FX=Static/Crackling

V

vVShellShockVv

New member
What can I do to stop my computer from having static or crackling when I add FX? I know freezing a track helps, or adding FX to a bus, that does help a slight bit, but I still get an occasional crack in the monitors, is there something I can do with my computer so it preforms better? could loading my sessions from a external hard drive cause some of the problem??
 
ext hdd could be the problem....is it usb or firewire?

anyway,,the way to know is to copy a session to the system(internal) drive and load it from there to see if it fixes it...


if not,


i dont know much about your setup, but it might be worth starting with the basics...

kill running programs you dont need.

disable unnecessary visual effects.

disable wireless/bluetooth/lan/anything you aren't using...


basically. strip it down to what you NEED only,and see if it helps :)


if not,,,more info might be required,,


like,what software and interface are you using??

usually you can adjust hardware buffer settings and cpu usage settings in your recording software to help with things like this :

good luck.
 
okay yeah sorry Im late on replying back..internet has been down...Okay so yeah I do have a USB external hard drive connected to the computer..could that be the problem??

Also...my setup is..

AKG mic--->presonus tube pre-->m-audio fast track pro--->yamaha h50 monitors

my computer has
2 MB of RAM
intel T2080 @ 1.73 GHz processor

EDIT:
I didnt save my session yet to anything when the static occurred...
 
Maybe it's the 2 MB of Ram? :D J/K

Could it be that you are using the same drive that you have your programing on for your audio?
 
Okay...So far I did a couple of things that have seemed to help(as far as I can tell)....

I disabled all of my anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall apps before starting pro tools....

I downloaded "speedupmypc" software that helped me free up memory and apply most the power from my system to Pro-tools...

And I also disabled my wi-fi....

Oh yeah and I used the software "registry booster 2009" and "Drive Cleaner 2009" with "speedupmypc" which are all softwares made by Ubisoft, I dont know if the all the software's are necessary, but I figure, why not??

These things have seemed to have helped me so far, if you guys have any other suggestions, please post, I am trying to make this computer focus all its attention on pro-tools when Im recording....

Oh yeah and I forgot to add that I went on m-audios site and they suggest right clicking -my computer--->properties--->advanced system settings---->advanced tab--->preformance settings--->advanced tab--->and choosing background services....
They say that you want to choose this because most audio apps are run as a background service, so your computer will focus on whats needed...

Of course you might want to change your settings back when you are not using your computer for recoding...

Please post back ppl, any added suggestions are great:D
 
NYMorningstar said:
Maybe it's the 2 MB of Ram? :D J/K

Could it be that you are using the same drive that you have your programing on for your audio?
Click to expand...
He means that you'll get betterer performance if you have separate drives for your applications and another one for the audio tracks. Physically separate drives, not just partitions (but partitions are better than nothing).

I think the problem is your USB hdd. They aren't that fast and if you're using it for recording or loading sessions from it - it won't keep up. Depends on your drive and load obviously, but that strikes me as a weak link...
 
Yeah Slowmotion...It could cause a problem...I do have some instrumentals which are loaded on my external drive which I import onto pro-tools...Maybe I should just keep all my music files on my internal drive and only put other useless crap on my external drive... I dont load sessions from my external drive, they are all saved on my internal...

That would help right?? Or should I do more???Should I just disconnect my external hdd when using pro-tools?? I dont know much about partitioning, maybe I should research how I would do that...
 
I believe it will help. Put all your "useless" stuff on the external and keep all the music stuff on an internal drive. Don't worry about disconnecting the USB, you could leave it all plugged in, just don't use it when you're in pro-tools.

Partitioning is basically splitting up a drive into smaller "logical" drives. I'm not entirely sure if you can partition a drive without formatting it though, have a read before you go nuts with that.
 
vVShellShockVv said:
You mean the same sound drive? Im sorry I dont get what your asking...:confused:
Click to expand...
I was asking if you have a separate hard drive for your audio files.
When your processor is reading/writing audio data off/on your harddrive it's sending it in a stream. If you are using the same drive for your programming, each time the processor accesses your protools it has to interrupt that audio stream. If the processor, buffers and drive can't keep up then you'll get clicks and pops. Using a second hard drive dedicated just to your audio files helps prevent that basically.
 
So now Im more confused..First I hear that my usb hdd could be the problem...then I hear that I might wanna put my audio on a usb hdd??? I dont know, I might be making this harder than needed, Im just hella frustrated kuz I keep getting this problem...
:o
Oh and whenever I start getting the random static out my speaker and I use "Speed up my pc" to free memory and at that exact moment, the static goes away...I dont know if that may help yall figure out what goin on but yeah...I will be playing audio back for a while, then sometimes if i replay it, all of a sudden I get the static..So I go into "speed up my pc" and free up memory and it goes away right away, then sooner or later it comes back:(
 
vVShellShockVv said:
So now Im more confused..First I hear that my usb hdd could be the problem...then I hear that I might wanna put my audio on a usb hdd??? I dont know, I might be making this harder than needed, Im just hella frustrated kuz I keep getting this problem...
Click to expand...
Nah man, he just means a second hard disk, which is not to mean a USB one specifically. An additional *internal* hard disk would be ideal. See the transfer rate of USB2 is 480Mb/s whereas SATA2 would be something like 3Gb/s, and that's just theoretical speeds, not considering loading and sharing and all that (realistically a USB drive is probably 25Mb/s). But at the end of the day your USB drive WILL be slower than an internal one, too slow for audio tracking. I think.

So it's good and very sound advice, but not applicable to your current setup.
Oh and whenever I start getting the random static out my speaker and I use "Speed up my pc" to free memory and at that exact moment, the static goes away...I dont know if that may help yall figure out what goin on but yeah...I will be playing audio back for a while, then sometimes if i replay it, all of a sudden I get the static..So I go into "speed up my pc" and free up memory and it goes away right away, then sooner or later it comes back:(
Click to expand...
Check for PCI conflicts hey. That's kinda weird.
 
yeah I cant figure out the problem either...I mean I dont have the problem on my comp when I use Adobe audition, only when I add fx...But in pro-tools, it happens during regular playback:(

How would I check for pci conflicts???
 
vVShellShockVv said:
yeah I cant figure out the problem either...I mean I dont have the problem on my comp when I use Adobe audition, only when I add fx...But in pro-tools, it happens during regular playback:(

How would I check for pci conflicts???
Click to expand...
Your(click) processor is too(pop) slow,hiccup. Get another hard drive! Option: static-a faster processor.
 
Finally!!!!

Okay so I finally figured it out and I just thought I would come back even though its hella months later and post how I solved the problem for anyone who might have the same problem....I JUST WENT INTO PLAYBACK ENGINE AND PLACED EVERYTHING TO ITS HIGHEST LEVEL...I also unchecked the RTAS engine, I dont know if that makes a difference but I did it anyway:D

heres what the setting are:
H/W buffer size: 2048 samples
RTAS processor: 2 Processor
CPU Usage: 90%
RTAS engine: unchecked
DAE Playback buffer size: 3000ms; Level 4
cache size: large

Hope this helps anyone with any issues!!!!
 
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