Just going crazy

[ejanuska]

I was having performance issues using Reason with my old laptop. So I got a new one.
Windows 10, i7-8750H, 2.2GHz, 16GB RAM, SSD drive plus a HDD. Nothing to brag about but it's was touted as a gaming laptop, obviously not high end, but not the bottom end either.
I've had it for a few weeks. No problem. Wrote a few tunes, recorded with Reason. Life was good.

I put together a song a week ago it and I didn't have any trouble playing it, tweaking on it, etc.

Today it won't play a bar without cracking and breaking up. The DSP meter hits three bars or more and it all goes to shit.

I don't know if its Windows or Reason causing the issue. My guess is Windows.
The song has 20 tracks, 8 are just for drums. The only VST I'm using is Superior Drummer 2.
No heavy synths, most tracks were recorded guitars, vocals.
I don't have any other apps running, network turned off.

This fucking sucks.

[NekujaK]

I've encountered this many times, especially with projects that have a lot of recorded audio.

This is what I've discovered, but I don't know if this applies to your situation: after loading a project, look at the CALC indicator just above Reason's DSP meter. Are some of the wedges white? If so, Reason is doing a bunch of background calculations on the audio data. Once the indicator is fills up and turns grey again, the project will play normally.

I'm not exactly sure what Reason is doing, but I basically have to wait for Reason to finish this process before I can start my work. What's weird is that whatever the calculations are, the result doesn't seem to be saved with the project. Because when I open it again at a later date, the same thing happens

Hope this helps.

[chimp_spanner]

^ Yeah this. Many, many time pre-calc has been the source of my slowdown. Not sure what exactly it's doing or why it has to do it every time I open the project?

Of course it's not always that. Sometimes it'll happen if I take the laptop off mains then reconnect it, and the computer is stuck in some kind of energy efficiency/battery saver mode. Sometimes it's as simple as taking the plug out and putting it back in again, but usually it just requires a restart.

Sometimes it's when my laptop has been on for a long-ass time and it just needs a restart.

The best thing to do, if the problem is persistent, is just strip it way back. Start your system with the minimal of peripherals attached, ensuring it's in high performance mode and connected to the mains. Make sure there's no junk running in the background that might eat into precious CPU time. Check performance with HT on and off. If there's any one thing causing problems you'll pick it up as you re-add your stuff but tbh I think this is just one of those things that happens from time to time.

[guitfnky]

I could be wrong, but I always thought the pre-calc icon came on as the audio is being loaded into memory—I assumed that’s why you always see it when loading a new project. in my experience it’s been especially evident in sample-heavy projects/instruments. not sure if loading VSTs like Superior Drummer are reflected in the pre-calc (I should pay attention the next time I open a project with Addictive Drums), but I know when I used Reason Drumkits, it always took longer to calc.

[NekujaK]

My guess is the pre-calc might have something to do with re-sampling the audio. I mix a lot of audio-only projects that are exported out of Pro Tools, and I see this re-calc behavior all the time when I load up these large projects in Reason. I assume it's because the Pro Tools audio is exported at a different sample rate than my Reason session.

The pre-calc indicator also lights up whenever you make a change in the Slice Editor, Pitch Editor, or you time-stretch an audio clip. In each of those situations, I would imagine the audio needs to be resampled internally.

[Ottostrom]

My guess is the pre-calc might have something to do with re-sampling the audio. I mix a lot of audio-only projects that are exported out of Pro Tools, and I see this re-calc behavior all the time when I load up these large projects in Reason. I assume it's because the Pro Tools audio is exported at a different sample rate than my Reason session.

The pre-calc indicator also lights up whenever you make a change in the Slice Editor, Pitch Editor, or you time-stretch an audio clip. In each of those situations, I would imagine the audio needs to be resampled internally.

Definitely this!
The time is also used to save the old audio to a temporary file, which is why the undo command works instantly even after a large change.

[guitfnky]

it makes sense that it would recalc every time you open the project too, for undo purposes. if you time stretch something, it would be bad if it rendered your changes as new audio—undoing the stretch would then render it again, and you’d start getting artifacts, rather than being able to just undo the original stretch.

[LudvigC]

it makes sense that it would recalc every time you open the project too, for undo purposes. if you time stretch something, it would be bad if it rendered your changes as new audio—undoing the stretch would then render it again, and you’d start getting artifacts, rather than being able to just undo the original stretch.

The CALC indicator lights up when Reason creates waveform images for audio files and when Reason renders new audio files :

* If the sample rate has changed (compared to the audio data in the song)
* If the tempo has changed (compared to original tempo in audio)
* If there are pitch/stretch changes

These audio files are stored on disk in the "Scratch Disk Folder" as set in the Preferences. Only if the required files are missing will they be re-rendered.

