(VP15) Rendering an empty audio file / window focus loss

Tokina8937 wrote on 12/28/2017, 10:13 AM

Hello,

Since build 216 (I have the b261 now but nothing changed actually), VEGAS is doing some weird things with audio rendering.

The conditions to reproduce this are not really clear for me but I may have isolated two points which can cause the bug:
- the first one when the veg file is open, to change one of the audio files (the mp3 one mainly) with the same name but the properties not being 100% identical (in my case the comment of the file can be slightly different, or I just forget to write it while in the first ver the comment was set).
- the second one is to split some wav audio tracks and to remove some parts (just to avoid the CPU going crazy while previewing the audio file). [I never split the mp3 one]

The audio files used in these types of projects are one mp3 file and several wav files (min. 2).
mp3 file does not have any effect on it, wav files have at least 2 and up to 4 effects on each of them (often ExpressFX and iZotope plugins).
The master track also has an effect (compressor).

However, I noticed something which seems to predict when the audio file I'm rendering is going to be empty:
when you begin rendering ("Render as...") and after you selected the preset for rendering, VEGAS loses the focus on its own window and the focus is set on another window.
If the focus is on VEGAS, the audio file is fine.
The focus loss would be the cause of these "no spectrum" rendered files, but what would cause this focus problem? No idea...

The only way I found to work around is to open a new VEGAS instance and to try reproducing all what I have done in the project, and to avoid splitting tracks.

 

(Windows 10 64bit on VEGAS Pro 15.0 261, and also on b216. I also have an ASIO driver on the computer (2.14)
I thought the bug could be caused by the So4 dll, but since the bug also appears in b261, I doubt this would be the cause...)

Comments

Tokina8937 wrote on 12/28/2017, 11:00 AM

I tried switching to different audio devices as you said (from Microsoft Sound Mapper (the one I had by default) to ASIO4ALL v2): same thing.
Focus loss on some cases, resulting in an empty rendered audio file. When the focus loss is absent, correct file.
But I never changed this setting between the times I didn't have the bug and the times I got it.

Apparently the behavior is quite random, hence the difficulties to find good reproduction conditions. I just know there is a link between the window focus loss and the empty rendering. As for the possible causes, it's by observing what I've done specifically in some projects that are rendering such files.

ray-shaffer wrote on 5/23/2018, 3:27 PM

I've discovered that when this happens, it's actually rendering some strange bus. For instance, when I render the mp3 I get only the drum fills which are on their own track. Nothing else. Strange. I can't figure out why that one track and whats different about it. All the outs on all tracks point to the same master output channels. But it's some kind of clue.

Tokina8937 wrote on 5/23/2018, 4:07 PM

ray-shaffer : Here the track was empty, not even drum fills... (In my case it was an instrumental and a capella, so, a bit different) But that's still weird. I think this is a different bug though.

 

 

However! I know what is causing the current bug of empty tracks. For sure.

(After several months of testing...)

This happens when you overwrite a file. If we render a file normally, the bug won't happen. But if ever you decide to overwrite a file that you have already rendered or already exists, you can be sure that the bug will happen. Loss of focus of the window and empty file. Obliged to cancel the "bugged" rendering and to render again. And it works again.
Well, got the lesson now, never overwrite a file with VEGAS for the moment. Or else, do it, cancel while rendering (this will delete the file to overwrite), then do it again.

 

Let's just hope someone else sees this and tries to see how this can be fixed...

thanksmoo wrote on 12/10/2020, 4:02 PM

I've been encountering the bug you described: overwriting a file causing an empty audio file render.

A temporary solution that I've found was in the render menu, switching render templates (and switching back) would make the resultant file normal. Not ideal, but slightly better than cancelling the render and render again.