Setup Info: Ardour 2.02, OS 10.4.9, 2ghz dual G5, Jack 0.101.3 Router 0.8.3,
Problem: When importing existing audio files (wave 16bit) into Ardour, I can only import one file before Ardour crashes attempting to import a second file. On program restart, the imported file may or may not be listed in the Regions. I can then reimport the (crash) file without a problem; save, but when attempting to import a second file it crashes.
This is very frustrating.
I’ve tried to use aiff files with the same result.
It also doesn’t matter whether I embed files or import files. My files exist on an external firewire drive.
Upon further investigation, Ardour tends to crash when creating the .peak file. When embedding/importing multiple existing audio files, Ardour crashes on processing the second file whether imported one at a time or in a multiple selection import.
My inelegant, but effective, workaround is to create the .peak files in advance. (I use a dummy .peak of a 4 sec silence.) Embedding/importing the audio files is no problem after that. In order to get proper waveforms and accurate .peak files, I delete the dummy .peak files and reopen the project which then recreates the .peak files without complaining or crashing.
This workaround is much faster than having Ardour crash every second file and then waiting for it to reopen.
It would be nice not to have to do this to import audio files. I have noticed that Ableton Live and Cubase create their equivalent .peak files after the audio file is associated with the project (similar to my workaround) and not at the same time the audio file is being imported.