But the original audio data in the song file is still there, and isn't affected by this - if sample rate, tempo etc is changed again, Reason will always do the conversions based on the original audio.

/ LudvigC

[EdGrip]

That's really useful to know! Thanks!

[guitfnky]

it makes sense that it would recalc every time you open the project too, for undo purposes. if you time stretch something, it would be bad if it rendered your changes as new audio—undoing the stretch would then render it again, and you’d start getting artifacts, rather than being able to just undo the original stretch.

The CALC indicator lights up when Reason creates waveform images for audio files and when Reason renders new audio files :

* If the sample rate has changed (compared to the audio data in the song)
* If the tempo has changed (compared to original tempo in audio)
* If there are pitch/stretch changes

These audio files are stored on disk in the "Scratch Disk Folder" as set in the Preferences. Only if the required files are missing will they be re-rendered.

But the original audio data in the song file is still there, and isn't affected by this - if sample rate, tempo etc is changed again, Reason will always do the conversions based on the original audio.

/ LudvigC

ah, gotcha, that makes sense! thanks for clarifying. I was looking through the manual and couldn’t even find it mentioned. I found some info in the Essentials manual, but didn’t have time to read too deeply. not sure why I couldn’t find it in the main version manual.

[ejanuska]

I had the ASIO driver selected for my audio interface, changed it and that fixed it.

[ejanuska]

I had the ASIO driver selected for my audio interface, changed it and that fixed it.

Actually I didn't fix anything.
I think I need a new interface.

[ionly]

I had the ASIO driver selected for my audio interface, changed it and that fixed it.

I was just going to mention this. My Focusrite driver was fine on Win 7 until I updated to Win 10 on my old machine. Everything went downhill thereafter: drop-outs/noise/crashes/etc. The latency/buffer values were worse also. Tried everything without success, so conceded and restored to Win 7.

Have you tried turning hyper threading on/off in Reason's preferences? What's the CPU limit set at?

[ejanuska]

I had the ASIO driver selected for my audio interface, changed it and that fixed it.

I was just going to mention this. My Focusrite driver was fine on Win 7 until I updated to Win 10 on my old machine. Everything went downhill thereafter: drop-outs/noise/crashes/etc. The latency/buffer values were worse also. Tried everything without success, so conceded and restored to Win 7.

Have you tried turning hyper threading on/off in Reason's preferences? What's the CPU limit set at?

I will tell you.
I bought a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20.
Set up the thing and loaded up Reason.
Reason was set to 95%, max buffer.
Still had the cracking and shit.

Then I stumbled onto this video.
Apparently, Windows 10 has settings all over the place that can be tweaked on. This helped find them all, I never would have found them so fast.

Most of the setting in that video I needed to change.

I was able to set my latency in Reason to 0ms and record into Reason with no latency.
I can monitor while recording and not hear the monitored parts delayed.
No more cracking and popping.
No more plugging and unplugging instruments, resetting levels every time I want to do anything. Lots of IO.

Now the real question is; Would my old PreSonus AUDIOBOX USB work correctly with correctly Windows optimized?
Maybe, but I'm not going to tell you-know-who that and have to send the Scarlett back, I love it.

[hurricane]

Maybe, but I'm not going to tell you-know-who that and have to send the Scarlett back, I love it.

Maybe you already know this, but if you don't, register the Scarlett on Focusrite's site so you can download some excellent free plugins. This month they're giving you Traktion's Biotek. This is in addition to their regular free bundle, which includes an Addictive Keys instrument of your choice, the Focusrite Red bundle, Novation's Bass Station, and Softube's Time and Tone Bundle - which gives you the TSAR-1R Reverb (that's a $79 RE).

[ejanuska]

Maybe you already know this, but if you don't, register the Scarlett on Focusrite's site so you can download some excellent free plugins. This month they're giving you Traktion's Biotek. This is in addition to their regular free bundle, which includes an Addictive Keys instrument of your choice, the Focusrite Red bundle, Novation's Bass Station, and Softube's Time and Tone Bundle - which gives you the TSAR-1R Reverb (that's a $79 RE).

I haven't downloaded all the other stuff, but I concur, there are samples, plug-ins, etc. Probaly will skip the samples, I have tons already. Not sure about Addictive Keys, I have NI Komplete which has lots of nice keyboards and pianos. The Red Bundle I did download.

[ejanuska]

I'm not dowloading the Sftube plug-ins. You have to download some stupid Gobbler app. That's not gonna happen. This is why I don't use a lot of VSTs. You have to download an app just to use a VST. They have to get your email to spam you. It's just not worth it.

[hurricane]

You don't need the gobbler app. There's a direct download. A little research goes a long way.

[ejanuska]

You don't need the gobbler app. There's a direct download. A little research goes a long way.

I didnt put that much effort into it. At some point it's just accumulating software plugins. Not necessary.