I already reported this issue to Adobe as a BUG but I want to ask here if somebody else have this problem or can confirm it.
Audio breaks/stops and continue playing randomly when 'Ram Previewing'
It happens mostly when the RAM is fully filled up with image cache files! When the Ram is not filled up totally with image cache files it happens rarely!
Steps to reproduce BUG / issue:
1. create a new composition with a length of for example 5 minutes.
2. create a new solid with size of 50x50 pixel and animate the position of the solid for a very long time so when ram previewing the whole ram/memory gets filled up with different image cache data (this is very important!). Alternatively you could use a long video file to fill up the RAM completely.
3. import a wave file .wav 16bit 48khz uncompressed which is very long for example 5 minutes.
4. insert the wave file in the earlier created composition which contain the animated solid or video file.
5. Set the work area bar (preview range) for the whole composition.
'Ram Preview' the composition until the whole RAM/memory is filled up with image data.
AE has to stop rendering because there is no more space available in RAM.
make sure 'from current time' checkbox is off.
6. listen to the audio which stops playing randomly for about 1-2 seconds and comes back and continues playing (***BUG***)
7. Now set the right handle of the composition work area bar (preview range) to less then the maximum RAM size
(less then the green cache indicator on the right side)
8. "Purge image caches" or "Purge All"
9. Ram preview the now smaller work area
10. listen to the audio. The audio breaks are gone! (***Workaround***)
Additional information:
I have the latest After Effects CS5 update installed (10.0.1.19)
This behavior is tested with different audio drivers inside After Effects CS5 (After Effects WDM Sound, Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver, ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Driver)
I also tried different Sample Sizes Buffers (alternatively to the default 2048 samples) but without success.
Reducing the amount of RAM which After Effects can access didn't solve the problem!
System:
Win7 64bit all latest Updates, 8GB RAM, CPU: intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300, nVidia Quadro FX 2700M, IDT High Definition Audio Driver v6.10.0.6227
There is no driver problem on my system because After Effects CS3 & CS4, Premiere & Soundbooth CS3 CS4 CS5 have no audio problems!
I have lots of other professional audio software like Steinberg Cubase 5.... on the same system and they all work fine.
I also turned off AVG Anitivirus and Windows firewall for testing without success.
AdobeQT32Server.exe, dynamiclinkmanager.exe, PProHeadless.exe, afterfx.exe do not get blocked by firewall they have full permission.
The CS5 Production Premium installation went fine and without errors and antivirus protection was turned off for the installation.
Any help would be nice!
Felix