Home Studio 2002 Problems

[BluesMeister]

I’m having problems with my newly installed copy of HS2002.

My system is as follows:
Asus LX-6 MB
Intel Celeron 466
128MB RAM
Win 98 SE
Terratec EWX 2496 audio card (with the latest WDM drivers)

First: On start up, HS reports that the one of my output devices’ audio format is not supported. I think it’s EWX 2496 RecMixer. I can disable this, but exactly what is the problem?

Second: The tool buttons on the track view are corrupt and behave very strangely when the mouse pointer is dragged over them. All other tool bar buttons are OK.

Third: I get a complete system lockup when I attempt to load VSC Dxi to play MIDI files. The mouse pointer still moves but the L/R buttons or scroll wheel have no effect. Not even Ctrl+Alt+Del works

An full unistall/reinstall of the software failed to clear up any of the problems.

It’s a bona fide copy of HS2002 – so I could pose my questions to CakeWalk themselves. Somehow I feel I’ll get better advice and a more prompt response right here

--
BluesMeister

 

[brzilian]

My first place to target as a problem area would be Windows 98. Problems you describe in the beginning are usually associated with bad WDM drivers. Win98's implementation for WDM drivers is not as good as what is found in 2000 or XP.

Also, do you set your cards settings in some kind of control panel? HS2002 only supports up to 48kHz recordings with 24bit audio. Having the card set to 96kHz could also be a cause for your problems.

Does the card work ok with other software and if so which ones?

Corrupt icons/mouse pointers are an indication of insufficient system resources. Only having 128Mb could be another problem area. I could also be some kind of conflict with your video card. What card are you using?

Not sure about the last problem. What happens when you use VSC with the sample .WRK files that came with the program?

 

[BluesMeister]

Are We There Yet?

Hi Brzilian, I'm pleased you responded to my plaintive cries!

My first place to target as a problem area would be Windows 98. Problems you describe in the beginning are usually associated with bad WDM drivers. Win98's implementation for WDM drivers is not as good as what is found in 2000 or XP.

Terratec's WDM Driver 5.0.2000 Build 126 is for Windows 98SE/ME/2000 and XP. It's the same driver for all four and it's dated 18/10/2002. I'll surf over to Micro$oft and see if there any patches relating to this issue.

Also, do you set your cards settings in some kind of control panel? HS2002 only supports up to 48kHz recordings with 24bit audio. Having the card set to 96kHz could also be a cause for your problems.

The sampling rates are set by the software application, in this case they have defaulted to 44.1kHz & 16-bit. I'm fairly certain that I can only set the latency through the Terratec control panel. I'm at work right now, but I'll check if the Terratec control panel can also set the sampling and bit rates and, if so, that they aren't conflicting with HS. You'll have to bear with me for another five hours or so.

Does the card work ok with other software and if so which ones?

I've had the card for probably 12 months now. It has worked fine with GigaSampler LE, CW PA7, CD-Player and MusicMatch Jukebox. Last night I tried it with MMJB after the crash, and it was working fine.

Corrupt icons/mouse pointers are an indication of insufficient system resources. Only having 128Mb could be another problem area. It could also be some kind of conflict with your video card. What card are you using?

Good question! All I can recall right now is S3. I can't remember the manufacturer's name off-hand. I'll check that also when I get home. I think I might try installing the software on a friend's PC (he has a WAY more powerful setup than mine!). I'll check the icons on his. He won't be able to benefit from the installation though - he's a non-musical type person so I've no doubt that he'll uninstall it right away because it's of no use to him. And yes, more RAM, more RAM, it's my mantra, but my cash resources are somewhat depleted at present!

Not sure about the last problem. What happens when you use VSC with the sample .WRK files that came with the program?

Haven't tried that yet. Give me another five hours then I'll report back.

Thanks Brzilian, I really appreciate your help so far

--
BluesMeister

 

[BluesMeister]

So Far So Bad

OK Brzilian,

Video card is an S3 Inc Trio 3D.

I've attached a JPEG of the opening screen with the icons on the Track View screwed. You'll notice that the other icons are unaffected.

I tried loading one of the tutorials and then fired up VSC DXi to see what would happen. Again my system crashed. The crash occurs when I try to drag the VSC DXi box away from the track view. What happens is the the VSC box moves with the mouse pointer, but the original image of the VSC box remains in place over the track view. When I release the mouse pointer that's it, goodnight nurse I get two VSC DXi boxes, one in the original location sitting over the track view, and one in the position where it has just been dragged.

I'm heading off to a mates house later to install HS on his PC. I'll report back tomorrow. Somehow I know it will install and behave flawlessly on his PC.

