Dropouts

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rowrep

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I have recently set up a small studio room and have the following equipment: Compaq presario w/ Celeron 700mhz CPU, 312mb RAM, 20gig HD Windows ME OS. SB 16PCI soundcard, Behringer Eurorack mx 602A mixer, Cakewalk Home Studio 9. My problem is that I keep getting dropouts. I followed the trouble shooting guide and yet I am still having this problem. Has anyone any suggestions. Does the "n-track" program have this problem? Just to let you know, I am newer than newbie to this, so please be gentle.
 
There can be many reasons you are getting dropouts. We need to determine what might be running in the background. Do you know how to check. Hit Alt-Ctrl-Del and a list should pop up. List for us what is running and we can tell you what shouldn' t be there during a recording session. Also, what have you done to optimise the system? List that as well.

Good luck
 
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I hit Ctrl, Alt, Del & here is what I have listed: Cakewalk Home Studio, Explorer, Sccenter, Bttnserv, Ctnotify, Cpqeadm, Devgulp, Tgfix, Pctvoice, Systray, Hidserv, Newsupd, Tgcmd, Realplay, Aoltray, Ctmix32, Cpqmick.

As far as optimization of the system, I have only done this:
From Control Panel- Advanced Audio Properties in both Sound Playback & Audio Recording-
Hardware acceleration: Full
Sample Rate Conversion: Best

Disabled everything in scheduled task folder.

I have also tried numerous settings in Home Studio- Options- Audio, and have left these changed to:
I/O Buffer Size (kb) 312
Deselected- Clip Audio Mix Upon Overflow
(It seemed to help)
 
rowrep,

This might sound simplistic, but it's seldom even mentioned in the software tips. I've never seen Cakewalk or Gadget Labs mention it, however, It is one of the most important things to do.

Go to: Control Panel > System >Device Manager>Disk Drives

Then, check the settings on your hard drive(s), particularly the one in which you are accessing " wave data ". Make sure that the DMA check box is checked.

Without DMA, you get dropouts, stutters, helicoptering. etc...


Regards,
PAPicker
 
Thanks for the info PAPicker. I really hoped it was that but, I checked and the DMA box is already checked. All other boxes were greyed out except for "Removable". I didn't check this one.
 
Wow, that's a big list to have running in the background during recording.

I would have to say I'd disable the following:
Sccenter, Bttnserv, Ctnotify, Cpqeadm, Devgulp, Tgfix, Pctvoice, Hidserv, Newsupd, Tgcmd, Realplay, Aoltray, Ctmix32, Cpqmick.

and leave these:

Cakewalk Home Studio (only there when your in it)
Explorer
Systray

This is of course only if you don't absolutely need them. First though I would want to know what each one does.
Most of them can probably be disabled with no system issues resulting. But I don't know what else you use this system for so you need to judge. So do a test, using the same method (Alt-Ctrl-Del) to get to the task manager, kill all of these processes one at a time. trying to get down to just Explorer and Systray. Then launch Cakewalk and give it a go. If it works without dropouts then your on the right track. (recording pun..hehe)

After you do this, try to run some of the other features that you use the system for to see what it tries to reload or complains about what isn't there. This will tell you what else needs to be running to use those features. Then from this you can get the list of 'must haves' and 'don't needs'. Make sense?

If you need help to permanantly disable some of these features or to understand what they are let me know and I'm sure I can help you.

Good luck.
 
Thanks again for the info DS_Sultan, but, I tried what you explained and I got a dropout within the 1st 30 seconds. I left only the 3 items you listed, "Explore, Cakewalk & Systray". I guess I don't need those other programs because everything else worked fine. I don't do anything else with this computer except check email & go on line to figure out this problem (lol). Seriously though, this has really got me down. I just now recorded 3+ minutes of vocals and guitar to the "Creative Wave Studio" ( single track, 44100hz, 16 bit, stereo) that came with the soundcard and it worked great. I don't get it. Do you think it would help to reinstall the cakewalk program. Maybe I did something wrong installing it. I really appreciate you guys (and/or girls) trying to help. This site is a great resource.

PS: I will need help disabling those other programs and understanding what they do, but one thing at a time. I bet you're sorry I found this site, huh?
 
OK then, next we need to look into the configuration of your system. Tweaks and optimizations. What have you done so far? Anything? Something? Nothing? pick one...hehehe

Let me know if want more help..... and I am not sorry you found this site....that's what it's here for....and so am I (I'm so modest too)

Anyway, let me know what you want to do next. Chat, email, send me your system...no, forget that one...

Let 's look next at your system config with regard to the resources OK. IRQ thingys and such. Do you know how to look those up? Need help here too? Ask the question and it will be answered......
 
The only thing I have done is to set the Advanced Audio Properties in both the Sound Playback and Audio Recording to: Hardware acceleration-Full & Sample Rate Conversion -Best. Also disabled everything in scheduled task folder.
IRQ's ??????? (Sounds complicated)


Want to buy a Cakewalk Home Studio CHEAP!!!! lol
 
Don't give up yet! And I have Cakewalk already so no on that as well.

What I mean are system changes, not application changes. And when you say the effect does not load do you mean nothing happens? No windows appears for the effect settings? If so, then yes, you can try a reload of Cakewalk. See if they come back. But this is not the fix, it will just show us that perhaps something else is going on. Try it and get back to me.
 
