Subject:ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Posted by: J Psycle

Date:4/3/2005 11:27:26 AM

Ok, I'm a huge fan of ACID Pro. I have been using it professionally since version 4.0, which although I didn't feel had the best sound quality in the world, was stable and perfect for the way I like to work. ACID Pro 5 has completely solved my sound quality gripes (it sounds fantastic!), and has more or less added every feature I feel ACID was always lacking (with the exception of a Track Freeze function and the ability to use hardware controllers).

But, it is unstable as hell. This has become a real problem for me as I now have been taking on more professional (paid) projects that have real deadlines. I can't work in ACID 5 for longer than 15 minutes at a time now without it crashing on me (sometimes even with blue screens). I have upgraded to version 5.0a, build 310, and it really hasn't helped the problem (although thank you for fixing that irritatating plugin scan that occured every time I'd load it).

I've seen threads in this forum indicating that people noticed that AP5 would crash most likely when you use the scroll buttons while it's playing back. This seems to be the case for me as well, although I don't think my crashes have been limited to just this. Sometimes it just seems like certain plugins will make the program choke. For instance, it doesn't seem to be happy about using Waves RBass in mono, it'll actually mess up the sound, and then eventually crash.

Once ACID crashes, I start the program again and try to load up the last saved version of the project I was trying to work on, and the program immediately gives me an error and refuses to load it. After much panic that somehow my last saved versions had been corrupted, I actually discovered that if I reboot the computer, I can go back into AP5 and load that project right back up with no apparent immediate problems. This is good, and I can get back to work until, of course, the next time ACID just crashes. Then, if I want to go back to that project, I always have to reboot. This is NOT tolerable. It's weird, I can't tell if this is a problem that has gotten worse, or if it's just these last couple of projects I've been working on have been agitating the problem more.

Man, SONY, I know you guys are aware of this problem, and I think I read somewhere that you have actually even found a fix for it. That you plan to release it in a later update, but I don't think that's going to cut it. If you found a fix for this, I AM BEGGING you to please release an emergency update that'll solve this problem. I am completely dependant on this software to get my work done now, and this bug has made ACID Pro 5 essentially completely unuseable at this point. I have a few projects with pressing deadlines now that I unfortunately can't open in my trusty old ACID Pro 4 now because I had done work on them in AP5.

If this is of any help to you, here is one of the error dumps:

Sony ACID Pro 5.0
Version 5.0a (Build 310)
Exception 0xC0000005 (access violation) WRITE:0x0 IP:0x410D1B0
Thread: GUI ID=0x49C Stack=0x12F000-0x130000
Registers:
EAX=041f4ed0 CS=001b EIP=0410d1b0 EFLGS=00010202
EBX=00000000 SS=0023 ESP=0012f3a0 EBP=0d445190
ECX=0a860d40 DS=0023 ESI=09641fe8 FS=003b
EDX=0012f3ec ES=0023 EDI=00000000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
0410D1B0: 20 33 48 09 00 00 00 00 3H.....
0410D1B8: 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
Stack Dump:
0012F3A0: 01192A82 01000000 + 192A82 (acid50k.dll)
0012F3A4: 041F4ED0 04100000 + F4ED0
0012F3A8: 0123C0B8 01000000 + 23C0B8 (acid50k.dll)
0012F3AC: 0012F3EC 00030000 + FF3EC
0012F3B0: 00000000
0012F3B4: 00000001
0012F3B8: 0D445190 0D420000 + 25190
0012F3BC: 00000000
0012F3C0: 0053B6F0 00400000 + 13B6F0 (acid50.exe)
0012F3C4: 09641FE8 093C0000 + 281FE8
0012F3C8: 00000001
0012F3CC: 0012F3EC 00030000 + FF3EC
0012F3D0: 00000000
0012F3D4: 00000010
0012F3D8: 4D0105CE
0012F3DC: 076C80A0 075C0000 + 1080A0
> 0012F3E8: 0053314A 00400000 + 13314A (acid50.exe)
0012F3EC: 00000000
> 0012F3F0: 005A72CA 00400000 + 1A72CA (acid50.exe)
0012F3F4: 0D445190 0D420000 + 25190
0012F3F8: 4D0105CE
0012F3FC: 076C80A0 075C0000 + 1080A0
0012F400: 076F0878 075C0000 + 130878
> 0012F440: 77F6F77A 77F50000 + 1F77A (ntdll.dll)
> 0012F458: 77F6FB19 77F50000 + 1FB19 (ntdll.dll)
> 0012F464: 018A0021 01890000 + 10021 (oggplug.dll)
- - -
0012FFF0: 00000000
0012FFF4: 00000000
0012FFF8: 0063F600 00400000 + 23F600 (acid50.exe)
0012FFFC: 00000000


Sorry to sound like a bit of an ass, but this is just very stressful and frusterating. Please sort this out!

