Inspiring

Question

Why so sluggish?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
April 17, 2019
16 replies
12499 views

After sorting out several past problems, Audition works great for me. Nice and quick. Unless, however, I have too many clips in a multitrack session. I can open a new session, bring in a single (albeit long) WAV file, adding no effects, and once I start cutting that file up into clips, it eventually gets really sluggish when it comes to dragging clips around. Once it's a couple hundred clips long, It can take around a half second for Audition to catch up when I click and drag a clip somewhere.

Does anyone else have this experience? Is there anything I can do to speed things up? I work in a similar fashion in other programs like Sony Vegas and Reaper, and they don't experience this very significant slowdown.

This topic has been closed for replies.

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bjcahill

Participant

Same issue as everyone else here. The work around I have is restarting my computer every 5-10 minutes when it starts to get laggy, but that is of course ridiculously tedious. If anyone has figured out a solution, I'd love to hear it since at this point I've wasted so much time between looking for a fix and restarting my computer constantly.

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petar1970

Participant

I fixed sluggish ( slow start play/stop and distorted sound ) when I unchecked Altiverb 7 plugin with plugin manager.

Maybe some of plugins make problems even they are not used on clip or track in the multitrack session - that was my problem.

I have problem with sluggish levels master display yet,

any help?

thanks in advance

_durin_

Community Manager

I'm going to reach out directly to some of you who have reported this experience recently. You certainly should be seeing better performance than that with large sessions, so let's troubleshoot a bit and find out what's going on. Please watch for an email from me later today.

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binarydragon

Known Participant

So i'm having this issue but ONLY on versions beyond 23.3 where subclips were added, I suspect it's the accessing of the marker data that's the issue. or at least SOME of the issue.

As i don't use subclip markers is there a way to turn them off?

CLWill

Inspiring

I just found this thread, I'm having the same issue, on the Mac.

I have one long file, the narrative of a podcast. When I start to edit it, the UI is lightning fast. When I start to clip it up (to remove mistakes, etc) it gets slower and slower. By the time I'm done, with maybe 100 clips from the same file, it can be 20-30 seconds of beach balling before the UI responds.

This has got to be fixed... no? Especially since, as you mention, the competition doesn't have this issue.

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david_bicho

Participant

Same here. Macpro, 64gb ram, files on SSD and as soon as the amount of cuts become a couple of hundred it's a real pain to move stuff...

Feels like the core code of Audition hasn't been upgraded since version 1.0 or so :). Extremely sluggish and no way to organize clips. I just wonder how the Adobe Audition developers priority-list looks like? It sure gives the feeling that they focus on what they think is fun to do instead of fixing the boring but important stuff. I mean, doesn't we all until some boss get the attention to what is going on (or not going on)?

SteveG_AudioMasters_

Community Expert

The base code has been re-written at least four times since Audition 1. The most major rewrite was from the ground up for version 5.5, which was when it became dual-platform. The devs don't get to choose what they will work on - that's very much driven by corporate feedback a) from big-ticket users and b) from Adobe's management anyway. The only aspect that really differs from this (and is relevant in this instance) is things that have all the makings of bugs - they are going to get looked at, but note what I said earlier in the thread about solid reproducible instances.

I will try and get a little attention drawn to the thread...

LaSalamanderAuthor

Inspiring

ryclark, SuiteSpot, I played around some more to see if I could get anything like what you're reporting to happen. It doesn't for me. It doesn't matter what else is on the track; the sheer number of clips in a session seems to have everything to do with sluggishness. Here's more video (shot on my phone so you can hear the mouse clicks, etc.): Still so sluggish - YouTube

Also, after I shot this, I went and deleted all the tiny clips on the first track, leaving only the large clip. Presto! The big clip moves smooth as glass when it's the only one in the session. But a soon as I undo and return all the tiny clips to the session, it's slugsville.

Reviewing the facts: 1) This only happens in Audition. There's no similar slow-down in any other DAW I have. 2) My system isn't the only one experiencing this problem. Both ryclark and Travelor experience it, too, even if it's not to the same degree or in precisely the same way.

Doesn't this point more to an Audition problem than a problem with my system (or more correctly: a problem with Audition and some systems)?

