PT 2017 (3) - shutting down every 10 - 15 minutes. All I am doing is cut/paste or copy/paste. Different songs, different seq files. Reinstalled PT, NO HELP! Getting extremely frustrated! Any advice?
Thanks - Bernie

Bernie,

I think I've mentioned this before, but it seems like something in your setup is not being friendly. Can you please create a document with the images mentioned below.

To do this...

1. Open your word processor (With the below example pdf I used Libre Office).

2. Use Windows snipping tool to copy and paste each of the following images into the document.

1. Audio Settings
2. Drivers (that's found under Audio Settings)
3. File settings
4. MIDI Devices

3. Once you've created this document, save it and upload it to somewhere like Dropbox that will provide you with an internet link. Once you have the 'net link, paste it in this thread and then we can download the document and see your settings.

The below link is to a document that I prepared with all the above settings for my system so that you can see what information I'm chasing. I've saved it as pdf because it's a more universal format (you needn't do that if your Word processor doesn't allow it).

Link to my PowerTracks Pro settings (680 KB pdf)

Regards,
Noel

I have four files in dropbox that can be viewed.
Audio, File, Prefs, and midi2.
Here are the 2 links to view them;

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6or2dbp6ce322zh/AADVh0jo4zcFS4jl6CSh6rgta?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b1vun8bpznnt004/File.PNG?dl=0

Any suggestions appreciated!
Bernie

Bernie,

To attempt to solve your problem, the approach that always works for me is to return to a basic, standard set up and get that working.

Then, when the basic set-up is working with 100% satisfaction, I begin attaching peripheral devices and adjusting drivers, one at a time, and isolating what causes any problem.

With the above approach in mind, for moment, do the following...

1. Under Audio, set the driver to MME (#2 on the image below).

2. Click on “Drivers” (#3).

3. Set Microsoft Soundmapper (#5) and move the option to the top of the list (#6).

• NOTE: If you have 'Microsfot GS Wavetable' as an option here, that is often better than the Soundmapper. If Soundmapper doesn’t work too well, try the GS Wavetable.

4. Select “Output always on” (#7).

5. I notice that you have e: selected as your temp directory. How much space do you have available on e: ? This could be creating an issue if there is not enough space.

6. Also, did you select this using the “Browse” button (#8) or did you type it in? If typed in, use the “Browse” button to navigate to your temp directory to select it.

…continued in next post…

...continued from previous post…

In “MIDI | MIDI Driver Setup” (as shown on the image below)…

1. For your output driver, select “GS Wavetable Synth” and move it to the top above “JUNO” using button #2. (As an example, in the image below, I have Microsoft MIDI mapper in the top position, #1. The GS Wavetable is usually the better option here. I don't seem to have it, though.)

2. Activate “Re-route MIDI playback to default synth” (#3).

3. Double-check that Coyote WT is selected as your default Dxi/VSTi synth (#4).

4. Disconnect your UX1 and your JUNO keyboard (at least I'm assuming that "JUNO" is a keyboard).

The above settings should allow PTPA to run entirely on the internal sound card without potential conflict from external devices. ASIO also can be a source of conflict and this has been eliminated for the moment by using MME as the sound driver.

Now test run your system and see if it shuts down after 10 – 15 minutes. Let us know the outcome.

Yeah, while I always recommend using a secondary drive for the Temp Audio Directory, "e:" does not look right.
It should at least have a slashie after it, and likely be capitalized if it is a drive letter .. like "E:\" .. or better yet "E:\TempAudio"

Use Browse and make sure a valid directory is selected.
Good eye Noel!

Thanks guys. I will go through these steps.
My e: drive is a 3 terabyte usb external drive, so there is lots of room on it!
Bernie

Bernie,

When you say the above, is the drive ALWAYS e:? If it's an external drive, and it's letter changes depending what else is plugged into your computer, it could certainly explain the problems you've been experiencing.

Personally, I would think that having an external drive as a temp drive is not the best computer management option and would slow the program's operation down considerably. Temp destinations are not only about space, they are also about speed. Depending on the software's programming instructions, temp files can be called on often and having them on internal drives is usually the best option from a 'speed' perspective.

I find myself wondering if having e: as your temp file location is what is causing the issue you are experiencing with the horns vst.

Also, when I used the "Browse" button to navigate to my e: drive and make its root directory the location for temp file. It gave me E:\ and not e: (as rharv said above). This suggests that the path you have in your settings is incorrect. Again, this could be what's causing your issues.

In early versions of Windows, I have a vague recollection that using a root directory for temp files was not recommended. I'm not sure that this still applies today but it would be worth checking out.

For the purposes of trying to solve these problems you are having, please use 'Browse' set the temp directory to the Windows temp directory for the moment. You can always change it later when things are up and running. But first we need to get them up and running.

When there are too many variables to work with all at once, it becomes an impossible task to try and isolate what could be causing the problem.

