I have been working on a large-ish project of >3GB, with probably some 20 layers. Now when I try to re-open the project in SL12 (12.0.10 windows build 423), I can now only see two layers within the project, and the frequemcy axis now goes up to 200MHz, instead of the usual 22.05kHz Nyquist. Is there a known bug with data handling within large projects that causes project file corruption like this?
This also happened 7 months ago in SL11.0.05, resulting in the complete loss of several weeks of work. I almost quit using the product then, but later versions seemed more stable, and now it has happened again under the latest SL12. AGAIN I’ve lost several weeks of work to this “feature”, and again I’m questioning whether there are SERIOUS bugs in the code.
IS there a way of recovering the corrupted layers from such a project file that no longer opens correctly???
I feel your pain. This also happened to me last year, possibly also on 11.0.50…I wrote a post to this board when it happened. My project was much smaller than yours, yet I had at least two weeks worth of editing evaporated. My problem was after a SL crash, tho.
I’ve also experienced a zoom situation where all layers seemed to have disappeared and a blank display. There was a simple fix to that issue… I do not recall the fix yet I did “document” that scenario on this forum in another thread.
So now I always create at least two copies of every slp that is going to soak up a lot of my editing time. I give one slp a name like “insert your syntax.slp” and a second slp named “insert your syntax_BU.slp” and this has protected me from losing work.
Regardless of bugs, what other software is capable of what SL is capable of? I don’t know of another software with the same capabilities and I’m not spending 1000 currency units on RX when I have SL doing (IMO) jaw dropping stuff for post prod NR, re-balancing and levelling.
Instead of fixing the bugs and making the program more stable and reliable, more and more features get added to the program.
I think SL is a great piece of software, that deservers a much better quality.
Since I have become unhappy with SL, because of its unreliability, I do consider this program in its current state as a mere toy to use.
I do wish strongly, that we will get good fixes in the remaining year and the program runs like a solid tank over the music without any more horrendous itches and scratches.
I discovered tons of bugs lately, but I am also tired to document everything anymore
OK, I’ve been trialling SL12 for a few weeks, Marc, I gotta say, SL12 is running more stable on my machine than SL11. I was most concerned about that.
As far as the new features, in day to day workflow and tool improvements, I cannot agree with you at all. The new features are mostly improvements editors need right now. Waiting is going to waste even more time. Not everybody is a scientist.
In my testing Unmix Noisy Speech improvement alone is worth the update cost in the dialog work I do…a big improvement in my current job.
Cut To…: I complained to @Robin_Lobel and I still think we need to have a visual clue as to whatever last chosen layer was, this functionality is growing on me.
Envelope editing improvement is a massive timesaver for me. There is still plenty of room for improvement.
Contrary to your previous complaint, I find the Mute/ Solo functionality exactly the same as SL11.
Ability to backtrack on mouse selections for freq, harm selection is wonderful.
From what I can tell, you are running modules and not doing much if any manual editing. Manual editing where SL absolutely shines; and SL12 brings fantastic new workflow improvements IME.
I say this over and over here on this forum: We use SL for what it is capable of; not for what it cannot do. And SL is an absolute game changer for the audio editing I have been dreaming of for the past 27 years, thanks Robin!
That is the experience you are having. I’m churning away doing serious separation work in SL12 and performance has been fantastic; so whatever issues you are having with stability is not something I can relate to.
SL12 running better than SL11 on my 2018 Intel/ NVidia build.
Provable, wrong results is not affecting me…I’m getting jaw dropping results
I agree with Mr ctreitzell i too am finding SL12 pro to be the most stable version yet in ARA mode.Ive been using it every day since it was released in sessions of about 3 hours with constant editing and never had a crash.The vst3 module in SL12 is much more stable after the 12.0.10 update.I did have one instance where the cubase project got corrupted due to a fault caused by the SL plugin but i was able to back track about 2 hours and retrieve the project.Strange thing was in those 2 hours SL and cubase was still working fine so this points to some issue in the saving of the cubase project under certain conditions.So Sunnyman is correct there is still a few bugs in the program but im finding i know what the bugs are so i can work around them and continue on with the editing.
Hello Ben_H i assume your using SL standalone.If it was in cubase ARA mode you would be able to back track through the cubase auto saves to find the last project before it got corrupted and you would of only lost a couple of hours editing.Regarding layers vanishing i too am still getting problems of layers that are in group folders randomly disappearing.Its hard to recreate the issue because it is totally random and intermittent but i felt it might be something to do with the SL undo feature or during the cubase project save.Anyway i aways make sure now to never leave any layers in a folder and i have never had any vanishing layers since.I would take Mr Mr ctreitzell`s advice and use a backup save system until SL gets a automatic backup system like cubase.
Thanks the responses everyone. Yes, I’m using the stand-alone version of SL12, so I guess that means there are no auto-saves to revert to. Frustratingly, I do now regularly save my projects, and restart SL often, to minimise the potential for the dreaded crash. Strangely, I had been working on this project happily one day, closed SL, then re-opened it the next day without it having crashed, and yet still the project appears to have been corrupted in the process. One would think this should be a VERY simple bug to trace, if the coders prioritised application stability over just packing in more AI bells and whistles.
But what particularly frustrates me here, having paid good money for this tool, is the complete lack of access to customer support / assistance from the dev team, nor avenue to report bugs and other issues affecting users. Apparently the only hope we have is that SOMEONE at management level is present on these forums, and is aware of the serious bugs being reported here by numerous users, and the utter frustration of losing WEEKS of work simply by restarting the program!!! Seriously - it’s at version 12 now - that’s a lot of dev time gone into this product, and yet it is the most buggy tool I’ve EVER encountered in my professional career as a DSP engineer.
