Tracktion Software

nathanscribe · Post by **nathanscribe** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 3:36 pm

Hi, I've been using DAWs for years but am new to Tracktion. I'd love to be able to rely on it for all my recording, but so far I don't feel I can because I am getting persistent and unpredictable audio glitches.

Sometimes everything plays just fine. But almost every time I play back, even simple two-track projects with no plugins, I get pops, drop-outs, and other similar audio glitches. Latency has no effect on this - I can set anything up to the max and still get them. Resetting audio devices doesn't help either. Freezing tracks doesn't help. The number of tracks is not a factor. I can get perfect playback, if the stars are right, on 8+ track pieces with multiple plugins and automation, but most of the time there are glitches on everything I do regardless of complexity.

I don't get these glitches on Logic, which is my other DAW. I wanted to leave Logic for Tracktion, due to its simplicity of operation, but the audio just doesn't seem reliable enough and I don't know why.

My system is a 2012 Mac Mini w/i5, running 10.7.5, and only 2GB RAM, but as I say Logic (exp 9) handles that fine and I can run down to 32 sample latency on Logic, whereas on Tracktion even 1024 gives problems.

The default no. of 'cores to use' seems to be 4. I *thought* my system used 2. Not sure if I should even change that. My interface is an Allen & Heath Zed R16.

Any advice? I feel like unless I can sort this out, I've wasted my time and money on this otherwise promising software.

Thanks in advance,

Nathan

nathanscribe · Post by **nathanscribe** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 3:38 pm

I should also add I've turned off bluetooth, wifi, dropbox and google drive - all the things I know have (at least possibly) contributed to audio glitches in the past.

chico.co.uk · Post by **chico.co.uk** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 3:56 pm

If this was windows, I'd take a crack at this, but not sure where to start on OSX...

Is it definitely a 2012 i5? Not an i7? Specs for an i5 say they were dual core

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP659

Definitely try changing the number of cores. Not sure I've ever seen tracktion detect the wrong number of cores before, but maybe there;s a bug in the detection code somewhere that you're hitting (you can just change it back, if it makes no difference)

Can you turn off speedstep on the processor? Not sure how to do that on a mac, i'm afraid ...

jabe · Post by **jabe** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:26 pm

I'd definitely try changing the cores figure. You can always change it back.

frankvg · Post by **frankvg** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:28 pm

I seem to remember there were lots of audio problems with 10.7 when it came out. Don't know if they ever got resolved but I skipped it altogether. 10.6 and 10.9 seemed to be more stable for audio. Is there any specific reason you didn't upgrade?

nathanscribe · Post by **nathanscribe** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:41 pm

@ frankgv: I kept 10.7.5 mainly because it was stable with Logic (which I was then my only DAW) and various other bits of software, MIDI interface drivers etc.

As for the glitches: I changed cores to 2. My mac is definitely an i5.

Result: using a couple of my own projects, and also the 'synthetique' demo project, first playback on each glitches about as bad, maybe worse, than before. BUT subsequent playback of an open project seems OK. I just have to play it all through once first.

Not really a practical solution, though at least it's some comfort!

alejandrozalaquett · Post by **alejandrozalaquett** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 5:15 pm

Try increasing the audio cache size on the General Behaviour window

nathanscribe · Post by **nathanscribe** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 9:20 pm

Changing the audio cache size doesn't seem to have any effect either... I'm rapidly exhausting all the things I'd usually suspect, all the usual audio settings.

Could ReWire have anything to do with it? Do I just not have enough RAM for this?

chico.co.uk · Post by **chico.co.uk** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 10:35 am

Running out of ideas, but you've turned off the Energy saver type stuff in OSX, right?

Set the computer sleep and display sleep to "never", and unticked "put the hard disk to sleep if possible"?

The fact it works on the second time you play a project back makes me guess it's loaded the audio etc into RAM at that point, whereas previously it was reading it from disk ... bit of a long shot, granted

You've got a decent amount of disk space left, right?

Things I might try, if it was me (long shots) would be going to the audio devices tab, and choosing "Reset Audio Settings" and if that makes no difference, then go to the general behaviour tab, and play with the size of the "Audio cache size". On mine that's set to 6.0 seconds per file, and i've not modified it

Also go to the "CPU usage" icon in the top right of the edit screen, and check whether you've ticked "Low Latency Monitoring" in there. It's possible that's on, and you're monitoring at a latency lower than you think you've set on the audio settings page, and lower than your hardware can handle

Worth a shot maybe, anyway

nathanscribe · Post by **nathanscribe** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 8:25 pm

chico.co.uk wrote:The fact it works on the second time you play a project back makes me guess it's loaded the audio etc into RAM at that point, whereas previously it was reading it from disk ... bit of a long shot, granted

You've got a decent amount of disk space left, right?

All the energy saving settings are optimized for audio, there's almost half a terabyte of disk space left, low latency is off, resetting audio settings makes no difference, CPU usage is in single figures, and as far as I can tell changing the audio cache size makes no difference.

Just switched the machine on, loaded up the Synthetique demo track as an example, played once through, got glitches every second or two, played again, smooth as the proverbial infant derriere.

Your suggestion about it reading from disk but then having it loaded ready to go makes sense to me as an idea, but I don't really know how this works technically.

Either way, playing once through is not something I want to have to do every time I open a project...

Anybody else any thoughts on this? I'd love to get this sorted, Tracktion is otherwise turning out nice. :/

frankvg · Post by **frankvg** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 10:40 pm

Have you looked at the activity monitor? Repaired permissions? Enabled app nap? (no idea if that will help, though).

jabe · Post by **jabe** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 12:44 am

Have you put "optimise mac for daw" in Google? It brings up a few.

cron · Post by **cron** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:05 am

Quick note that all dual core i5 processors I'm aware of use Hyperthreading (unlike the quad core i5s) so the OS should indeed see 4 cores. The 4-core default you're getting in Tracktion is almost certainly correct and indeed optimal.

TSC · Post by **TSC** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 6:59 pm

Also try disabling ReWire - I have come across a few systems where it can cause problems - give it a go and see if it helps

nathanscribe · Post by **nathanscribe** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 8:42 pm

TSC wrote:Also try disabling ReWire - I have come across a few systems where it can cause problems - give it a go and see if it helps

Is that just the option on Tracktion's Settings page? There's nothing else buried in the system anywhere that would need doing, is there..?

Tracktion Software

KVR Audio

Help troubleshooting persistent audio glitches