The audio engine has stopped unexpectedly

Let me add something else to this.  I've tried a new project with "Normal Template" and same issue. I'm so tired of returning hardware devices because one single piece of software can't work with all the hardware out there. 

It's OK to rant when you're frustrated, but you haven't even told us your ASIO buffer size.  Obviously, the smaller the buffer, the less robust the AE.

Also, have you set Windows 7's power scheme to performance, rather than the default "balanced" scheme?  That is a cause of drop-outs and engine stops, as the OS will drop the CPU speed whenever it can and during mid-stream playback can cause a drop-out, etc.

One of the first things you should do is check for deferred procedure calls.  If you have a WiFi interface or a utility like Asus AI Suite, you will have DPCs that will cause dropouts which are neither Sonar's or Presonus' fault.

It's set at the default of 256, Windows 7 is set to performance, CPU parking is disabled.  This runs okay on my laptop with a clean installation of X2.  On my DAW desktop, I have X1 installed along with X2.  Looks like I might have to completely uninstall both and re-install just X2.  See Bob's post.  He's been very helpful working with me on this. What Bob and I left off is that I was going to install the 1.47 AudioBox drivers (So called 1.1 drivers) on my laptop with a clean installation of X2 and see of X2 crashed. It didn't.  I then proceeded to upgrade to 1.57 AudioBox drivers (so called 1.2 drivers) and it didn't crash as well.  So that is where I'm at at this point. I'm also looking at a product Bob recommended called Forte by Brainspawn as well as Presonus Studio One Professional. My intrigue on the latter is the ability to control FOH and Stage levels from my iPad.  Also, the ability to add compression, gating and EQ with little or no latency.  Presonus drivers work seamless with their product and their drivers are DAW independent which means I don't have to rely on the RT (Round Trip) latency.  The bottom line is that I will use whatever gives me the most performance and stability in a live gig situation.  Mixing in the studio is a lot more forgiving to deal with issues.    

One other thing I wanted to mention is that I've been running the DPC latency checker as well as monitoring CPU utilization and it's all well below minimums.  I can be very confident that the OS and other components are not the issue.  In regards to the buffer size, I've tried default 256 through 2048 and nothing makes a difference. 

Silicon Audio


It's OK to rant when you're frustrated, but you haven't even told us your ASIO buffer size.  Obviously, the smaller the buffer, the less robust the AE.

Also, have you set Windows 7's power scheme to performance, rather than the default "balanced" scheme?  That is a cause of drop-outs and engine stops, as the OS will drop the CPU speed whenever it can and during mid-stream playback can cause a drop-out, etc.

One of the first things you should do is check for deferred procedure calls.  If you have a WiFi interface or a utility like Asus AI Suite, you will have DPCs that will cause dropouts which are neither Sonar's or Presonus' fault.

Also disable Speedstep, C1E in the BIOS.  In fact, disable everything in your BIOS or Windows that you don't need!
 
Presonus has a nice, thorough guide for optimizing your DAW.  Seems appropriate to follow it since you have a Presonus interface:
 
http://support.presonus.com/entries/119099-optimizing-your-computer-for-audio-windows-vista-windows-7
 
Take the time to read over everything.  You may not need to tweak every area, but try not to miss something that might be important.  If you're not sure about anything, post back and ask here.
 
If you bought a brand-name PC, likely it has a bunch of junk software pre-installed.  Remove everything in registry startup that is not critical (Use regedit or a startup utility for this).  **This, more than any other step, goes overlooked by many users, yet is the most likely reason they have problems  (IOW, don't assume that, for example, your motherboard software installed a monitoring utility, so it must be okay.  For audio purposes, it is not --so get rid of it!).
 
Good luck!
 

Bristol_Jonesey

Remove everything in registry startup that is not critical (Use regedit or a startup utility for this)

This is like giving a baby a grenade to play with!

Unless you are really comfortable about editing the Registry, the general advice is DON'T!

You could render your entire machine unbootable if you're not careful.

Giving out advice is fine. Giving out bad advice should be a stoning offence

You're right.  I should have mentioned the standard warning when messing with the registry...  (So.  Read Jonesy's warning above!).  
 
*Edit: I just realized that this isn't like me -- to advise users to use regedit.  Then I saw my mistake:  I meant to say MSCONFIG, which is pretty safe, since in the startup tab, you are only disabling non-critical items.  
 
Still, I'm ready to accept my stoning, officer.  Can I get a reprieve, or do I bring my own post?   

I also sent a private message to Gio with this update.