I seldom need to restart SL once I start working each day. I will often walk away for an hour or so and leave SL open and typically can just get back into it when I return. Sometimes I close and relaunch, but I don’t find much issue with needing to relaunch SL. I use standalone most of the time.
I also have certain habits when I work in SL to ensure smooth operation:
1_I never open more than one .slp when I’m working.
2_When I review material to work on in SL, by that I mean navigate SL with an open .slp, I prefer to set the current tool to rectangular/ elliptical selection because rectangular/ elliptical selection tool seems to create the least load on my machine for SL. If I keep the clone stamp tool open with a brush size over 70px I experience sluggish performance and I’m just asking for a crash. Even the Brush Selection tool will give me sluggish performance. Realtime Brush Preview Limit I set at 0.2M samples and if higher setting, my machine can get sluggish. Again, setting a tool that has no preview while naving your open job yields superior performance IME.
3_I do often save the current filename I’m working on and the redundant file while working in SL. If I spend 30 min doing tedious multiple selection manual separation, I’ll save the two files. Certainly if I here my machine spin up a bit after making a large multi selection (like a lot of harmonics) then I carry out my separation and save the slps immediately.
I struggle much more with the non-sensical “recover” dialog pop-up after a crash. I suppose SL might crash once every 40 hrs or so for me…That said, lately I’ve had one crash in the past month IIRC
This user forum is where @Robin_Lobel catches up on issues that need to be addressed. AFAIAA Robin is “the dev team” for SL. And as @Joey_Kapish let me last year when I started with SL, that “no response is still a response”. I don’t know how far your request will go if you go knocking at SB support, I don’t try that route.
Robin has a procedure for submitting crash dumps which has been covered in this forum on more than one occasion in the past year. If your concerns posted to this forum are valid in Robin’s view, he will respond here
yeah, this syntax isn’t going to tag that user, you need to use @Elderman to mention and tag that member
The only “tech support” I can find is a link to is “Yamaha Music Australia Pty Ltd”, who I guess are the nominated reps in my part of the world. Not sure if it’s different for US/EU customers, but I can’t find any relevant contact details for direct Steinberg support anywhere.
Thanks for the good info. I too am pretty sure the SB support (ie. Yamaha Australia) isn’t going to help me resolve anything of this nature. The best I can hope for is the unlikely chance my complaint catches the attention of someone with the time and knowledge to help me recover my corrupted project. One can only hope…
Going forward, I guess I’ll just have to get used to incrementally backing up each project as I go, knowing I can’t rely on the program not doing this again.
Look, let me just say I worked in broadcast for about 10 years; MTV, Disney and Discovery in London 2000-2010. Very often, our bosses purchased systems that sounded great to them, but the bosses didn’t use the systems day-to-day. Learning how to deal with foibles was part and parcel of delivering broadcasts.
So, @Ben_H you quote me on the least of my trying to help; hey fine, it’s your thread. When I lost weeks worth of work, I bit the bullet and started over; I had no choice. I didn’t expect someone at SB to ride in and save my corrupt file; I found solutions. That’s what folks do in a professional environment.
I’ll say this until I’m blue in the face: use SpectraLayers for the the things it can do that no other software can at the SL price point; not focus on what SL can’t do.
There’s a lot of posters here who seem very committed to Steinberg as a company. Nothing wrong with that I suppose. But it’s like trying to sell a single grape to a winemaker; they’re not interested in what you have to say!
Like any exchange, software should work as advertised when it is sold and in it’s current state. Very simple. I have been through issues with Cubase where features seemed to be prioritized over existing bugs. Normal behavior for a business, so no complaints, and have continued buying Steinberg products. But the amount of grief piled onto people who expect things to work is crazy!
If someone has an issue, you don’t need to jump in and tell everyone how awesome your experience has been and how lucky they are to be blessed with their software license
If its list of “can’t do’s” includes “losing all your work in a crash”, then I’m hesitant to continue using for what it “can do”, regardless of how useful it is at spectral editing. Steinberg needs to understand that a tool costing several hundred $$ should, under no circumstances, destroy all the user’s work in a crash! The dev’s need to prioritise fixing these FUNDAMENTAL bugs ahead of adding more AI bells and whistles.
Since SL has grown for years, there might be some technical implementation of fundamental algorithms and data structures, that are just out of date or have not been designed for the upcoming complexities of the program and its usecases.
This issue needs to be adressed and fixed, imho. (even if it is not a very popular thing to shout hurray for)
(Btw, VST3 are working better, now. But still not as smoothly annd complete as in Wavelab or Cubase or other DAWs.)
I’m a SL fanboy; especially after a year of working with it daily. SL functions great for my needs; it exceeds what I need out of it. I wish that a year ago someone had taught me the workflow I’m now using…I’d be long done with this project. Comms on this forum have helped, for sure.
I’m not a Steinberg fanboy, per se. I have started using Cubase recently and I do like it. That said, by the time Cubase finally opens, I’m already working away in SAW Studio…so there is that.
SL stands alone in my eyes and experience; it has brought audio editing to a new frontier for me. And I’m using a 7+ year old computer! So, yeah, I need to figure out the workarounds so I can work without having to buy a new machine at this point. I was afraid SL12 wouldn’t even run on this machine; quite the contrary, SL12 has been stable…I had one crash, that’s true.
Is that what you think I have done? Have another read, I’m trying to help others; the proof is in what I have written. I’m trying to help with current experience of a lot of hours with SL in 2024/2025…doing manual editing and doing my best to figure out how the efficiently use SL day-in/ day-out and that has nothing to do with SB.
Realize, it isn’t because I’m a SB evangelist; I love SL…and SB is the storefront for SL.
