Show out of sync on Windows

The issues found when using the Show Manager panel
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cridgwell
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2017 2:28 am
Real Name: craig

Hi
I've been loving QLC's show function and have programmed a bunch of them synced with Audio on a Mac with no issues.
However as soon as I run those shows on a windows computer the audio drifts out of sync all the time. Its never a consistent lag, it seems to be all over the place.

I'm using the same Enttex Network ODE with both computers, and running QSC 4.11.0 on both machines.
The problem computers have been a Surface Pro 3 on Windows 10, and a Surface Pro on Windows 10.

Any ideas?
thanks
kenact
Posts: 370
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2015 6:43 am
Real Name: Ken Coughlin

Can you share your workspace and an audio file?
TikiRoomSchmidt
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:25 pm
Real Name: Ben Lancaster

I logged in to say that I'm having exactly the same issue.

The audio is drifting out of sync with the lights. When I play specific moments the timeline is dead on, but playing the whole show, it goes out of sync by up to about 1/2 a second.

I'm attaching my show to see if someone can have a look. The music files are unfortunately too large to attach.
Attachments
Full Light Show.qxw
(193.1 KiB) Downloaded 290 times
wizarddd
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue May 22, 2018 6:10 pm
Real Name: xxxxx

TikiRoomSchmidt wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:45 pm I logged in to say that I'm having exactly the same issue.

The audio is drifting out of sync with the lights. When I play specific moments the timeline is dead on, but playing the whole show, it goes out of sync by up to about 1/2 a second.

I'm attaching my show to see if someone can have a look. The music files are unfortunately too large to attach.
I have the same problem with win Xp. Every 10 sec delay 4
CoS2000
Posts: 99
Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2017 1:00 pm
Real Name:

Yeah Windows is not the best OS for timing things...

But the show mode can work in windows perfect, when you use the right adapter to send DMX over USB. I have the best experience with "DMX USB Pro" from Enttec! This hardware fullfill all "standards" and works with own good chipset and processor to send the DMX Signal.

Before i used "DMX USB Pro" i used "Eurolight USB-DMX", which was simlpy a cable converter, without own Processor. In this case Windows has all the "DMX Work". This needs ram and the whole dmx timing depends on windows. With this i hat no sync-problems, but small consistent lags in shows (the light comes later then the sound).

You should check following things:

1: what USB DMX device you use?
2: how many ram is free (end all unnecessary programs in background, to free ram)
3: what processor you use?
4: Have you enough processor-power free?
5: end all unnecessary windows services while playing a show

In your case surface 3 and surface pro had enough power. I dont tested Enttec Network ODE. Do you use wlan?

greetz
markzvo
Posts: 68
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 1:52 am
Real Name: Mark Z

We experience this all the time. What I think is happening is that the audio "engine" isn't started when you play a show.

What we do is a quick "start, stop, start" operation ... which seems to start the audio engine (out of sync), stop the timeline, and start it again in sync.

But be careful, if you start,stop,start too quickly, the audio engine is stuck, and you'll have no choice but to let the sound file play to its end or force quit QLC+.

In general, to play a show from start to finish in sync... do the following very quickly (2 seconds), but not too quickly... it's an artistic delicate balance

Start the show: Click Play
Immediately Stop it: Click Stop
Return to the beginning of the show: Click Stop again
...WAIT for your lighting to turn off...
Click Play again to start the show, you should be in sync


When we program, we have a saying... "trust the waveform" ... meaning, time your functions to the waveform that is drawn.

I am guessing that if you have a sound file with no sound, you could play that in Operate mode to keep the audio engine "alive" and then switch to your show in a solo panel, although I have not tested this.
mrburnyc
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2020 4:57 am
Real Name: Bernie Cervantes

In the inputs/outputs tab -> audio -> configuration I checked the sample rate to 8000 hz and left the channels in stereo. The playback is perfect . However, the audio will be worse.
thestreets
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2021 8:19 pm
Real Name: Rockband The Streets

mrburnyc wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2020 5:00 am In the inputs/outputs tab -> audio -> configuration I checked the sample rate to 8000 hz and left the channels in stereo. The playback is perfect . However, the audio will be worse.
Great - this was a solution for me (for now).
After a Windows 10 update, same issues. And believe me, when you have programmed Master of Puppets with 208bpm, it is no fun at all when it is out of sync. I will try to get my Windows as "realtime as possible" just to make sure we don't run into problems when we have our 90 minute live show (includes around 18 QLC shows).
We are using the sound only for programming, not for backing/music. We use a Roland SPD-SX running the backing and click with triggers via midi to start a show :ugeek:

This is bytheway to get the high priority for any programm in Windows:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 8c50bb3df9
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