Mixbus 6 some issues and observations

[redeye]

have found a few problems with the new release as follows. Will investigate more and see if I can get more info.

1. Jack xruns - a massive increase compared with Mixbus 5 and same projects ( re-created for Mixbus 6 ). Strangely it is random as sometimes cured by closing and re-opening project. Sometimes by randomly turning off plugins and turning back on again ( so far not found a particular plugin that causes this it seems to happen at start when scanning the plugins ).
JACK log says :
Wed Apr 15 20:25:53 2020: ERROR: JackEngine::XRun: client = mixbus was not finished, state = Running
Wed Apr 15 20:25:53 2020: ERROR: JackAudioDriver:rocessGraphAsyncMaster: Process error

2. Random complete lock up, usually when editing a plugins settings the whole screen locks, mouse does not work, cannot access any other applications. Mixbus keeps playing audio but machine stuck only a hard reboot cures. This will be harder to get debug info sorted.

Anybody else having problems?

[keefaz]

Maybe a video setting issue, what video card do you use and which module? Also which desktop/windows environment?

[V.G.]

Anybody else having problems?

After .697 update, I have a problem using the mouse: at any moment, accidentally and is not associated with certain actions, the mouse freezes and the cursor does not respond to any movements and clicks.
The keyboard can still start and stop playback. After some time (1-3 minutes) after starting playback, the mouse wakes up.

[wavesound]

HI I'm on MB6 and Ubuntu studio 19.
I have 2 bad lockups when on this system mind you I'm on it all day.
I assume new studio and video card.

Re jack studio 19 uses carla and I see the total xruns in session seem to be high but i'm not aware of amy clicks or noise as yet.

Seems stable most off the time. also I use hardware monitoring from ,y X32.
Cheers Bob

---

Anybody else having problems?

After .697 update, I have a problem using the mouse: at any moment, accidentally and is not associated with certain actions, the mouse freezes and the cursor does not respond to any movements and clicks.
The keyboard can still start and stop playback. After some time (1-3 minutes) after starting playback, the mouse wakes up.

Hi I have this when scrolling on the timeline in the Mixer window. transport and mouse freeze, I can usually wait but once it was a major lockup.
Cheers Bob

[wavesound]

Hi all
Using the cutting scissors has made MB6 quit with no warning at all.
It's happened 3 times in two days.
Are there any log files I can look at? maybe get an idea.
Cheers All
This on Ubuntu 19

Cheers

[wreckcenterstudio]

Hi,
To anyone running the latest Nvidia drivers: I was having similar issues with lockups, certain plugins and the Helm synth mostly. It wound up being caused by the Nvidia binary driver. I disabled 'sync to Vblank' in the Nvidia Settings app and all is well now. Seems to only be an issue with the latest drivers, using an older driver (pre- 440) works fine without disabling the Vsync. I'm using regular Mixbus v6 on Ubuntu 18.04. Funny because I thought it just the new Mixbus version 6 causing it because I had updated the nvidia driver around the same time I got the v6 upgrade.

As far as the xrun increase I haven't really noticed an increase but v6 definitely has a higher dsp usage than v5. I did some tests to compare- a blank (no tracks) idle session on v5 and v6 both use about 6-7% dsp. However, adding 24 stereo tracks to each session showed v5 using 11-12% dsp and v6 using 14-15% dsp!! Both sessions had the exact same settings. Adding plugins seems to quickly consume more dsp on v6 as well. Hopefully this will be addressed, I love using Mixbus but it's a little dissapointing to upgrade to the next major version and see that it doesn't perform as well. I'm sticking to v5 for the time being.

[keefaz]

14-15% dsp usage is still fine, I mean look at our windows cousins lol

For the SyncToVBlank settings you could disable it with an environment variable rather than open nvidia-settings disable it and maybe re-enable it after mixbus session.

In fact I made a small script to launch mixbus

Code:

#!/bin/bash

#
# I use 32C6
# replace with appropriate path
# like /usr/local/bin/Mixbus6

MIXBUS_SCRIPT=/usr/local/bin/Mixbus32C6

export __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=0

exec $MIXBUS_SCRIPT "$@"

[wreckcenterstudio]

14-15% dsp usage is still fine, I mean look at our windows cousins lol

For the SyncToVBlank settings you could disable it with an environment variable rather than open nvidia-settings disable it and maybe re-enable it after mixbus session.

In fact I made a small script to launch mixbus

Code:

#!/bin/bash

#
# I use 32C6
# replace with appropriate path
# like /usr/local/bin/Mixbus6

MIXBUS_SCRIPT=/usr/local/bin/Mixbus32C6

export __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=0

exec $MIXBUS_SCRIPT "$@"

Yeah it's not terrible but should it be getting higher as the software develops and matures? There are no visible or audible changes to the dsp engine compared to v5 AFAIK. Not complaining here, just to be clear. I love mixbus and will continue using it as I absolutely love the interface and workflow and I understand why it has a higher base dsp in the first place.

For the vsync setting I just edited the startup entry for Nvidia Settings to this-
sh -c '/usr/bin/nvidia-settings --load-config-only --assign="SyncToVBlank=0"'
I don't really need it on for anything else but I will keep a copy of your script as well just in case I ever need it, thanks for sharing!

[sunrat]

For the vsync setting I just edited the startup entry for Nvidia Settings to this-
sh -c '/usr/bin/nvidia-settings --load-config-only --assign="SyncToVBlank=0"'

If you disable SyncToVBlank in Nvidia Settings GUI it will save the settings to ~/.nvidiasettingsrc when you close the GUI and setting will persist for that session, but will not be loaded after reboot.
To do this you simply need to add to Autostart in your DE:

Code:

nvidia-settings --load-config-only

It does the same thing but doesn't need to call a shell to do it.
I was having GUI freezes in Debian/KDE when opening 2 or more plugin GUIs at the same time. After setting this I tested with up to 16 open with no problem. I also set GL to "High Performance" but unsure how much that helped.
I also had another issue where plugin GUIs would disappear behind Mixbus when they lost focus. For KDE the fix is fairly simple - https://manual.ardour.org/ardour-configu...-plasma-5/ <--- note that's for Ardour so slight variations are required.

[wavesound]

have found a few problems with the new release as follows. Will investigate more and see if I can get more info.

1. Jack xruns - a massive increase compared with Mixbus 5 and same projects ( re-created for Mixbus 6 ). Strangely it is random as sometimes cured by closing and re-opening project. Sometimes by randomly turning off plugins and turning back on again ( so far not found a particular plugin that causes this it seems to happen at start when scanning the plugins ).
JACK log says :
Wed Apr 15 20:25:53 2020: ERROR: JackEngine::XRun: client = mixbus was not finished, state = Running
Wed Apr 15 20:25:53 2020: ERROR: JackAudioDriver:rocessGraphAsyncMaster: Process error

2. Random complete lock up, usually when editing a plugins settings the whole screen locks, mouse does not work, cannot access any other applications. Mixbus keeps playing audio but machine stuck only a hard reboot cures. This will be harder to get debug info sorted.

Anybody else having problems?

Hi All
Ubuntu studio 19 and MB6.
MB shows 19 x runs on start up and my session can end up with up to 60 for a 5 mins track.
As yet I have heard no clicks in the mixer or the exported track.
I have jack set as master from my X32 usb. 3 periods and 1024.
I assume that the master clock is the X32 and not the PC clock.

Is this normal? If not what should I do to change this.

I have just disabled the Nvidia blank thing as above, will give a test.
Cheers All
Bob