Audio is sometimes in perfect sync, and other times not...

create synch shows with video, audio and lights

Audio is sometimes in perfect sync, and other times not...

Postby Ghostfeeder » 15 April 2016, 15:55

Hi there.
I use the software to provide a synced up light show to my backing tracks. To do this I am running my track audio off of the TimeLine during a live performance. I have a lot of fairly meticulously placed lighting events placed in the TimeLine, but nothing terribly taxing. Sometimes this works flawlessly and other times the lights will be off from the audio. It's a problem that I can't seem to duplicate, as resetting the track seems to make it all sync up again, but this is obviously not acceptable to do during a live performance, and I never know when it will happen. When I build a light show, I can get everything nice and tight. However, I have to cross my fingers when the time comes to actually play it as a whole.

I am using a laptop Windows 8 PC dedicated 100% to running my tracks and lights. I have nothing else on the computer aside from the necessary software and WAV files, neatly placed in easy-to-access folders. It's a solid state hard drive and only a little over a year old.

I have experienced the same issue running the software on a Mac, as well as another PC. It's an issue that has been plaguing my use of this program for years now.

I have found that placing some silence at the head of the WAV file and allowing the playhead to enter the file on the TimeLine before it encounters a PAUSE block SEEMS to have alleviated most of this problem. Possibly because the program is not actually playing the WAV but needs to tell my OS to do it and stopping the playhead allows the software to "find" the WAV file before I hit the space bar again and let it play through?

What am I doing wrong and what can be done? If this software is specifically made to play light shows synced to music, this seems like quite the flaw.

Thanks!
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Re: Audio is sometimes in perfect sync, and other times not.

Postby JohnRichards » 15 April 2016, 17:04

Hi Ghostfeeder,
I have been using this software for many years, and run the lights of an old Lenovo T60 laptop with Windows XP.
I have never had any sync issues using wav files, even when doing a ballet show which has a 45min timeline.
Strange that you have these errors on other machines as well.
John
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Re: Audio is sometimes in perfect sync, and other times not.

Postby Ghostfeeder » 15 April 2016, 17:28

I have had the same issues with MP3s as well...
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Re: Audio is sometimes in perfect sync, and other times not.

Postby support » 15 April 2016, 20:53

The Lighting Controller
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Re: Audio is sometimes in perfect sync, and other times not.

Postby JohnRichards » 16 April 2016, 07:44

Hi Ghostfeeder,
Sorry, but just to include the fact that you must have the "show wave" unticked. This does cause audio to stutter on startup.
John
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Re: Audio is sometimes in perfect sync, and other times not.

Postby Ghostfeeder » 17 April 2016, 01:27

Thank you for the help.

@Support: I am already using WAV files, not MP3s. The problem persists.

@JohnRichards: Can you please explain the "show wave" box you are referring to? I can't seem to find it. Are you referring to the "Media Timelines" box? I have the "Waveform for WAV PCM" box untucked.

Keep in mind this problem is not consistent, which makes it all the more frustrating. Sometimes it will be perfect. Sometimes the lights will start before the music. I just never know what I am going to get and I have not been able to find the source of the issue so I've just been dealing with the sometimes random nature of my light shows.
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Re: Audio is sometimes in perfect sync, and other times not.

Postby Niffo » 18 April 2016, 10:58

May be you have some kind of resident program in the background who consumes processor time or who tries to check opened files (anti-virus ?)
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Re: Audio is sometimes in perfect sync, and other times not.

Postby Ghostfeeder » 22 April 2016, 15:22

Nope. Nothing at all. I deleted every piece of junkware, anti-virus, auto-updates, etc. from the computer when I bought it. It is absolutely 100% dedicated to running nothing but this program in order to avoid any on stage disasters.

It's something to do with the program, not my computers. I can't make sense of it and it's weird that NO ONE else is experiencing this.
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Re: Audio is sometimes in perfect sync, and other times not.

Postby Ghostfeeder » 06 May 2016, 16:17

No other suggestions for this? It just happened yesterday. Started the second song of my set and the lights were too soon. Stopped the program and restarted the song, and it was fine. What the heck is the deal? I can't be the only one who has noticed this inconsistency, unless no one else is terribly particular about their lights being perfect on cue...
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Re: Audio is sometimes in perfect sync, and other times not.

Postby JohnRichards » 06 May 2016, 16:58

I use timelines and with .wav files for ballet shows, and the timelines have been up to 50mins and have not had a single hiccup of sync.
My lighting pc is a basic Lenovo T60 laptop with 2 gig memory on Windows XP.
The only problem I ever had was from version 7, but unticking the "show wave form" did the trick.
I also only have ShowXpress, Wavelab, and Sonar on the laptop.
It really seems as if you have a software or hardware stutter.
I would have someone put your machine on test, it might just be a ram memory problem.
John
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