Clicking/popping audio with SB Audigy

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MelloMan

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I have two glitches I want to iron out, one relating directly to Cakewalk, so I thought I'd post here:

I own Cakewalk Home Studio 2002 and I just bought the SB Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro. Now, I've read the posts where people say Audigy is a poor card for home recording, but I use my card for DVD playback and gaming as well, so I'm more interested in resolving the problems with the Audigy rather than avoiding them, and I don't feel like these will be too hard to fix.

The problem with Cakewalk is that the playback on audio files has cracks and pops and sounds shaky, though if I export that same audio file and play it back through another program, say Windows Media Player, it sounds beautiful. Do I have some audio settings wrong in Cakewalk, or is this a driver issue? Any help is wonderful.

My second problem involves the communication between my keyboard and the Audigy sound card. I own a Roland XP-60 keyboard that I use for recording and as a MIDI sound bank. I have the Audigy MIDI I/O set as the preferred MIDI playback device under the Control Panel settings, however, there is no sound when I play a midi file, whether it is through Cakewalk or WMP or other. Now, the baffling part is that there is indeed sound if I play on the keys directly. So, it appears that the cables are hooked up right and the card and the keyboard are communicating, but just not during file playback. What is wrong here? By the way, in Cakewalk under MIDI devices, I have the Audigy MIDI I/O selected. I didn't have these problems with my old SB Live card.

Thanks for your feedback in advance.
 
MelloMan said:
The problem with Cakewalk is that the playback on audio files has cracks and pops and sounds shaky, though if I export that same audio file and play it back through another program, say Windows Media Player, it sounds beautiful. Do I have some audio settings wrong in Cakewalk, or is this a driver issue? Any help is wonderful.
Seems like you have a latency issue. Go to Options -> Audio and set the latency (using "The Latency Slider") a bit higher or to the max.


For the second issue; let's start with the easiest error: How have you connected the MIDI-cables?
 
Yeah... it could be latency. Just re-run wave profiler and restart Cakewalk. In case it doesn't help, then check if your soundcard shares resource (IRQ, DMA, or anything) in Windows' Control Panel --> System--> Hardware. If it does share, then the easiest way is you may consider moving the card to another available PCI card. Check QWERTY's thread regarding IRQ sharing issue here:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=127748

Like moskus said, re-check your MIDI cable. I have two different kind Joystick/MIDI cables. One, I connect IN to IN, and OUT to OUT, and the other IN to OUT and OUT to IN. You probably need to reverse the order.

;)
Jaymz
 
yah probably just a tweak setting somewhere...

if you had a serious sound driver prob, you probably wouldnt hear any sound, or garbled muffled shit that would loop up and freeze. Audio for me seems to be a "go/no go" thing for me where drivers are concerned. It aint like video cards where the probs only show up under higher resolution or busier game sreens intermittently. They tend to work or not.

Someone mentioned latency, and i lean towards that or a similar setting. In Fruity Loops 4.5.2 producer edition i use, i was getting clicky, poppy things too. I found a settings area that had ms(millisecond) settings on a slider from 1 to 2000 or so. I moved it higher a good bit, and it all went away. When you find the setting s area, theres bound to be lots of arcane stuff to tweak, just lay with them one at a time, and remember what you diddled with last, so you can put it back till you find what works,
 
A ha! I re-ran the Wave Profiler and it set the latency slider for me. Consider that problem solved...thanks for pointing that out!!

As far as the MIDI communication problem, I still don't know. I tried reversing the cables, but it didn't work.

Here's the setup: I have two standard 5-pin midi cables running from the Roland XP-60 keyboard to the external hub on the Audigy. One is IN to IN, the other is OUT to OUT. I also have two 1/4" cables running from the audio output of the keyboard to audio inputs of the external hub, LEFT to LEFT and RIGHT to RIGHT. I ran this same setup successfully on my old SB Live card, only that I used an m-audio midiman usb box for the midi cables and a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter for the audio inputs to the PCI card. The problem, again, is that I can hear sound from the keyboard when I push on the keys, but if I set the Audigy MIDI IO as the output under Options --> Midi Devices, there is no sound through the speakers or through headphones plugged into the keyboard. Any ideas?
 
MelloMan said:
A ha! I re-ran the Wave Profiler and it set the latency slider for me. Consider that problem solved...thanks for pointing that out!!

As far as the MIDI communication problem, I still don't know. I tried reversing the cables, but it didn't work.

Here's the setup: I have two standard 5-pin midi cables running from the Roland XP-60 keyboard to the external hub on the Audigy. One is IN to IN, the other is OUT to OUT. I also have two 1/4" cables running from the audio output of the keyboard to audio inputs of the external hub, LEFT to LEFT and RIGHT to RIGHT. I ran this same setup successfully on my old SB Live card, only that I used an m-audio midiman usb box for the midi cables and a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter for the audio inputs to the PCI card. The problem, again, is that I can hear sound from the keyboard when I push on the keys, but if I set the Audigy MIDI IO as the output under Options --> Midi Devices, there is no sound through the speakers or through headphones plugged into the keyboard. Any ideas?

I saw your first post as I was leaving work yesterday, running out the door I didn't get a chance to respond. I was going to suggest Wave Profiler, and secondly I was just going to say a couple of things about MIDI, first... remember with the SB MIDI I/O's it's only sending data, so you are using the XP-60 to produce the sound (I think you know this however it's amazing how many people can't get that around their head.

Now you sat that you can't hear anything through the headphones.. where are the plugged into? If they are in the PC, have you got input monitoring turned on? In the Volume Control panel (make sure you are looking at the recording side of it (ie options -> properties, select recording), what's set up as your default input because with the SB that's all that Sonar will 'hear'.

As for the MIDI, make sure there are no loops.. just try plugging the out of the keyboard to the in of the SB. When you open Sonar a little system tray icon will appear that looks like a little keyboard with 2 lights on it. Make sure a light lights up when you press a key.

Go with that and see how you go.

Porter
 
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