Gadgetlabs with cool edit

  • Thread starter Thread starter beatleme
  • Start date Start date
B

beatleme

New member
I have a problem recording 16 tracks simultaneously on my computer. The tracks are 16 bit audio at 44 khz. The problem is it seems to skip one or two times during record, which ruins the recordings. I have three 824's set up with the following configuration:
PIII 733 Mhz
128 MB PC133 memory
Maxtor Diamoond Max Plus 40 40GB hard drive (for audio)
Quantom Fireball CR 4.3GB(for programs)
Mitsumi CD-R
Cool Edit Pro 1.1
Soyo 6BA + IV Motherboard
3 Gadgetlab 824's PCI sound cards
1 ATI Rage PCI Video Card

I have been told my system should be able to handle this and much more. Why are those skips occuring? How do I get it to become a clean record.....haaaaaa

Sal
 
You probably meant to type Cool Edit Version *1.2*. Anyway, rumor has it Version 1.2 is better than earlier versions, fewer probs. Get it if you don't have it.

But three 824s? 16 tracks simultaneously? Oh, go on, indulge me - what are you up to?
 
Well, I am recording 16 tracks simultaneously from 2 alesis Adat's. I have been trying to get this recording on hard disk for some time with the above mentioned gear. There is always a skip or two on the record. I have a pretty fast system, and the maxtor plus 40 hard disk has a sustained transfer rate of about 13mb/sec. I cannnot understand why it is doing this, I am recording the 16 tracks 16 bit and 44khz sampling rate, so I do not think it is too much of a load. I have verion 1.1 of cool edit pro....do you think this is a software problem, or do I need a faster hard disk? I don't know what to do. The reason why I have 3 824's is because I want to be able to process up to 24 individual tracks on my computer and then output them individually to a mixer to do the final mix. Then I would output from the mixer back to the computer on 2 tracks for the final mix record. But I cannot even record the 16 tracks coming into the cards from the adat's at 16 bits, 44k simultaneously...I am getting really frustrated and don't know what to do.
 
Hey what OS are you using? There are some pretty serious problems with Maxtor drives and Win9x....that is, the don't operate properly in UDMA mode...in fact they won't do DMA at all. This will seriously increase the CPU overhead and reduce transfer rates and produce skipping as you described.

Does the skipping appear to be hard drive related?

Also check that you have no other programs running in the background as you are recording. It doesn't take much to screw things up.

Also check out your recording software. I am not familiar with CoolEdit. You might look into updates as suggested above.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I've never had anything but Version 1.2, but people talk about how it got rid of a lot of the bugs in earlier versions.

I like what Slack's saying, too. It might not be just one problem, right? But surely your system has enough capacity.
 
I am using windows 95. It is the version with DMA and USB support. It is a lot faster than Windows 98 I believe. I don't know how Windows NT and Windows 2000 will work on my setup, but I am so frustrated I will try anything. I believe the hard disk is working in DMA mode because the check box in the devices section of control panel is checked, but if you have an alternate way of checking, please tell me. There are no programs running in the background, only cool edit pro 1.1 and maybe some essential windows programs.
 
I am not sure if it is a hard drive related problem, how would I be able to tell? One thing I notice is that the while playing back the 16 tracks, I can still do many tasks with the computer with no playback glitching....so it seems like the computer is fast enough. This problem is very annoying.
 
Essentially, reading and writing are the same thing speed wise. Writing should actually be faster since there is less seeking involved...especially on a defragged hard drive. (which is *not* necessarilly a good idea while you have audio projects already on the drive, especially when you're recording 16 tracks at a time...you want the tracks to remain interleved)

It sounds like your drive is working properly however.

Basically what I meant by "hard drive related".......when it hiccups, is the hard drive "thrashing"....e.g. does there seem to be excessive activity for a second or two when it burps?

Without having a very clear picture of your actual problem, I would say that it could very well be a limitation of your version of cool edit. Be it a bug or inefficient code...I would look for an update.

I wish more people around here had experience recording 16 tracks at a time since you'd probably get better responses. That's a lot in one pop and I've certainly never tried it with ANY software.

One thing you *might* try...and I almost hate to suggest this because it could be something very simple...is to download a shareware version of another program like n-Track and see what happens. Is the problem consistant between applications?

Another thing you might try is to follow the win95 "optimization" procedures at some website :) I'm not going to dig it up for you but if you go to www.fasoft.com and get into the links page you'll find it. Some of the suggestions on that site are worth looking into. Since your problem seems to occur only here and there...decent optimization might be in order.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Here are a few suggestions.

You might want to try making windows fix the size of its memory cache and virtual memory - the dynamic nature of these means that they _can_ cause audio glitches (but you have a _very_ wizzy system with lotsa memory, so don't expect much from this tweak). Repost or email me if you want instructions.

As an addition to previous posts, I would suggest getting hold of a downloadable demo of a top-brand sequencer (Cubase/Cakewalk)(try hitsquad.com) and seeing if you have any trouble with that.

Good luck,

matt

PS There's a magazine article I have which may help you, but I've lost the link! Maybe I'll post it later.

[This message has been edited by Cakey2 (edited 03-17-2000).]
 
I already tweaked the virtual memory and other things too, like vcache and changing the file system to network computer. I read an article with all kinds of optimizations for windows 95, and I did them all. I will try another software program, it could be that cool edit pro 1.1 is messing me up. I will download a different program and see what that does...
 
I would check out CEP 1.2, I use to have lots of glitches in 1.1 and have lots less in 1.2. It still isn't the solid software it should be though.

MIKE
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top