Audition. Complex project slowing down

[unauthorizedrob]

I am working on a complex 20 minute project in Audition.  It has slowed down considerably, to the point that I am afraid it will crash any minute.  The spinning beach ball comes up on almost every cut, so matter how simple.  

Although I have been using Audition for five years, there is a lot I do not know.  You guys have helped me correct dumb errors, and I hope this one can be solved simply.  

Some technical info on my system is below.  Any advice is welcome.

Thanks!

Rob

Apple M1 Max 2022

63gb Memory
macOs 15.  Beta

Storage 2 TB. 458.8 GB free

Apple SSD Controller:

APPLE SSD AP2048R:

  Capacity: 2 TB (2,001,111,162,880 bytes)

EXTERNAL DRIVE: (Project and media stored here)
La Cie. 8TB

3.5 TB used

4.5 TB free

[Pariah Burke]

Hi.

Have you tried saving the file, closing Adobe Audition, and restarting your computer? That usually solves it.

Other things to watch out for when editing slows include:

• Make sure you're editing from your local drive rather than an external (externals usually work, but it can be slower)
• Make sure Time Machine isn't actively backing up, especially to that same drive containing the media files
• Close all other applications
• Are you editing the audio track of a video file?
• Is it only Audition, or are other applications slowing, too?
• Does it only happen with one file?

[unauthorizedrob]

Thanks!  That helped.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

One of the most common reasons for massive slow-downs on sessions is the number of effects applied - especially if they are processor-intensive ones. If this is the case, then you need to pre-render the tracks with the heavy effects. You can undo this at any point to remake things - it's not destructive. Just to remind you (!) there's some more info (and a couple of things to be careful about) here. 

[unauthorizedrob]

Thanks Steve.  That helped!  

[unauthorizedrob]

Hi Steve

well, I tried that, and still have the problem.  The beachball spins on almost every action -- inserting a clip, moving a clip, cutting, applying effects, etc.  it spins for up to a minute, slowing down the workflow to the point editing -- which I usually enjoy -- is aggravating.  The Max Studio M1 with 68 gb (54 allocated to Audition)  normally is very fast.  I have the project and all files and backups on a LaCie external drive with 8gb storage.  I am wondering if it's my DAW, which is still on warranty, but hoped to finish this project before I back it up and take it in for an overhaul.  

Any thoughts?

thanks for all your help.

Rob

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

One thing I can suggest is to run Sysinternals Process Monitor (you can download it free) and run a process tree on Audition, although it's not altogether easy to get sensible results. It's something you might want your computer tech at whoever built it for you to run and interpret. Also, just looking at Audition's log file might give you a clue, especially if you find a point where the number of ticks dramatically increases.

[unauthorizedrob]

Thank you Steve.

Unfortunately, I am on a Mac, and "Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system ."  There really does seem to be a prejudice against Macs in the tech world.  

So I am still stuck.  I am going to follow your suggestion to review Auditions log file, if I can find it.
I do plan on taking the computer into Apple when this project is done, as it is still on Warranty.
Thanks as always for your generous sharing of your brain.  It is much appreciated!

Rob

[Pariah Burke]

Mac has a similar utility. It's called Activity Monitor, but I think taking it to Apple is the way to go getting it troubleshot.

[SuiteSpot]

While there are numerous helpful pieces of advice (especially SteveG's advice regarding fx) in this thread in my experience these 3 points should be the most helpful.

1. DO NOT have your session (and more importantly your media) on an external drive

2. Have your session (and more importantly your media) on the fastest internal drive available

3. Preferably have your temp file locations also on internal fast drives (if not both at least the primary one but also don't have them on the same drive)
Failing all this try freezing (pre-Render) some of your tracks

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Should perhaps point out that if you are working on a laptop, you won't really have a lot of choice about using external drives. If you're in that situation, then the one thing you really must do is make sure that any external drive is connected directly to the laptop, and not via a USB hub. Hubs have been known to cause all sorts of problems with access violations, etc. and simply aren't worth the risk.