New Ardour user on Windows here. I donated a paltry sum to get an installer version which I could test and see if it is suitable for my use. Running Windows 10 on a M-5Y10C with 4GB RAM.
Imported a signed 16-bit PCM 8KHz WAV file as a single track into a compatible project, linked from the system’s 256GB SSD. Tried other files and an SD RAM disk. Cannot play anything back at all, even a 2 sec. range/selection. Getting msg:
“The disk system on your computer was not able to keep up with Ardour. Specifically, it failed to read data from disk quickly enough to keep up with playback.”
Any suggestions? I’ve been through the session properties and system settings. The Buffer readings above the meter bridge say 100%. This system should be more than up to this chore.
The message is very specific and tries to be as clear as we can make it. I know that it seems utterly ridiculous that we would be claiming that the disk i/o wasn’t fast enough (especially from an SSD), but that is actually what Ardour is seeing when it attempts to keep the data flow going. Note that CPU speed and memory size have nothing at all to do with this - it is purely an issue with the seepd with which Ardour can suck data from the filesystem. This is certainly an error that can legitimately occur with large numbers of tracks, but large in this context is on the order of 100 (people have managed more than 1000 tracks with Ardour from a single disk).
This falls into the category of system-specific errors which for Windows we can’t really offer any support for (i.e. problems that are restricted to specific machines/installations). It is possible that someone else might have some insight, but I wouldn’t say that was likely.
Use the same settings I use, 1/1GiB , hit “All” and wait for it to finish. The tool will look like its not doing anything, but then the results show eventually. Mine took about 2 minutes to complete.
If your results are far worse than mine, then reboot in safe mode (Shift->Restart), and re-run the tool. Ardour won’t run in safe mode as the audio drivers won’t load, so no use in trying.
I also have Bitlocker enabled on my system, so my speeds are still not as fast as they could be but still plenty fast. But, no issues like you are having.
