11.2.6 Occasionally no audio after startup

[rborsey]

Hi. This may be just my setup but sometimes I get no audio after starting up my system :

Start PC (Vista Pro)
Audio interface is initialised (Presonus Lightpipe via FireWire)
Start SCS and play a cue
No audio, and there is no activity on the VU meter in SCS either. Try different cues and the same.
Close SCS and restart it and all is fine.

Sadly not reliably repeatable but rather worrying . . . If it will help I can send a dump file the next time it happens.

Cheers

Richard

[Mike Daniell]

This may be a known issue regarding DirectSound. SCS uses the BASS audio library which uses DirectSound (or ASIO if requested in your SCS Audio Driver setting). It seems that sometimes the first 'Play' command issued to the DirectSound Interface after system bootup can take around 20 seconds to produce audio output. This results in symptoms like you have explained - no audio output and no activity on the VU meters. In this case you will probably find that the audio will start after about 20 seconds, but that messes with fade-in times etc which may have already passed.

If this is the case then unfortunately it's an issue that neither we nor the BASS developer can do anything about as it's right down inside DirectSound. The work-around is to make sure you play some sound (via DirectSound) before starting SCS, or do as you have found and restart SCS if the problem occurs.

If the above explanation doesn't match your experience (eg if sound doesn't start after around 20 seconds) then there must be some other issue and the diagnostic file will be a good starting point for investigating that.

[rborsey]

Thanks for the info - I'll give it a go waiting for 20 seconds or so (patience my dear boy). I am using ASIO but maybe it is the same dehaviour?? Anyway I'll take a look next time it happens. Got a gig tonight so maybe I'll find out then . . .

Thanks again and cheers

Richard

[Criterion_Earlsdon]

I used to see a similar symptom if my XP SP3 machine was previously Hibernated rather than Shut Down. There was no sound because time didn't advance when playing a cue. Some clock or interrupt must have gone missing. Restart always fixed it and we no longer use Hibernate!! Probably not your problem but thought I'd mention it in case it is.

[rborsey]

Thanks for the info on your experience with Hibernation. I do always fully shut down so it is not that but it does appear to only occur if I start and use SCS directly after startup so I think Mike D has given me the workaround. Patience is a virtue!!