Riffworks- need desperate help!!!!!!!! :(

[Jarvio]

purchased riffworks version 1 a few months back... and I have had problem after problem after problem after problem, and now it's driving me crazy.

I need help with this, and I am absolutely desperate.

The problems with riffworks are very serious, and they're preventing me from recording music!

First of all, I have made many songs on it (it was tough though, being patient with the errors, and I was lucky to get them done). So therefore, I do not want to lose these files.

But here are the problems I am getting.

The main one is 'runtime error'. This occurs every now and then, when so much is added to a song file. For example, I am half way through making a song. Then I add some more, and suddenly, 'runtime error' comes up, and wont let me add anymore, then shuts the whole programme down, which makes me lose what I haven't saved. Exact same thing happens when I try again on the same file. Therefore, it will only let me do so much before runtime error doesn't let me do any more. I have many unfinished song files, and they arre unfinished because runtime error will not let me continue with them!

Also, on some of my song files, I cannot open them anymore, because when they load, they come up with 'file format invalid', followed by 'runtime error', then close the programme, so I cannot even listen to some of them anymore either! Sometimes, 'file format invalid' doesn't show up, but runtime error does. So no matter what, I cannot get certain files to open anymore.

The software is also extremely slow. Maybe this is normal, but it is so slow it seems unbelievable. Also, sometimes, when I go to open the next song file, it just says 'opening song', but freezes on that forever, so I then have to switch my pc off and turn it back on again.

I desperately need help with this. This runtime error will not let me continue with my songs and it's driving me absolutely mad. What can I do? Is it because it's not the latest version of riffworks? Will that have something to do with it? I do not want to lose my songs I have made, as I want to continue making them.

Because of this software, making music now seems like a chore, rather than a pleasure. I find myself rushing my songs, in fear of the runtime error coming up and closing everything!!!! This is not good, I need desperate help..

[alphamate]

I hear you on almost everything youve talked about here. It licks I know..

The seemingly random runtime shutdowns are more than annoying, theyve wasted a few of my songs already. For that, all I can say is save everytime you make a change to the song.

I get the this file format invalid error when loading old songs too. Ive mentioned it a couple times already, so the more people willing to speak up about the proBLEMS, THE BETTER. I hate it when people tag a thread and try to make a sh.itty problem postive by suppressing it and just stating the opposite anyway, Im sure theyll take a look at this. THe REX loading problem is a huge one too, Dont forget about it D's Personally, I havent been able to access any of my songs I did before RW2... Tell me, if you arent going to provide complete backward compatibility? then what bleep good is it? I know you guys are still ironing out all the bugs... I think most of us are being pretty pretty patient.

Jarvio, For this runtime you are getting on your song. Try this... Back up your songfiles, uninstall Riffworks... ashutdown the computer, reinstall riffworks..

This reduced the runtimes greatly, and allowed me to complete a song that was before impossible.

If Riffworks is that slow, I reccomend getting a faster computer... maybe in the 2 gHz range... and faster ram... with all its problems and annoyances, I have to admit Riffworks is quite fast on my machine, an amd 64..


alpha*mate

[Jarvio]

Thanks for your advice. I thought about backing up my song files and re-installing riffoworks.... so, if I did this, where must I save the back-ups? And are you sure the files wont be deleted forever?

[alphamate]

Thanks for your advice. I thought about backing up my song files and re-installing riffoworks.... so, if I did this, where must I save the back-ups? And are you sure the files wont be deleted forever?

they might be,, thats why you need to make copies of them before you go through with the uninstall. Just make a copy of all the files and put them in a seperate folder named "Jarvios songs"

[Jarvio]

Ok, I think I might try this... If I dare.... I have been thinking about it sometime, and others have also told me to.... I just hope the files can be retrieved after the re-installation though

[Timejunkie]

Sorry to here you are having problems.

How much RAM are you running? 1 gig should be the minimum.

Are you running XP....if so you should optimize it to run audio. Try this site for some great tips www.musicxp.net

I recorded all of my songs in RW1.1 and mixed them in RW2 and the only thing I had to do was add the drum tracks again.

