ok, so let's review the seemingly impossible situation that i have myself in.

i have a number of project files that have not been modified in weeks, along with a number of renders of those files. the renders do not always sound good, but i believe this is because i was mixing on malfunctioning hardware. i am convinced that i have resolved the issues with the hardware, because things consistently sound the same.

when i paste source material into these projects, it does not null with itself. that is, if the project has x.wav in it and i paste x.wav into it and phase reverse it, it does not null on playback. if i then save the file and re-open it, it nulls.

if i render these files, they do not null with the renders i have saved from weeks ago. that in itself does not determine which render is "clean" and which is distorted by malfunctioning hardware.

if i export each individual file from these projects and then recreate them in new projects, the renders will initially null with original renders from weeks ago. however, if i then save the projects and render again, they now null with the renders from the original saved projects. all subsequent renders null with each other.

this exposes a more fundamental problem: projects are refusing to null with themselves after i save them.

i am certain that the renders from weeks ago were at least partially rendered from saved files.

what that means is that i am consistently rendering precisely two versions of each of these tracks - one before i save and one after.

testing up to now has indicated that the built-in equalizer in cubase may be malfunctioning when it interacts with the vst architecture. it is doing this in predictable but unfathomable ways - it seems to alter certain equalization decisions that it seems to not like.

i'm going to eat. then i'm going to do some mild testing. i think i should run a ram test. but i expect to go through another reinstall by the end of the night, but only install the precise, specific software that i need to run these projects.

while i've repeatedly seemed to isolate the problem, what i've actually done is systemically rule virtually everything out. i'm seemingly left with an error in the program. but, it is very strange that it worked for many years and stopped working all of a sudden, even on multiple reinstalls.

ants update

jessica
hi.

there's a few that have snuck in, but it's just a handful. the pesticides seem to have stopped their movement, but it does indicate that there's still a way in...

...but i noticed a large swarm of them out on the sidewalk today. i haven't seen that in a while. i think it indicates that they're moving the other way.

thinking back, there was some sewer construction right outside the place a few weeks ago, and that might have spooked them into moving in this direction. now that the construction is gone, perhaps they went back whence they came.

there's not an immediate problem. i'm not requesting action. but i think you should be aware that they are still able to get in through the holes that they burrowed, and that that might become a problem in the future.

the landlord
Thanks for the info     we will keep on top of this with your help.

ok. it could conceivably be that i'm crossing some kind of cut-off, and getting truncated. but, the card is obviously able to produce it, so it shouldn't be truncating. so, how do i turn that off?

might i happen to have randomly stumbled upon some kind of a block in cubase? ugh. i'll try another file...

wow.

i'm really not understanding what is happening.

i didn't believe what i saw at first, but i just repeated it and it is clear enough.

1) no eq--->plugin nulls before & after save.
2) random eq---->plugin nulls before & after save.
3) specific eq--->plugin does not null after save.
4) when i open the file a third time, it nulls with the after save export.

the only thing that has changed between 2 & 3 is the specific eq.

i could accept a little bit of bleed from random reverb (although none is turned on) if four were not true. but, as it is, i cannot make sense of this.

i'm going to try a different song and see what the result is. i'm really absolutely flabbergasted by that last test.

it seems to suggest that cubase is changing the specific eq on save. but just that specific one. not other ones.

i'm completely disconnected from all networks...

nope. and it's just getting weirder.

when i was testing the plugins, i didn't bother setting the eq on the tracks - what difference would that make? i was testing the plugins. but i decided that if i'm going to test all the plugins, i should set the file up in a permanent state...

instantly broke.

in order to do that, i had to copy a single file over that had my eq presets in it.

so, i deleted the user file again and tried with random, factory presets. this time it nulled.

so, i went into the xml file and manually copied the presets over. broken.

running a compare of the files in notepad++ indicates that the only real difference is the numbers. this seems to be screwing something up.

i'm going to try again, by constructing the eq presets by hand rather than copying them over and see what happens.

once again, i'm proving that anything that could possibly be broken is broken.

i'm pretty sure i'll fix the problem before i have to decompile the program, but damn...

finally. it's nice to see it null. i haven't pinpointed the exact problem, but it's some kind of plugin error.

deleting all of the user folder (including all my presets...) and removing all of the plugins (except the two i'm using in the project) created a flat null. so, now i need to slowly bring the plugins in until it breaks.

i have a large amount of plugins loading that i really don't use. hopefully, it's one of those.

i'll just want to do one more reinstall after i isolate it, and then i'm hopefully back in business. 24 hours tops, i'm thinking.

what an absolute total break, though. wow.

i'll have to take a step back and look at a few things when i figure out what the error is. i'm 98% sure that all of the files from the first install were rendered after at least one close/re-open, so the plugin would have almost certainly have to have been disabled at that point. this could almost certainly not have been an issue until i reinstalled. at the end of this, new renders should null with old files. but, i think i need to test it to be sure.

i do vaguely recall disabling plugins at some time in the past, but i don't recall when or what. the error seems to be in the database, rather than the dll (because this didn't work until i deleted the user files), so i'll have to go in and manually wipe that out, too. it's the vst plugin xml file, specifically.

i fell asleep there....

it's clear that the process of opening the plugin at start-up is creating a different output than the process of adding a plugin in real-time. i'm back to the initial question: which one is corrupt?

this is harder to figure out because i don't have a baseline.

i'll have to test to see what happens upon opening, removing and replacing. if that nulls with the original files then it is definitely a difference at start-up. if it doesn't, it suggests something in the project file.

i'm also going to post to some forums, as i now have a specific question.

it's truly bizarre.

this might seem embarrassingly simple, but i need to point out that it isn't intuitive. i'm hearing several tracks go out at the same time. and the testing seemed to indicate the opposite.

but, it's the plugins. not one of the them. all of them.

if i turn all the plugins off, the file will null on an indefinite number of repeats over an indefinite number of saves. if i turn even one plugin on, the files will null predictably - until i save the file, close and reopen. then any files from that point on will null indefinitely.

it also seems the project has two states and it defaults on open. of course, that can't be right.

same behaviour on reinstall, with no script.

stumped.

obviously, fixing this is an absolute necessity. otherwise, the output is distorted.

it has to be in the software. something i'll have to test for is whether a plugin might be interfering.

that kind of makes sense. if it's already loaded on construction, it might not interfere until it reloads.