diff --git a/libs/ardour/export_handler.cc b/libs/ardour/export_handler.cc
index d90c9cfb46..028c56685a 100644
--- a/libs/ardour/export_handler.cc
+++ b/libs/ardour/export_handler.cc
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 #include "ardour/audiofile_tagger.h"
 #include "ardour/audio_port.h"
 #include "ardour/debug.h"
+#include "ardour/disk_reader.h"
 #include "ardour/export_graph_builder.h"
 #include "ardour/export_handler.h"
 #include "ardour/export_timespan.h"
@@ -380,7 +381,10 @@ ExportHandler::start_timespan_bg (void* eh)
 	ExportHandler* self = static_cast<ExportHandler*> (eh);
 	self->process_connection.disconnect ();
 	Glib::Threads::Mutex::Lock l (self->export_status->lock());
+	SessionEvent::create_per_thread_pool (name, 512);
+	DiskReader::allocate_working_buffers ();
 	self->start_timespan ();
+	DiskReader::free_working_buffers ();
 	return 0;
 }
 
diff --git a/libs/ardour/session_export.cc b/libs/ardour/session_export.cc
index 2310a83002..0e2168c69c 100644
--- a/libs/ardour/session_export.cc
+++ b/libs/ardour/session_export.cc
@@ -173,6 +173,8 @@ Session::start_audio_export (samplepos_t position, bool realtime, bool region_ex
 		/* get everyone to the right position */
 
 		std::shared_ptr<RouteList const> rl = routes.reader();
+		ARDOUR::ProcessThread* pt = new ProcessThread ();
+		pt->get_buffers ();
 
 		for (auto const& i : *rl) {
 			std::shared_ptr<Track> tr = std::dynamic_pointer_cast<Track> (i);
@@ -182,6 +184,8 @@ Session::start_audio_export (samplepos_t position, bool realtime, bool region_ex
 				return -1;
 			}
 		}
+		pt->drop_buffers ();
+		delete pt;
 	}
 
 	/* we just did the core part of a locate call above, but