audio dropouts in MIDI?

  • Thread starter Thread starter guitar ed
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guitar ed

guitar ed

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does anyone have any idea why my audio engine would unexpectedly stop running while I'm playing a MIDI file? No audio involved whatsoever. I don't have the best computer at my disposal, but I've been running Sonar for awhile now with few problems. I have a Packard Bell 233mhz, 128 RAM, Aztech Audio 2320 soundcard with WDM, and 16gigs on 2 hard drives. I may need to mess with the MIDI buffers? Any help would be appreciated.
ed
 
one more thing....I run the MIDI out of my puter via a joystick port, and playback through my Yamaha W7 synth.
Thanks
ed
 
Dear Neighbor (well Kinda), what do you mean? Is Sonar freezing up? Are you getting the dropout light? Is the synth dropping notes, or not playing back? Splain please...
 
Sorry....I guess I shouldn'y have said 'dropout'. It says "the audio engine has stopped unexpetedly". If I click the icon to turn the audio engine back on, all is well. No freezing, no locking up, the AUDIO engine is stopping!!!! There's no audio involved in a MIDI file! I don't get it. Last night was the very first time this has happened. Kinda stumped. Is there anything else I should include here? Nothing has changed on my system...no new hardware, no programs added or removed. I was messing with Fruity Loops a bit and trying to send midi out of FL into Sonar, so I switched the MIDI ins and Outs around a few times. Do you think that could do it? Thanks
Ed
 
guitar ed said:
I was messing with Fruity Loops a bit and trying to send midi out of FL into Sonar, so I switched the MIDI ins and Outs around a few times. Do you think that could do it? Thanks
Ed
Click to expand...

Well, I am a computer moron, but:

All was fine until you messed around with Fruity Loops and switched midi ins and outs a few times?? Sounds funky to me.
I have never heard of this problem, very strange.

Is the Warther Museum in New Phil.? I used to go there as a kid. Cool place. I still have the wood pliers that he made for me.
 
I don't think the Fruity thing is the problem...I have everything put back the way it was. It hasn't happened since, so maybe my puter was just having a seizure or something. Warther Meuseum is in Dover, and still going strong. His son is now the plier maker! My son has been there on a field trip and he has a pair of pliers now, too!
ed
 
guitar ed,

A 233 MHz Pentium II is wayyyyyy below the minimum system requirements for SONAR. I bet with a machine of that vintage the front side bus is only 66 MHz and the drive controller is EIDE and not even UDMA-33. When I had a 200 MHz PII I could only get four or five tracks of audio going with PA 9. I'm sure that as soon as you're adding the task of handling MIDI to the jobs that the computer's doing, it can't keep up any more and the audio engine will stop on you.

Things you can try to keep going are: archive the audio tracks, record the MIDI parts to a stereo audio track, then un-archive the original audio files and see if that's any better.
 
thanks, guys. I realize that I don't have the most desireable machine for the time being. The thing is, I know exactly what I want, and Sonar does everything I need. What I'm really accomplishing here is learning the program. If I really need to get multiple audio tracks down right now, I can use Cool Edit, which seems to run on about anything. Sonar really floats my boat, though, so I wanna learn everything about it. I have Sonar Power on the way, and I snoop around every forum I can find. My biggest beef is getting involved in these discussions, and as soon as I mention what I'm trying to record on, BAM! no more responses! I want to thank you fellas for not treating me as a wannabee. I'm very aware of the system requirements, but I don't plan to use this old puter much longer. It IS tax refund time, isn't it? After that, I'll graduate to an HP celeron 533. Any nightmares I need to know about there? Anyway, thanks, and I'll continue to ask and learn, even if I am trying to operate on a dinosaur. (I still think having WDM drivers lets me do more than your average 233!)
ed
 
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