I wish that PG would make a program that wouldn't constantly crash!

I just lost an hour's work when it froze and crashed again. Between freezes, crashes, corrupted files and unpredictable behavior, I am extremely angry. How do I get that hour back?

I know..."return to factory settings."

This is interesting as I have never had a crash with PG's software and I have been using it for a number of years.

If you can describe what is happening maybe some of us can help.

Thanks Mario. I've been using it for 4 years, and never had as many crashes as I have with the 2014 version. Multiple problems. I've been back and forth with support numerous times,re-installed several times and still no joy. The last suggestion I heard was to install the entire Audiophile version from the PG hard drive to my computer HD. I'm not going to use up 80 gigs of space on my DAW computer, which I need for recording.

It's just really frustrating to constantly lose work and time. And yes, I do save as I go along, only to find that the file is "corrupted".

Guess I just need to vent.

I'm going to assume that you are running everything from the USB HD. Do you have the USB power save function turned off? Do you have any anti-software running in the background? Do you have any wireless contraption (things like phones, wireless Internet modems etc) of any kind running near the computer? Have you scanned both your internal and USB HDs for problems? Have you checked for memory problems? Have you tried disabling your network adapter card when using BiaB?

I'm sure many if not all of these have been asked before. I'm just trying to get a starting point.

Don't know about the power save – will check. No anti-anything software running- this box has never been connected to the net. Nothing wireless. Scan my HD regularly, never scanned the BIAB HD. Will do.
Don't know about the network adapter card – will check that as well.


This is not my computer. I record in Sonar X3e in 24 bit with tons of plugs – no problem.


Thanks for trying to help. I will check those items when the daily thunderstorm passes.

I can sense your frustration.

Any point in just installing 2013 again, easy enough thing to do installing the program only. Just make a different directory for it on computer and point it towards the realtracks and realdrums so it knows where they are.

At least if it crashes as well then you will know nothing to do with 2014.

I know that the NME driver was causing problems for me, stuttering while auditioning styles and scrolling in stylepicker, changing to asio seems to have fixed that so far so good.

Don't rule out screen resolution either, When experimenting with what suited my eyesight the program has a cut of point where even increasing the custom display by just 1% would make icons vanish of screen.

I know with me realband 2014 can crash often, has always been that way with earlier versions.

Another little thing any plugins been used like sampletank or amplitude? Maybe they are crashing and taking biab with it.

Musiclover

Joe,

I had problems with 2013 crashing as well, but nothing like this. I run everything on ASIO (I tried MME, still no joy). I use dual monitors, never change the native resolution. I don't use Sampletank or Amplitude either. I use RealTracks and Revalver for guitars.

Thanks for the tips.

Regards,

Bob

I would be very tempted to put on a backup of windows from way back (if you are lucky enough to have one) A lot of times when I get similar probs with even one program, I just put on one of my acronis backups of windows and most times problem is solved.

Windows no matter what version can be very temperamental at times, will develop errors in one or more programs over time, and no amount of troubleshooting will fix it, at least for me anyways.

I had to replace a hard drive about six months ago, because it had errors and seemed to be failing read/write probs so another option to consider.

Musiclover

\




It's not Win7 that is the problem. I should reinstall my operating system because one program is buggy? I don't think so.

90dB Can you indicate what you were doing when it crashed?. There is a known bug I picked up when using the audiophile version from the HDD that causes the BIAB to freeze for certain styles when inserting a hold in the first of the last two bars of the tune. PGMusic are now aware of it (thanks Charlie) after some disbelief because nobody else complained. Based on my testing it’s been there in the audiophile version for a number of years but never picked up by the beta testers or PGMusic. Strange thing is that the bug does not occur with the standard version run from the HDD.

Make sure all of your drivers are current.

Not usually an easy problem to solve if the error message gives you no info. You could try sending the crash info to PG and see if they can figure out something. The Windows event manager may give you a starting point.

If it were my computer, I would disable as much as possible in the Windows startup and see if you can produce the crash. If no crash, enable things slowly and see what happens. Also do the same for any plugins that BIAB is using. You may get lucky and find the culprit.

I would also consider moving the core BIAB files (not RealTracks or RealDrums) to your internal hardrive.

Best of luck

As do I!

BiaB straight to Sonar X3e. One great combination!

I don't have the audiophile version so perhaps that's it. Otherwise I'll say I've never had crashes either. Ever. The one time I thought I had some crashing it turned out to be the fast generation thing. If you stop and start Biab before the entire song has finished generating Biab will freeze. That looks like a crash but it isn't. Just wait and it starts up again.

