Reaper OSX critical memory error

[AlexB]

Hi folks

I've been searching the forums, but haven't found a specific answer to this, any help much appreciated.

I'm trying to start mixing a project in Reaper that was tracked in a studio over 5 days into Reaper. It's about 100GB of audio, about 24 channels.

My problem is once I've setup my busses, so still no plugins, I'm getting total crashes in Reaper 32 and even in Reaper 64. I'm getting a critical memory error on playback and If I load a plugin (see attachements)

What I find confusing is that looking at the Apple Activity Monitor application, it says Reaper is using only about 178meg RAM and about 2GB of virtual memory and I have 6GB of RAM in my machine with no other memory hungry apps open.

My instinct is I need more RAM, but Activity Monitor is confusing me, saying I have loads free.

I use Reaper professionally on a daily basis and have never had this instability problem before (although I've never had such a big project). I don't want to split the project into smaller files or tunes as I like to mix this way, 'holistically'. The problem has lasted through the last few Reaper updates, I was hoping there was a fix but today it's still crashing.

My mac spec is 2x2.66GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon, 6GB Ram, 10.6.8 and latest Reaper versions.

Thanks in advance

Alex

[serr]

Can you go back to an older version of Reaper that doesn't crash?
You need to identify the point where something changed (when the errors started).

Only 100GB of 24 track data is pretty small for that computer.

Do you keep a backup clone of your tested stable system before trying upgrades?

[AlexB]

Thanks for your reply serr.

I should have made clear: this particular project has always crashed on my system, but I've never had any other significant problems with Reaper.

Also, I should have said, a band colleague can play it OK on his newer laptop with 8GB RAM (so project file is not corrupted), unfortunately he's too busy to mix it!

I'm wondering whether anyone can shed any light on this RAM issue with Reaper in OS X - the forums seem to be full with Windows related re assigning memory allocations tips, but you can't do that in OS X to my knowledge and as I've said I can't understand why I'm getting error messages when Activity Monitor say's the computer has over 3GB free RAM.

Thanks again

Alex

[serr]

Originally Posted by AlexB

Thanks for your reply serr.

I should have made clear: this particular project has always crashed on my system, but I've never had any other significant problems with Reaper.

Also, I should have said, a band colleague can play it OK on his newer laptop with 8GB RAM (so project file is not corrupted), unfortunately he's too busy to mix it!

I'm wondering whether anyone can shed any light on this RAM issue with Reaper in OS X - the forums seem to be full with Windows related re assigning memory allocations tips, but you can't do that in OS X to my knowledge and as I've said I can't understand why I'm getting error messages when Activity Monitor say's the computer has over 3GB free RAM.

Thanks again

Alex

In general you don't have all the complex setup and workarounds the Windows users have to navigate thru so you won't find posts like that for OSX. Not that that helps or anything!

Never worked?
It's almost got to be a corrupted session file or one of the audio files with a corrupted header then. I'd do a test and start from a new session.

I assume at this point you've opened older "known good" sessions and they still work?

Maybe drag the audio files in one or a few at a time to find which one causes the problem (if that theory is correct anyway)?

Sorry to play Dr. Obvious here. I haven't had anything like this come up. I have had corrupted files before which can sometimes lead to strange behavior.

[AlexB]

Thanks again:


'Never worked? It's almost got to be a corrupted session file or one of the audio files with a corrupted header then. I'd do a test and start from a new session.'


The original session plays fine until I start to add busses and then the memory errors start happening. Even when I do, my file plays fine on my friends more RAM loaded mac.


'I assume at this point you've opened older "known good" sessions and they still work?'

Yes

'Maybe drag the audio files in one or a few at a time to find which one causes the problem (if that theory is correct anyway)? Sorry to play Dr. Obvious here. I haven't had anything like this come up. I have had corrupted files before which can sometimes lead to strange behavior.[/QUOTE]'

I'm sure the audio is not corrupt as it plays fine on my friend's system. It's this RAM issue I don't understand.

Thanks again.

