Freezing/crashing probems

liv_rong

Knows very little
So, first its worth mentioning that I recently reformatted my computer. Since then Ive recorded two projects, each from band practice, the most recent being a problem. I just let a session record for 3-4 hours and pick a few good takes from each song after, usually 7 or 8 tracks being recorded. After I do a quick mix with minimal effort, each track usually gets a little compression then a limiter and the master, level adjustments and panning. The project from last week keeps freezing Reaper and a few times the computer had to restart. The time bar at the bottom will start blinking red, then everything will freeze and it will say "not responding" at the top but the audio will keep playing. This does this with no plugins running or even picked yet, just the raw audio. I originally thought the project file was corrupt or something so I started a new project and imported the wav files into it. Same thing, wtf. Then I thought it was a driver issue with my interface, being a fresh install I couldnt remember if I had ever updated the drivers previously. So I went ahead and downloaded and installed new drivers, which there was updates for. Same problem. Then I started opening older projects, but no problems there, easy sailing with multiple tracks and plugs on each. I then checked to see wtf was going on with the computers performance when the project was playing and cpu was like 4%, memory was 46% but the disc was pegging at 100% as soon as you hit play then a few seconds later the thing would start blinking and it would freeze up.

Now, I dont care too much what happens with this project, its just from practice. But what is going on here? I want to figure it out so I can avoid this for future more serious projects. Is the hd crapping out on me? Just bad luck with this one project? Something similar happened last month which lead to to reformat. But that time it was just one spot in the project that would freeze, if I didnt play through that one spot it was fine.

I greatly appreciate any advice! Thanks!

Some specs:

-3ghz i5 processor
-8gb ram
-64 bit windows 8
-Reaper 5.27
-Line6 UX8 interface
 
My guess is that Reaper is having trouble reading WAV file info off the disk fast enough.

What format did you use for the recording? 44/24? 96/24? Something else?

A possible way of working around this is to break the project into smaller chunks. For example, highlight an area that makes up a song (or a bit you want to keep to work on), then right click, then 'crop project to selection', then save this as a separate project.
 
I agree with gecko. With several hours of audio, it is buffering a lot of sound, then having to fetch because it can't buffer all, then when it fetches it is having trouble keeping up. Then add processing requirements and those plug in requires buffering into RAM. You are just taxing your computer.

Other than what was stated above, you could check and make sure your ISO settings are a high as possible to reduce computing, but I really think you have a pure I/O issue.
 
Thanks for the replies! I understand what you are saying, its just weird that its doing it now.
 
Maybe it's doing it now because the disk needs defragging?

That's what was suggested at the other place as well. Im going to give that a shot. Like I said I dont care about this project being a loss, I just dont want it to continue to happen.
 
That's what was suggested at the other place as well. Im going to give that a shot. Like I said I dont care about this project being a loss, I just dont want it to continue to happen.

With that much audio, you could try installing an SSD, they are really good at quick data I/O. Nearly as fast as RAM (quick enough) so you can retrieve much faster than a spinning HD and no defragging (they tell you not to becuase, it doesn't help and shortens the life).

If you find you will be working with large chunks of audio like this, might be in your best interest to see if an SSD doesn't cure the problem. Plus, you can pick them up pretty cheap now. 250Gb for about $80. Worth a try if you are going to be doing a lot of this type recording.
 
A possible way of working around this is to break the project into smaller chunks. For example, highlight an area that makes up a song (or a bit you want to keep to work on), then right click, then 'crop project to selection', then save this as a separate project.
This of course will still reference the longer original audio files. You'd have to render (probably just glue) the shorter items to make new files.

Course I'm not completely convinced that it has much to do with the length of the files themselves. I don't think it retrieves more than a buffer's worth of any file at any given time, and I don't think the actual length of the file makes a real difference. Fragmentation may be a part of it, but ultimately just comes down to track count.

You might be able to get it to work better by increasing the buffer/latency setting on your interface. That almost sounds counterintuitive because you be trying to get more off the disk for each block, but you'd also have more time to fill the buffer before it needs to be played back, so...

I agree, though, that an SSD "working drive" would probably fix the problem for good.
 
UPDATE.jpg



Made it through today with no problems. Just did a quick mix and render with a bunch of plugins too, no problems. Still unknown what caused the issue. The only thing I did differently this time is when we took a break I stopped the recording.
 
Back
Top