Automatic Audio Engine restart upon dropout

Is it so difficult to implement this feature? Perhaps leave it as an option. But I don't see ANY reasons to click the 'enable audio engine' button myself everytime the dropout happens. It's OK to keep us informed about the dropouts with an icon as it is now. But why not restart the engine automatically when the dropout occurs?

BEATZM1D10T


You should really figure out why you are having drop outs in the first place. 

You should really figure out that dropouts can occur on any Windows machine because Windows by its nature has never been designed as an RT OS. I do know the reason why dropouts occur in my case. And unfortunately there's nothing I can do about it. But whether my own problem persists or not, I merely don't understand why this so easy-to-implement feature cannot be implemented for so long.

elle

BEATZM1D10T


You should really figure out why you are having drop outs in the first place. 

You should really figure out that dropouts can occur on any Windows machine because Windows by its nature has never been designed as an RT OS. I do know the reason why dropouts occur in my case. And unfortunately there's nothing I can do about it. But whether my own problem persists or not, I merely don't understand why this so easy-to-implement feature cannot be implemented for so long.

I have about as many drop outs on my PC as any Mac workstation I've used: very few. Saying Windows inherently drops out is erroneous.

But, overall, this won't solve anything except cover up the problem you are already having. I'd rather SONAR shut off the audio engine and prevent any type of damage or loss of data. Then I can resolve the error and continue.

How do you know this would be an easy-to-implement feature?

Jind


I suspect that one of the possible reasons to not have it as an automatic feature is to avoid creating a looping type scenario with failure after failure after failure ...

First of all, why should it fail on the next restart in the first case? If we're dealing with an occasional dropout, I don't see a single reason to have a dropout after dropout. Every time such a glitch occurs on my machine, I hit a Space button and keep playing without any further dropouts.

And even if it comes to a start-stop loop, I don't remember asking to remove the "Enable/Disable Audio Engine" button. So that you could click it and have the Engine turned off, until you turn it on manually again.

BEATZM1D10T

But, overall, this won't solve anything except cover up the problem you are already having. I'd rather SONAR shut off the audio engine and prevent any type of damage or loss of data. Then I can resolve the error and continue.

How do you know this would be an easy-to-implement feature? 

This is why I asked for an option, not a one-sided behaviour. Re-read my original post, sentence number 2. Those who needs it can keep the original behaviour. Those who're more RT oriented, like performing live, would likely to stick to a new behaviour. All of us do work with the same app but we do it differently. I often run Sonar simply as an RT routing/mixing + FX device. I'd rather have a 50ms gap and then automatic engine restart while processing the live performance, then have the entire thing fullstop.

As for this feature being easy to develop or not... All you need is a Dropout handler that will try to restart the engine, say, after 30-50 msec pause. Should be enough to cover for an occasional DPC or other glitch. Well, yes, technically this would also involve some GUI work like adding options. As well as modifying the behaviour of the Enable/Disable Audio Engine button to let it Force Disable the audio engine when it ends up in a start-stop loop for some weird reason. But all-in-all, this is nothing but a matter of a couple of variables, and updating a couple of functions. Add some testing effort and you're done.

dontletmedrown 

Jind is correct.  OP, think about what you're saying-- if the engine automatically restarted your engine would just stop, start, stop, start over and over again.  You've gotta get to the bottom of the dropouts.  Dropouts can occur on any machine, but it should be solveable on any system unless the system itself severely under-spec.  BTW, I used Sonar for six years with some huge projects and yes dropouts occur sometimes, but they shouldn't happen on a regular basis.  I'd start by checking out the program "DPC Latency Checker" and try to figure out what's causing it.  

I'm always thinking what I'm saying. And I know what causes dropouts in my case. And I never said dropouts are happening on my machine every second. All I'm talking about is a 1 dropout within 15-20 minutes which fails the entire process of the live performance.
By the way, DPC Latency Checker is most of the times a completely useless tool, that will only show you spikes. Use LatencyMon by Resplendence Software or xperf by Microsoft if you really need to pinpoint the reason of the high DPC latency on your machine.

1) occasional but high DPC latency spikes are caused by ACPI.sys - unless Microsoft fixes it somehow, there's no way it's going to disappear. And disabling ACPI completely on a laptop is a no go. Disabling just the battery meter as suggested everywhere on the net doesn't really work for me.
2) I do also experience constant high DPC latency caused by tcpip.sys. Disabling the network adapters solves the issue, so this is a workaround for live performances. However I'd love to have it work with network enabled too. I've already contacted MS about it, hopefully they'll find a solution.


so, although problem #2 cannot really be solved by automatic engine restart, problem #1 can be solved pretty easily. Assuming I disable my network adapter and assuming problem #1 is unfixable, I'd rather Sonar has an option to restart the audio engine for me, rather than do it myself once in a while.

elle


Is it so difficult to implement this feature? Perhaps leave it as an option. But I don't see ANY reasons to click the 'enable audio engine' button myself everytime the dropout happens. It's OK to keep us informed about the dropouts with an icon as it is now. But why not restart the engine automatically when the dropout occurs?

You shouldn't have to click the "enable audio engine" button. Play or record maybe but the audio engine should start automatically with either of those.

Elle,
  Here's an option that may be just right for you. If you are OK with whatever causes dropouts, try making this adjustment to prevent most of your dropouts altogether. You might hear gaps, but it should pick up and play again.
   Bill B

(From the X1 manual page 1233 - yes, don't stop reading after just 1232.)

DropoutMsec=<num> Integer 250 (default)
 Under high system load conditions, the SONAR audio pump mechanism may become starved. When this condition is detected, SONAR drops out. The DropoutMsec variable allows you to configure the tolerance time in milliseconds. This variable applies to all driver modes. Setting DropoutMsec to a positive value > 0 specifies the actual time in milliseconds to tolerate before dropping out due to starvation. Setting DropoutMsec to a negative value < 0 means we use a multiple of the audio buffer size as the tolerance. i.e. -2 means we use twice the audio buffer size. Note that setting this value too low (e.g. 0) can result in more frequent dropouts in the program. If you notice too many dropouts, try raising it in buffer multiples or by explicitly specifying a millisecond value.