Otherwise no problems at all.

Bob

Frank,

Thanks for responding. I was composing a cover song, all RT's & RD's, and it crashed (screen went opaque) while I was regenerating a section with Cont/G. There actually is a hold on the last two bars, although the regeneration had not reached the ending yet.

I guess I'll have to uninstall everything and try installing the entire program on my hard drive.

Regards,

Bob

Rachael,

Thanks. All drivers are current. I don't believe it's anything in the Startup or plugs. I record with my DAW at 24 bit, and regularly run 20-25 stereo tracks with a lot of plugs with no problem. I'm not going to reconfigure my entire computer to accommodate BB.

I will try the install you suggested. I appreciate your expertise.


Regards,

Bob

...and don't forget to check the error log using Windows Event Viewer. Hopefully, the error messages may give you or PG a hint as to what is causing the crashes.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/open-event-viewer#1TC=windows-7

Are you using ASIO drivers?

They didn't work so well on previous versions of BiaB, at least on my machline. For a long time now I've been using WMD/MME drivers on BiaB and ASIO for Sonar and all is well.

PS I do not know about the latest versions of BiaB and ASIO drivers.

An after thought, are you using native ASIO drivers for your sound card or are you using ASIO4ALL drivers? I have read about some people having problems with some sound cards and ASIO4ALL drivers, but again I have no experience with ASIO4ALL.

Rachael,

I just went ahead and uninstalled/reinstalled, using the Option # 2 - loading 20 gigs onto my HD. It's running now, except that now RB is not generating the drum tracks from BIAB!

I'm getting a yellow warning message that that drum style is not in the C drive, etc. I set up the options in BIAB to point the programs to the external drive. Frustrating.

Mario,

This version of BB does not like ASIO either. I do use them in Sonar though with no problem. That's another problem I need to work out - I prefer ASIO.

Remember that ASIO is not one universal driver; it is a standard for writing device drivers, but the quality of what individual vendors write as an ASIO driver for their product varies. BIAB supports ASIO and it works fine for many of us. The first place to look if you are having ASIO problems is your device's vendor, not BIAB.

Yeah, I'm aware of that Matt. I'm using a Focusrite Saffire USB 6, which is supposed to have good drivers, so I'm guessing this is "pilot error"!

Since I do not record anything in BiaB ASIO drivers are not needed in my situation. I use BiaB as a sketch pad for songs then bring them into Sonar to record my stuff and finish them off!

Bob are you saying you use Revalver inside BIAB ? Why not use it in Sonar instead. Thats what I do and you'll have much better control with other 64bit VST's hanging in the chain. Not saying that it will but try it might even solve the crash!

No, I use Revalver in Sonar.

This is a kind of shot in the dark type of solution.

After BIAB uninstalls it leaves behind a BB folder, and as readers of my other thread know, there were some kinds of files in that that prevented running after reinstall. Maybe there is something like this happening some corrupt system files that don't get replaced.

A guess really..

Joe,

I reinstalled the 20 Gigs on my HD, and so far, so good. Thanks for the help.


Regards,

Bob

FWIW, after a few years of recording ..
The image below is my current recording system drive set up. I show only hard drives in the image (external drives for backups excluded).

C: drive - OS and VST/VSTi plugins and BB/RB
E: drive - Realtracks
F: drive - used to write incoming audio (more important as you add multiple incoming audio tracks)

These settings provide very quick results.
If you can, I suggest realtracks get read from their own internal drive .. and the audio input writes to its own drive. The audio (input) writing drive tip increases the efficiency/reliability of almost any recording software.
Reason being; if a system is not trying to read and write to the same drive at the same time it runs better.
Processors are rarely the problem, the bottleneck usually occurs with drives. RAM can alleviate this to an extent, maybe sufficiently for many, but the inevitable bottleneck IMHO is the drives. Spread the load if possible.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Glad you seem to be getting good results with the install Bob.

20GB must have been some realtracks or user files or other stuff there as program doesn't take that amount of space.

Thanks for tip about drives.

Musiclover

rharv,

Thanks for the info. My system is not that sophisticated, nor am I.

Are those partitions, or actual physical internal drives?

I use BIAB in a most rudimentary fashion, and most of my problems have been encountered while generating RealTracks. Do you think this would be solved by using an external drive to write to?

Regards,


Bob

Fingers crossed. Between these problems and people undercutting us on gigs, I'm about ready to hang the whole thing up.

They are actual hard drives, except I:, which is a partition of C:

No I don't think an external drive for audio will help with realtracks.

Thanks.