Another export audio mixdown issue

I can reproduce this error if I open a project, close it and open another project. When I then want to export the second project with realtime-export I receive alternately the harddisk-error which says that the harddisk is too slow and a “cpu overload” error. When I start Nuendo, load the same (second) project and do a realtime-export with this project, it works.
It doesn’t matter, if I export to a network- or a local drive.

BTW It would be nice to see some reaction from SB.

Interesting. I haven’t been getting CPU error messages when exporting. I have been needing to close Nuendo and open it fresh when moving from project to project because Jbridge crashes otherwise (I’m only using 64bit). This was happening in 5.5 as well so it is a habit for me to close Nuendo before opening another project.

Dean

I also use N6 x64 with jBridge (although most of the plugins are now 64 bit), but with jBridge I have no issues. These errors also occur when I do not use any 32Bit plugin via jBridge.
BTW my cpu is a i7-3770.

I did an experiment where I copied the track, deleted all but the clips that needed to play, then disabled the copy. I still get the hard drive not fast enough error that N5.5 does not give me running the same project. So it is not an issue of all clips being read in a multiple lane track.

I upgraded to a slightly faster drive that still gives me the error. And I also still get a glitch with offline mixdowns. It still appears to me that something happened with the efficiency of drive access in N6.

Dean

Hi Dean,

unfortunately our team couldn’t reproduce the issue described in a short test. However, we believe this is heavily depending on the respective hard disk used (hard disk speed). Naturally, with each major update adding functionality to the code basis, also the requirements on the computer system slightly increases.

Do you still encounter this problem with the new hard drive? Please let me know.

Thanks,
Timo

Hi Dean,
we would hoverver very much like to even more investigate this problem. Do I understand correctly that you have identified one of the 300 audio tracks is causing this particular problem even when it has no sub lanes?
Thanks,
Thorsten

But I also have this problem + “cpu overload” with much less tracks (more or less 40 tracks)…

Hi Thorsten

Yes, at one time I tried muting the particular track that had a lot of lanes on it and it mixed down properly. I also later found that sometimes the drive error might occur later in the song. Then I created a version of the track with all but the playing clips deleted (no multi lane clips) and still got the error. I transferred the project to another drive and still got the error and disk checked and defragmented the original drive but that didn’t show anything or help. So far I have four songs that won’t mixdown realtime because of this error. I have not been getting the CPU overload errors that riwe has been getting.

One thing that is really great about version 6 is that I can safely work then revert back to 5.5 to do a mixdown if I have to. It is a pain to have to do that but I am not dead in the water. I could send an npr file to you and or screenshots if that would help.

Dean

This sounds like file corruption or something. if you copy and paste that to a new project does it mixdown?
If not. then copy and paste the audio files to another folder and re-import them into the project. see if it works ok then.
Its possible that its something to do with those files them selves on any hard drive.
can you bounce them to another track and create new audio files then replace the ones on the track your trying? Maybe new media will do the trick.
CJ

What makes me feel that this isn’t an issue with file corruption, or a bad drive, or plugins etc, is that it all works perfectly well in N5.5. Even running a problem project in N6 from a different drive yields the same error.

Dean

Hi Rickard,

Can I ask one thing? (Didn’t see it in the thread) Is this with 32-bit or 64-bit version of N5.5/N6 ?

If it is 32-bit it can be explained by RAM usage. Because N6 32-bit uses more RAM than N5.5, and thus can make problems if you are on a brink for resources.

Best,
Pål

I am using 64bit N6 and N5.5. Thanks for asking so that could be clarified.

Dean

OK. Once again this problem rears its head. There are two (2) serious problems with N6 with no workaround and I can not mixdown my song even though it plays back just fine. In N5.5 there was not a problem with mixing down in real time or offline on anything I had.

