Help with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 and Aardvark 24/96

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I recently purchased an Aardvark Direct Pro 24/96 card/box combo, which came with Cakewalk Pro Audio 9. I have the Aardvark card and software mixer installed and running, as well as Pro Audio 9.

However, recently I haven't been able to get past one track without having it "pop" and lose sync when recording another track. I'm running all of this on an older system, so my thought is that that's the problem. However, the stats on the system exceed the minimums for both the card and the software. I plan to contact Aardvark tech support as well, but I wanted to find out if anyone knew of any settings tweaks I could try. Thanks.

SYSTEM SPECS
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Pentium II 333MHz
8GB generic hard drive (unsure of speed)
320MB of RAM (66MHz)
Windows 98 (not Second Edition)

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
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Pro Audio - 233MHz (200?) Pentium, 64MB RAM (req's no longer available)
Aardvark - 133 MHz w/ Win 95/98; 64 MB RAM
 
How much of your system resources are free?
Do you have other programs running in the background?

If you don't know how to find the answers to the above questions, just say so, and I'll explain how...

Queue
 
I believe I have the answers, though I didn't check using the utilities. I didn't mention it, but I am fairly computer-savvy.

Cakewalk's readouts indicated minimal CPU and disk resources being used. I'm not sure if this is a direct reflection of the system's status, however. I know where to find the system resource meter in Windows NT, but I'm not quite sure where they put it in 98, though it would probably only take a few minutes to find it.

There were a few programs running in the background, but after shutting them down, I was still having the same problem. However, I only shut down the programs that had icons on the taskbar, and did not clip processes using CTRL-ALT-DEL.

The first step I will probably take is to download the latest 95/98 drivers from Aardvark's site. I discovered this when I visited the tech support section of the site, and I'm not sure what version of the drivers came with the 24/96 I purchased.
 
Good idea,
For my DP 24/96, I'm using the 5.14 drivers, WinMe, with an AMD K6III+ 450MHz OC'd to 550MHz 320MB RAM and 7200RPM ATA100 drives. I'm not using CWPA9, but Vegas 2.0d.

You say 'recently'.... Were you able to track successfully before? What hardware/software changes have you made since?

You might want to check on your Hard Drive performance, try HD Tach.

I occasionally run into problems, but I've found that if I disable/remove all plugins when tracking, try to limit the # of trax that I listen to when recording etc. things go pretty well.

What is the 1 track that you're trying to listen to? (Bit depth/sample rate/file format/mono or stereo)

At what Bit depth/sample rate/file format are you trying to record?

I tend to stick with 24 bit 44.1kHz mono files.

Queue
 

You say 'recently'.... Were you able to track successfully before? What hardware/software changes have you made since?
Click to expand...

I tracked a couple of other "test" songs, all audio. The first one went perfectly. After that, I un- and re-installed Cakewalk in an attempt to fix a problem, which I ended up solving by restoring the default settings in the Aardvark software mixer. The second song was a little more sluggish, but there was a lot more information (tracks) to process, plus effects. No hardware/software changes have been made since then.

What is the 1 track that you're trying to listen to? (Bit depth/sample rate/file format/mono or stereo)

At what Bit depth/sample rate/file format are you trying to record?
Click to expand...

It's a mono guitar track, WAV format. I'm not sure on the other info... I believe it's 16-bit, 44.1 kHz, but I'll have to check.

How full is that 8GB drive? Have you defragged lately?
Click to expand...

There's somewhere between 6-7GB free. I've never defragged the drive, as I haven't really used the computer before, but I have no idea when/if the person that had it before ever did so. It can't really hurt, though, so I may just go ahead and run defrag.

For what it's worth, my first thought when I ran into this problem was a slow disk drive. I have no idea how you can tell the speed of a drive, but given the processor in the machine and size of the drive, it's doubtful that it's anything better than 5400. Also, playback seems to go more smoothly when I "unarm" a track that is "armed" for recording.
 
