I sometimes experience total audio dropout as a result of signal overdrive in AudioMulch. Sometimes it seems that a signal of a certain frequency will trig this. I experienced it twice during a performance recently, and it was embarrasing, to say the least. Has anyone else experienced audio deadness (sudden silence fro m all contraptions etc..) as a result of signal overdrive or certain frequencues? Is this a built-in safety limit in the program? I use compressors and limiters to avoid this kind of overdrive of course.
This has happened to me recently. I had an AM Stereo Limiter right before the Sound Out with a ceiling of -0.5 db or so.
I ran a bunch of modular VSTs in front of it putting out some serious percussive noise levels. At some point the meters pinned and the audio went silent. I had to close and re-start, and it happened several other times with similar patches under similar circumstances.
When I have seen this happen it has been due to DC build up in feedback loops (which is entirely expected behavior if you have feedback loops with gain > 1). My suspicion is that this is what is happening in Dinkelberg's case, but I don't know -- I need more information. @Dinkleberg: would it be possible to post a screenshot or email me one of the problem patches so I can take a look please?
There are also possibly cases where this can happen if a plugin outputs a bad value (what is often called a NaN or not-a-number value). @Winstontaneous: usually the first thing to try is to toggle audio off and on in the toolbar and/or reload the patch. If that doesn't fix it then it is more likely an issue with the soundcard driver (I have heard of this before too).
Overall there are many possible ways this can happen and I would need to know more about the exact setup to know whether it is just a consequence of the setup or possibly a problem in AM. Either way there is probably something that can be done to improve the situation so if either of you can send or post a patch that has the problem I can try to offer more specific advice.
Thanks, Ross. rossb@audiomulch.com
I've had this occur on occasion too. I don't think it was only in patches with feedback loops, but I can't be sure of that. I figured it was a safety measure. As Ross said, toggling audio off and on always seemed to fix it. I haven't had to reload the patch or restart.
@drlids: It's possible it is a safety measure in your audio interface driver. If the driver doesn't like that data it's getting it could just go silent. The fact that toggling audio off and onn fixed it for you suggests that it was the driver that shut down the audio, since very little in AM gets reset when you toggle the audio on and off. In that case I think it's more likely the NaN problem I described rather than DC build up (so feedback is not relevant). The open question is what exactly triggered it, both in your case, and in the others mentioned above. What audio interface do you use? Do you think plugins could have been involved?
Hi Ross, it was on my MacBook, no external soundcard involved. I could well have been using some plugins, but so far I haven't been able to find any of the patches that did it, or to replicate the event.
I have had this problem several times after my first post, and I am trying to eliminate possible culprits. Summed up:
I'm having similar issues to this, but triggered by adjusting the volume on the external hub from my soundcard. It seems to occur more frequently when the CPU is in higher use but I can get it to happen with just the Bassline contraption if I'm unlucky. Using Windows 7; sound driver doesn't seem to matter.
In Dinkelberg's case I believe that we concluded that it was an issue with specific plugins, AM2.2.2 included some workarounds that resolved that issue.
gxx: if it happens when you do something to your soundcard it's probably not an AM issue.