Sudden latency issues

[VT698]

Hi,

One for the computer experts amongst you, I think. I don't think this is a Reason problem as such, as other programs are also not running smoothly.

Back in mid-June, something affected my computer. It seemed to happen close to the time of an incoming Windows update, but I can't be sure that was the cause. The result was nothing was working properly and when I looked in device Manager, 41 items were showing exclamation marks and opening each of those revealed 'Driver not installed' and 'No compatible drivers available'. There was no sign of virus or malware involvement. The devices that appeared to be affected were largely related to the chipset and the USB bus, buts also included three Performance Monitors, the System Interrupt Controller and the PCI Simple Communications Controller.

I ran CCleaner's driver-finding routine and it appeared to find a number of drivers and install them, but it didn't find all that were required. However, I think it also shut down any registry entries that were still 'complaining' about missing drivers for some items. As a result, some items that did not get drivers restored disappeared from Device Manager altogether. A professional PC engineer has spent a lot of time trying to locate and install the latest drivers where they appear to be needed, but although things are better than they were, there are still big problems which are not solved.

The main symptoms are: (1) Latency has become a big problem, with DSP overloads showing even when there should be no overload (for example, with just one VST instrument loaded and being played) and even when the sample buffer length is set to maximum (1024), and audio breakup then occurs, of course. (2) The computer is often sluggish to respond - for example, if Reason is replaying a song and I attempt to adjust any onscreen controls (e.g. pan position or channel volume) the controls won't move because the whole screen freezes for up to 10 seconds before responding. Sometimes, it remains normal after that initial freeze, other times not. (3) There is an unacceptable delay between striking a key and a VST note sounding, even when sample buffers are sensibly short at 128 or 256 samples. This delay can't be compensated for using the Focusrite delay compensation. (4) After closing a song - even when no changes have been made to the song to require saving - the computer seems to take a 20- 30 second break (irrespective of how much data might be involved with the song) before it will do anything else, as if it is trying to make resources available - if I try to load another song or create an instrument, I get a busy spinning circle and the screen whites out. Sometimes it recovers if I do nothing more, but if i click anything else, Reason remains unresponsive and has to be closed and re-opened.

The Audio settings in Reason's Prefs have not changed although I've experimented with all of them to no avail. The ones that work best are with the sample buffer length set to 1024 (whereas it used to be fine with 128 or 256) 44.1KHz, Threads set to 12 (H/T). Safe Mode enabled, Play in background enabled. Render audio using audio card size buffer setting enabled. So I conclude as these settings were OK before, it is a problem with the PC, not with Rerason itself.

Any suggestions about what I could try next would be greatly appreciated. System information follows:

Computer is running Windows 10 on SSD, and hardware spec is ASUS Sabertooth X-79 motherboard, liquid-coooled Intel Core i7 4930k @ 3.4GHz, 32Gb RAM, NVIDIA GTX660 graphics. Most sound libraries, esepcially those that involve samples or large files, are on a second SSD. USB audio interface is Focusrite 2i4 2nd generation, and I'm using Focusrite's ASIO driver. Controller keyboard is Roland / Cakewalk A-800PRO, connected via USB. The PC has always been more than capable of flawless performance with Reason until June. Reason version is the latest v12 release.

Many thanks for any thoughts on fixing this.

[Przemyslaw]

Hello VT698

It can actually be anything. In my opinion, after the problems you describe, the first thing to do is to eliminate the hardware, i.e. reinstall Windows. If there were already problems with the system registry (and they were not solved even by a PC expert), you need to take action. In my opinion, it's a waste of time searching and checking. Resetting the system, installing everything again and then if the error appears, you will wonder whether it is the BIOS or hardware.

[miyaru]

Updates can cause troubles, not often, but they can…..

Like stated above, re-install win 10, and start from there. It will take time to get all updates.

I think your current install is hugely corrupted, so a fresh install do wonders. Be sure that you set windows to 100% in power mode for the cpu, not throttling. Also make sure usb busses will not hybernate, as this will crash your audio and or midi hardware.

Furthermore on the Focusrite website, there is a tutorial about setting up windows for DAW use.

[miyaru]

https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb ... Windows-10