dropouts - please, anyone?

[guhlenn]

Hopefully someone will reply;

I'v e got an USB waveterminal U2A, use the stereo 16 bit digital in to record my multitrackers output. My comp is an AMD 2600+ with 512am and 120 gig WD drives.

Somehow i always get dropouts in a song, but there are always two spikes down with a period of a little less then a second between them. These two spikes in there turn come up about every 1 minute or so. Is this something i will have to live with? get a better soundcard? please help, much appreciated!

Guhlenn

 

[dobro]

Recently I was getting loads of dropouts, clicks, and stuttering. Here's what I found:

* I downloaded some antivirus software. It found a load of worms in my system, and got rid of them.

* I downloaded Spybot, which found a load of apps running in the background.

After I cleaned the shit out with these two things, my sessions played back smoother, but still there were problems.

* I reinstalled Win98. This solved most of the remaining problems. I still get occasional dropouts, but it's always on sessions with:

a) loads of tracks

b) loads of effects on those tracks

* However, I've been told, but I haven't tried it yet, that if you have a lot of effects on tracks, you can cut down on the processing load by locking the tracks.

* Finally, I've been told, and my experience is similar, that adjusting buffer settings and background mixing and stuff like that doesn't do much that affects playback smoothness.

Hope something in all of this helps.

 

[guhlenn]

thanks alot for replying Dobro,

However, my problem is only during recording (sorry i must have left that out.. my bad) . I can see the drop outs as spikes in the recorded wave. And always the same amount of time between them. I thought it might be USB setting i should change. Or are drop-outs just part of recording with a comp? I can repare them with wavelab but it takes alot of time. Playback is just fine. MY latency is set freakin (up to 1 sec. ) high since i don't do any live recording, just putting tracks from the multitracker to the pc.

My machine is not hooked up to internet. I might try a clean install of XP but this one isn't old and neither has it seen the internet.

Any recommendations are much appreciated since i really have no clue why these spikes are there.

Thanks alot,

guhlenn

 

[dobro]

"Or are drop-outs just part of recording with a comp?"

Nope. Shouldn't be. Not if you've got a decently fast machine with decent amounts of RAM. Not if you've disabled other applications from running in the background when you're recording. Not if you're using a soundcard that other people use all the time without problems.

If all that's the case, let's talk about recording buffers and background mixing and stuff. What settings are you using?

 

[guhlenn]

Not if you've got a decently fast machine with decent amounts of RAM.

- an amd athlon 2600+ and 512 mb at 333MHz, that should be enough right? I'm recording the digital out of the akai (stereo 16 bit 44.1 kHz).

Not if you've disabled other applications from running in the background when you're recording.

- Not that I'm aware of. Is there some way to see hidden programs? I'm not that into computers, know enough to use em but nothing more.

Not if you're using a soundcard that other people use all the time without problems.

- Well... I have a Waveterminal U2A (16 bit) from ego-sys. It's USb. It's old but got really good reviews back then. Didn't have much trouble with it except for the drop-outs. Don't see many people using it now. But then again, not much people using an akai DR_8 hdr either anymore

Buffer settings; oh yes please; i have NO idea what these should be. I tried setting everything to ridicilously high (safe ) settings but except for latency nothing changed. I'll write down the settings exactly this afternoon, as i said the machine is not connected to internet.
But it's something like buffers set to 8 and latency to an initial value of about 1 (whole ) sec. As i said i don't do any live recording , so high latency values don't bother me.

The rest; wouldn't have a clue. Could you post some examples of normal settings and where i can find them? I'm using cool edit pro and XP.

Thanks alot for helping me out here Dobro, much appreciated.

Guhlenn

 

[dobro]

buffers: Cool Edit Help talks about increasing the size and number of buffers if you're suffering from skips and droupouts, but to remember you do this at the cost of a slower response time when you apply changes to the track as it's playing (but that shouldn't be a problem for you, cuz you're talking only about recording, right?). The Help talks about a buffer size of about 2 for fast machines, and about 8 for slow machines. As for the number of buffers, they suggest trying anywhere from 3 to 12 buffers.

checking background applications that are running:

* check the bottom right of your screen - how many applications are running down in the toolbar? I've stripped my machine down to about two, and I close the antivirus app when I'm recording. If you want to disable stuff from getting automatically loaded at Startup, click Start>Run and type 'msconfig' (without the quotes) and hit okay. Click Startup and see what get loaded every time you boot. You can disable a lot of stuff in there.

* sneaky background apps - do a google search on a tool called Spybot - download it and put it to use. I found loads of crap running on my system. Spybot not only finds the crap, it allows you to dump it. But you say you haven't been on the internet with your machine, so probably it's clean, right?

your machine and soundcard: dunno, I'm not familiar with your gear. But is this a new problem? Or have you had it since the beginning?

Do you think it could be some kind of clock issue between the Akai and your soundcard? I'm really groping here. Finally, have you ever tried recording direct to the soundcard, without using the Akai? That would be an interesting test.

 

[guhlenn]

I'm very ashamed

I forgot about norton anti virus. Oh my god. feel free to shoot me now.

I purchased the gear second hand about a month ago. But playback is fine. And the akai does only do playback. When used with amp and speakers only it is fine. So it should be the computer and or sound card (or norton *bashing head*)

I wrote down the settings as well;

buffer size is 4 seconds using 8 buffers
recording buffersize is 2 sec using 10 buffers back ground mixing is 2 (???)


Finally; i been using several free software thingies before deciding to go cool edit; now i found under device preferences that latency is set to 0 ms. This could be my problem right? I feel really stupid for asking lots of questions ...

Thanks anyway and i'll let ya know!

 

[guhlenn]

I'm hoping you will check this thread one more time dobro...

anyway, i tried all of your options but nothing helps. However, i did notice that the spikes occur during playback too , but less pronounced... Now i was thinking; could it be that the fridge and/or other electrical appliances interfere with the power for the card/computer? Cuz i live in a very old building and chances are that there is only one real power outlet which is just split across the room. Could this be it? (i noticed that during playback the same amount of time between clicks is apparent as is during recording. Then i noticed that the fridge had just turned on.... Not sure if this is possible...

Thanks!