Thank you,

J Psycle

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: Klirrfaktor

Date:4/3/2005 3:17:09 PM

welcome to the club. i had similar problems until i updated my sound card driver. i also deinstalled all acid versions and did a reinstall. now i dont get any bluescreens anymore but it does just close itself from time to time and its not always when im scrolling windows or dragging events.
as stated in the other thread sony has found at least one bug which seems to be related... and i would appreciate a kinda hotfix too instead of waiting for the next update. this is not just a bug.. this makes acid almost unusable ;-/

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: pwppch

Date:4/3/2005 5:28:43 PM

We don't do hotfixes type updates. You will have to wait for 5.0b, and no, I don't know when that will be released.

Peter

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: Illogical

Date:4/4/2005 9:08:23 AM

Great can't-do attitude Sony. Why don't ya just drop the price another $100 and give up on customer service entirely?

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: Zacchino

Date:4/4/2005 3:46:49 PM

>Great can't-do attitude Sony

Don't blame developpers. Blame Sony itself for not believing in this software at all. For not investing enough money to let Peter and Joel have what they need to do the job right, and fast.

>Why don't ya just drop the price another $100
>and give up on customer service entirely

Ouch that's a tough one

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: Illogical

Date:4/4/2005 6:39:41 PM

"Don't blame developpers. Blame Sony itself for not believing in this software at all. For not investing enough money to let Peter and Joel have what they need to do the job right, and fast."

eh, I don't know who's who, they don't wear badges or post their 'specs'. They work for Sony, they come with these flip replies to legitimate requests, I don't care what hat they're wearing. If Peter is a developer (Hi Peter), then probably he should stick to developing and let trained customer service professionals handle interactions with the general public, which can be fickle and prone to get pissed off when they pay hard-earned money for a defective product. I mean it's a big corporation with oodles of bank, if they've got the same-guy developing a multi-million dollar app and also playing forum moderator, it seems that they're not too serious about Acid.

That said, I'm cool with you Fadengo, glad you liked my last comment.

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: pwppch

Date:4/4/2005 7:25:50 PM

You want me to go away? You got it!

I am out of here.

Later,
Peter

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: Martian

Date:4/5/2005 5:06:44 AM

Nobody wants anybody to go away. We all know what we payed for the product and unfortunately it comes with some unintended stuff that can (and always will) piss off some people. Its both ways: we cant expect the sony guys to do magic and at the same time we cant avoid to have disappointed customers. So what do we do? Personally I´m looking foreward to the next update, - even though I have the exact same problems as you guys out there. Am I frustrated? YES - But I cant blame anybody for my frustration. The key to succes is to make customers happy with their product. I think a lot of people out there are 90 % sattisfied with the product.... that it comes with bugs probably makes the rest - 10%. Where am I going with this?

SONY: Some of us are totally dependant on this product to give us stability. Without stability it might ruin a lot of small businesses (Which might be your future customers)

GUYS: We all agree we love the workflow of acid. Why dont we buy the rights for the program and fix it all ourseves??? - Just kidding :-)

MARTIAN

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: SonicJG

Date:4/5/2005 3:54:03 PM

<thread edited to maintain confidentiality>

Joel

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: Illogical

Date:4/5/2005 4:20:05 PM

My post did not need to be deleted to maintain confidentiality. Peter's post contained the personal data, and I really don't care if the whole world knows my name is Jamie. Want more info, email me...the point is that a trained service professional would know better, wouldn't take things so personally, and would not use such a flip tone to address matters that, if your product were still as relevant as it was 4 years ago, affect an entire industry. From what I gather, Peter's paid to develop software...if he's been around since the beginning (or at least since the SF days), I say he's done a mighty fine job in helping to create an excellent application that opened the door for me to music-making. I'm sure he is an excellent developer and an all-around good guy, but he's acting here like the spokesperson for a very important piece of software (to me at least), and doing a rather brash job of it.

Put my post back up, and please respond to my other concerns. Telling Peter to go away (which I didn't explicitly say to do) was not my first suggestion here, but it is one of a very few that elicited a response. Either this place is monitored by you guys or it isn't, so step up to the plate and let us know what's up. If there's news we should already know, it should be a sticky topic at the top of the forum, otherwise you guys should be responding to legitmate queries.

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: J Psycle

Date:4/5/2005 5:31:08 PM

<<Subject: RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place
Reply by: SonyPCH Sony Media Software Employee
Date: 4/4/2005 10:25:51 PM

You want me to go away? You got it!

I am out of here.

Later,
Peter >>

Ah, come on man, nobody wants you to go away. I am actually a little surprised by the immaturity of that response, but the point I was trying to make in my thread was how truly important this issue is to be ironed out. Yes, you may be underpaid, overworked, and sometimes under appreciated. Fuck, you should try my job sometime. But, it doesn't change the fact that, yes, we paid a good amount of money for this software ourselves, and some of us really depend on this software to get our work done. ACID stopped being a simple little program for hobbyists just throwing loops together sometime around version 4.0. So, that said, if you take an issue like this and just simply say "we don't DO hotfixes", you're gonna get some people pissed off.

