Subject:SF 10.0c temporary freeze ups with long files

Posted by: Angels

Date:10/5/2011 9:08:46 AM

I've latelly had to edit files that are almost an hour in length and SF 10.0c sometimes just freezes for while when I just switch files or double click to select the right or left half of a stereo file. I can't quite pinpoint what makes it freeze, but in W7-64 the entire GUI turns white with a "Not Responding" message. If I leave it alone it eventually comes back so there's something going on in the background that's not being handled very efficiently.

Anything I can do to help this or is this a bug? Thanks.

Subject:RE: SF 10.0c temporary freeze ups with long files

Reply by: musicvid10

Date:10/5/2011 10:19:19 AM

What kind of "files"?
Are they wav, mp3, what?
What size are they?

Subject:RE: SF 10.0c temporary freeze ups with long files

Reply by: Angels

Date:10/5/2011 11:04:43 AM

I noticed this happening with 44.1 kHz 16-bit MP3's, compressed at the highest quality with full "Stereo" stereo encoding, and they are 119.680 MB / 00:51:03.798 minutes in length.

The only unusual thing about them is that one channel is silent (the customer required this).

Thanks.

Subject:RE: SF 10.0c temporary freeze ups with long files

Reply by: musicvid10

Date:10/5/2011 2:39:54 PM

OK, they are 320Kbps MP3, about right for "high quality."
Try rendering to 16/44 WAV64 first, then see if that works better for you on the timeline. Might want to start with a shorter segment to test, 15-20 minutes worth.

Subject:RE: SF 10.0c temporary freeze ups with long files

Reply by: rraud

Date:10/5/2011 6:28:14 PM

- If not enabled already, check-mark "Always proxy compressed formats" in the "Options> Preferences> General" which should build a Temp *.sfap0 file when initially opening an MP3 or other compressed file.
- Try assigning your 'Temporary files and record folder' to a different Drive, Partition or Folder. (also under 'Options> Preferences> General')
It's also a well known fact that some anti-virus/spyware app's (Norton for instance) can compromise SCS and other A/V program operations. Disable Anti-virus/spyware, screensavers and other non- essential applications and services to see if that makes a difference.

Subject:RE: SF 10.0c temporary freeze ups with long files

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:10/6/2011 7:26:03 AM

Yep, i've seen Norton software take a/v media editing software to it's knees. Operations that fly by in a blink without Norton installed can take minutes with it running.

Interestingly enough, the OP's original problem description happens to me with my web browser, but only on my Win7 64 bit pc. The same software running on all my other PCs never shows this problem. I have seen it once or twice with Sound Forge and Vegas on this PC and never the others, but it's a many-times-a-day problem with the web browser.

This is making me think it's a Win7 64 bit problem rather than Sound Forge.

Subject:RE: SF 10.0c temporary freeze ups with long files

Reply by: Angels

Date:10/6/2011 11:11:16 PM

Thanks for all the pointers. The problem only presents when I work from mp3 files. If I save as a wave file, and edit that, there's no slowdowns or freezing. I usually work from wav files (and only render to MP3) so this could be why this is the first time I've noticed this. The client provided me with mp3 files and for the small edits I needed to do, it didn't make much sense to convert to wave and back.

Thanks rraud for the "Always proxy compressed formats" setting. That effectively fixes the problem, but the load in is now very long as it now has to build both the peaks and the proxy files. If I had more a lot of files to do, it would make more sense to batch convert to wave, edit, and batch convert back to mp3. My disks are pretty fast, so that wouldn't be the problem (although SSD would help any temp file creating scenario).

I do have Avast Free running on this system, but it hasn't gotten in the way of anything I do so far. Like I said, everything is fine with uncompressed formats.

Maybe there's an inherent inefficiency in SF's MP3 decoding under Win-64? At any rate there's a workaround.

Subject:RE: SF 10.0c temporary freeze ups with long files

Reply by: Geoff_Wood

Date:10/7/2011 12:20:06 AM

". The client provided me with mp3 files and for the small edits I needed to do, it didn't make much sense to convert to wave and back."

The moment you make a change to an MP3 file, you effectively ARE workung on a WAV then re-encoding back to MP3 anyway (under the hood) . Editing directly on an MP3s cannot be done !

geoff

Subject:RE: SF 10.0c temporary freeze ups with long files

Reply by: Angels

Date:10/8/2011 7:48:22 AM

Of course, Geoff, you're technically correct. I was referring to saving the opened mp3 as wave, editing, and then rendering as mp3, as opposed to "Open mp3, edit, save"

But apparently, it's not the same since re: this thread, QED. It should in fact be the same.