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Disk overload when switching on Sync

K

Kay Hellmich

New member
Hi,
I have a project with just 16 Stereo Audio Tracks.
Recorded them with <5% CPU and <5% Disc in SP.
No other plugins, just pure raw audio.
Playing back also with <5% CPU and <5% Disc.
Now I switch on Sync (configured with Ableton Link) in SP. Even if there's no other computer on the network, so the song remains being synced internally from SP, the disc usage goes to 100% within 2-3 seconds. In the same time the cache usage goes up to ~1GB.
Then SP freezes.
MS Task Manager does not report any meaningful activity on the disc during that issue.
I am on Windows 11, SP 8.02, Newer Ryzen 7 with 8 Cores, Fast M.2 SSD.
Audiointerface is Dante VSC with 512 Buffers on 48kHz and 10ms latency on a 2.5G network.
Cache on Timestretching is enabled. All folders are on C:\ (the fast SSD with plenty of space left)

I have no idea why this happens. Sync disabled: 2% disc, Sync enabled: 100% and crash.
Any suggestion?
 
Sounds like a buffer I/O mismatch. Was SP synchronised to the interface during recording (or the other way around)?
 
You mean the Audio Interface? How would I do that? I just select the ASIO driver of Dante VSC. It does a perfect recording though - plays back well, exactly as it shoud. I just want to beatmatch Bitwig to it on Playback (not via MIDI / timecode, just the beat for live adds). Then it fails.

I did record several times, keeps being a consistent fail - even with only 4 audio tracks.
What I also see is, that when I am playing back a 4 bar loop in SP and I switch on/off sync, the song position jumps some 4-8 bars back and fourth. This is also weird, as I do not sync any timecode and Ableton Link is never timeline related.
MIDI Timecode and MIDI Machine Control is switched off.
Only Ableton Link is switched on (no start/stop sync)
 
I tried the same with a USB AudioInterface now. 8 Channels. Same behaviour. As soon as I switch on Sync on Playback, the disc goes red (without really doing anything)
 
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I tried everything on a different Workstation with a different audio interface. Exactly same behaviour. So this is definitely a bug related to Fender Studio Pro and Ableton Link.
Will create a ticket and keep you informed.
 
I sync with Fender Pro and Maschine 3 via Ableton link.
It's frustrating, every now and then I have to flip activate and sync start/stop in Studio One sync options.
The playback head does not stay in sync (because there seems to be no support for MIDI timecode), and when the project starts I have to correct the BPM.

However I have not seen your issue.
Ableton Link support isn't great in Fender Pro imho, or MIDI timecode, and they need to fix it.
 
"How would I do that?"
Make sure your device settings are matched.
BTW you may need to experiment with "release audio in the background".
BTW I use two audio interfaces linked via ADAT when I sync up with Maschine and Studio One, one for each app. Not saying you should do that but that's why I may not have issues.

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Ok, many thanks, at least I understand that there are other users that are frustrated with Fender's implementation of Ableton Link.

I just checked:
I use 512 Samples across all machines and all Interfaces. So that is already consistently matched.

My setup for this test is totally easy (my real setup that I intend to achieve is far more complicated - can explain this later). But for narrowing down the error, I used the most simple case to identify the issue.
I record 16 Stereo WAV files (generated by Bitwig, mixed within a Behringer Wing, all together, at the same time, all from a single interface - the Behringer WING USB ASIO and also tested using a Dante connection to the Wing, so it definitely has consistent and identical clock) into Studio Pro (24bit / 48kHz, 70bpm). Each 8 bars, roughly 5MB in size.
Then Bitwig and all other devices using Ableton Link are switched off for the test to eliminate any possibility to mess things up.
Then I play these 16 Tracks in Studio Pro - again at 70bpm, unchanged tempo: CPU 1%, Disk 0% - and no plugins! All directly to the master bus. Sounds good. No clicks, no jitter.
Now I enable Sync in SP. Sync is configured with Ableton Link in SP - nothing else, no timecode, no other stuff. However there's not even another Ableton Link device active. So SP is just providing the beat - but there's no listener and no sender that could interfere.
As soon as I enable sync, the cache usage goes up to ~1GB in a very few seconds (we are talking about 16 x 5MB files...) and within 3 seconds the harddisk in SP is overloaded. Afterwards it crashes. When I switch off sync before it crashes, the song position moves randomly back. (up to 8 bars). How could switching off sync affect the song location?? - It just should continue to play...
When I look at harddisk utilization, it constantly stays below 1MB/s in Windows Taskmanager. So there's no load at all on the disk.

I tested the above with totally different audio interfaces and also with a fresh install of Studio Pro on another machine. (16 core, 64GB)

Ableton Link is totally messed up in SP - absolutely unusable.
I filed a ticket - let's see which answer I will get.

By the way: The purpose of Ableton Link is to perfectly stay in sync - on the beat (well on the "bar"), regardless of any timeline / position.
So what you describe -a drift of sync on both devices- must not be possible when using Ableton Link. It's broken.
Traktor, Ableton, Bitwig, AKAI MPC, Maschine... all working. During a live session with friends I usually have 5-10 devices linked together.
The SP implementation however is more than crappy.
Frustrating..

cheers
 
Well like I say Ableton Link/Fender Pro/Machine 3 is working here.

I never said it was a drifting out of sync.
1) BPM has to be set again after loading a project.
2) The playhead on the slave app (Maschine) pays no attention when studio one when it is stopped, started, it just carries on playing (in time). So if I rewind Studio One to the beginning I have to do the same with Maschine. That's because timecode is not supported or isn't working.

Otherwise if stays perfectly in sync.
 
But yes, Sync'ing in Fender Pro sucks balls.
 
Number6 said:
I sync with Fender Pro and Maschine 3 via Ableton link.
It's frustrating, every now and then I have to flip activate and sync start/stop in Studio One sync options.
The playback head does not stay in sync (because there seems to be no support for MIDI timecode), and when the project starts I have to correct the BPM.

However I have not seen your issue.
Ableton Link support isn't great in Fender Pro imho, or MIDI timecode, and they need to fix it.
Click to expand...
ok, then I got you wrong.
How many audiotracks do you play in SP when you use Ableton Link?
I have no issues on instrument tracks..
 
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