Audio Cuts out after 10 minutes working on a project

[KintraStarling]

Hi. I hope someone can help me with this. I've searched a long time for an answer. After working for 10 or 15 minutes on a project (In Logic Express on iMac dual core) the audio cuts out completely. CPU and HD meters both very low. Often only running 8 or 10 tracks with maybe 10 or so plugins. If I open another project the audio is usually fine for a while. Or if I quit Logic and restart the same project then it's ok for another 10 mins. Sometimes less.. I've tried deleting preferences. No Joy. Have tried importing tracks to a new project. Still the same. Tried saving projects under a different name. I've installed some free AU plugins. Could they be a problem?

I have the newest updates 9.1.5

I'm new to this so please excuse any bad forum etiquette!

Thanks for any help. This is driving me mad!

[n6smith]

Which free AU plugins are you using?

[KintraStarling]

Free plug ins are;

Bram SupaTrigger

GSi WatKat delay

KT Granulator

Martin Eastwood Mverb

TAL Dub II and III delay

[n6smith]

Ok.. and if you work on a piece that does not use any of those free plugins, do you still get the 'fade out' in volume?

[George_Moore_]

hey KintraStarling, i had Exactly the SAME problem as you the other day and it took me a few hours to figure out what was going on, or all my work would of been screwed.

 

like you I have quite a few au's I disabled every single one to find no success

 

Assuming you have your audio coming out of an interface/soundcard, I suggest you change the audio output back to the default macintosh built-in output (or an output not involving your interface).

when I did this, I found it strange because my project sounded fine coming from my iMacs' speakers. and everything was running smoothly

 

if you find the same thing happens to you then go to your audio interface's website, download the latest drivers for it and uninstall and re-install the soundcard drivers with the newest one.

 

my project hasn't played up since so i hope it can do the same for you .

 

hope this helps

[KintraStarling]

Thanks for all the advice so far. The problem occurs when I use internal iMac soundcard or external MAudio soundcard. To be more specific the audio stops dead and when you pause and restart then you hear the audio for a fraction of a second before it cuts out again. Only quitting Logic and restarting or opening a new project restores the audio.

I am going to try working on a new project with no 3rd party plugins for a while and see what happens.

[Shawn888]

Hey guys! I'm having the same problem. Have you had any luck with the issue. I really don't want to have to do a complete install. Speaking of Komplete... I started having this issue after I installed Komplete 8 Ultimate and Maschine. Are you guys by chance running the same programs? I hope we can fix this problem. I also noticed this interesting tid-bit: The audio is "playing" in all the tracks except for the Output. Something must be happening there.

[mkns]

Hi,

 

I had a similar problem, although I'm not 100% sure it's the same, but figured I'd post it in case it does match someone else's problem. My problem was very similar, in that the audio output would be fine for a while, then it would cut out and the only way to get it back, or so I thought, was to restart Logic Pro.

 

Then, I discovered a quicker workaround which was to go to Preferences -> Audio, and choose a different buffer size. Sometimes I'd then put it straight back again to the previous value too. That got the sound going for a while, but it would definitely cut out eventually.

 

And then a couple of weeks ago, I realised that the audio interface I use (Alesis io|2) was plugged in to my iMac via a USB 4to1 adapter, rather than plugged straight in to the iMac itself, and lo and behold, it's never cut out since I plugged it straight in to my iMac.

[KintraStarling]

Have been working on old projects without free plugins and so far no problems. But I havn't had much time to work on anything recently so not really tested the theory. Not convinced the plugins are the problem as I had terrible trouble with audio cutting out after bouncing down tracks, opening them in new project and then working on them with no plugins at all. Is it possible that third party plugins can corrupt audio files and cause problems when you are working with them later?

[Shawn888]

Well I think I found a solution for this problem. Like I said my problem sounded exactly like yours and the solution for me was actually quite simple (so far at least). It seems that I had my buffer size set far too small. And when I used third party plug ins which are power hogs it was causing output problems in my system. So simply by going to Preferences under Audio I was able to set my buffer size higher and it seems (again so far) to have fixed the problem. Kinda embarrassing if that is really it Also free plug ins, because they're not optimized with expensive R&D, could possibly be very taxing on your system, again triggering this problem in Logic. If that is the problem I don't believe you have to worry about corruption. Hope this helps. Blessings!

[Shawn888]

Thanks MKNS. Just saw your post after I posted. But seeing as how it worked for you too this definitely sounds like a buffer size issue. It's weird that Logic does that when it's too taxed. It seems as if Logic almost allows it to be run harder than it should and it then eventually gets "tired" and refuses to work. The length of time it takes to get to that point seems to be dependent on how hard your working it and how low your buffer size is. At higher buffer sizes it shouldn't be a problem. I had changed mine to 128 because of latency issues but forgot to change it back. Once I installed Komplete and Maschine my system wasn't able to handle it... Also It seems that having your interface going through a splitter was causing Logic to work harder than it should and it eventually ran out of steam as a result. But yea great point. Interface should definitely be a direct input where possible. Blessings!