He had sent me a message late last night with updates from his end, on some things I had suggested to him in our phone call.  Something in what he said in that message made something click in my brain, so I wanted to post that out here, in case it helps someone else.

When I was first installing and configuring my Presonus AudioBox1818VSL, I also had crashes and driver issues, and no output in Sonar, but eventually got it to work properly on my machine, and have had ZERO problems since.

When after Gio and I matched up on every single possible parameter between Sonar and the Presonus ASIO driver settings, and he STILL dropped the audio engine, he was quite frustrated and I was quite at a loss to explain what was happening.

He went on to try this all out using a laptop that happened to have a clean X2 install on it, and everything worked.

As he explained this in the email, he threw in one of those 'by the way' comments about also having it initially plugged in to a USB 3.0 port on the failing desktop.

That INSTANLY reminded me that I had had that exact same problem.  The Presonus AudioBox1818VSL interface does NOT like to be plugged in to USB 3.0 ports.  The Presonus tech support folks helped me work that one out, and I had COMEPLTELY forgotten about it.

So, when Gio wakes up - he is on sprouts time (California), I will talk to him and make sure all is ok.  I am QUITE sure that this was the issue, and that he will be once again a happy camper.

To ALL, make sure for this interface that until they fix it otherwise, you only use USB 2.0 ports for it.  The other critical thing is to make sure your sample rates are set the same between Sonar and the interface.  No match, no sound.

Bob Bone

I was born in the groovy era, so I don't have a clue about fizzle, or nozzle, or drizzle, or whatever all of that new-fangled terminology is.

If by shizzle you mean it's the cat's pajamas, then I am definitely with you.

Bob Bone

Dude!

The one in the middle SCARES me!  And, YOU scare me even more!  Yikes!

It's really wrong what humans do to pets sometimes - :)

Bob Bone

The I/O buffer sizes in Preferences-->Sync & caching will also have a bearing on dropouts. If the buffer is too small supply of data to the audio engine is to slow and it'll drop out. Too large and it can take to long to fill.

In my experience there is no right or wrong figure, just one that'll work better for any given system and even then it can depend on ASIO buffer size.

Good news is it only needs to be set up once.

+1 on registry manipulation cautions.

For Gio's situation, no registry entries were harmed during the process of solving his problems :)

It just doesn't like USB 3.0 ports in the driver's current form.  They are in the process of incorporating changes to their drivers and will hopefully fix that in the next Presonus driver release.

Bob Bone

Bob is correct and confirmed by Presonus support.  There is an issue with their 1.2 AudioBox drivers and USB 3.0.  They have addressed this in their forthcoming 1.3 release.  This issue may apply to anyone's specific hardware/driver, so rule out USB 3.0 first. FYI, Using a 128 ASIO buffer size in X2 to match the AudioBox settings in Control Panel has produced a very favorable result of 7.8ms RT.  That I can live with .  


The Presonus AudioBox 1818VSL is a hot item right now. GC has a waiting list for them.  Luckily I got mine from one of the San Diego stores.  What I like about this unit is that it has it's own set of direct driver plugins (aka FatChannel) that has a Filter (phase), Noise Gate, Compressor and GEQ for mixing "Live" sound and I can record to the DAW (X2) without worrying about RT latency. This has been my "So called"..."Quest for the Holy Grail".  Now I can save my back and decrease my setup time by not having to lug around a 32-channel mixer and a 10U rack of EQ's, Compressors, FX, etc.  What I may elect to do is keep my FOH EQ (Behringer DEQ2496) and Crossover (Behringer DCQ2496) in my 6U rack with the AudioBox.  Always a work in progress, eh? 


Anyway, this forum is about X2 so I don't want to get off track too much.  So with this configuration, I can send a multi-mix down to X2 dry to record the live gig and add the effects, etc later for post production final mix.


Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.  All good stuff!!

robert_e_bone


+1 on registry manipulation cautions.

For Gio's situation, no registry entries were harmed during the process of solving his problems :)

It just doesn't like USB 3.0 ports in the driver's current form.  They are in the process of incorporating changes to their drivers and will hopefully fix that in the next Presonus driver release.

Bob Bone

So, had someone build me a new system that flies with 16mb ram (yes matching) and even worse problems but similar. I can`t go below 23ms 1024 samples without rice krispies

You probably need more RAM...................

  sorry--16gb typo

In the ASIO driver settings the audio driver bit depth, thoguh greyed out, is 32bit. Does that mean anything. I feel bad now because I am straining at anything I can find. I am using the latest drivers and firmware for the Presonus. I would be very interested to see what the rest of your settings are.