diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 9fc552bf75518c5e66af4ab4128062b1e01a8888..1eeca599605bdaf5d37562e2af8fde1d5c8bf35f 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -48,6 +48,11 @@ stages:
   - make -j
   - cd $dir
 
+.get-codec-testvectors: &get-codec-testvectors
+  - to_dir=$(pwd)/tests/data/testv
+  - mkdir -p $to_dir
+  - from_dir=$CODEC_DIR/scripts/testv
+  - cp $from_dir/*.wav $to_dir/
 
 # ------------------------------------
 # check pre-conditions are met
@@ -82,6 +87,7 @@ experiments:
   script:
     - *print-common-info
     - *get-codec-binaries
+    - *get-codec-testvectors
     - python3 -m pytest tests/test_experiments.py::test_generate_test_items -n auto | tee log.txt
   artifacts:
     paths:
diff --git a/ivas_processing_scripts/__init__.py b/ivas_processing_scripts/__init__.py
index 77c9590541b736392559d11afd47775969dea52d..f0bf5e413461241f7de6e40479d253a4ef543971 100755
--- a/ivas_processing_scripts/__init__.py
+++ b/ivas_processing_scripts/__init__.py
@@ -187,6 +187,7 @@ def main(args):
                 sleep(0.1)
             progressbar_update(count, count, width)
             print("\n", flush=True, file=sys.stdout)
+            results.get()
 
             p.close()
             p.join()
diff --git a/ivas_processing_scripts/audiotools/wrappers/bs1770.py b/ivas_processing_scripts/audiotools/wrappers/bs1770.py
index f8052bc41b940576bef4ac0732f5f1318f21514c..a808b2e6ccb1bd36c53d112dd5a7125646b44f4d 100755
--- a/ivas_processing_scripts/audiotools/wrappers/bs1770.py
+++ b/ivas_processing_scripts/audiotools/wrappers/bs1770.py
@@ -291,7 +291,7 @@ def loudness_norm(
             )
 
     if num_iter >= 10:
-        warn(
+        raise ValueError(
             f"Loudness did not converge to desired value, stopping at: {loudness_after:.2f}"
         )
 
diff --git a/ivas_processing_scripts/processing/processing.py b/ivas_processing_scripts/processing/processing.py
index 717377535c2d290fa0ca6d1bff20faa5e628fc15..2d21d665896dcd258b7840f4ec57b9a7abcdb5fd 100755
--- a/ivas_processing_scripts/processing/processing.py
+++ b/ivas_processing_scripts/processing/processing.py
@@ -270,6 +270,7 @@ def preprocess(cfg, logger):
         sleep(0.1)
     progressbar_update(count, count, width)
     print("\n", flush=True, file=sys.stdout)
+    results.get()
 
     p.close()
     p.join()
@@ -341,6 +342,7 @@ def preprocess_2(cfg, logger):
         sleep(0.1)
     progressbar_update(count, count, width)
     print("\n", flush=True, file=sys.stdout)
+    results.get()
 
     p.close()
     p.join()
diff --git a/tests/constants.py b/tests/constants.py
index 589714fdb32f5bd48f1beb6f738c3d3368326978..6dbae9ed4fd7de41b0d71a4b63bff722659e1192 100644
--- a/tests/constants.py
+++ b/tests/constants.py
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ from pathlib import PurePath
 """ Set up paths """
 TESTS_DIR = PurePath(__file__).parent
 TEST_VECTOR_DIR = TESTS_DIR.joinpath("data")
+CODEC_TEST_VECTOR_DIR = TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("testv")
 EXPERIMENTS_DIR = "../experiments/selection"
 
 ISM_METADATA_DIR = TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("ism_metadata")
@@ -84,6 +85,19 @@ NCHAN_TO_FILE = {
     16: TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("spectral").joinpath("spectral_test_16ch_48kHz.wav"),
 }
 
