WAV encoding randomly dropping 60-90 seconds of audio

[Eric Seaberg]

We produce an international radio program and have been using dBpoweramp exclusively for our encodes. We've recently been having issues where 60-90 seconds of audio is randomly dropped around 15-minutes into the program. All we're doing is converting 48K/24bit files to 48K/16-bit using dither in DSP effects. We are now having to confirm every transcoded file before going on to the next encode. Would it help to export any logs or configuration files? This is VERY RANDOM!

[Spoon]

What are you encoding from?

[Eric Seaberg]

Sorry it took me so long to get back... I'm transcoding from 48K/24bit WAV, using dithering DSP, and saving as 48K/16bit WAV. The error is totally random but most always mutes a window ending at 16:00 minutes into the program with a start point of 60-90 seconds prior. I may do this transcode on as many as 50+ files at a time, but the ones with the problem come from a specific folder.

We've been doing this process for many years and just recently started having the problem. Once the 16bit version is done, we run a script that does level check and automatic drop of 6dB overall (for peaks) then converts to MP2 with name change and cue-chunk, all based on meta data within the original WAV file. MP2s are then submitted for broadcast and/or satellite distribution.

At this point, I'm doing a manual check of each file in the process... sometimes there's one or two, and other times none. Very odd.

Anything I can look at? Encoding in the first stage is done on a Mac Studio M2 Ultra 64GB RAM running Sequoia 15.5. Stage two conversion to MP2 with metadata is done Windows Virtual, but when we see the error it comes from the first stage Mac encode.

[Spoon]

It is possible it is hardware at fault, if it was a coding issue then the issue would be:

wide spread, and reported many times in this forum
repeatable

[Eric Seaberg]

I certainly assumed that, and have suspected issues with our Virtual Servers. I'll circle back with our IT guys to see what they think. They had been talking of building new devices anyway... thanks for the reply.