Subject:SF2 glitches on playback

Posted by: Graham Wright

Date:10/8/2014 2:13:27 PM

New member



I've recently got Sound Forge 2 for Mac after using the windows version for years and I'm geting lots of pops and crackles on playback.The same thing is now occurring when I reboot the computer in Windows and use Soundforge 9.My main recording program is Reason 7 which runs smoothly.I'm using an RME FF400 with a 2009 17" Macbook pro and a Lacie Rugged running on Firewire 800 as a recording drive.Until now the system has been very stable.

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: Featherlight

Date:11/11/2014 6:35:59 PM

I am having the same problem on Mavericks 10.9.4. All my other audio software runs great but SF is glitching on playback. My DAW is capable of recording 16 channels and playing back 16 channels simultaneously with no interuptions at all and Sound Forge Pro 2 cant even play back 1 simple audio file without audio interruption ?

Please tell me this is a simple setting we have overlooked. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Mac Mini Late 2012, 16 Ram, 7200 rpm audio drive, Mavericks 10.9.4

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: Featherlight

Date:11/11/2014 6:56:44 PM

To be clear, our SF version on PC dosnt exhibit any of this behavior at all. On the Mac side, opening a 44.1 32 bit floating stereo .wav file and simply playing back, Sound Forge seems incapable of smooth, glitch free playback. Very upsetting

Disabling both the Bluetooth function as well as the Wireless adaptor has no effect at all.

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: Featherlight

Date:11/11/2014 7:20:28 PM

Tried updating the version from 2.01 to the latest 2.0.3 and the result is the same. All other IOS programs play back audio perfectly. This is running SF Pro2 all by itself with no other apps open or using the sound card. Also tried the suggestion of holding down shift+control and resetting Sound Forge Pro 2 which defaults to either the internal sound card or the HDMI audio stream, both of which produce the identical result. As a side note, opening up Wavelab Elements using the exact same setup produces glitch free performance with either the studio interface ( Mackie 1640i ) or the default internal card or the HDMI stream.

Sound Forge Pro 2 seems to have difficulty playing back audio that is not 44.1khz, 16 bit. Its noticeably worse when you select an area in the waveform and insert and effect and then preview it. Its as if Sound Forge Pro cannot process the data fast enough even though a 32 bit floating point, 44.1khz wave file is hardly a challenge for most any computer today. The same wave form played back on our much slower and much less memory PC can be played back at several times the resolution and in multitrack form without even moving the CPU.

The only way we have been able to produce glitch free playback is to first convert all the wave forms to 16 bit first which, of course, defeats the purpose of mastering in the first place and can easily be done in the DAW.

If there is some obvious setting or switch we have missed, it has eluded us so far. Until a solution is found, we are back to using our aging PC for mastering here in our mix room and just using the Mac Mini for tracking which it does admirably.

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: Featherlight

Date:11/12/2014 10:06:12 PM

Glitchy Sound Playback Update
-------------------------------------------------------

After running several hours of tests over the last day, a curious development.

If a Mixdown/Exported wave file from the default Mixdown 32 Bit Floating Depth setting in Cubase 7.5 is imported into Sound Forge Pro 2, it will consistently glitch on play back. Turns out 'any' exported bit depth out of Cubase 7.5 will play glitchy once opened in Sound Forge Pro2.

However, if the resulting wave file is Bit Depth Converted inside of Sound Forge Pro 2 to 16,24, 64 Bit first, it will play back with no problems. Then we tried to expand on this theory. We reloaded the new wave file into Sound Forge Pro each time to bypass any cache or peak files SF may have and Bit Depth Converted them from 32 Bit Floating to its own 32 Bit Floating format, Playback was normal.

Something seems to be different in the way that Cubase exports its own files as the same files exported from Sonar x3e in its native 32 Bit depth floating format play back normally in Sound Forge Pro 2.

Is there more than one kind of 32 Bit (float) wave form and if so, what kind does Sound Forge Pro2 need?

File Type: Microsoft Wave
Format: Linear PCM
Sample Rate: 44,100
Bit rate: 2,822 Kbps
Bit Depth: 32 Bit (float)
Channels: 2 ( Stereo )

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: SonySQAPete

Date:11/13/2014 12:54:49 PM

Featherlight,

Thank you for your detailed report. I've sent an email to the address that's tied to your forum account.

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: LouisG

Date:11/15/2014 3:17:33 PM

I'm having a similar problem. I've tried it on both of my systems running 10.9.5 with a focusrite interface and with the internal audio, and it still has intermittent glitches and pops

It seems mainly with AIF of any bit rate or sample rate. However, if I convert it to a WAV, it seems to be OK, but not really an ideal solution.