SteveG_AudioMasters_

Community Expert

LaSalamander wrote
Reviewing the facts: 1) This only happens in Audition. There's no similar slow-down in any other DAW I have. 2) My system isn't the only one experiencing this problem. Both ryclark and Travelor experience it, too, even if it's not to the same degree or in precisely the same way.
Doesn't this point more to an Audition problem than a problem with my system (or more correctly: a problem with Audition and some systems)?

The way that the devs look at this is that if you can produce solid reproducible steps to make it happen, then they'll pay it a lot more attention than to anything 'nebulous' - as the others are experiencing it. The reason for this is quite simple; tracing intermittent faults, especially in software, are the most time-consuming and annoying experiences anybody can have. A solid repro case is like gold dust from this POV.

So what you need to concentrate on is finding a way to make this happen in the same way, every time, if you can...

I'm not saying that it isn't a bug - far from it. But a solid repro case makes it far easier to convince a hard-headed developer to investigate it - so persevere!

LaSalamanderAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for the perspective, SteveG. But I guess if even one person can't repro this case, (such as SuiteSpot earlier) then it's case closed? Audition works just fine in this case on his machine, so it's easy to just say something's wrong with everybody else's machines, innit?

Beyond that, I'm kind of at a loss of what to do next. Do you think we could get one of these hard-headed developers to chime in?

But hey, I really do appreciate everyone this thread's input and willingness to help. Thanks, all!

LaSalamanderAuthor

Inspiring

SteveG(AudioMasters), last year I was dealing with a different problem with my PC (kept BSODing on me) and the fix turned out to be updating my BIOS, which seems really weird, but that's what happened. It was the end of a very long road of trying everything under the sun. But in the process, I did update pretty much all my drivers. I just checked and my BIOS is still up to date.

As for other motherboard drivers, I'm getting a bit out of my comfort zone tech-wise here. I found what I think is the list of downloads for my motherboard (PRIME Z270-A Driver & Tools | Motherboards | ASUS Global) but I'm having a hard time determining what on my system actually needs updating. Any guidance on this front welcome! I'm in my Device Manager but not sure what's what:

LaSalamanderAuthor

Inspiring

Huh. I tried to install LiceCap on my computer, but it didn't seem to work. LIke, I tried twice even, and it's just nowhere! Anyhow....

...I had my primary disk cache location on my "sample" HDD, which is there mostly for this purpose, while the secondary location is on the "storage" HDD where the files for this session are kept. However, just experimentally, I switched the primary location to my "system" SSD, restarted and tried again. It all just made no difference. Bleh.

SteveG_AudioMasters_

Community Expert

If it's not the video driver, and the rest of the external parts of the system don't appear to affect this, then it might well be worth looking at the rest of the motherboard drivers, and also (this can sometimes make a staggering difference to behaviour) the motherboard BIOS. Okay this might seem a bit extreme, but it's the next step forward....

ryclark

Participating Frequently

Further interesting facts. I have just downloaded and tried out John's session. I find that moving the green clip about on Track 1 is sluggish and jumpy as experienced by John. However if I move the clip down to another track, as in SuitSpot's demo, then it moves around smoothly and easily. Make of that what you will.

LaSalamanderAuthor

Inspiring

Welcome back, SuiteSpot! (And if it weren't so late here, I'd grab a cup o' joe, too...)

Okay, so I went and stripped a copy of my session of all its plugins. I even deleted the bus tracks, to be sure. And I removed the file you guys were missing, too, just so I have the same exact thing as you, keeping thing lean as possible. I also downloaded the NVIDIA driver updater thing and ran that. Now my driver is only a few weeks old.

And despite all that, the behavior is just the same. So what do we make of the fact that things run smoothly for SuiteSpot on his Intel i5 but it's super sluggish for both me and Travelor? (I'm at least relieved that it's not just me! That means there's probably not something defective with my system, right?)

So....what do we do next? From experience, the more I continue working on this session, creating more and more clips, it's only going to get more and more sluggish, and I will get more and more frustrated just trying to work.

(Oh, and SuiteSpot, how did you make that gif?)

