Slowed down render

[skipscada]

Today when rendering a project to a final stereo file, the resulting file was slowed down. Has anyone else had the same experience, and is there a solution?

I'm on the last W10 Beta.

[fromwithin]

If you're rendering at 44100 Hz, try rendering at 48000 and vice versa.

[skipscada]

Thanks for the suggestion! That did the trick. Is this expected behaviour?

[dRowAudio]

No, this isn't expected. The render should automatically handle any sample rate adjustments.
I have heard one or two reports of this but I haven't been able to replicate it.

Can you provide some exact steps with a minimal Edit (i.e. perhaps just an audio file or instance of 4OSC)?
That way I can try and see what might be causing it.

[JohnNoizz]

I was having the same issue and what I found was: If in your audio settings in Waveform the sample rate is set at 48000hz and you render at 44100hz you have the slowdown in many tracks or in the entire track, but if in your settings the sample rate is the same as your render, well, everything is ok, so I think this behavior is because the sample rate on Waveform and the rendered track is not the same.

I didn't report this because I thought it was a normal Waveform behavior...

Edit: I forgot to mention, to reproduce this issue you need at least one or two tracks in midi with some instrument like synthetizers or pianos and not rendered to audio.

Edit 2: I'm on Windows 10 Pro

[skipscada]

No, this isn't expected. The render should automatically handle any sample rate adjustments.
I have heard one or two reports of this but I haven't been able to replicate it.

Can you provide some exact steps with a minimal Edit (i.e. perhaps just an audio file or instance of 4OSC)?
That way I can try and see what might be causing it.

Tried to do it with a minimal project, but it came out correct.

I reduced the complexity / CPU strain in the original project (there were crackles) by removing tracks, and things started working fine. Then tried to isolate plugins, but it didn't seem to be the problematic factor.

Could it simply be CPU strain / audio device settings too demanding?

Anyway, I'm getting crashes left right and center here what with all the opening and closing of projects, changing settings, deleting and restoring, so I'm done with this. The last crash wiped all the edits in the project both from the project screen and the folders where they were saved. Hooray. At least it gave me a chance to try out the automatic backup.

Maybe my problems are related to my audio device (Audient id22)?

[dRowAudio]

Could it simply be CPU strain / audio device settings too demanding?

It shouldn't be. Rendering should just go slower with a heavier load.

Can I ask if you're using the latest version (v10.1.5). I thought the project page problem was sorted a while ago..

And do you have the "Send Crashes" option enabled in the "Maintenance" settings page? If so, I'll try and take a look at what is causing the crashes.

[mcbpete]

What player are you using to play back the rendered file? Could it be that it's incorrectly resampling the 48khz file at 44Khz and thus the playback is (gets out calculator!) 8% slower... i.e. it's most probably not the DAW where the issue lies, it's either (or both) the player or the sound driver locked at a certain sample rate.

When you had the issue was the DAW and player running at the same time ? Some audio drivers freak out if you have two bits of running software set to a different sample rate...

[skipscada]

Could it simply be CPU strain / audio device settings too demanding?

It shouldn't be. Rendering should just go slower with a heavier load.

Can I ask if you're using the latest version (v10.1.5). I thought the project page problem was sorted a while ago..

And do you have the "Send Crashes" option enabled in the "Maintenance" settings page? If so, I'll try and take a look at what is causing the crashes.

Thanks for the info on CPU vs rendering.

I updated from 10.1.14 to 10.1.15 sometime yesterday while researching the problem.

I have enabled Send Crashes and all the related options, so you should be receiving all info.

At the moment I suspect the root of the problem has something to do with the audio device settings, so I'll focus on finding settings my PC and Waveform are comfortable with.

Frankly I don't have much time to make music these days, so I'm not going to check this further right now. I'll make sure to report any further problems.

[skipscada]

What player are you using to play back the rendered file? Could it be that it's incorrectly resampling the 48khz file at 44Khz and thus the playback is (gets out calculator!) 8% slower... i.e. it's most probably not the DAW where the issue lies, it's either (or both) the player or the sound driver locked at a certain sample rate.

When you had the issue was the DAW and player running at the same time ? Some audio drivers freak out if you have two bits of running software set to a different sample rate...

Thanks for the input. I played back the file in the projects tab, inside Waveform. Other files played correctly.

[skipscada]

So, I made sure the audio device settings (in the device's control panel and in Waveform) were identical to settings that have worked fine for some time before. Then opened the latest edit, which played fine yesterday. Got a persistent deep hum through audio out, and when I closed down I got a message about failure in Waveform's audio engine. I reopen Waveform, the project is greyed out and inaccessible. Other projects open as normal.

The only other thing I can think of is that Arturia Analog Lab was updated from ver. 3 to 4 and seems to require huge amounts of CPU. I'll try to see if it causes problems in isolation.

[skipscada]

... and then I reopen and find that the audio buffer size has spontaneously changed from 512 to 32 samples. In fact this is far from the first time I find that the buffer size has changed spontaneously (with the timing problems it produces when recording).

Closed Waveform, tried to play song in Spotify, not possible.

Rebooted PC. Opened Audient id22 control panel, checked audio settings are correct.

Opened Waveform while the id22 control panel is open. Buffer size has now spontaneously changed from my usual 512 setting to 256 in Waveform, jumps to 256 in id22 control panel.

What can possibly be messing with my audio settings? I hadn't used any audio related program in the meantime.

[dRowAudio]

The only things I can think of are that either
a) Your audio driver is experiencing some kind of problem and changing buffer size which is then being picked up by Waveform
b) The crash is corrupting some settings file which is why the project is getting lost (is it still on your hard drive?) and this is also losing the audio settings you had. When opening again a negotiation takes place with the driver and maybe they just open the lowest buffer size supported?

This all sounds very odd though and not something I've experienced. Can you email your log file (which you can get from the "Maintenance" settings page) to support@tracktion.com please? It might have some messages from the audio driver in there which will shed some light.

[fromwithin]

I've had it happen a couple of times on W9.

[skipscada]

Made a very simple edit which rendered fine. Then did nothing except adding Arturia Analog Lab 4 and a midi clip with a generated pattern. Render now slowed down. Will look into it further and try to send documentation, but bear with me since I haven't got much time available. Thanks for all info and input.