Hope this makes sense as I'm typing it in a bit of a rush!

All the best,
Noel

You said your E: drive was external. If it is USB, I would recommend not using a USB drive for your temp files. PTPA will do a lot of reading/writing from there, so I would suggest using one of the fastest drives you have (obviously not an SSD boot drive).

I would also close PTPA and see if there are leftover files in the temp folder and go ahead and delete them. Everything should be saved in your SEQ file, so you shouldn't need the temp files.

You might also want to look in your PTBackup folder and delete older versions there as well.

Thanks all! The reason I use the e: drive is because my c drive is almost full. I removed as much as I could from it.
I am going to browse to select it, I have not been doing that. I am also going to try to use the pt suggested location for temp files to see if that helps - never thought of the speed issue....
Bernie

Good luck Bernie. There's quite a bit of information to work through here. Hopefully we're homing in on what's causing the issues you've been experiencing.

Noel

Changed the temp directory by browsing to E:\ and also tried leaving it at th default setting on C:. No help. Next, on to Noel's suggestions. Mill keep you,all,posted!
Thanks again - Bernie

Did everything Noel suggested above, and still had a "Power Tracks has stopped working" shutdown after about 5 minutes.
Any other ideas? Thanks- Bernie

Bernie,

My very last idea...

Rename your present Powertracks directory to a different name. Something like 'powertracks.old' (without the inverted commas). Doing this means that it's easy to return to the old directory once the testing is over.

After renaming the directory.... install a completely new version of powertracks. Because the old directory has been renamed, this force PT to create a pristine copy of the program.

MOST IMPORTANTLY... Do not change or modify anything during the installation. Accept everything that the program defaults to. After the installation, do not change anything at all. Let the program and Windows make all the decisions.

Since the program is only 300 MB big, it won't take up much room on your computer.

When the program is installed, try creating a brand new song file (do not open an existing file -- that's the next step.) Did PT shut down during the creation of a brand new file?

Now try opening one of the files that, when loaded, PT shuts down. Does the new installation shut down?

Let us know how you go.

Regards,
Noel

Hi Noel- did as you suggested. Pristine copy of PT installed with all the defaults it asks for. Created a new piano tracks and played around with it for a while. No problems.
Next, reinstalled drivers for ASIO.
Loaded previously created .seq file, activated ASIO, and started to work with it in new PT install. Shutdown after about 5 minutes.
Sent the error log to support. At my wits end now...
Bernie

Bernier,

This is excellent news. It seems to me that you've isolated that either the ASIO driver is at fault or there is something about the SEQ you loaded that is causing the problem. It is also possible that one of the plugins that PT reads (and is probably present in the SEQ) is faulty and causing misery.


(A) IN RELATION TO ASIO
(i) What are you soundcard details?
(ii) What ASIO driver are you running?


(B) IN RELATION TO THE SEQ
(i) What plugins are active (VST, DX, VSTi, DXi)?
(ii) If you save a second copy of this SEQ file and then remove all the plugins, does the problem still exist?


(C) IN RELATION TO YOUR LOADED PLUGINS
Can you please grab a screen shot of the plugins that load with PT. The top image below shows the effects plugins and lower image shows the softsyth plugins. (I only have the softsynth Coyote WT available for PT.)

=========

Your experience with ASIO and the SEQ file aligns with my thinking in that there is something about your particular system, setup or songfile that is uniquely troublesome. As you can see by reading back through this forum, you are the only person, in recent times, who is having continued grief and no-one else is presently experiencing any of the many problems that you are.

ASIO-related problems can happen because not all ASIO drivers are the same. I know from being on these forums for quite a while that some ASIO drivers work fine with PG Music software and some do not. (In my own case, I have Creative ASIO drivers for my Audigy 2 card and while these work fine with Reaper, they are not co-operative with Realband, Power Tracks nor Band In A Box.)

Firstly, do you need ASIO? Is there any reason that this is preferred over MME? ASIO's main use is in recording because it reduces lag. For playback or for working with already-created audio and midi, MME is fine. I use MME pretty much all the time.

To help isolate your problem through further testing, go to the link below and download ASIO4ALL and it install it. This is a program that PG Music recommend because it is friendly with their products.

http://www.asio4all.com/

Once ASIO4ALL is installed...

1. Delete the folder that was your pristine copy.

2. Re-install a brand new, pristine version of the program accepting all defaults. Do not change any of these defaults.


Now run the following tests, in the order that's given below, using the pristine version of PT....

1. Create a new piano track and play with it for a while (with all default settings active). What happens?

2. Change to ASIO4ALL driver and continue to play with the piano track from #1. What happens.

3. Switch to your soundcard's ASIO drivers and play with the piano track from #1. What happens?

4. Return to the MME driver. Play with the piano track. Does it still work ok?

5. Load your SEQ. With the MME driver still running, does PT still play ok?

6. Select ASIO4ALL as the ASIO driver and see if PT tracks still works correctly.

7. Select your soundcard's ASIO driver and see if PT functions correctly. Does it?

We seem to be getting somewhere now. (I'll keep my fingers crossed!)