SuiteSpot

Inspiring

LiceCap

https://www.cockos.com/licecap/

Maybe look at where your Audition temp files are located Edit > Preferences > Media & Data Cache

LaSalamanderAuthor

Inspiring

Travelor, my programs are installed on the SSD, which is the boot drive. I just double-checked the graphics card driver, and it seems to be the latest...which is 9/5/2018. I just updated it using the "Update Driver" button in the properties in Device Manager, in case that tells you something. My computer sure thinks it's updated!

My Windows version is 1809, and I think the latest is 1815 or something like that, right? I'll give that a shot if I run out of options, but this problem is actually something I've been dealing with for years and only now, when the the project I'm working on is so especially large, am trying to do something about it. It does seem to be an Audition issue....but has no one else ever had this problem? Am I the only one working in a session with hundreds if not thousands of clips?

Say, if you'd like to try this session out yourself, I uploaded it for SuiteSpot up above: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QPCRKDrNkNKxcok00ds2VeN-0ZfdcAvp

Travelor

Participating Frequently

LaSalamander,

nVidia publishes driver updates quite often and it is recommended to keep up with the updates as best as possible. - If you're drivers are from last year, then they are definitely out of date. You can get the drivers Here - Drivers | GeForce download the GeForce Experience app and it will make sure that you are at least notified of new updates. It will do the updates for you as well if you give it the autoupdate control.

I did load the session up and ignore the errors with missing plug-ins and a media file. The editor loaded up and I saw exactly what you see on your system. It did take 10-15 seconds to load the session up after error - And when I try to move the wave form either by cutting a clip or as a whole, there is a bit of a stutter to the response. It is not fluid and does not move with the mouse, it moves after the mouse stops.

It may be a limitation that you've found - Suppose the next step is to see what SteveG(AudioMasters) or a Staff member can do.

SteveG_AudioMasters_

Community Expert

Let's see what SuiteSpot makes of it...

LaSalamanderAuthor

Inspiring

Oh, and I just had another shot, and I wonder if this is telling.....

I went back to the Performance tab, right-clicked on the CPU display, and switched it to show logical processors. That's when I noticed that CPU 1 is doing all the heavy lifting when I muck around in Audition, sliding cips around and such. See?

Travelor

Participating Frequently

LaSalamander I do see the load going up on the CPU, but that really shouldn't be an issue. Usually when the CPU is an issue is when the CPU get's pegged. You would think that Audition would be multi-thread capable to spread out the work load. It may be that one of the threads is load heavy. The spikes are normal when a process is active, and the spikes don't peg the ceiling. Like I said earlier, everything seems to be running pretty decent on your PC except for the issue with Audition.

Blessings Be!!!

LaSalamanderAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for your continued help, Travelor! I went into Task Manager and closed down everything I could that seemed to use any significant amount of CPU or Memory. Then I ran Audition, as it continued to behave sluggishly. I checked the Performance tab and watched it a while as I mucked around in Audition. I couldn't get the CPU to hit any higher than 30%, and that only happened momentarily when switching from Waveform Editor to Multitrack Editor (where it's presumably loading loading all those clips). And memory held pretty steady at 21% the whole time.

Below are snapshots of the Processes tab, sorted by CPU usage and again by Memory usage. And then there's a snapshot of the Performance tab, showing what I've described.

Travelor

Participating Frequently

It's a Pleasure to Share the Knowledge. LaSalamander - Gotta Say, you've actually got a really decently built computer. 32GB of Memory - A good CPU - though a little old, it is still a very viable CPU -

Is You're boot drive is a SSD?

Where do you install Programs? On the SSD? or HDD?

From the last pics you shared, I honestly don't see anything, hardware wise, that is a bottleneck. That computer should last another 2 or more years.

It looks like you've got an nVidia Graphics card - When was the last time you updated the Drivers? I would recommend updating those drivers if not done. . I know a new update was release on Friday or Saturday last week.

What about Windows Updates? Is Windows Up to date?

How long has Audition been on your computer? How did you update it? It may be necessary to re-install Audition. I'd start with updating Windows then update graphics. Reinstall Audition is the last step. If it continues beyond that. I couldn't say.. It definitely is not something on your computer, unless it is the Graphics Driver being out of date.

Be Blessed!!!

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