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: Featherlight

Date:11/16/2014 10:53:22 PM

Yes, and to be clear, the glitches are not the typical latency related clicks and pops that you would hear if the buffers on your sound card are set to low, this is definitely a stutter in playback.

And yet, if the wave is bit depth converted inside of Sound Forge Pro 2, it plays back fine. Or if the .wav is converted to .aiff or vise versa, playback is normal. Something about the conversion process solves the problem but, of course, defeats the purpose as well. Still working on a solution and some tips from the very helpful folks at Sony on this one.

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: LouisG

Date:12/3/2014 2:20:47 PM

Any more word on this from Sony. Ive got $300 worth of software that I can't really use.


Cheers
Louis

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: Featherlight

Date:12/10/2014 7:56:07 PM

According to the good folks at Sony, this is a problem that they can now reproduce on their end and are working on a solution that should be out in the next patch.

We have a lot invested in this as well and are looking forward to a fix. Sound Forge Pro is our main audio editor on all our machines, Mac and PC and we need it to work as advertised. Ive also grown up using it and don't want to change midstream with project deadlines looming.

And yeah, re sampling isn't really a practical workaround in mastering

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: LouisG

Date:12/17/2014 11:58:29 AM

Thats great to hear. Thanks for the update

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: gbsoundIT

Date:1/6/2015 2:35:53 PM

Hello, I have notified the same problem using a file bounced from Logic pro X at 96K 16bit, it was reproduced with glitches and time offsets, but saving it from SF in wave format the problem disappear, in any case SF for mac is not really stable, sometimes it crashes without apparent reason and also some functions doesn't work as expected: as example the same izotope plug-in works right if selected by menu command, but it doesn't work if selected from the plug in chooser at the bottom right, PLEASE CHECK THE PROGRAM DEEPLY FOR ANY BUG BEFORE RELEASE A NEW VERSION, we have spend a lot of money buying SF knowing its reliability on PC workstations and is not possible that it doesn't run better in a MAC. Note that your competitors are more reliable (triumph for example) at the half of your price!!!
I hope in a more stable and really working version ASAP.
Best regards

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: Featherlight

Date:2/16/2015 7:20:57 PM

After, the first several weeks back from the NAMM Show in Anaheim, I have had a chance to put Sound Forge Pro 2.5 through its paces in a production environment.

The App is definitely more stable and the apparent glitches when opening Hi Rez audio from other DAW exports ( Cubase, Logic ) seems to have been fixed. The transport now responds as expected and navigation through out the wave file seems more fluid and solid.

When you first load the wave file into the editor and hit the space bar, SF Pro seems to 'think' about it for a moment before playback and this may just be the App's editing cache being populated, but after that, its all guns blazing. Still have many more projects to put through their paces but early signs show marked improvement under high stress, real world workflow.

Will post a follow-up after we have a wider variety of projects under its belt but would very much like to thank the good folks at Sony for being responsive to the audio community here and taking the time to address these issues.

Love the new features like Redbook CD Burning and focused window spaces. This makes working on a single screen a viable tool and huge time saver and the re-skinned Sony FX are very well done. If i'm wishing at all here, it would be to have the more advanced CD burning functions of CD Architect imbedded into the interface but the addition of CD authoring is a huge step forward.

A powerful product and viable tool that is now, very much on par with it's PC counterpart.

S. Hartwell
www.featherlightstudio.com

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: SonySQAPete

Date:2/27/2015 9:13:28 AM

"When you first load the wave file into the editor and hit the space bar, SF Pro seems to 'think' about it for a moment before playback and this may just be the App's editing cache being populated, but after that, its all guns blazing. "

When I see that, it's often just a delay caused by an audio interface changing its sample rate to match the file.

I'm pleased that we were able to sort out the playback glitching for you!

Subject:RE: SF2 glitches on playback

Reply by: Featherlight

Date:2/28/2015 2:09:19 PM

Pete,

Yeah, working great here and the issues seem to be completely sorted out now even after weeks of intense editing demands so thank you for the hard work!!

If at all possible, I would ( and many of the other rooms we work with as well ) give just about anything to have the authoring capabilities of CD Architect on the Mac side though. Having to jump back and forth between our Bootcamp PC and OS partitions is really slowing down the workflow compared to being able to doing all of it in the PC environment.

Great job and thanks again,

S. Hartwell
www.featherlightstudio.com