All the best,
Noel

Thanks a million Noel! The reason I use an ASIO driver is because I thought I had to in order to use my Tone6 pod device (Input for guitar). Should I be able to use it with MME?
Thanks - Bernie

Bernie,

Could you please check out the link below. Is this what you mean when you say Tone 6 pod device? (I looked up the ASIO driver you had in the images you uploaded and linked to Dropbox a few posts above.)

http://line6.com/legacy/toneportux1/

If so, I notice that this hardware recommends Windows XP and Vista. I seem to recall somewhere that you are using Windows 10. This might also be part of the problem.

My Audigy soundcard that I referred to in my earlier post worked fine when I ran Windows Vista. I then changed to Windows 7 and although it interfaces with software, the interface is unstable. Audigy stopped producing ASIO drivers after Vista. It is for this reason that I have not loaded Windows 10. I didn't want to lose the ability to use the card. If you are using Windows 10, that could also be part of your problem.

In relation to using your device with MME, try it and see what happens. It may lag and this might be an issue. Until you test run it, though, we won't know. Also, ASIO4ALL might be sufficient to drive it.

Before playing around with the hardware, though, you need to get Powertracks up and running correctly. Once that's achieved, only then plug in the hardware and work on that.

Begin solving the problem by working through the tests in my previous post.

Regards,
Noel

Worked 2 hours last night with no shutdowns! First time in months!
I went back to my original setup. In a different post, I explained that I was having issues with cut/copy/paste. Rharv suggested to do edit/track/consolidate audio track. I did that each time after a couple of edits. Somehow, that seems to have corrected the issue. Time will tell.
I do a lot of editing, which is when I was having my shutdown issues. Hope it is solved!
Bernie

That's good news

All the best,
Noel

Consolidating audio makes a HUGE difference to how much work your computer is doing in the background.

Before you consolidate a track the computer has to go through all the edits you've made, decide which edits to keep and which edits to ignore, seek, find and load each correct audio clip, make edits to the selected audio clips, make automatic crossfades at the beginning and end of each clip and then play the resulting audio clips as one continuous audio track. More edits means more tasks to perform prior to playing an audio clip.

Consolidation means just that, all the final edits are combined into one, continuous audio track.

If you're editing audio tracks section-by-section (let's get the bass intro right, let's get the bass first line of verse 1 right and so on) it doesn't hurt anything to consolidate an audio track every few edits.

Create four habits to help reduce program and computer crashes: frequently consolidate audio tracks while editing, frequently save work-in-progress song projects, frequently delete back up and temporary files that are no longer needed and frequently defragment your computer hard drive(s).

It's too bad there's not a main interface button that selects all, consolidates the entire track, deselects all, makes sure your "now" time is positioned where you started.

As opposed to interrupting your workflow by and manually hitting CTRL-A to select the entire track, selecting Edit, Track, Consolidate Audio Region, and then occasionally finding that CTRL-A didn't select the entire track and adjusting start/end points, then hitting ESC to deselect the track after consolidation.

No shutdowns again last night during a 2 1/2 hour session. The frequent use of consolidating audio tracks seems to have solved the issue!
Thanks all for your help!
Bernie

John,

That's a great thought to place in the wishlist. I'd vote +1 to add my support.

Doesn't Consolidate remove the Undo options?
I'm pretty sure you should make sure you have no needed 'undos' before Consolidating. There is a slight trade off.

Not sure if undos disappear. However, I try to make sure my edits are what I want before consolidation.
Bernie

Audio consolidation does remove undos so rharv's caution is right on the money.

You explained it well when you said

I would add that for most users this is likely all happening on the same hard drive used for the OS, any Services checking in, Antivirus, etc. .. and that some of this occurs in real-time. You hit play and the system has to try to read all those edits using whatever buffer you have set as the time span to get it done..

Simply moving your 'Temp Audio Directory' to a different drive can help alleviate some of the drive 'thrash' that occurs when working on audio. All edits get stored there during a session and get wiped clean when you end the session.

I feel most systems are adequate for audio as far as processors goes .. they usually spend a lot of their time waiting for requests. The first thing to cause a bottleneck is usually the drive.

On a typical system this can be demonstrated at boot using Task Manager; the Performance tab can show the processor and RAM is not what is taking so long... and you sometimes can even hear a mechanical drive working away (SSD not so much, as it responds much faster).

Unfortunately many people use a laptop. Most laptops only has space and connections for one internal drive. Software will recognize an external secondary drive but that is of little use unless someone is willing to always have an external drive connected. The user should also assign the external drive a permanent drive letter.