Hey, one thing i just found out is if you have virtual memory on anything but default cakewalk loves to dropout. Just one more tip in the pile.
 
Now I'd have to say that's absolutely not true! I have mine set to 32MB on a different drive than the system OS and I have never had a dropout. This has more to do with the disk chain, the optimization and configuration of windows than you can or can't set the vmem manually. There is some other reason for this and we will find it. Just keep tryin and don't give up.
 
Hey DS Sultan, I noticed you just joined recently
and you are posting a lot. Keep it up, my friend,
you got a good sense of humor and obviously some
serious computer knowledge. I shall be seeking you
out shortly when I get serious about laying down
tracks, I got tons of computer questions, and folks
like you and Al Chuck have a great way of
explaining this stuff to Classical Musicians like me.
Cheers, David
 
Thanks for the kind words David.

I know I'm new around here but when I think I can help.....well....I think I can help.

Seek me out???? Do it. Love to help.

I've been having live chats with users to help them get going as well. Do you think that is something you would be interested in doing? Are you thinking of having other people help you with your projects or are you one of those 'do it all myself' kinda dudes? I try to do it all myself if I can but sometimes I just can't get things you know?

Again, Thanks.

Now, rowrep. IRQ's can be complicated, but we must trust the bus sometimes...hehehe sorry, a little hardware humor there. To see where we are I would like you to export your system config and send it off to me in an email OK. To do so follow these steps.

yellow brick one, yellow brick two.....follow the yellow brick road......hehehe sorry....

Click Start|Run
Type msinfo32.exe<click OK>
*program loads with a bunch of geeky looking information*
Click File|Export
Give it a file name (maybe rowrep) and click save. (paying attention to the directory you save it in of course so you can find it again)

Email that file to me so I can look at what is going on under the hood so to speak.... Do that and we can proceed from there..... Also, if you are interested in a real time chat let me know.

Oh yeah, the email addy is dssultan@artistcollaboration.com
Come on by www.artistcollaboration.com

(I guess the link to the bottom left there that says email would work too!)
 
Hi DS-Sultan. I think it may be fixed(Ihope). I received an email back from Cakewalk support and they suggested a few things, but one seemed to do it. Here it is:
Cakewalk-Options-Audio-General-Mixing Latency: Increase the "Buffers in Playback Queue" to 8 & slide the "Buffer Size" all the way to the right (safe or highest setting). I recorded 5 tracks 44100hz,16bit,stereo with no dropout. This is the first time!!!! I am really excited. I am still going to email you my Configs and I will also send you the Cakewalk email for your files (if you want it). Also, I still would like to know how to get rid of all those things running in the background while I am recording. You may want to post that info here, in case anyone else is as "Green" as I am. Thanks, I will get that info to you right now.

Eternally Grateful,
ROWREP
 
wow ok i did it and i dont notice anything just yet. i guess my hard drive supports it cause its still working :) what exactly does this DMA mean?

eddie

PAPicker said:
rowrep,

This might sound simplistic, but it's seldom even mentioned in the software tips. I've never seen Cakewalk or Gadget Labs mention it, however, It is one of the most important things to do.

Go to: Control Panel > System >Device Manager>Disk Drives

Then, check the settings on your hard drive(s), particularly the one in which you are accessing " wave data ". Make sure that the DMA check box is checked.

Without DMA, you get dropouts, stutters, helicoptering. etc...


Regards,
PAPicker
Click to expand...
 
Mr MegaGoo,

DMA ( Direct Memory Access ) enables your harddrive to access data faster by assigning a DMA channel to it. I may not say this exactly right, but I believe, the DMA channel is straight to the bus and utilizes upper memory blocks to read ahead and buffer the data which makes it faster than without DMA. Most harddrives are capable, however some older processers aren't.

Regards,
PAPicker
 
yea i got a 13 gig western digital cavier. i checked dma and everything was fine (but it wasnt really messed up to begin with) but after i closed cakewalk, i musta been low on resources, but my hard drive started running REALLY slow. and i've never seen that before, so i disabled DMA and rebooted. maybe i can check it again if i have problems...

eddie
 
In the "for what it's worth" department...

You can run Cakewalk on a hard drive that isn't capable of DMA. Before I got my current hard drive (which is about twice as fast in benchmarks, but a couple of years old {hey, it was free!}), I had a HDD that was built in about 1995 - a WD Caviar, actually. 3 gigs. Probably 4500 RPM. And I could still squeeze about 12 tracks out of it, if I planned well.

And I disagree with the comment on leaving virtual memory settings at the default. Especially if you only have one hard drive. If you lock your swap file at one size, you eliminate a lot of random hard drive cranks. The usual formula is 2 1/2 times the amount of physical RAM you have, but you could do less if you have more than 128MB of RAM, I'm sure.

I actually know some people who refuse to use a swap file at all ("I'd rather have a crashed computer than a slow one!"), but I wouldn't recommend that.

For still better performance, use a second hard drive, put it on your other IDE controller, and have Windows use that drive for the swap file while you use your primary drive for recording or whatever. Just one more reason to not throw away an old hard drive when you upgrade!
 
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