Audio, render and export problems

Some of these are the product working

Several of the reports that reach us describe a design decision rather than a fault. Those are worth naming, because "it is not doing anything" and "it is refusing to do something on purpose" look identical from the outside.

RAW: the reverb map is empty

Symptom: you rendered, and the strip under the waveform shows nothing.

Cause: RAW's analysis runs when the transport stops. While your DAW is rolling, there is nothing for it to show. The plugin says so on screen.

Fix: stop playback and the map fills. If it is still empty on a completed render with the transport stopped, the model did not find significant reverb — which is a real answer on an already-dry source, not a failure.

RAW: HARSH, AIR and MUD are unavailable

Symptom: the cleanup controls will not respond.

Cause: they unlock after the first render. They clean up what the de-reverb left behind, so before there is a rendered result they have nothing to act on.

Fix: capture and render once. They become available.

RAW: the export sounds different from the plugin

Symptom: what you dragged out is not what you were hearing.

Cause: almost always the FX section switch. With it off, exports and drag-outs go out as de-reverb only — the FX you were auditioning are not in the file.

Fix: turn the FX section on. With it on, what you hear is exactly what is written; there is no separate apply step.

RAW: I cannot find my renders

Symptom: an export completed but the file is not where you looked.

Cause: nothing is written to a temp folder. Every render lands in ~/Music/Nolvra/RAW Renders with a unique name, and existing files are never overwritten.

Fix: look there. If you exported the same source three times, you have three files.

SURGE: exports do not match the project tempo

Symptom: a dragged sweep does not line up with the bar.

Cause: SURGE renders against the tempo it believes the session is at. If your host is not reporting a tempo, or is reporting a different one than you expect, the render follows what it was told.

Fix: check the line under BARS — it names which tempo is in force. If it is not the one you want, turn on MANUAL BPM OVERRIDE in SETTINGS and set the value.

Also check TAIL: a riser exported with a one-bar tail is longer than the bars figure alone suggests, by design.

SURGE: my favourites and filters reset

Symptom: the browser is not where you left it.

Cause: favourites, filters, BARS, PEAK and TAIL are stored per installation, not per project. A new machine, a new user account or a cleared support folder starts fresh.

Fix: none needed — but be aware they are a machine-level preference rather than something a project carries.

PLUNGE: the loop and the host disagree on tempo

Symptom: a badge showing two different tempo figures.

Cause: the loop you dropped into the deck was recorded at a different tempo than your session. PLUNGE does not time-stretch it — it tells you rather than silently fixing it, because a stretched drum loop is a decision you should be making.

Fix: use a loop at the session tempo, or accept the mismatch for pattern-generation purposes and ignore the audio.

PLUNGE: the 808 sounds thin on small speakers

Symptom: full and heavy on monitors, gone on a phone.

Cause: a phone speaker cannot reproduce the fundamental. The ear reconstructs the note from its harmonics — and if the harmonic content is low, there is nothing to reconstruct from.

Fix: raise Harmonic 2 and Harmonic 3. That is what they are for. Drive with a soft mode does a similar job less precisely.

PLUNGE: I cannot drag out my WAV

Symptom: the WAV chip is dimmed and refuses to start a drag.

Cause: export is gated on the license being active. A locked or unlicensed plugin will not write a file — the gate is on the export itself, not just the button.

Fix: resolve the activation state. See the activation problems article.

RELIC: it sounds like nothing is happening

Symptom: RELIC is inserted and you hear no difference.

Cause: AGE defaults to 0, and at AGE 0 RELIC is designed to sound like bypass. Every amount curve starts at zero.

Fix: turn AGE up. That is the only control that engages the character.