Pop then silence (all muted) - is this a symptom?

[csansom]

My project has just a few MIDI tracks with not much in them yet, The output is to various Vis in a V-Rack which I imported (Load...) from another project. And something strange is going on...

Sometimes, after I've been using it successfully for a while, I hit Play and there's quite a loud 'pop!', after which all the MIDI is muted - though nothing changes in the display. When I hit Stop, playback (of, apparently, nothing) stops, then after maybe a second or so, there's another similar 'Pop!' What's interesting is that if I stop it in the middle of actual notes, after the pop I can hear the reverb tail, so the audio has clearly been feeding through the reverb plug-in.

I thought this might be related to other issues I've been having lately, which were cured by increasing the buffer size, but it's now back up to the default 1024 (when I had previously had it on 256 with no problems for a long time), so I can't seriously believe it's that when so far there's so little going on in this project.

I can usually fix this by quitting DP and re-opening the project, but that's time-consuming and doesn’t half break the concentration! And in any case it leaves me just not trusting the software.

Has anyone else encountered this and know what might be happening? Is loading a V-Rack from another project a dodgy thing to do, maybe? I could reconstruct it from scratch, but it would be quite a task.

[stubbsonic]

The topic of corrupted projects has come up occasionally.

For me, the issue has manifested in several ways. One of them is a glitch in the audio bussing system. Since you hear reverb tails it might mean that some aspects of the signal routing are working while others are not.. Or something about the MIDI, audio, or automation is getting stuck and the "pop" is accumulated or in-process audio (and/or MIDI?) returning when you hit stop.

I can't imagine the implications of simple working with your corrupted project and working around the issue.

You could try assigning a different output bus to the instruments in your V-Rack.

Perhaps the safest option would be to start a new project, and import (load...) your chunks from the questionable project into the fresh one. I know, not ideal.

Please take my advice with a grain of salt. Hopefully, others will chime in with easier and or wiser suggestions.

[HCMarkus]

Perhaps the safest option would be to start a new project, and import (load...) your chunks from the questionable project into the fresh one.

This is a good thing to try, for sure.

One question for our OP: When did you last re-boot your Mac?

[mikehalloran]

One question for our OP: When did you last re-boot your Mac?

My question also.

[pencilina]

I had this issue a lot. It was very annoying. In my case the problem was Softube passive eq. It took me forever to troubleshoot. My suggestion would be to start DP in safe mode. See if it happens. If it doesn't, disable groups of plugins until it stops happening then find the errant plugin by testing smaller groups of plugins until you narrow it down to the culprit. Good luck.

[csansom]

Thanks for all the responses, guys. They more or less confirm what I suspected - and what I thought the remedy/-ies might be. I just wondered if anyone might read my post and go 'Oh yes, I've had exactly that happen - here's what it is, and here’s how to cure it' but.... well not really. I'll definitely try the new project and loading. I'd really like to avoid rebuilding my V-Rack though, with all its settings. That would require an awful lot of screenshots to start with!

The answer to HCMarkus's question about rebooting the Mac is probably not in the last few days, but definitely after this first happened, and it didn’t fix anything. -(

[stubbsonic]

I'd really like to avoid rebuilding my V-Rack though, with all its settings. That would require an awful lot of screenshots to start with!

Well, if you create a new (empty) project, then go to the file menu and choose "Load..." you can navigate to your problematic project; then select all the the chunks, which includes the sequences AND the V-Rack which it will load into your fresh project. You'll just have to see, but I expect it will preserve your settings. There's no harm in trying.

[csansom]

Well, if you create a new (empty) project, then go to the file menu and choose "Load..." you can navigate to your problematic project; then select all the the chunks, which includes the sequences AND the V-Rack which it will load into your fresh project. You'll just have to see, but I expect it will preserve your settings. There's no harm in trying.

Oh, sure - that's what I mean. It would save me the labour of starting from scratch. But I'd be nervous that I might be 'Load'ing the problem with it.

[stubbsonic]

Well, if you create a new (empty) project, then go to the file menu and choose "Load..." you can navigate to your problematic project; then select all the the chunks, which includes the sequences AND the V-Rack which it will load into your fresh project. You'll just have to see, but I expect it will preserve your settings. There's no harm in trying.

Oh, sure - that's what I mean. It would save me the labour of starting from scratch. But I'd be nervous that I might be 'Load'ing the problem with it.

That's an understandable and very relatable concern. If the issue goes away completely, then it points to a corrupted project file. If it doesn't, perhaps it points to a problematic plugin (?), or just that the "corrupt part" is somehow in the chunk. <--- this is the kind of talk that should raise red flags that I have no idea what I'm talking about!

[csansom]

... or just that the "corrupt part" is somehow in the chunk. <--- this is the kind of talk that should raise red flags that I have no idea what I'm talking about!

It's ok, I understand the feeling. Neither do I!