Looks good... at least for now.

It turns out that drivers version 5.12 were included with the 24/96. After upgrading the drivers to 5.14 (current), it seems as though things are working better. A few dropouts, but during playback, not recording. Hopefully, that should do it.
 
Glad the driver upgrade helped.

I have no idea how you can tell the speed of a drive
Click to expand...

If you look in my second post, there's a link to a shareware utility (HDTach) that will tell you the sustained transfer rate of your drive. That's acutally a more useful number than the RPM.

Queue
 
I did read that earlier... I had forgotten about it, and only logged on last time to report success.

I did download the Echo Reporter a while back as part of testing my system for home recording plausibility. I think it may give the same data as HDTach, but I will check out the link, as HDTach sounds like it may be more comprehensive.
 
They're very similar. Echo reporter doesn't run on my machine, and seems to give some rather optimistic track counts. The numbers given by HDTach seem to be a little more reliable, but aren't expressed in Tracks, but MB/sec transfer rate.

Queue
 
Have you downloaded and installed the Cakewalk patch to version 9.03? It may also help stabilize your system. Also, make sure DMA is enabled for your HD, that vcache and vmem settings are correct, that you exclude the video area from windows use, that you have the latest video and mobo drivers etc...

All these things contribute to clicks, pops and dropouts on an audio system.
 
Thanks, DS

I hadn't checked the version of the drivers for Cakewalk... I'll definitely do that, as I still get dropouts from time to time. Is the version in the Help/About area, or is there another place to look?

As for the rest, do you have more detail? I know a bit about computers, and have even seen some of what you mention, but specs/stats would be helpful, as I really haven't had occasion to delve too deeply into those particular areas.

1) What are the correct settings for vmem and vcache (and where are they changed)
2) How do you exclude the video area from windows use?
3) How can you tell if DMA is enabled for a hard drive, and how can you do so if it isn't?
4) Anything else in the "etc." I should know about?

Thanks for the help... these kinds of things are what I thought might be part of the problem.

As a side note, is re-installing the OS a good idea? I thought I read somewhere that there were certain settings that you can tweak on installation, but I'm not sure.
 
Search "DMA","vcache", etc. here, I bet you'll find instructions.

Also try audio forums tips.

I scrolled up to your original post, and noticed you're not using 98SE. OS upgrading is a bit of a pain, but SE is a bit more stable and refined than the first win98. Not so much for "on installation" tweaks, but you'd get a nice clean registry and lose all the crap that you've installed/uninstalled in the past.

Queue
 
Queue said:

I scrolled up to your original post, and noticed you're not using 98SE. OS upgrading is a bit of a pain, but SE is a bit more stable and refined than the first win98. Not so much for "on installation" tweaks, but you'd get a nice clean registry and lose all the crap that you've installed/uninstalled in the past.
Click to expand...

I do know that 98SE is more stable than 98 (that's why I clarified "not SE"). Trust me, I'd much rather have that OS on my system. However, 98 is what came with the computer, so that's what I plan to use until I either upgrade the OS or (more likely) the computer itself.

And, just to re-clarify a point; I haven't installed or uninstalled anything on this system... it was received "as-is" (but tested). I know at least MS Office, a diagnostics program and a few other basics (WinZip, etc.) are on there, but they came with the system.

I have been considering re-installing 98, as I do have the full, legal upgrade path, but I'm not sure it would gain me much over where I am right now, since there aren't a lot of apps/software installed on the system, and therefore most likely a fairly clean registry.

In reality, my current computer is sort of a "stop-gap" system, and therefore not one I plan to spend a lot of money on. (~$50 for RAM so far ;) ). Chances are, I will end up with 98SE (or 2000, assuming Aardvark's drivers work well) when I buy a new system.

P.S. - Thanks for the link to the audioforums tips section... it looks like there's a lot of good info there. :)
 
Considering what you said about minimal installs of software, reinstalling 98 without upping to SE, prolly wouldn't show much change.

Queue
 
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