?
 
You could increase the buffer. Is there anything that could be software related like a virus scanner. What about your wireless internet, is it disabled?
 
Right, so I've resampled all of the wavs and they are HALF the size they were :D I have a feeling that reaper was also having to resample them on the fly which of course is more processing power.

So, seeing as i'm not in a live setting, i'm going to set a virus scan going AND play my live set.

Fingers crossed if it gets through it without a hitch then this'll be a good indication as to whether the sample/bit rate was the issue. I'll also be extending my buffer with this too.

I'll report back in about an hour :)
 
jaygee said:
Exactly. Remove/shutdown unnecessary services and background processes. Disable your wireless adapter, etc...
Click to expand...

I do all that anyway :)

Quick update, buffers increased, sample rate no longer excessive.

Its behaving WITH a virus scan going! :D

Still only half way through mind but its looking good.
 
Right, so its been through my set twice now, first with a virus scan going, second with a defrag going aswell.

No screwups.

So, fingers crossed its sorted.

Unfortunatly, i'm going to have to wait till the end of october to find out, and still then I'm going to be paranoid as hell about it happening again!!! DAMMIT!!!

But for now, from what I can see, it seems to be playing ball.

Can anyone think of any other stress tests I can put it under while its going through my set?
 
Vinnydude said:
Right, so its been through my set twice now, first with a virus scan going, second with a defrag going aswell.

No screwups.

So, fingers crossed its sorted.

Unfortunatly, i'm going to have to wait till the end of october to find out, and still then I'm going to be paranoid as hell about it happening again!!! DAMMIT!!!

But for now, from what I can see, it seems to be playing ball.

Can anyone think of any other stress tests I can put it under while its going through my set?
Click to expand...

What are the specs on your laptop and what OS are you running ?
 
Its an Asus Aspire 7530, XP Pro SP3, Turon 2x2ghz, 3gb ram, 250gb sata (internal) for system and 500gb sata (internal) souly for audio. And I'm running that with a Lexicon U82s.
 
Vinnydude said:
Its an Asus Aspire 7530, XP Pro SP3, Turon 2x2ghz, 3gb ram, 250gb sata (internal) for system and 500gb sata (internal) souly for audio. And I'm running that with a Lexicon U82s.
Click to expand...

Here's a interesting tool for windows XP that allows you to alter the number of clock cycles any pci device receives when the
cpu is servicing the device after a interrupt. The download link is embedded in the article.
PCI Latency
 
That is quite interesting yeah. The Ionix u82s is usb though so it shouldn't apply.

I'm pretty confident that with reducing the size of the files I've been using and increasing my buffers, and also getting reaper to use BOTH cores in my processor, that this issue is hopefully sorted. I just wish I had a way to check it without going into a live scenario!!!
 
somegeezer said:
Setup a live scenario in your studio? Do just as you would live with it.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you've not done many live shows. Apologies if i'm wrong :P

But yeah, no matter how much planning and testing you do in practice, its NEVER the same when you take it on the road :D
 
Amen to that, I had it in my head I was gonna record a live show. Tested everything, made sure it wold record for a couple hours straight. Sure enough on gig night my whole setup crashed.
 
Vinnydude said:
I'm guessing you've not done many live shows. Apologies if i'm wrong :P

But yeah, no matter how much planning and testing you do in practice, its NEVER the same when you take it on the road :D
Click to expand...

You're obviously not putting it through the same abuse then. Which is why I mentioned "just as you would live". If you're doing absolutely everything the same and it crashes when finally going live, it's just coincidence. It could have happened any time.
 
What i said still stands dude and Tetrafish agrees!!!

I have put it through the set exactly as I would live, BUT when you play a live show, everything changes, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!!! And that's why I love live music.
 
Vinnydude said:
What i said still stands dude and Tetrafish agrees!!!

I have put it through the set exactly as I would live, BUT when you play a live show, everything changes, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!!! And that's why I love live music.
Click to expand...

If you're going into live music with the attitude that everything will go wrong, then that is where your problems lay. Nothing changes, unless you were doing something different in the first place. That is the whole meaning of the word "exactly". There is no difference. No matter what. Your point is invalid by thinking otherwise.
 
I've been playing music live for over 20 years on countless different kinds of setups. Please don't talk to me like a noob.

Its a well known phenomenon that if something is going to go wrong, it will go wrong live. Doing things exactly the same doesn't have anything to do with it.
 
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