[AlexB]

Just to clarify my question again at this point:

Why is Reaper giving me critical memory errors and crashing a particular project with no plugins, when Activity Monitor tells me I have at least 3GB free RAM?

Forgot to say: I have Reaper set to show CPU usage and RAM usage above the transport bar, and it's saying 8% CPU for this project and just over 2GB RAM use (which confusingly contradicts Activity Monitor, see my original image file above!).

Thanks again!

Alex

[valley]

Originally Posted by AlexB

... and just over 2GB RAM use (which confusingly contradicts Activity Monitor, see my original image file above!).

It doesn't. Reaper is telling you one number: how much memory it has allocated. OSX is telling you how this memory is stored: 172MB resides in system RAM, and a little under 2GB resides in virtual memory on your drive.

Depending on how Reaper calculates its own memory usage those numbers will add up to be about the same, but probably not exactly the same.

In theory you have about 3.8GB of free RAM in that screen grab, however if you run Reaper 32 you won't be able to use all of this RAM, as the max addressable space for a 32bit application is 4GB.

[AlexB]

Valley, thanks that's helpful, I didn't know that about Activity Monitor.

As you say:

'In theory you have about 3.8GB of free RAM in that screen grab, however if you run Reaper 32 you won't be able to use all of this RAM, as the max addressable space for a 32bit application is 4GB.'

so should still have about 2GB free RAM to play with though (if Reaper is using 2 and 4 is max)? So I still don't understand the critical memory errors!

[valley]

Originally Posted by AlexB

so should still have about 2GB free RAM to play with though (if Reaper is using 2 and 4 is max)? So I still don't understand the critical memory errors!

No, that doesn't make much sense. The alloc failure you posted was for a very small amount of memory also, so old-school issues like fragmentation should even be coming into play here.

You have mail, chrome and worst of all, flash, running in the background. Under any circumstances you should avoid that if you can. I don't see why this mix is causing you problems though, or why it works on another 8GB system.

From you first post it also sounds like Reaper 64 is having the same issue. If the 64bit Reaper is crapping out at about the same place then it's also unlikely to be straight memory starvation, as the 64 bit version can gain access to more of that floating RAM.

My gut feeling, but this is one for the Reaper team, is that Reaper is doing internal memory management, and there's something not quite right going on in there. The 8GB system might just be side-stepping the problem. I can't think of a good analogy off the top of my head so this rather odd one will have to do:

Imagine you have a glass patio door. It opens plenty wide enough for your slightly obese, and rather short sighted dog to get through, but the dog tends to walk into the glass rather than the opening. Putting a bigger patio door in appears to solve the problem 'cos the mutt is now much less likely to smack its head, but it doesn't actually address the underlying problem, namely short-sightedness, and an inability to detect glass.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by valley

'You have mail, chrome and worst of all, flash, running in the background. Under any circumstances you should avoid that if you can.'

Roger that

Originally Posted by valley

'I don't see why this mix is causing you problems though, or why it works on another 8GB system.'

It is strange. As I say I've never had any Reaper problems before either.

Originally Posted by valley

'From you first post it also sounds like Reaper 64 is having the same issue. If the 64bit Reaper is crapping out at about the same place then it's also unlikely to be straight memory starvation, as the 64 bit version can gain access to more of that floating RAM.'

Yes, the 64bit version seems to last a bit longer before crashing, but after adding 1 plugin (a cockos limiter) the memory errors started again.Also, I don't really want to use the 64bit version to be honest, I mix with UAD stuff (though it's not responsible for any of these problems I hasten to add)

Originally Posted by valley

'My gut feeling, but this is one for the Reaper team, is that Reaper is doing internal memory management, and there's something not quite right going on in there. The 8GB system might just be side-stepping the problem. I can't think of a good analogy off the top of my head so this rather odd one will have to do:

Imagine you have a glass patio door. It opens plenty wide enough for your slightly obese, and rather short sighted dog to get through, but the dog tends to walk into the glass rather than the opening. Putting a bigger patio door in appears to solve the problem 'cos the mutt is now much less likely to smack its head, but it doesn't actually address the underlying problem, namely short-sightedness, and an inability to detect glass.'

