Hello
We are randomly experiencing heavy audio glitches, the reason why this happens from time to time is not clear. Couple of months ago it occured several times after a Windows Update on an old Lenovo PC. Then we upgraded said Hardware - and it seemed to work for some month. By 31th of october it happened again. You find an audio example, of how it sounded for ca. one hour here: Stream MairList - Error - Kanal K by Beni Geier | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
You hear the error starting at about 2:26
The Pitch/Tempo is lower/slower and there are heavy scratches. The errors occurd while playing a programmed mp3 - after 48min of 60 and lasted to the ca 38th min of a second, different mp3.
Have you ever heard of anything like that?
Thanks for your feedback and best Regards
Bendo
Kanal K - kanalk.ch
Hi @kanalk,
to me it sounds like an incorrectly set sample rate.
Since I’ve been working with 48 kHz sample rate, I haven’t had the problems you described.
Best regards Peter
Can you describe us your audio routing?
Do you have a Mixer?
What is the Sound-Card that is used?
How did you setup your Audio in mAirlist?
How long was the computer running since last Reboot (not shut down)
Are you running Windows 10 or 11?
When I started (even before mairlist) I asked a friend what sample rate do I set.
My soundcart then (Marian) goes to 96.000 and I thought the higher the better.
But his advice was keep the sample rate the same as your audio otherwise everything needs to be resampled.
Cd’s are all at 44,100 so sinds then that’s my sample rate
Hello
Thanks for your Replies. We checked again, and the Sample Rate is correctly set to 48kHz. Also the glitches happened in the middle of a Audio File.
To answer your questions @shorty.xs :
- We have a Livewire virtual Soundcard installed, which is connected to the Livewire Network via Ethernet, onboard RJ-45 Outlet.
- The Audio Output in MAirList is set to the Livewire Out 1, via WASAPI Driver
- The Computer has been running for ca. 20 days. Now we reboot it every day, trying to prevent this problem, which worked so far - but it’s just a workaraound hopefully.
- We are on Windows 10
If requested, we can send you screenshots of the MAirList Settings.
Thank you very much.
Best Regards
Benedikt
Kanal K
kanalk.ch
OK, it is getting more complex.
Are you running a dedicated audio network or do you share it with the data network?
Can you explain a bit more about your audio routing? I guess a screenshot could help.
I expected that you have a few outputs to the mixer and one oinput to the encoder
Can you please check the WASAPI buffer settings.
20 days is nothing I would rate as long term operation. Rebooting every day should not even be a workaround. Can you check how many days without reboot you can run before the problem comes back?
I assume this is not a new installation and the problem somehow now appears and you never had it before?
If yes, something must have been changed. Any Windows updates? Any other changes on the network?
What build number exactly?
Also what is your mAirlist Build number?
I’m curious because I had a similar issue at one of my customer, using totally different hardware from Lawo but also using a virtual soundcard, network based from Lawo so somehow similar. I will check back with them also.
It’s a dedicated Audio Network, which is logically and physically completely seperated from our other data networks
This is the Screenshot of the Virtual Axia Livewire Driver/Soundcard settings:
Screenshot 1 in Attachment
Standard Audio Settings in MAirList Configuration:
Screenshot 2 & 3 in Attachment
Screenshot 4 in Attachment
These are the Windows Specs:
Screenshot 5 in Attachment
We had similar issues on different hardware, and everytime we upgraded to Windows 10 21H1, the problem occured. Then we replaced the hardware im June 2021, since then it worked and the computer was running, until couple of weeks ago. In the meantime (since June 2021, we installed all Updates on a monthly basis).
We had some changes on the network system, mainly virtualisation of other systems. But the glitches weren’t immediate effects. That’s why I don’t think, it has something to do with it. The Computer running MAirList is still a Hardware Computer.
You find the document with all the screenshots in this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZyDH42C_PRklB3vRQtl7f4t2oQGz3y8X/view?usp=sharing
Unfortunately i cannot paste multiple images. Sorry.
Thanks very much for your feedback.
Benedikt
Kanal K
kanalk.ch
Hello Benedikt,
I still don’t get the audio routing but maybe that doesn’t even matter.
Your IT concept looks quite good thought through, for now.
That is a good choice, any gigabit switch should be able to handle that.
Realtek Network cards are known to be problematic in some circumstances. Did you install a specific driver or did you just go with the version Windows delivered through Windows Updates?
If it is the default one I would suggest to peform a driver update.
https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zoo/category/network-interface-controllers-10-100-1000m-gigabit-ethernet-pci-express-software
Download the Win10/11 Auto Installert but don’t run the installer.
Unpack it with 7ZIP, go to the Windows device manager select the network card and start the update procedure from there. Select “let me point to the driver”, than select the "WIN10\64" folder inside your previously unziped folder.
Now your devicde manager should show a version 10/01/2021, even though the download package has a later date.
You can run the installer but I’m not sure what other garbage it will bring you so I prefere the old school way of installing drivers.
Nothing related to your problem but maybe you want to do the following:
You are on a windows domain, that is helpful. On your domain controller make sure that you have the lates GPO templates installed. Go ahead and set a policy to deny windows to update drivers, at least for your studio pc. Ususally you want to stick with a working driver and not update frequently.
You also should set it to the slow ring on updates or at least delay feature upgrades for like 3 month or so, via GPO.
This way you will receive security updates but hold back the “fancy new features” that usually cause more trouble than they help and seem to be not fully tested on release.