--
BluesMeister

 

[moskus]

Try to disable WDM drivers: Options -> Audio -> Advanced -> "Always use MME-drivers, even.... "

And I don't think your computer is strong enough to run HS2002 and VSC. The system requirements are a Pentium 400, and you've got a Celeron 466. But if you can't afford an upgrade, more RAM wouldn't hurt (RAM is cheap).

 

[BluesMeister]

Hi Moskus

Try to disable WDM drivers: Options -> Audio -> Advanced -> "Always use MME-drivers, even.... "

I think I have already tried that one, but I'll give it another try for sure. However, as I pointed out above Terratec do indeed have WDM drivers.

And I don't think your computer is strong enough to run HS2002 and VSC. The system requirements are a Pentium 400, and you've got a Celeron 466. But if you can't afford an upgrade, more RAM wouldn't hurt (RAM is cheap).

Yes sir, as I pointed out in a previous post my mantra is "More RAM, More RAM".

Thanks for your interest. I've sent off a report to CakeWalk in the mean time. Let's see what they come up with

Any ideas about the corrupt icons issue?

--
BluesMeister

 

[moskus]

Any ideas about the corrupt icons issue?

Perhaps your videocard drivers are corrupt (or old)? Try downloading the new ones (if available). Your S3 Inc Trio 3D, is it a new one? I remember S3 from the old ms-dos days...

 

[brzilian]

Perhaps your videocard drivers are corrupt (or old)? Try downloading the new ones (if available). Your S3 Inc Trio 3D, is it a new one? I remember S3 from the old ms-dos days...

Yeah, S3 is definetly from the good ol' days. I would suggest buying a newer GeForce based card. You can buy them for less than $100 at BestBuy nowadays.

As far as the WDM driver thing, like I said before, 98's implementation is somewhat inferior to what is found in 2000 and XP so you are not getting the full benefit in 98 of what WDM drivers offer.

I successfully used HS2002 with VSC on a PII-400. Is your system a name brand computer?

 

[BluesMeister]

We're On The Road To Nowhere...

Yeah, S3 is definetly from the good ol' days. I would suggest buying a newer GeForce based card. You can buy them for less than $100 at BestBuy nowadays.

Point taken I'll see if more up to date drivers are available for the card. There is a slight possibility of a more powerful system coming my way (see below).

As far as the WDM driver thing, like I said before, 98's implementation is somewhat inferior to what is found in 2000 and XP so you are not getting the full benefit in 98 of what WDM drivers offer.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but don't the WDM drivers improve latency to a level comparable with ASIO? I tried ticking the "Use MME drivers even though..." box last night and had the same results as previously. I don't think the WDM vs MME drivers are causing my problems. Incidentally, the system doesn't hang until I drag the Edirol VSC DXi box away from the Track View pane. Before moving the VSC box last night, I was able to right click on the channels and change the instruments from the default Piano. I suspect at this stage that it may be a videocard issue that's causing my PC to fall to its knees everytime.

I successfully used HS2002 with VSC on a PII-400. Is your system a name brand computer?

No. I bought the PC from the person who I will be asking to install HS on his current PC. He's also the IT guru at my place of employment. He puts together PCs with "the best quality components available at the time" Certainly the Asus LX-6 was highly regarded when it was first released. Consequently my friend now has a screaming wannabe-Cray computer for playing games on He's offered me a more powerful PC with 512MB RAM, however at this time Mrs BluesMeister is distinctly unimpressed I'll be phoning him in a couple of minutes and inviting myself over to install HS on his PC.

Last night I sent a CakeWalk Problem Report e-mail off to tech support at CakeWalk. I've no idea when - or indeed if - I'll receive a reply.

BTW, I've got a virus scanner running in the background, AVG Anti-Virus System. Any comments? Should I disable this while running HS?

I'll report back later on the HS install round at my friend's place.

--
BluesMeister

 

[BluesMeister]

It's Been A Hard Day's Night...

It looks like the video card is indeed the culprit. My IT friend installed HS on his PC and it performed flawlessly, pretty much as I expected it would.

I fired up HS and showed him step by step what I'd been doing and precisely when the crash occurred. He confirmed it was likely to be the video card causing the grief.

He's given me two new video cards to try, one is an SIS 6326 AGP (I'm to try this one first in the AGP slot), the second card is a newer Nvidea TNT2-M64.

I'll report back when I've installed the SIS card.

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment!

--
BluesMeister

 

[BluesMeister]

And In The End...

It was indeed the video card causing all of the grief. The SIS card I borrowed has 8MB of video ram compared with the 4MB of the S3Inc Trio 3D card. The newer card also supports DirectX which the older one didn't. That may also have been an issue.

Many thanks Brzilian and Moskus who guided me through this particular minefield. And gratitude is also due to the friend of my friend Kim (our IT person) who loaned me the SIS video card. Unfortunately I have to return the card, but it won't be too long before I lob in a new video card of my own.

