PC recording setup issues

[PRHunt]

Looking at your Latencymon screen dump, I see lots of hard pagefaults. According to the Latencymon web page:

About hard pagefaults

Windows uses a concept of virtual memory which relies on the page translation system provided by the CPU. Whenever a memory address is requested which is not available in physical memory (not resident), an INT 14 will occur. The OS provided INT 14 handler will decide how to proceed next. If the page in which the address resides is known to Windows but not resident, Windows will read in the required page from the page file. That is known as a hard pagefault and can take a lot of time to complete. If the page can be read in from the hard disk cache, the price will be limited. However if it needs to physically read in the data from disk sectors this takes a lot of time. If an audio program hits a hard pagefault while it is playing it will almost certainly have audible consequences recognized as dropouts, clicks or pops.

Hard pagefaults are a very common but often overlooked cause of audio dropouts, clicks and pops. They especially occur often with audio software that uses a lot of memory such as samplers. Solutions for avoiding hard pagefaults are increasing the working set of the audio application, increasing the amount of RAM or disabling the pagefile altogether. Note that if you disable the pagefile, the system may run "out of memory" because it does not have the pagefile available to swap memory to. Also the system will no longer create crash dump files in case of a system crash.

Is there anything else running that could be consuming large amounts of RAM? Is your PC correctly reporting the amount of installed RAM?

If you have antivirus software running, try disabling it temporarily. Might be wise to remove the PC from the internet while doing so.

If you are using wireless lan, try disabling that as well.

[salfordranger]

I tried the BIOS thing by changing the power settings to do with boosting but it didn't help. Yeah i've tried without the real-time anti-virus and switch WLAN off. Most RAM is being used by the USB which figures due to the interface being USB. Wondered whether it's using too much though. Is there any settings to do with USB drivers that may be affecting it.

I've tried using the interface on a different computer. Used same tracks but on a different DAW (Audacity which meant i used WDM though). Tried recording over the tracks whilst doing playback and it was fine until i tried the latencymon with it which started the popping and stuff. Could it be the DAW, changing to DWM or USB issue?

This was a weaker computer btw.

[PRHunt]

Try temporarily disabling Virtual Memory. I don't know how to do that (not a Windows user), but there is plenty of info "out there".

Then try running Sonar again, and re-run the latency monitor.

If that works, then you might need more RAM. Although with 6G I can't imagine why unless other software is running or you have lots of samples loaded, or something.

[Bobbsy]

Use the Focusrite ASIO drivers, up the latency for solid playback then use the Direct Hardware Monitoring feature on the 2i2. There's a push button to turn this on and off and the big knob lets you control the balance between the recorded signal on the computer and the new stuff on your mic. This should give zero latency because you're monitoring your mic feed before it goes through the computer all all.

[salfordranger]

Ok i'll have a go at that when i'm home from work thanks.

@Bobbsy, i think i've mentioned this earlier in the thread but i already have the latency at max (10ms buffer), won't go any higher in ASIO.

Yes there's zero latency from when you listen to the mic but when feeding playback from the DAW in whilst recording you get the latency. TBH latency isn't my issue at the moment. Its more about being able to use ASIO driver without pops, skipping and so on in the playback whilst recording which i can't solve by increasing buffere because it won't go any higher.

[PRHunt]

Couple of other suggestions:

If you haven't done so already, I suggest you sign up at the Cakewalk forums Cakewalk Forums where you may receive advice more specifically relevant to troubleshooting Sonar.

Also, as an experiment, try installing the trial version of Reaper to see if that makes any difference.

[salfordranger]

Yeah thanks, i probably will do. Seems to be an issue with my home computer though because at with the work computer (weaker than home) i tried it with Sonar (X2 rather than 8.5 but still) and worked fine except with the Latency monitor running. I'm talking to the Focusrite support but takes a day to reply to every e-mail i send. Just frustrating when you can't see what's causing the problem. Do you think a system restore would sort out the issue if it's a problem with the pc?

[PRHunt]

Do you think a system restore would sort out the issue if it's a problem with the pc?

Not sure what to advise. Unfortunately, the fall-back Windows fix seems to be a system restore or re-install. I am much more familiar with Linux than Windows these days, so I will defer to recommendations from those who regularly use Windows for their audio work-flow.

There is, if I recall, quite a good article about Windows optimizations for audio, on the Focusrite web site - I'm sure you've seen that, though.

[ecc83]

Optimize Your PC For Music Production
^ Not the one I wanted but much of it is relavent.
The important tweaks IMHO are:..
Process Scheduling. Needs to be in Background and "Adjust for Best Performance" (not appearance)
Kill System Sounds: This is vital.
Restore? I would not touch, saved my derrier more times then I can count!
Kill all animation.
Kill updates
I did not see it and it gets forgotten but I would disable On Board Sound. In the BIOS if you can but in Dev'Mang' if nervous about BIOS*. In fact if really pushed, do a restore before EVERYTHING if possible. Disable the OBS and do the other tweaks, then start afresh.

Those optimizations are for when computers were far less powerful but some of it is still moot.

DPclat is a very tiny, low resource app for latency checking.
If really, REALLY pressed you can do a Recovery. Right click on Computer and look at Manage then find Storage and you should see all the drive partitions with a new PC there should be a Recovery partition, This will set the machine back to factory gate status (you should also have a set of Recovery disks?)
Bit drastic that tho!

*Many MOBOs give you the option of storing the BIOS settings on a stick. Worth a fiver for a nice clean one to lock away?

Last of all. If you really cannot get the Focusrite right, buy an NI KA6. If THAT does not work I will buy it off ya!

Dave.

[T Sat]

Also sometimes it can just be an issue of what other programs do you have running on your PC? Even in the background they can cause issues. As well as the latest audio card drivers you should also make sure you have the latest drivers for everything, video card, wifi, any other programs.