Fiddler, I've thought about disabling the NVidia, but I'm concerned that I might screw up the video if I do this. Hopefully not. Nonetheless, it's something to try. I wonder, even if it isn't the active sound device, if it could be causing this mess?

Mike, I don't have any sound drivers that are hidden that I know of. Except the RealTek that I can't access now. Not a big loss, the way I see it, though. Maybe, if I disable the NVidia chip, it'll come back?

Andrew, that doesn't really solve my problem if I'm gonna lose my MIDI output. I'm not familiar with RealTime plugins. Can you explain what they are?

Okay, here's the latest. I had about an hour long talk with PGM's senior tech today. When I told him that the NVidia chip was also playing back garbage, he was at a loss. We tried various things, but nothing seemed to help. Finally, he suggested that I try and reinstall BiaB. A last resort, for sure, but when nothing else is working, it can't hurt to give that a try. So I installed 2019 into a fresh directory, leaving the old copy in place.

Well, guess what. The problem is largely cured. When I run this one file that has five RealTracks, it takes almost one chorus of 32 bars before it's finally settled down to where there is a minimum of rice krispies now. This file is one that was 100% generated by BiaB, by the way, using the Melodist to generate both harmony and melody -- so there shouldn't be anything particularly odd about its configuration.

Then I installed the 622 update. It appears that now it isn't as stable as it was before I installed the update. I'm talking the 32-bit version here. I'm trying out the 64-bit version now -- didn't try it before updating to 622. It seems to be about the same as the 32-bit version regarding stability.

Back when BiaB would occasionally run right, I've had two browsers running with a lot of tabs open, and it had no effect on BiaB's performance when playing this same tune. Now, however, with one browser open with multiple tabs, it doesn't like it. There's quite a bit of distortion and even slow-downs in tempo, although not as bad as it used to be. Doesn't seem to matter how long I let the tune run, either. It just doesn't like having anything else that sucks up resources running at the same time. Oh well, I can live with that. I usually run BiaB with nothing else resident anyway. I'm just glad to have it back. For now.

Best,
Michael

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