OK, so this is a pretty big deal. For the past three weekends, my laptop(s) have simply stopped playing during the middle of a performance. The outage lasts a few seconds, then continues on normally for a while then does it again (lather, rinse, repeat).
I found a post where this behavior was occurring with Version 6.0 and there were various "work arounds" but never a confirmed solution.

Has anyone else seen this, or know what the problem is?

I'm running Fusion 7.1.1 on Vista ultimate 32 and 64 bit laptops (behavior is the same). I'm using my internal sound cards for preview output and a EMU USB404 for external output.

I've been using MM for YEARS and never had an issue like this. I play every weekend and have always had great results...until now.

I hope someone out there can provide some insight...

Thanks!
Pat

Have you tried moving the "Output delay" slider over towards "Reliable Playback" (Tools, Audio Output Configuration, Advanced)?

Yup, sure have. Also tried switching over to "direct sound" didn't help.

Upon further reflection, the only thing that has "changed" is my library size. I added about 30GB of files to it bringing the total library size to around 120GB...wonder if that has any corelation?

Is that 120gb of tunage on an external drive?

Yes, running it off a 7200RPM USB drive

Is MM set to monitor the library for new files? Just wondering if it might be spending so much time monitoring that it interrupts playback..?

THought about that too, turned auto scan off as well. Also the .mxm files have been completely created (so we're not scanning tunes any further).

This one's got me really stumped...and paniced I'm playin 3 clubs this weekend! *grumble*

Scary! Have you raised a support call with MixMeister?

Do any other audio applications behave the same way (wondering if it might be a driver issue)?

Planning on it today. Was hoping upon hope that someone out there was experiencing the same behavior.

I have FL Studio and a couple other production suites, have no issues with them. For that matter MixMeister works fine as long as I'm not in performance mode...worst case I just pre-mix everything and run in studio mode...

The only time I've had an issue like that it turned out to be caused by a dodgy USB cable that was occasionally disconnecting the soundcard from the laptop. Could be worth trying another cable, even if just to eliminate it from investigations.

Actually, what happens if you swap the soundcards over and use the internal one for the main output?

Good Idea....

Swapping doesn't change the behavior though.

Hey DJ Patman,

What type of system are you running?

I remember when I first started up I was running 512 ram and trying to work through a external hard drive. Once I installed another 512 of ram totaling 1024, things went well.
Also, what else are you running through the USB’s at the same time. This might mean you need even more ram….. up to 2g. I am not suggesting you go out and purchase more ram on my thoughts, I just know that an external hard drive takes up lots of power. That is why I now access my library from my C drive due to it being more direct and less draining n the power.

However as Bradleys mentioned…. I had problems with the USB (only when using my external hard drive) at times just by bumping into the plug-in port connection.

Also to be honest you are using Vista and I have been there done that too. When I first started with Fusion I was using Vista. Once I went back to XP I lost just about all the problems I was having.

Just making suggestions.

Banter

Interesting...

Well my current system is an Intel Core Duo 2.33 GHZ 2GB RAM. 256MB NVidia graphics accelerator..etc, etc, etc...

The only other USB device connected to the system is the external sound card; looking at the USB device pool in system mgr,everything appears to be enumerated correctly...

I had initially thought it might be a problem with Vista's power mgmt features (i.e. shutting disks down to preserve power, etc) but that's been disabled too.

Going back to XP isn't such a good option (given my day job [can you guess who I work for?])



For now, I've discovered another interesting tid bit..apparantly the CD ROM drive "disappears" about the same time as the outage. REALLY strange. I noticed the 7.1.1 installer loading new device drivers for the CD-ROM; I assumed this was only for burning support, but there may yet be more to it than that...I'll keep you posted

Thanks for everyone's help!!

Yes, I too noticed the CD-Rom driver loading as well... However i do not have any problems with my CD burning either as I just made a CD today.

Please do keep us posted DJ Patman as maybe it could be helpful to others in the future.

Banter

quote:

Originally posted by DJ_Patman:
Good Idea....

Swapping doesn't change the behavior though.

Oh well, worth a try.

Just to add that I'm using 7.1.1 on Vista and everything's working perfectly.

DJ_Patman,

I had the same problem with the CD-ROM disappearing. It was the Event Viewer that tipped me off. I was getting a "hiccup" in he music because of this.

So I went to the hardware manager and DISABLED the CD-ROM. Everything has been fine since. I guess I must have a loose connection in the CD-ROM connector that XP thinks that I'm installing new hardware.

On XP, you can access the Event Viewer by using:

Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools
-> Event Viewer -> System

For Vista, I have no idea how that's done.

Good luck.