Well, I went ahead and d/l'd Process Explorer. I dunno what I'm supposed to see when looking at it. To me, it just looks like an improved, colorized version of the Processes tab in Windows Task Manager.

I thought some about all that you guys posted. And I'm not really convinced it's a computer related problem. I should explain. This machine has only been up and running since December of last year, and it has gotten very little use in the intervening months. It suffered a catastrophic hard drive crash a while back, so I had to replace the disk and reinstall the OS -- which is 64-bit Win7 Ultimate with SP1 installed. I haven't installed much of anything on this machine so far. A few utilities, some music applications (in addition to BiaB and RealBand, I have Sonar, Notion, which is a notation-based sequencer of sorts, and Studio One 3), Corel's Paint Shop Pro, and Open Office. And that's pretty much it. Oh, well, I guess I have to include my browser also.

So the machine is almost a clean slate and that's why I don't think it's a computer related problem. I'm not having any issues with any of the other programs I'm running, and I suspect if it were hardware or the OS, the problem would be affecting other software packages I have installed.

No, I still suspect that BiaB is actually sensitive to other activities that are going on around it. I made mention of that in my last post. So what I did was this: I loaded up my browser with a tab open to Netflix and to a show on Netflix, which I paused. And I opened Notion up to a rather large project I'm working on (translating Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.3 over from the sheet music into a native Notion file -- it's 10 parts, 187 measures in length). I played through about half the concerto, then paused Notion. Then, deciding to try John's idea to run BiaB as administrator, I went ahead and booted BiaB that way. Not that I needed to. I'm the only one who uses this machine. I am God to this machine, so I had dang well better be its administrator! But yes, I've made the point of setting myself up as the Admin.

First thing I did was call up a few of the Melodist-created files I'd saved and see if they would play the instruments I selected or the piano. Hah! Piano! I then went ahead and had the Melodist generate several tunes, both chords and melody. Every single time, it played piano sounds, regardless of the type of instrument I selected. So then, I shut down everything, except this browser, but I did close the Netscape tab. I then rebooted BiaB -- but I didn't bother booting it as Admin -- pretty much for the reasons I'd outlined above. Then I had it generate tunes, both chords and melody. And it was back to behaving normally. I had it generate about a half-dozen different tunes, selecting various styles and instruments. Every time, the instrument I selected was the one that got played.

So this quick and dirty little bit of empiricism told me that, indeed, BiaB is sensitive to the behavior, wants, and needs of programs that it has to share CPU cycles -- and sound devices -- with.

You know, BiaB is sensitive to other things going on within my computers like no other program I've ever used. None of the other music production tools I own are anywhere nearly as sensitive as BiaB. I mean BiaB produces all sorts of pops and crackles and warbles if I just look at it funny. Okay that's an exaggeration, but not much of one, really. So anyway, given BiaB's sensitivity to its environment, I'm not surprised that, if there's a lot of stuff going on where other apps are having to duke it out over cpu cycles, BiaB gets left out, and the left-overs.

Knowing this is helpful, though. I've just got to be cognizant of the fact that BiaB pretty much wants to be the only app having anything at all to do with sound production when its resident. And I can live with that. It's the not knowing that makes me kinda crazy.

Best,
Michael

My Music:
https://soundcloud.com/michaelmcbroom/albums