I noted that the VSC DXi produces sound not unlike the Creative AWE64 Gold I used to own (ie some of the samples being rather synthetic sounding). In the eternal quest for more realistic sounds of SoundFonts, I tried using VSampler 3 with HS2002 last night,


And...


It crashed

Solve one problem and another pops up!

--
BluesMeister

 

[moskus]

Yeah, it's supposed to be that way with computers! Next thing you know, you need new ram, soundcard, cpu, harddrive, and so on , till you again need a new videocard... But that's the way the whole thing goes.

And by the way: You could still do better than 8 mb ram on the video card. 32 wouldn't be too much, I use 64 myself...


Glad you fixed it!

 

[BluesMeister]

Video Killed The Radio Star...

And by the way: You could still do better than 8 mb ram on the video card. 32 wouldn't be too much, I use 64 myself...

Well Mrs BluesMeister didn't knee me too hard in the nether regions when I told her we would need a new video card. She wants me to source one this weekend. I think I can pick up a 32MB TNT2-M64 for around $80 Australian. That should keep me going for a while...

By one of those quirks of fate, VSampler3 worked perfectly well with CakeWalk PA7 - but I wasn't able to record my guitar along side the MIDI tracks due to some other issue Now I'll have to wait a little longer to unleash my own particular brand of Blues on an unsuspecting public

--
BluesMeister

 

[moskus]

one of those quirks of fate, VSampler3 worked perfectly well with CakeWalk PA7 - but I wasn't able to record my guitar along side the MIDI tracks due to some other issue

You weren't able to record your guitar because VSampler3 "stole" the audio I/Os of your soundcard. But hey! Now you can use Vsampler as a DXi plug-in!

And... good luck with your wife!
I know how it is... Can't live with them, can't live without them! Damn, thats hard!

 

[BluesMeister]

Hey Hey, My My, Rock 'N' Roll Will Never Die

You weren't able to record your guitar because VSampler3 "stole" the audio I/Os of your soundcard.

Well thanks for that, I wasn't aware that was the exact nature of the problem I just knew it wouldn't work. When VS3 is finally released AND works with HS2002 I'll be a very happy bunny

But hey! Now you can use Vsampler as a DXi plug-in!

Yay! Looking forward to that! Roll on 32MB Video card

--
BluesMeister

 

[BluesMeister]

It's Getting Better All The Time...

Friends,

My video card of choice will be a Galaxy GeForce2 MX400 with 64MB DDR RAM for AUD$70 Not a bad deal by anybody's standards (That's about US$39.20)

This is a better deal than my IT friend could do - his best was AUD$86 for the same type of card, not necessarily the same brand, certainly the same chip-set: Nvidia.

So, what's the next problem going to be???

--
BluesMeister

 

[BluesMeister]

Start Me Up...

OK good folks, and those slightly dodgy ones out there

I've got the new Galaxy card in place. The install was a breeze and HS2002 runs like a dream

Now, my final questions are:

1) How do I play barre chords on a keyboard?

2) Where can I find the Talent button?

I must say the sounds produced from the Edirol VSC are, how can I put this diplomatically, crap. It makes my Terratec audiocard sound like a Sound Disaster AWE64! Perfectly horrible synthetic sounds. I've tried using VS3 as a DXi with my favourite SFs loaded and that sounds a lot better.

Next I will attempt to record my guitar along side my backing tracks. Now that will be fun!

--
BluesMeister

 

[moskus]

1) How do I play barre chords on a keyboard?

You'll have to use one arm as the barré. Otherwise it's similar to guitar. Straight forward

2) Where can I find the Talent button?

It's a hidden option, you'll have to press Ctrl + Alt + T a couple of times, and if that doesen't work press Ctrl + Alt + Del. I also think that talent can be downloaded as a plugin... I read an article presented in the Cave, but the link the the article is dead. Anyway, the T.A.L.E.N.T.-plugin should be avaiable in a store near you....

Good luck to you!

 

[BluesMeister]

This Is The End My Friend...

Damn! I couldn't find those Talent plug ins anywhere

So, after 241 hits, here is the epilogue to this saga.

The Galaxy video card was a POC!!! It would crash my system after a couple of hours or so. The screen would go a sort of cream colour with what looked like pyjama trouser stripes all over it. Sometimes the screen would just go all glitchy, like there were two images overlaid but slightly off-set.

Ctrl+Alt+Del wouldn't work. Total system lock-up.

Mrs BluesMeister would hear my cursing and she would appear in the 'puter room doorway, grasping a rolling pin, stamping her foot. Man it was SCARY!

My guess is that the heatsink wasn't seated properly, or that there was a dry joint somewhere. I took it back and it was exchanged - no questions - for a Graphic Master GeForce2 MX400. So far so good amigos.

If there are any more problems, I'll be wearing a head bandage!

Good night one and all, and thanks for the help.

--
BluesMeister