Strange buffer performance

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stapizo
Posts: 8
Joined: 23 Jun 2022

23 Jun 2022

Hello to the community !

It's my first message on here but i've been a reason user since version 5.
I've upgraded to Reason 12 on my new Macbook 14" M1 pro and I'm having very annoying performance issues, I wanted to know if you guys knew a way to optimize things :

If i chose any buffer size except 256 it starts to stutter after having two tracks (whatever audio device I choose as an output).
And with this buffer size, after about 15 tracks it starts to stutter quite a lot...

I know this is in rosetta mode and performance is not the best it could be, but the other DAWs I have also run in Rosetta and do it fine. I'm very disappointed as I love to compose with Reason but it's so frustrating to be unable to add more than like 12-15 tracks !!

Does anyone have this issue ? Do you guys know what settings could solve it ?

Cheers to you,
Stap

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stillifegaijin
Posts: 250
Joined: 27 Oct 2020

23 Jun 2022

Hello!

Try unchecking both hyper-threading and multi-core rendering in preferences. Several of us have found this to be very helpful on M1 machines. My Mac Studio runs smoothly with both of those off, with very large and complex sessions. With those checked all processors spike and everything is a stuttering distorted mess.

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Billy+
Posts: 4157
Joined: 09 Dec 2016

23 Jun 2022

Follow the advice above it helps on windows and intel macs, with any luck an optimised native silicon version should fly

stapizo
Posts: 8
Joined: 23 Jun 2022

24 Jun 2022

Will try that !
Thanks a lot

stapizo
Posts: 8
Joined: 23 Jun 2022

25 Jun 2022

Unfortunately it doesn't work... performance is still pretty bad unless I tick the two things again and put the buffer size at 256... what a shame !
I love the new MacBooks pro, I love reason, but the two seem hard to pair...

kitekrazy
Posts: 1036
Joined: 19 Jan 2015

25 Jun 2022

I wouldn't complain about a 256 buffer size. I'd say that's pretty good.

thedude
Posts: 110
Joined: 08 May 2021

25 Jun 2022

Oddly, I've been noticing the same issue when working with audio tracks on my 14" MacBook Pro w/ M1 Pro CPU. I've been working more with my hardware synths, and getting tons of pops and crackles at anything lower than 256 samples.

This doesn't seem to be an issue working with just REs or VST. Not sure if this is related to any recent changes in Monterey 12.4 interacting with Reason, or just a Reason + Core Audio issue.

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jam-s
Posts: 3035
Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Location: Aachen, Germany
Contact:

25 Jun 2022

It could be possible that the OS or driver/hardware of your audio interface works with 256 sample batches and thus any other (lower) buffer size leads to buffer underruns.

stapizo
Posts: 8
Joined: 23 Jun 2022

27 Jun 2022

Indeed it's strange, but for me even with 256 samples of buffer size results in hiccups in audio. Anyone from the dev team reads the messages on here and could give us some info or feedback ?

Jac459
Posts: 677
Joined: 29 Mar 2022
Location: Singapore
Contact:

27 Jun 2022

stapizo wrote:
27 Jun 2022
Indeed it's strange, but for me even with 256 samples of buffer size results in hiccups in audio. Anyone from the dev team reads the messages on here and could give us some info or feedback ?
I have been using a macbook air m1 with 8gb ram and reason fly in it. With the checkbox ticked or not, I have songs with many tracks (more than 15) and not reaching half DSP meter.

What I almost don't have is VSTs could it be your issue?

Anyway my point is 'it is not normal' you must have an issue in your setup.
Bitwig and RRP fanboy...

MuttReason
Posts: 339
Joined: 28 Jan 2021

27 Jun 2022

stapizo wrote:
23 Jun 2022
Hello to the community !

It's my first message on here but i've been a reason user since version 5.
I've upgraded to Reason 12 on my new Macbook 14" M1 pro and I'm having very annoying performance issues, I wanted to know if you guys knew a way to optimize things :

If i chose any buffer size except 256 it starts to stutter after having two tracks (whatever audio device I choose as an output).
And with this buffer size, after about 15 tracks it starts to stutter quite a lot...

I know this is in rosetta mode and performance is not the best it could be, but the other DAWs I have also run in Rosetta and do it fine. I'm very disappointed as I love to compose with Reason but it's so frustrating to be unable to add more than like 12-15 tracks !!

Does anyone have this issue ? Do you guys know what settings could solve it ?

Cheers to you,
Stap
Out of interest, does this still happen if you deselect VSTs in Preferences (ie you untick the box next to the VST folder so Reason no longer scans or uses any plugins)?

I had horrible experiences with R12 with the earlier builds last year and went back to R11. I have recently installed the latest R12 build but decided to run Reason with REs only and without VSTs enabled. It has been rock solid since installing the latest build and performance is great on two different machines, iMac Pro running Big Sur and MacBook Pro running Monterey (both Intel not M1).

I’d be curious to know if disabling VSTs altogether makes a difference.

stapizo
Posts: 8
Joined: 23 Jun 2022

24 Jul 2022

Hello all,
sorry for the late reply, I've been quite busy, but thank you all for your answers.

I've tried all of what you guys suggested (ticking or unticking the boxes, disabling VSTs etc.) but nothing can do it. I still have stutters in audio every 4-5 secs.
For example, I'm on a project now, sample rate at 48k, buffer at 256 and only 6 audio tracks. The whole song idea is less than a minute. No VSTs, the only thing I have except audio is just a reason reverb as send 1. Sound interface is the MacBook itself. That's it.
And every 4-5 secs I have a hiccup in audio. I've noticed that it depends, sometimes when the hiccup occurs I see the CPU meter jump for less than a second, sometimes it's the audio input meter that jumps.
It gets even worse when I change the buffer to a lower or a higher value. And it doesn't change anything when I plug in my interface.
I really don't know what to do, I'm so disappointed. Reason is the only DAW I really like to work in, but it's honestly unusable for me right now... Do you think I should uninstall and reinstall it ? Do you think of anything else ? Can anyone from the reason team contact ?

Thank you all,
x

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jam-s
Posts: 3035
Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Location: Aachen, Germany
Contact:

24 Jul 2022

So, have you opened a support case with Reason Studios so you could get some more tips on how to debug this?

stapizo
Posts: 8
Joined: 23 Jun 2022

24 Jul 2022

I just did, if they find the solution I'll post it here for others to see just in case.

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Re8et
Competition Winner
Posts: 1511
Joined: 14 Nov 2016

31 Jul 2022

stapizo wrote:
27 Jun 2022
Indeed it's strange, but for me even with 256 samples of buffer size results in hiccups in audio. Anyone from the dev team reads the messages on here and could give us some info or feedback ?

Using My Motu Audio card really improved performance, but it run slower than RSN 11.
I'm having GPU- freezes too. Only option is to Roll back to Rsn11.
Anyway 15 tracks seems very low... Is your OS Clean?
No strange Apps, counterfeit devices, etc... How is your Garage Band working???
If Garage Band is super Fluid with 30 drummer tracks, your system should be ok...
If not... have you updated Monterey to the latest update??

My solution is to add an HIgh RES opt out button to RSN 12.
There's a pool open in Reason General.
PS: An Audio card can fix your sample rates.

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