Perpetual "Loading previous buffer contents. Please wait..." No sound. Windows 10

[BespectacledSynthesis]

I've looked at similar issues but I think this one might be unique. (#830 ,#702, #711)
Downloaded and ran Sonic Pi v2.8.0 for Windows from the main page.

Upon first launch the following error was thrown:

Detailed Error Report:

GUI log

[GUI] - shutting down any old audio servers...
[GUI] - using default editor colours
[GUI] - booting live coding server
[GUI] - starting UDP OSC Server on port 4558...
[GUI] - UDP OSC Server ready and listening
[GUI] - waiting for server to connect...
[GUI] - critical error!

Server Errors

Could not load did_you_mean

Server Output

Device options:

• MME : Microsoft Sound Mapper - Input (device #0 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• MME : Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio (device play_pads not stopping #1 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• MME : Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output (device Thread sync/drift #2 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• MME : Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio H (device Note lengths vs BPM #3 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Primary Sound Capture Driver (device Auto stop after about 4 minutes #4 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio HD) (device Removes binaries from source tree. #5 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Primary Sound Driver (device Use $HOME rather than /home/pi #6 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD) (device Add facility to select sound output #7 with 0 ins 2 outs)

Booting with:
In: MME : Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio
Out: MME : Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio H
SC_PortAudioDriver: PortAudio failed at Pa_OpenStream with error: 'Unanticipated host error'
could not initialize audio.

---

Every time I've tried to run after the first no error is thrown but all buffers include the "# Loading previous buffer contents. Please wait..." comment and there is nothing in the log panel.

I've checked the user directory with .sonic-pi/log and looked at the files after several launch attempts and these logs are there:

GUI log

[GUI] - shutting down any old audio servers...
[GUI] - using default editor colours
[GUI] - booting live coding server
[GUI] - starting UDP OSC Server on port 4558...
[GUI] - UDP OSC Server ready and listening
[GUI] - waiting for server to connect...
[GUI] - server failed to start with this error message:
> Server Exception:
No such process
[GUI] - asking server process to exit...
[GUI] - exiting. Cheerio :-)

Server Errors

Could not load did_you_mean
Failed to start server: No such process
C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/scsynthexternal.rb:188:in kill' C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/scsynthexternal.rb:188:inrescue in boot_and_wait'
C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/scsynthexternal.rb:193:in boot_and_wait' C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/scsynthexternal.rb:210:inboot_server_windows'
C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/scsynthexternal.rb:114:in boot' C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/scsynthexternal.rb:48:ininitialize'
C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/server.rb:73:in new' C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/server.rb:73:ininitialize'
C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/studio.rb:28:in new' C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/studio.rb:28:ininitialize'
C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/lang/sound.rb:107:in new' C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/server/sonicpi/lib/sonicpi/lang/sound.rb:107:inblock (2 levels) in included'
C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/gui/qt/release/../../../../app/server/bin/sonic-pi-server.rb:119:in new' C:/Program Files (x86)/Sonic Pi/app/gui/qt/release/../../../../app/server/bin/sonic-pi-server.rb:119:in

'

Server Output

Device options:

• MME : Microsoft Sound Mapper - Input (device #0 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• MME : Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio (device play_pads not stopping #1 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• MME : Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output (device Thread sync/drift #2 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• MME : Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio H (device Note lengths vs BPM #3 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Primary Sound Capture Driver (device Auto stop after about 4 minutes #4 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio HD) (device Removes binaries from source tree. #5 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Primary Sound Driver (device Use $HOME rather than /home/pi #6 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD) (device Add facility to select sound output #7 with 0 ins 2 outs)

Booting with:
In: MME : Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio
Out: MME : Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio H
SC_PortAudioDriver: PortAudio failed at Pa_OpenStream with error: 'Unanticipated host error'
could not initialize audio.
Using protocol: udp

---

This mostly looks similar to issue #702 but there is no evidence of a 'zombie' instance of scsynth in the task manager.

I'm looking to get into live coding and would really like to start here, seems to be a good community and well supported project. Any guidance would be much appreciated!

[samaaron]

Hi there, sorry you're having issues. Getting sonic pi to run reliably on all versions of Windows is turning out to be very tricky!

Could you see if you can install, boot and make a sound with vanilla supercollider? If you can't then that is the issue...

[BespectacledSynthesis]

I got supercollider installed and initially it did not boot a server. However, after restarting my computer sc now works.

Sonic Pi threw the following error on the first launch after sc was fixed, but now SP seems to work normally.

---

Detailed Error Report:

GUI log

[GUI] - shutting down any old audio servers...
[GUI] - using default editor colours
[GUI] - starting UDP OSC Server on port 4558...
[GUI] - booting live coding server
[GUI] - UDP OSC Server ready and listening
[GUI] - waiting for server to connect...
[GUI] - critical error!

Server Errors

Could not load did_you_mean

Server Output

Device options:

• MME : Microsoft Sound Mapper - Input (device #0 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• MME : Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio (device play_pads not stopping #1 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• MME : Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output (device Thread sync/drift #2 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• MME : Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio H (device Note lengths vs BPM #3 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Primary Sound Capture Driver (device Auto stop after about 4 minutes #4 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio HD) (device Removes binaries from source tree. #5 with 2 ins 0 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Primary Sound Driver (device Use $HOME rather than /home/pi #6 with 0 ins 2 outs)
• Windows DirectSound : Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD) (device Add facility to select sound output #7 with 0 ins 2 outs)

Booting with:
In: MME : Microphone (Conexant SmartAudio
Out: MME : Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio H
Sample rate: 44100.000
Latency (in/out): 0.013 / 0.091 sec
SC_AudioDriver: sample rate = 44100.000000, driver's block size = 64
SuperCollider 3 server ready.

[BespectacledSynthesis]

Thanks for the help!

[samaaron]

So have things magically fixed themselves for you??

[BespectacledSynthesis]

It would seem so, everything has continued to work thus far.

[hopbit]

@BespectacledSynthesis which version of standalone SuperCollider You've installed on your computer? Could You add more info about Your setup (which Windows, 32/64 bit, processor, ram, etc.)?

[BespectacledSynthesis]

I'm running:
-Windows 10 Home
-8 GB RAM
-64-bit OS
-Intel Core i7-4700MQ CPU

I installed SuperCollider 3.6.6.

[xavriley]

It looks like this is resolved now - probably related to the intermittent timeout issues we had in v2.8

Thanks for reporting the issue though.