Memory warning and crash

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supanorton
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Memory warning and crash

Post by supanorton » Fri Jul 20, 2012 6:38 pm

I pasted ten tracks of audio from another app, froze four tracks using plugins, had five with effects bypassed, leaving one track for plugins. The memory meter says I'm 800+ mbs. I get the warning for "high memory use, close plugins," when working on just the one track; additionally, I'm still at 800+ memory in the meter with no plugins and channel strip bypassed. This makes it impossible to work on the song any further. Any ideas?

I'm running 64 gig iPad 2, iOS 5.1.1, no apps running in the background.

Rim
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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by Rim » Fri Jul 20, 2012 6:50 pm

Are you sure all your apps are closed in the background? The reason I ask is because it's a common perception that if you reboot your iPad, your background apps all close, but this is not the case. Here's how to check if anything else is running:

1. Double-click on the home button
2. If you see anything in the list (including things like Settings, Mail, Safari, AppStore, etc., tap and hold on it until you see the X
3. Press the X on every app you see in the list.


Once you're sure all the apps are closed, take a look at the memory meter in Auria. You mentioned it was at 800MB. That's not the memory meter you're looking at if that's the case, because even the iPad3 doesn't go that high. You're probably looking at the disk space meter, which is different.

If you're greater than 40-50MB, you should be OK for most projects. If it still shows less than that, even with all the background apps closed, I recommend rebooting the iPad. Sometimes iPads don't release all the memory for some reason. Often that helps.


Rim

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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by supanorton » Fri Jul 20, 2012 11:23 pm

I wrote the last post when I was away from my iPad. The memory meter says 208 (not 800, sorry) with all 10 tracks frozen. There's nothing running in the background, and I rebooted the iPad several times. The meter was about this level with tracks unfrozen as well. Ideas?

Rim
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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by Rim » Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:07 am

This shouldn't be happening with a fresh run of Auria (after a reboot of your iPad). If your memory meter says 208MB, and you're getting memory warning messages, something else is going on (maybe a bug?). Can you tell me exactly the steps you do to get this warning? If I can duplicate this here, I can try to determine the problem.

One thing I just wanted to be sure of - you say you pasted 10 tracks from another app. This means another app was involved at some point in the background. It's possible that Auria and that other app can't exist together, memory-wise. Your memory meter may say 208MB once that other app is killed, but maybe during your audio copy (when both apps are in the background), it's too much. Just guessing...

Thanks,
Rim

supanorton
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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by supanorton » Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:20 am

It's really strange. After leaving the iPad off over night, and rebooting this morning, I loaded "The Approach", and it came up at 178 mb on the memory meter. This number didn't change when I froze all the tracks.

I then loaded the 10 track project from my original post, and it read 131 (not 208). I bypassed all channel strips and removed all plugins, and the memory remained at 131.

Back to "The Approach", memory reads 116.

I created a new project with no tracks selected, and that reads 149. Created a second new project, 149 too. I then deleted both.

I returned to my original 10 track project, which then read129), added channel strip presets, and the same plugins I was using before (classic verb, microwarmer, retune, all mono), had it all running, and the memory now fluctuates between 127 and 129. It didn't get anywhere near the original 200+ plus, and I didn't get any warnings. Those memory readings are still high, right? Maybe a bug with the memory meter? I can't duplicate what happened yesterday.

I copied all my audio from MultiTrack DAW to the general pasteboard.

I have 8 mixdowns in the local folder along with my projects.

Rim
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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by Rim » Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:44 am

Since iOS handles memory, and gives absolutely no control over memory management to developers, the memory meter is definitely not an accurate gauge of memory ;) It's purpose is to give a rough idea of the amount of memory left. For example, if you remove a plugin that took a lot of memory, sometimes iOS won't release that memory for a while. Also, it's possible to go below 0 on the memory meter, because iOS will grab memory from other background apps. For example, the memory could read 20MB, and you can load a large gog file in Drumagog that takes 50MB. The memory meter might even go up! It's really only a rough indicator, and iOS does it's magic behind the scenes to manage the memory.

But as a rule, if you're working with a large project, it's a good idea to kill all background apps beforehand, and even reboot the iPad if it's still not giving you enough.

Rim

supanorton
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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by supanorton » Sat Jul 21, 2012 1:37 pm

Experienced another memory use warning and to close some plugins. Before I had time to open a channel strip with plugins engaged, the app crashed. I was mixing, and the memory meter was going lower and lower this time. I got the warning and then the crash with the memory fluctuating between 4 and 5. Weird.

I opened it again, worked on my mix for about a half hour or so with the memory meter at about 220 with no warnings or crashes. I just opened the project again, and it reads 167.

Just letting you know.

Do make an appointment with a genius to find out if I have a memory issue?

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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by Rim » Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:38 pm

No, a genius won't help. There's nothing wrong with your iPad. It's just a matter of being very careful with memory management, You iPad will kill Auria automatically if it feels that it's taking too much memory, so that's probably the reason for the crash (it wasn't a crash in this case, but a force close). Sometimes iOS provides a warning that it's going to close the app, but sometimes it just closes it... Were any other apps running in the background at the time?

iPad 3 has the most amount of memory (1GB), so it's a lot less likely to experience memory issues. iPad 1 is the most likely, as it has the least amount of RAM.

Rim

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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by supanorton » Sat Jul 21, 2012 4:12 pm

OK. No apps running in background. I'm only using 10 tracks, with all but one frozen. I'm using a few plugins, but not on all tracks. I get the same memory reading before and after freezing the apps. This is the case with the demo song as well. I'm willing to be careful, but I don't see a way to be more careful than I've been. I'll try recording some tracks directly to Auria to see if the pasting is part of the problem. Thanks for everything.

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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by Rim » Sat Jul 21, 2012 4:55 pm

OK, thanks. My suggestion is a more general one, and it's certainly possible that something else is going on in your particular case. Do you think that the freezing process itself might be causing this?

Thanks,
Rim

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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by supanorton » Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:28 pm

I'll have to pay closer attention to what's happening. I'll let you know. Thanks again for the support.

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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by supanorton » Sat Jul 21, 2012 8:09 pm

After doing a mixdown, the memory meter dropped from 205, give or take, to 54. The undo option disappeared after mixdown. Could a large collection of possible undos take up a lot of memory? If so, is there a way to clear them without doing a mixdown?

Rim
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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by Rim » Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:14 pm

Undos don't take much memory (certainly not megabytes worth). There might be a memory leak in the mixdown. I'll investigate and see what I find.

Thanks,
RIm

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Re: Memory warning and crash

Post by supanorton » Mon Jul 23, 2012 9:53 am

Just a thought: I read in another thread that someone thought the MicroWarmer might be causing high memory use on iPad 2. I had the MicroWarmer going on at least 2 tracks of my ten. The memory meter never changed, even with all tracks frozen other than the one on which I was working. Could the MicroWarmer somehow avoid the track freeze?

The two rough mixes I've done so far are so much warmer, defined, and dynamic than anything else I've done on iOS. Thanks!

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