welcome,

My quick prognoses says this sounds like a buffer issue but until further help from my colleague look through these links. https://recording.org/tags/dropout/

About a year ago, our colleague Marco (pcrecord ) posted a great video on optimizing windows for audio production. You could do a search of the forum using his RO screen name for that thread, or if he sees my tag for him he might be able to give you the link.
You might be able to find it yourself on YT by doing a search of that title. It was a step by step instructional and involved steps I'd never thought of before but that really did help.
Chris (audiokid) could be right regarding your buffer settings. What are your current settings? Also, with the Tascam 1641 you may want to check for firmware updates, not just software.
And...If you have any other audio drivers active on your system ( built in sound card or left over drivers from a previous audio i/o, ) you should go to your control panel and disable everything but the Tascam, making sure it's your default audio device.

DonnyThompson, post: 450919, member: 46114 wrote: About a year ago, our colleague Marco (pcrecord ) posted a great video on optimizing windows for audio production. You could do a search of the forum using his RO screen name for that thread, or if he sees my tag for him he might be able to give you the link.

Good tip, Donny.

This is good example for me to encourage members to use, add to the "media" section. Media makes it super easy to find and link to members video's (youtube direct links) . To find something Marco did, click onto the member profile, see Media and it directs to their videos. Marco has one and he could add more. https://recording.org/media/users/pcrecord.46460/

Note, all media is searchable via our search engine with an added image beside "media". Google likes linking to media so that is another way to help build members personal presence using RO's structure.

You said that several months ago, this wasn't happening. So... we need to figure out what potentially occurred between then and now that caused these issues to start...
Some other thoughts that came to mind...
1. What are your current Playback Buffers set at?
2. Is this issue happening with all your project files when loaded into your DAW or just one project in particular? Is this problem occurring only when you load a particular plug in? Start by disabling all plugs, then one by one, enable them to see if one plug in particular starts this issue occurring...
3. Do you have any anti virus software running?
4. Have you tried using another USB port ?
5. Have you tried using another USB cable?
6. Do you have your windows background tasks
Set for minimum CPU (priority) usage?
7. Did you install any software, either legitimate or from a peer to peer site? Any "share/freeware"?
8. Have you had a recent automatic Windows update happen that could point to the timeframe of these problems occurring?
9. Have you visited Tascam's site and checked for possible firmware updates for the 1641?
10. Have you checked Control Panel and made sure that the tascam is the only audio device enabled, and set as your systems default audio device?
More complex but possible ...
11. Have you uninstalled and reinstalled your audio (Tascam) drivers?
12. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling your DAW platform/program?
These questions and sugggestions aren't really in any particular order, I just wrote them down as they came to me, I was kinda thinkin' out loud. But I think these are good places to start.
Let us know what you find out and we'll see if we can help you nail this down. By the specs on your PC, I'd really tend to not blame your CPU or your RAM. It seems like you are loaded for bear - truthfully I've done some pretty dense projects using a lot less power under the hood than you have. ;)

-d.

Hey thanks for replying,

I'll have a look for the pc optimisation video and work through it soon as well as the points above, but quick response/things already tried that haven't worked-

1. Which ones are the playback buffer settings again? I have latency set to lowest for audio interface, though not sure on specific settings
2. Applies to all projects for a variety of plugins that used to work fine, though will test soon without any plugins to see if problem is still there
3. Have avast antivirus, tried disabling it
4. have tried different usb ports for interface as well as network adapter (latencymon highlighted usb port 1.0 & 2.0 driver as causing problems, wasn't sure how to proceed with this but will have another look at)
5. haven't tried another usb cable yet, was trying to hold off on spending money first! will consider this though
6. I think I've already done this, will check again though
7. I guess there's a few things accumulated now i.e. ccleaner, discord, steam, origin, etc. that kind of thing?
8. My first thought is it was probably a windows update, though timeframe-wise it's hard to be sure, and tried uninstalling one that I thought was around about the time but no luck, will have another look at these though
9. Last firmware update was 2009 I think and all updated
10. Tried disabling all other audio devices with no luck, but will look into this again, also 'realtek' seems to be everywhere and not sure what it's for/if it's necessary in any way, so will look into this too
11. Tried this and no luck
12. Haven't tried this yet, but will do if the other things don't pan out

Will go back through the things that need a closer look tomorrow, but any other ideas from this much appreciated!
Thanks

Herpaderp1, post: 450933, member: 50633 wrote: I have latency set to lowest for audio interface

If you set the buffer on the audio interface too low, your computer may not have time to calculate everything it has to do.
Try setting Lattency/buffer to higher settings, see what it does..
A too high setting will give a delay for real time effects(amp simulators etc...), but in general you can get away with up to 30ms before it gets disturbing to play with. (Some are able to cope with higher settings tho)

pcrecord, post: 450940, member: 46460 wrote: If you set the buffer on the audio interface too low, your computer may not have time to calculate everything it has to do.
Try setting Lattency/buffer to higher settings, see what it does..
A too high setting will give a delay for real time effects(amp simulators etc...), but in general you can get away with up to 30ms before it gets disturbing to play with. (Some are able to cope with higher settings tho)

Cheers, I tried higher latency settings but I still get the audio dropouts, also I was using lowest latency setting for ages before this issue came along, so I think it's something else unfortunately.

Have you tried turning off all plugins being used in the recording - then, assuming the problem stops happening, turning on one instance at a time until it starts to occur again? Time consuming yes, but in the end, if you identify a particular plugin (may be new addition or been updated, or conflicting with something else that's been updated.) you'll know what not to do. I've found that most issues like often come back to a particular plugin.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, I'm skim reading...but....Assuming you're not needing them fot network audio have you tried disabling the Ethernet and wireless devices?

You don't need to uninstall them, just disable them.

I had an issue post windows update such that now if I record on a scan 3XS laptop via a Fireface 802 then I get the occasional lost buffer which presents as lost audio....

Neil Speers, post: 451029, member: 49793 wrote: Have you tried turning off all plugins being used in the recording - then, assuming the problem stops happening, turning on one instance at a time until it starts to occur again? Time consuming yes, but in the end, if you identify a particular plugin (may be new addition or been updated, or conflicting with something else that's been updated.) you'll know what not to do. I've found that most issues like often come back to a particular plugin.

Hi, yep tried turning them all off and still get same issue. I'm now leaning towards thinking it's some kind of W10/C5 compatibility issue, or driver/update/process that wasn't there before now screwing with cubase, but still can't be sure.

Keith Johnson, post: 451031, member: 49792 wrote: Apologies if this has already been mentioned, I'm skim reading...but....Assuming you're not needing them fot network audio have you tried disabling the Ethernet and wireless devices?

You don't need to uninstall them, just disable them.

I had an issue post windows update such that now if I record on a scan 3XS laptop via a Fireface 802 then I get the occasional lost buffer which presents as lost audio....

Heya, yep tried disabling the whole lot, unplugging adapters and main hub, also disabling antivirus, but still get the issue. Did you manage to resolve the laptop/fireface issue, and if so how? Cheers