Look, this program is sooooo close to being the ultimate peice of software for those in the know enough to get off that Cubase/Logic bandwagon. You have created an excellent tool to just get shit done! But, it hardly seems unreasonable to ask you guys to solve these instability issues sooner than later seeing as these bugs have rendered the program more or less unuseable to some of us.

Here's hoping that this message isn't misinterpreted as an attack...

Regards,

J Psycle

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: Klirrfaktor

Date:4/6/2005 2:42:27 AM

people please calm all down. personally im also not satisfied because of the bug we are encountering - it does really affect the workflow. its not just a feature missing - its a critical bug. but anyway theres no reason for pissing on each other... see - sony did read my posts regarding this issue and some employee did even email me private to get more information about the problem!! i didnt open a support case or something.. he just did that because sony wants to fix this problem. and they even did find the bug - imagine if we were still not knowing whats going on...

until now there was never such a case of bug and there was no hotfix needed before and therefore i can understand the updatepolicy of sony. for sure they could make an exception here since it seems a few people are experiencing the same problem. but hey.. we all dont know about sony's production policys or who is deciding about that (and i doubt its peter). so im just waiting for the next update and i dont think it will take too long (at least i very hope so).

people here (like peter) do a good job. they read the forum and try to get things sorted out. beside of that they just make the BEST audiosoftware on the market!

...this program is sooooo close to being the ultimate peice of software...

this is absolutely true. but think about that acid wasnt supposed to be a software like it is now.. and in my optinion sony made a great job to reach the level acid has now!

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:4/6/2005 10:26:36 AM

Geez, I go away for a few days and the whole place goes kablooey.

J Psycle: In your crash dump, I see a reference to "oggplug.dll." I believe that's a reference to the Ogg Vorbis plug-in.

Have you tried the prerequisite steps for troubleshooting, like completely uninstalling and then reinstalling ACID? Could be your installation of ACID simply got horked somehow.

(Don't update ACID; install the update alone, which also acts as a full version.)

When something doesn't appear to be working correctly, the logical step is to reboot anyway.

Iacobus
-------
RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid
Buy Instant ACID by JohnnyRoy and mD!
mD at ACIDplanet

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: J Psycle

Date:4/9/2005 10:48:18 AM

Hmm, OK, I think I have figured something out that might be helpful in narrowing out what the deal with this bug is. There are two things I did different on this project that used to be crashing every 5 minutes, and now it seems to be working perfectly stable. I havn't tested to see if both things I did together solved the problem, or if it was one or the other, but here goes:

1) Originally, I was opening up the project and saving it as an ACD-ZIP file. Now, I saved the file along with all the samples I'm using in the project to a new folder and just load it as a normal ACD file, and save it as such as well.

2) Instead of using my M-Audio Audiophile USB drivers and monitoring through my Mackie HR-824s, I'm using the Windows Classic Wave Driver and just monitoring through my normal computer speakers with the generic, AC97 built-in soundcard on my motherboard.

So maybe it just didn't like my Audiophile USB drivers, or maybe it didn't like loading ACD-ZIP files.

Hope that helps, ez

J

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: Klirrfaktor

Date:4/9/2005 5:33:43 PM

dont be too optimistic about that. sometimes i can work hours without crashing and sometimes it just crashes every 5 minutes (using the same project). but as my dumps told us and sony discovered, theres a bug related to using scrollbars or dragging windows. i tried to avoid using trackfx (which seems causing it) and it seems more stable then. sometimes you can even reproduce the crash.. just let the song play and move some scrollbars... after a while it will crash. i never use zip files to save the project.. i do it in a folder with all media files. of course im using the asio driver of my rme.. else i do get a BIG BIG latency (well not for playing, but for recording and vsti's) :-(

btw: im also using hr-824 :-) they are not too bad.. but after listening to genelec 1037b's im not satisfied at all anymore... :-(

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: ScarKord

Date:4/13/2005 6:16:35 PM

I've been experiencing the scrollbar crashes for a while now, but today I've had a new one... clicking the Stop button during playback can crash Acid !!! (With no error message or dump)

I managed to get it to happen 3 or 4 times in a row, then rebooted my PC and it hasn't happened since.

It's interesting what you say about the Track FX, as the song I was playing did have an instance of Ohmboyz on one of the tracks. But that was always fine under Acid Pro 4.0 ? Are you finding it's more stable using Aux Buses than Track FX then ?

I've also been using acd-zip files when saving my songs - I'll try going back to the old method of acd files and wav's in the same folder and see if that makes any difference.

Subject:RE: ACID Pro 5 (even 5a) crashing all over the place

Reply by: billybk

Date:4/13/2005 7:08:14 PM

So maybe it just didn't like my Audiophile USB drivers, or maybe it didn't like loading ACD-ZIP files.


More likely it's your Audiophile USB drivers. I have been saving and opening my ACID Pro 5 projects as ACD-ZIP files (literally hundreds of them) over the last five months and have never had a crash or related problem.