That's made me smile, thanks for that! I hope the Reaper team might read this and shed some light? I'm not aware of any further setting I can tweak within Reaper to help?

[AlexB]

Also, I forgot to say just as an experiment I tried running this project off a lower spec laptop (2.4 Intel Core Duo 4 gig RAM) and also get out of memory errors on attempted playback (with similar Activity Monitor usage, so there still should be some RAM free), so to me that feels like a Reaper problem rather than something specific with my mixing computer. Also, we think that the iMac in the studio started having playback issues by the end of the session too but I can't verify that.

I really need to get this project working to mix, so I might buy more RAM (bigger patio doors!) just as a less than ideal workaround and see if it helps.

Any more ideas welcome!

[mrelwood]

Don't know if any of this will help, but I would try:

- Reaper > Preferences > General > "Warn when Reaper's memory usage reaches ____ megabytes".
- Try 5000 and 0.

What media format are you using by the way? 24bit 44.1KHz wav or heavier?

Also check and report the block size in Preferences > Audio Device. I get least problems if I have the both "Requests" checked, SR at 44100 and block size from 96 to 1024, depending on what I'm doing.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by mrelwood

- Reaper > Preferences > General > "Warn when Reaper's memory usage reaches ____ megabytes".
- Try 5000 and 0.

Thanks, I tried 0 and 6000 and still got errors and crashes with both

Originally Posted by mrelwood

What media format are you using by the way? 24bit 44.1KHz wav or heavier?

24/44

Originally Posted by mrelwood

Also check and report the block size in Preferences > Audio Device. I get least problems if I have the both "Requests" checked, SR at 44100 and block size from 96 to 1024, depending on what I'm doing.

Same here, 44k 1024.

In the end I've had to find a workaround, I've split the project into two halves (deleting half the audio files in each). It's working fine now using about 1gb RAM in each. However, I can't help thinking something fishy is going on with Reaper's internal memory management on OSX for all the above reasons.

[amenbrother]

Any news on this issue. We have the same issue on a macbook pro 2012. 16 gb ram. 32 Reaper. Quite loaded project, but still plenty of ram, and cpu around 50%.

Cheers

[Justin]

Originally Posted by amenbrother

Any news on this issue. We have the same issue on a macbook pro 2012. 16 gb ram. 32 Reaper. Quite loaded project, but still plenty of ram, and cpu around 50%.

Cheers

If you get this error and are not out of RAM/address space, it could also be that a plug-in (or less likely, REAPER itself) is corrupting the heap. You could try running your plug-ins in bridged/firewalled mode, and see if that helps. If it does, you could bring back plug-ins one at a time to determine which plug-in is causing the issue.

[amenbrother]

Originally Posted by Justin

If you get this error and are not out of RAM/address space, it could also be that a plug-in (or less likely, REAPER itself) is corrupting the heap. You could try running your plug-ins in bridged/firewalled mode, and see if that helps. If it does, you could bring back plug-ins one at a time to determine which plug-in is causing the issue.

Will try,

Cheers Justin.

[serr]

Originally Posted by amenbrother

but still plenty of ram

Yeah... Then you're not out of RAM.**

Try approaching this as a misbehaving plugin issue. And some misbehaving plugins in Reaper only start misbehaving when the system use is higher than X.

Check this out if you haven't already: http://forum.cockos.com/showpost.php...54&postcount=5


** Not trying to be a smartass here. Activity Monitor is literally my telltale for misbehaving plugin. Buffer underruns and/or other mayhem? System not maxed? Then it's a plugin. 100% correct every time. And to date, disabling AfxP on every track with a 3rd party plugin inserted works every time.

[amenbrother]

Info, and
One question,
If I run reaper32 I have this problem, but in Reaper64 I dont. Is there a memory restriction on Reaper32, even if your running it on OSX64. Seems like When approaching 3.2, 3.4 gb ram Reaper crash despite all actions made, but in Reaper64 the the project runs nice, and I can still add files, and vst/au(i).

On some projects it seems like the fx behave differently on 64 compared to 32.