+NCHAN_TO_TESTV = {
+    1: CODEC_TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("stv48c.wav"),
+    2: CODEC_TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("stvST48c.wav"),
+    3: CODEC_TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("stv3ISM48s.wav"),
+    4: CODEC_TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("stv4ISM48n.wav"),
+    6: CODEC_TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("stv51MC48c.wav"),
+    8: CODEC_TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("stv71MC48.wav"),
+    9: CODEC_TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("stv2OA48c.wav"),
+    10: CODEC_TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("stv514MC48c.wav"),
+    12: CODEC_TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("stv714MC48c.wav"),
+    16: CODEC_TEST_VECTOR_DIR.joinpath("stv3OA48c.wav"),
+}
+
 FORMAT_TO_FILE = {
     "MONO": NCHAN_TO_FILE[1],
     "STEREO": NCHAN_TO_FILE[2],
diff --git a/tests/test_experiments.py b/tests/test_experiments.py
index 51d50e635c56683043b94f0d6c119eb28b5ca059..e22e84e802f355ebefbf6d531caf260f2500457e 100644
--- a/tests/test_experiments.py
+++ b/tests/test_experiments.py
@@ -39,20 +39,22 @@ from numpy.random import random, seed
 
 from ivas_processing_scripts import main as generate_test
 from ivas_processing_scripts.audiotools import audio
-from ivas_processing_scripts.audiotools.audiofile import concat, read, write
+from ivas_processing_scripts.audiotools.audiofile import read, write
 from ivas_processing_scripts.processing.config import TestConfig
 from ivas_processing_scripts.utils import list_audio
 from tests.constants import (
     FORMAT_TO_METADATA_FILES,
     INPUT_EXPERIMENT_NAMES,
     LAB_IDS_FOR_EXPERIMENTS,
-    NCHAN_TO_FILE,
+    NCHAN_TO_TESTV,
 )
 
 HERE = Path(__file__).parent.absolute()
 sys.path.append(HERE.parent)
 from generate_test import Arguments, create_experiment_setup  # NOQA
 
+N_INPUT_SIGNALS = 2
+
 
 def setup_input_files_for_config(config):
     input_path = Path(config.input_path).resolve().absolute()
@@ -66,29 +68,25 @@ def setup_input_files_for_config(config):
     if not input_path.exists():
         raise ValueError("Input path from experiments config does not exist")
 
-    # get dummy input files:
-    spectral_dummy = NCHAN_TO_FILE[num_channels]
-    pink_noise_dummy = Path(
-        str(spectral_dummy).replace("spectral/spectral_test", "pinknoise/pink_noise")
-    )
-    dummy_input_files = [spectral_dummy, pink_noise_dummy]
-
-    # get dummy metadata files
-    dummy_md_files = FORMAT_TO_METADATA_FILES.get(input_fmt, list())
-
-    # copy input files
+    # get testvector for format and create to one-second items from it
     files_copied = list()
-    for f in dummy_input_files:
-        f_out = input_path.joinpath(f.name).resolve().absolute()
-        # need at least 2s of input files for gen-patt to be happy (can not keep the tolerance for 50 frames only)
-        concat([str(f)] * 2, str(f_out))
-        for i, md_f in enumerate(dummy_md_files):
-            suffix = f"{i}.csv"
+    testv_file = NCHAN_TO_TESTV[num_channels]
+    testv_signal, fs = read(testv_file)
+    assert fs == 48000
+    for i in range(N_INPUT_SIGNALS):
+        f_out = (
+            input_path.joinpath(testv_file.name[:-4] + f"_{i}.wav").resolve().absolute()
+        )
+        write(f_out, testv_signal[i * 48000 : (i + 1) * 48000, :])
+        files_copied.append(f_out.name)
+
+        # get dummy metadata files
+        dummy_md_files = FORMAT_TO_METADATA_FILES.get(input_fmt, list())
+        for j, md_f in enumerate(dummy_md_files):
+            suffix = f"{j}.csv"
             md_f_out = ".".join([str(f_out), suffix])
             shutil.copy(md_f, md_f_out)
 
-        files_copied.append(f_out.name)
-
     # create background noise files with white noise
     if "background_noise" in config.preprocessing_2:
         # always set the same seed to have reproducible test noises