In fact all the settings (variation, intensity etc...) for the drums carried over from RW1.1, I just had to select the drummer again. Maybe I was just lucky....

Cheers,
Chip

[Timejunkie]

I found that if I worked through each one, it really was pretty easy. Most of the changes were not hard to do even for a techy challenged guy like me! LOL

I also found my system actually ran better without all of the XP graphics running all of the time.

The biggest improvment though was the addition of RAM. I am running 1 gig and RW works very well with that until I get to 24 layers in a riff...them my system start to bog a little.

If there is something you are not comfortable changing just don't change it or Google it to get more info before you do....it worked for me!

Let me know if I can be of help....

Cheers,
Chip

[scott]

Mark,

I've worked in local government I.T. before but wouldn't class myself as 'techie'. However, be careful with what you do with some of the tools and files that are available. An application like PowerToys for example can, for the uninitiated, do some 'damage' that takes someone with a bit of knowhow to fix.
There are undoubtedly things that can be done to make a computer make more efficient use of its resources, but we're talking about 'Windows' here - a renowned and resource hungry OS. To make MAJOR differences in speed, it's the resources you need to increase e.g. RAM, CPU etc. Tweaking the OS using third party apps will give minimal improvements.

I have to agree with Chip on the point that, if you're at all unsure about making changes, don't do it! You may end up spending longer undoing things.

[Beamoflight]

Tuning tips? tweeking sites? Man some of you guys should really be getting paid for this... Its a sorry thing if your not. you turned this guys complaints into a straw man, ignored his problems, and now debating about whether or not you should tweek your computer.

Chip its a beautiful thing that mixing old songs has been as easy as ABC or 123
My concern is that this isnt the place to be voicing it. These other guys are finding bugs in Riffworks that prevents them opening old work files, so maybe here isnt the place to brag about your great successes and toss some TweekyourXP site at us.

We need people who are able to understand and accept what is going on so we can make it better. thanks.

Jarvio... I am having similar difficulties to you and alphamate, and then some..
The D's have got figure this out at some point so the more people people will testify to having trouble --the better for all.

[dave]

Jarvio and others seeing these problems,

Could I get you guys to post your system specs? It sounds like it might be a lack of resources problem (most likely RAM). Low amounts of available memory will certainly cause RiffWorks to run slow and it is conceivable in certain circumstances that it could cause a crash that we haven't seen here. 512MB is an absolute minimum to run RiffWorks. If you want to have larger songs, more effects, etc, you really need 1GB of RAM. I think Doug, Dan, and I all run between 1GB and 2GB of RAM.

Dave

[dave]

As far as the tweaking site goes, the first couple make sense. I believe the ASIO subsystem runs as a Windows Service so ASIO might get better time slices if you change the Processor Scheduling Preference. The biggest one I run into since I work on laptops is reducing the speed of the CPU to preserve battery. Definitely turn that off if you work on a laptop.

Dave

[pbbobkanobi]

If the problem is memeory check out www.crucial.com and run the system scan to see what memeory you can get for your computer. I have used them for a few purchases and have always been happy with the service.

[ShredRex]

I won't even bother flaming here, although tempted........LOL

[Beamoflight]

dave,

riffworks standard does not..

open old songfiles correctly or at all (songs first created on version 1 or 1.1)
(sometimes gives a messages "file format invalid" ...other times just gives an runtime error)

the odd songs it does open up have other problems... The REX file system isnt working... It fails to load them at all. In fact, it asks for a file that is present but doesnt recognize it. To top it off changing the rex files to another doesnt work either..

Basically since there is no way to redirect the rex or load new ones, the idea for loading old songs is a good one, but in reality it's non-functioning. I do hope you fix problem quickly.



ram isnt an issue here. (for me anyway) Unless getting bigger ones is a problem.

[dave]

Beamoflight,

That info really helps. We'll see if we can reproduce it here. Is there anything about your installation that would be non-standard? (different installation location, no C drive, limited use account, etc)

Dave