This was raised a couple of years ago here..

https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=462716&page=1

Was a solution to this ever found? I'm running 2021 822 and I'm still having this problem. What I find is the first beat is often quiet so I don't hear it. If I stop the song and start it again it is OK. So it seems like something doesn't get going quickly enough.

I've had the problem probably as far back as the original post so I've got used to it, but it would be nice to find a solution.

Thanks for any help

Andy

Hi Andy, when this happens again can you take a look at the Audio Edit window to see if it looks like the audio is cut off at the beginning? Most likely it'll be the drums that are cut off on the first beat of the count-in.

If it is, can you freeze the song and email it to support@pgmusic.com?

If not, it could be an audio driver thing. Try switching between WAS, MME, and/or ASIO in Options > Preferences > Audio.

It's just happened using a song with the TWO_BEAT.STY style. The first beat was almost silent then the rest was OK.

Looking at the audio edit window, the drums all look OK and if I play again from there it sounds fine. It normally sounds OK on the second time of playing anyway.

I am using the MME driver. I can try changing, but as it doesn't always happen I'm not sure how easy it will be to tell if it's made any difference.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Andy

FWITW - I get the same. First beat very quiet, then all other intro beats normal. This also happens on subsequent plays. I tried out some other styles and all the intro drums sounds appear to have the same volume.
Tried WAS and MME, same result, also changed the tempo to 90 to have more separatation - very week first intro beat

Andy, you are correct, this goes back, and more than a few years, although it was discussed and apparently dropped in 2018. For my system, it seems to come and go. At the moment, it's working fine.

I wonder if it might be the sound card or speakers or something else doing this then.

I've noticed on a number of devices I own (like my car stereo, home theater receiver, etc) that they have something of a noise gate - for example my Onkyo receiver cuts the first dozen-odd milliseconds off a song when I start playing something the first time around, and my friends Harmon Kardon receiver cuts off the first half second of every song, no matter how short of a delay between songs there is. My car stereo even gates out quiet sections of songs - it's absolutely infuriating to say the least, especially if I'm listening to music that actually has some dynamic range.

Anything's possible. I'm using a laptop with a realtek sound card. I normally have it playing through bluetooth speakers, but it happens when it isn't.

It can happen on any song of a sequence. So during a session, it doesn't happen on every song and it doesn't necessarily happen on the first song or on a song after a long pause of playing nothing. So if it is some sort of "noise gate" it doesn't seem to trigger in any consistent manner. I'm struggling to find any pattern to it. It has been happening for years, possibly on the machine that the current laptop replaced. It's been annoying, but never quite annoying enough to report until now.

My guess is the program begins playing the song before the audio driver is ready. That would explain why sometimes there is a click at the beginning of a song and why the leading edge of the first beat is sometimes missing.