I had 2 projects where N6 created a glitch on a track that made it so that I could not mix them down offline and N6 can’t handle the same track count of N5.5 so I couldn’t do a realtime mixdown either. I complained with no solution or even acknowledgement of a problem from Steinberg but because the glitch showed up right away I was able to keep these 2 projects in 5.5 and so avoided the bugs in N6. Most other projects were fine.

I now have a song that I’m too deep into to be able to move back to 5.5 to avoid the bug. This song had over 175 active tracks that played without trouble in N5.5. I had to scale it down to only the essential tracks to help N6 handle it and got it to 110 active tracks but N6 will still not do a realtime mix without an error.

So the two problems are the glitch that N6 introduces on some tracks and the seriously hampered track count at mixdown in N6 preventing a realtime mixdown. Put together, I can’t mixdown my song.

I have tried: replacing glitchy area with alternate takes in case the audio was corrupted.
bouncing glitchy area
moving project to another drive
Asio guard on and off
disabling automation on glichy track

The nearest automation was more than 10 seconds away anyway.

And why is the track count in N6 so seriously hampered that I can no longer do realtime mixdowns of large projects that worked fine in N5.5?!

All things are equal with these bugs. Same computer, same project, same drive, 64bit for N5.5 and N6. It is purely the difference between N6 and N5.5. And to repeat, I am not seeing a performance difference while running the project, only in Mixdown.

Steinberg, please help with this. I will help you track down the problem in anyway I can. I can send any files that would be relevent.

Dean

Hi Rickard:

Did you try increasing the buffer size of your soundcard to see what happens?

Buffer is at max. I use all hardware monitoring so latency is a non issue so buffers in N5.5 and N6 are at the max. I am guessing that more people are not having this issue because track counts are not high. Are there people with high active audio track counts (100+) that have seen this or not seen this?

Dean

Can you please try the mixdown with 512 samples buffer?

I’m getting random audio drop outs and Nuendo will randomly stop recording.
Sometimes I get the “too many tracks” dialogue when this happens, sometimes I don’t.
I can be recording 1 track or 16, doesn’t matter.
The Audio just suddenly stops playing but the timeline keeps rolling on.

Happened on a new project that only had 3 tracks total!!!

This is with a relatively new eSata 1TB Glyph Drive.
Checked the drive for errors, none. Defragged even though it didn’t need it.
Ran Anti Virus but I’m clean.
Re-ran the Windows Experience Index
and my Score hasn’t changed since I built the machine.
This just started happening out of nowhere a few days ago.

If I move the project to my C system drive it works perfectly. No drop outs at all.
Tested my C Drive for 2 hours late last night as I have a session today and will be using the system drive. No Choice really.

Now the fun part…
Other DAWs do not exhibit this behavior on the same drive with the same files.
Ran a session for an hour and not a single hiccup in Reaper.
Nuendo 6 on the same setup, same drive, will hiccup randomly within 10 minutes.

I can’t trust this software anymore at all.
Since the release of Nuendo 6, I been having audio weirdness, but it never dropped out of record before. The single most important thing a DAW does (Capture Audio) can’t even be counted on anymore.

Keep an eye in the OS task monitor. I used to have issues with the videooutput driver

As I said before, I leave the buffer size at the max that my audio card allows. The thing that is so strange to me and I really haven’t made it clear is that N6 will do a real time mix without the glitch but not an offline mix. Why would there be a difference? I can see how a hard drive limit might create the opposite problem.

So to summarize, N5.5 has no problem with either realtime or offline mix downs on my large projects. N6 will either glitch offline or give “drive not fast enough” errors in realtime on the same project. And mixing down the N6 project in N5.5 is not an option as there is a difference in the sound.

I feel for you Rotund but I think we are experiencing different issues and it almost sounds like you may be having a driver issue. But the fact there are no problems if the project is run from the system drive is strange and would lead me back to looking at a hardware issue.

Dean

Thanks for the input Rickard, didn’t mean to hijack your thread.
Hope you figure out your issues. I’m still looking for the cause here.
Out of town at the moment and hoping a fresh perspective will win the day
when I get back to the studio.

Best of luck…