Cakewalk/Delta66 recording problems

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inxela

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I'm trying to record down my MIDI tracks so I can export them, but I can't get through a single song without random skips/hangs in the audio. I've also tried recording from external sources (Cool Edit Pro) while playing through Cakewalk - same problem. Any suggestions/solutions?

I'm running Cakewalk Pro 8.0 on a PIII-500 (VIA chipset), 256mb ram, Delta66

Thanks in advance!

*A*
 
how many tracks?

alrighty then....

how many tracks are you recording? are you recording a stereo track of your midi? do you have some audio tracks playing while you are attempting to record the midi to audio? enquiring minds want to know.

what do you have running in the background along with cakewalk?
 
I'm recording anywhere from 3 to 8 tracks. I'm recording the left and right tracks seperately. The only program running in the sys tray is Norton Antivirus.

Now I'm starting to think it's a hardware issue (Delta64) because I tried using Windows Media Player as the player and Cool Edit as the recorder, and theres still the same problem.

*A*
 
Definitely ditch the anti-virus during recording/playback. Whats your HD speed? Have you defragmented the drive recently?
 
What version of the Delta drivers are you using? I just installed a Delta 44 soundcard and installed
the latest drivers available from M-Audio (Version 4.1.22.29) I was having problems with dropouts
and distorted recording. When I couldn't solve the problem myself, I called M-Audio tech support.
They told me that there had been others who had also reported problems with there 4.1.22.29
drivers. They recommended I download and install their 4.1.22.27 drivers instead. So far it has
solved my problems. It's also interesting to note that the 4.1.22.29 drivers are no longer available
for download on their site. Don't know if this will help you but it may be worth a try.
 
Hey,

our studio uses the Delta 66 professionally and first let me say it is a great card. I have however experianced this problem. The computer you have sounds great for any audio application with in a "home studio" enviroment and even in most professional applications. This problem is probably coming from with in the delta mixer screen. Can you let me know how you are recording your orjects? Also if you are syncing cakewalk to any external device make sure the SMPTE setting is set to free-wheel. Let me know I may have an answer.
 
It's good to hear that there is someone out there who works professionally with this card.

I tried the SMPTE free-wheel thing, but no improved results.
BUT, I did try using the simpleton Windows Sound Recorder as my recorder, and no more hangs/stutters (but Windows Sound Recorder can only record up to a max of one minute). Maybe you can help me derive something from that.

If my setup info should be handy, here it is (it's about to get messy):

- Roland sound module's audio OUTS ---> Delta66 breakout box INS #1 & 2.
- The Delta66's #1 and 2 OUTS are going to my studio monitors (speakers).
- My keyboard and Roland sound module are MIDI linked to my computer's USB through a Midiman USB Midisport.

In the Delta66 on-screen mixer panel:
(under Hardware Settings tab)
- "Master Clock" is on "Internal Xtal"
- "Codec Sample Rate" is at 44,100 (unchecked for "Locked", checked for "Reset Rate When Idle")
- "Multi-Track Driver Devices" is on "Single and In-Sync"
- "DMA Buffer Sizes": "Wave" set at "20 milliseconds", "ASIO/EASI" set at "2688 samples per buffer"
- all "Signal Levels" set at +4

Under Cakewalk's Tools/Audio Options:
(under General tab)
- "Default Setting Rate" set at 44,100
- "Default File Bit Depth" set at 16
- "Number of Aux Buses" set at 2
- "Bits Per Sample" set at 16, checked "Dither"
- "Midi Volume Mapping" set on "Linear Scale"
- "Midi Pan Mapping" set on "Balance Control"
(under Advanced tab)
- (under Playback and Recording)
- "Wave Queue Buffers" set at 2
- "Wave Buffer Size" set at 48
- "Scrub Buffer size" set at 100
- checked are "Enable Simultaneous Playback/Record" and "Use Wave Out Position for Timing"
- (under DMA) - "Size" is "3528 bytes", "offset" is at "0 buffers"
- (under SMPTE/MTC Sync) - checked is "Trigger and Free-wheel"

of course I've tried a various combination of settings, but no improvements yet. I really thank you for any sort of advice/suggestions. I'm getting desperate! I need to get through this to finish my demo!

*A*
 
First off:
Check lock instead of reset rate when idle.
The default sample rate for Delta 66 is 48.
It has a tendancy to change it's self back to 48 from 44 with no warning, bad news if you have your speakers hooked up to a digital out put.


Next: Unchek dither from with in Cakewalk. Only use dither when you bring a sound file from 24 bits down to 16. You never need dither (no matter what anyone says) when you are recording at 16 bit.

In the patch-bay router menu make sure in 1/2 is set to monitor mix when recording and wave out when mixing or editing (anything else besides tracking).

These suggestions may or may not solve your problem but they are changes that need to be made anyway. Also if you ahev not tried installing and unistalling cakewalk try it. Some times you have to do this and it will sometimes correct the problem. Keep informing and I will try to help you out as much as I can.
 
thanks for the suggestions, but still no improvements.

any other ideas?

i've been searching for details about the Windows Sound Recorder's settings since it's been my only hope so far. but it's so basic that there just isn't much info on it.

*a*
 
I haven't had any experience with the Delta 66 but I have had similar type problems with my Sound Blaster Live. It had nothing to do with the sound card and everything to do with my hard drive. Try grabbing dskbench from prorec.com and run it on your drive. If you are getting really low transfer rates 3mb/s or lower then you probably don't have the DMA bus master installed for your motherboard and/or don't have the DMA option checked of for your soundcard. I had all types of hangs, pitch variations, etc. etc. when I didn't have the DMA stuff enabled. Something to check at least...

Chris
 
Ooops ...screwed up there....

the line "don't have DMA checked off for your soundcard" should be "don't have DMA checked off for your hard drive." You can find it under System/Device Manager/Drives etc.

Sorry about that...
 
O my god. Looks like enabling DMA on my hard drive did the trick. I'm just praying it keeps running smoothly. I'm bewildered that Cakewalk and/or Delta's websites/FAQs/techsupport don't mention anything about making sure DMA is enabled on your hard drive. I was going bananas clicking things on, clicking things off, restarting, changing buffer sizes, different program combinations, etc, etc.
I knew after all this time it would be something like checking a single tiny box. (Soundscaper, sorry to put u through all that mess. You must think I'm a dumbass!)

I can't thank you guys enough, you just saved my career dreams.

*A*
 
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