Repositioning playhead crashes all 32-bit plugs. Why?

Colox · 09-25-2014, 10:23 AM

Something has changed. All 32-bit plugins suddenly stops working.

It happens when I have Reaper playing, and repositions the playhead. Either if I stop first, or if I reposition the playhead while playing. Don't matter, they crash. They don't crash every time I do this, but generally it just takes 3-5 repositionings and they're gone. The one common factor seems to be when Reaper is quiet for a few moments and the message "Buffering" is shown in the time display window.

Been trying to change some settings in the preferences that seems to be related to buffering, but I'm really taking swings in the blind.

This did not happen before. It just started happening yesterday. I can't recall changing anything in the preferences that might have caused this. The main thing I've done is to change the theme, to Default Analog 1.8. This means changing the track layout to "large" and a few other visual settings, plus that I've cusomized a few images myself.

I need help understanding how to prevent this from happening. I can't work like this. As soon as I stop playback and repositions the playhead, many fx just seizes to work. Clicking on those fx to bring up its UI just brings up a gray dialog with some faders on it. Only way is to quit Reaper and reload the project.

Any ideas, tips or suggestions are warmly welcome. I got Reaper 4.73 on Win8.0.

thx
/C

Colox · 09-28-2014, 08:02 AM

plz ..?

Colox · 09-30-2014, 02:20 PM

Sry to pester again, but this has turned out to be a real big problem; a much more resiliant issue than when I first posted the thread. I really need help with this one.

I've re-installed Reaper, cleaning out all leftover *.ini files, installed the new 4.731 update, and this problem^ still happens. I just can't seem to isolate the culprit. Been uninstalling many 32-bit plugins, and other "sensitive" plugins. Been through the preferences settings with a magnifying glass, trying almost all combinations of settings I can think of as relevant (and a few more still).

This problem "started" to happen, it didn't happen at all before that - as I wrote above. I can't really think of anything that has changed in the operative system since then either. And this problem is not song-specific. It's with pretty much all songs, new and old.
I'm thinking of re-installing windows 8 just to see what happens, but I dread that it might not. Plus, I'm in the middle of making a record for someone right now so .. it's quite a sensitive to blank out the operative system and start from scratch.

If someone can think of- or recognize something, just anything about this, plz plz do share and comment here. Or, help me create a structure in how to examine this down to isolate the cause. This is terror.

whiteaxxxe · 09-30-2014, 03:08 PM

did you consider a faulty ram? that would explain why it started suddenly without any changes on the system being made. usually this a sign to explore the ram. run a test-program that checks your ram, at least to make sure, that it is not the ram.

are you a smoker? I am. I had it 2 times in the last ten or so years that I had to put out the ram after it acted faulty regarding to a ram check program and put it back in properly. after that it worked flawless. I had too unexplainable sudden crashes in programs. and it was nearls always the same thing in the same prgram, so I assumed it would be a thing of that program. but: if you always run the same program chances are, that the plugins in your case are nearly always land at the same adresses in your ram. that would explain that its always Reaper with the plugins.

so I hope for you that its not the ram but another silly simple reason easy to fix. but you never know ...

Ollie · 10-01-2014, 12:07 AM

Please read

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=36653

about Event Viewer and retrieving crashlogs from there.

Since you're running REAPER 64, all 32 bit plug-ins are running in a common host process by default. Therefore one plug-in crashing that host process makes all other 32 bit plug-ins stop working too. A crashlog may or may not point to the culprit, anyway it might be something common you use in all projects.

If the crashlog doesn't help, I'd start the exclusion process with removing all freebies first.

Colox · 10-03-2014, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whiteaxxxe

did you consider a faulty ram? // Run a test-program that checks your ram, at least to make sure, that it is not the ram.

are you a smoker? I am. I had it 2 times in the last ten or so years that I had to put out the ram after it acted faulty regarding to a ram check program and put it back in properly. after that it worked

I'm no smoker, just make smoking music

And thankfully, the RAM tested out fine. No alzheimer here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ollie

Please read
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=36653

about Event Viewer and retrieving crashlogs from there.

Since you're running REAPER 64, all 32 bit plug-ins are running in a common host process by default. Therefore one plug-in crashing that host process makes all other 32 bit plug-ins stop working too. A crashlog may or may not point to the culprit, anyway it might be something common you use in all projects.

Oh thanks, Ollie. You info helped me solve it.

Everytime I start a new project I use a big song template, with all fx, instruments and track configurations preloaded. Many of the songs I've done in the past months is based on this template. And in the template was the culprit.
In the template I have my favourite vocoder Native Instruments Vokator. For some reason it has been working seemingly fine up until now. It's a very(!) old 32bit plug though, that has quite some personality. The crashlogs revealed that in 9 times out of 10 the Vokator was the cause of the crash. When I removed it from the template (and from all songs based on the template) everything started working like before again. The Reaper stallouts, with "Buffering" showing in the time display, just didn't happen anymore.

One questionmark is why it 'started' to muck up suddenly after working fine, but I'm too content to ponder about that now :P With heavy autotuning, EQing and compression, I can get a fairly similar-sounding effect that I used the Vokator for.

Thank you guys, for assisting, thanks alot!
And I've learned alot more about problemsolving in Reaper! *Real happy*