I am getting a very odd glitchy audio effect on every channel's playback.

[3tuxedo]

So i've been working for this project for a while on Cubase and it was going perfectly fine until all of a sudden on my playback, no matter if it was in my headphones or through my monitors, the entire audio was glitchy. there are pops and cracks in the playback, i can solo a track and it will do it on any track i solo. i have no idea, the only thing i can think of is the workload is too much? but it is such a small project, 6 tracks, and im not sure what to do! thanks in advance.

 

[JimmyS1969]

Here, we go into buffer settings or computer setup.

First question, what level are you at as far as knowing how to adjust buffer size in the control panel of your interface or soundcard? A description of what your setup is, regarding OS, soundcard/interface and version of Cubase is a necessity before any questions can be answered.

 

[3tuxedo]

thanks so much for the reply, i am running Cubase 5 on Windows 7, my computer has an i7. I have a Presounus Firestudio Tube that hasn't given me problems until now. And as far as levels of knowing how to adjust buffer size, i would say low, i recently switched from Logic to Cubase. Could this have happened out of the blue? It has been working perfectly for months.

 

[JimmyS1969]

Increase your buffer size. It will be in the Control Panel of your interface. In Cubase, go to Devices>Device Setup...>VST Audio System>your interface. There should be an option to adjust buffer(latency) there. Larger buffer will give your computer more time to process. This will add latency though.

Another thing you need to do, is optimize your computer for audio recording. Read THIS.

 

[3tuxedo]

i tried what you said, there is no choice to change the buffer size. and nothing happens when i attempt to open the control panel. right now it says my input latency is 5.7 and my output latency is 13.7. im not really sure though.

also, that link for optimizing a pc for recording is GREAT. thank you i did all of them, although it didnt help in this situation, i know it will in the future.

 

[JimmyS1969]

There has to be a way to get to the control panel of your interface. They all have some way to adjust for latency. I wish I had more to offer, other than find it. That will be the solution to your issues you have now. Try Presonus support. There has to be an answer in there somewhere.

Maybe a firmware update for your device.

 

[3tuxedo]

ok so i found where to adjust samples, im using my interface as the in and out, so i opened up Universal Control thaht basically controls my Presonus device, and i changed the samples to 1024, it seemed to work for a while, then just earlier today, glitchy again. I changed it to 2048, and it is still glitchy, whatttttt.

 

[JimmyS1969]

Well, you are on your way now. This is how you will be able to control the use of your CPU. You now may need to go back through and find out what is interrupting your audio.

DPC Latency Checker may help.

 

[3tuxedo]

do you suggest i run the latency checker while playing back through my interface?

 

[JimmyS1969]

The program is designed to test your system for possible problems that could cause latency issues. If your PC is running/setup correctly for audio, there should be no interruptions. DPC is meant to show you if there are still issues that are disrupting. Run it and see what you find....

 

[3tuxedo]

so i playback a project multiple times with the glitching happening and the latency checker on and it says my machine should be able to handle real time streaming of audio without a problem. The absolute maximum is 155 us. I am stumped.

 

[3tuxedo]

I also tried playback without any plugins, it seemed to be fine. but when i attempted to add more and more it seemed to slowly crackle more and more.

 

[JimmyS1969]

That is a good sign. When was the last time you defragged your drive?

And are you on a laptop or desktop? Drive speed 7200 or 5200? Recording to the same drive as your OS running?

 

[3tuxedo]

I defragged it about 2 weeks ago, it is a desktop, i can give you more specs if you want, i want to say it is 5400 but i forget, and yes i am recording to the same drive as my OS.

 

[JimmyS1969]

First off, I would recommend MyDefrag over the stock W7 one.

Usually 5400 RPM drives are used in lappy's, so that is not likely the issue. I had some issues using an old Dell W7 desktop that I tried to run audio and OS/plugins at the same time. It was however was only a dual core AMD. Still, you are trying to stream audio, run plugins, OS, and who knows what else all at once. Likely your audio will be taking a hit. I would more than anything, recommend that you get a separate drive for your audio. Whether USB or installed internally in you desktop, your project folders would be saved there. Then, you have two separate drives delegating tasks, as opposed to your main drive trying to do everything at once. Remember, your drive has to skip around to do all of this. For audio to be consistently uninterrupted, it really needs to have it's own drive.

I am not sure, but you may be able to test this by backing up a project folder to a flash drive, and see if you still have the issue, reading audio from the flash drive. Though I have never tried such a test. Suppose I could go try it, but I do not have the issues you do to compare with.

 

[3tuxedo]

I would want to say that my machine should be able to handle what im giving it, but who knows, maybe its too much. I mean it has an i7 with 8gb of ram, but still, its not invincible.

 

[JimmyS1969]

Yeah, so is mine, but I run two 1TB drives in Raid1, and two external audio drives. I have no problem running 60+ tracks with full mix worth of plugins, as well as VSTi's, and still can record tracks with less than 12ms latency. I am going to assume the single drive is your issue.

 

[3tuxedo]

wow, that makes me sound like im doing nothing! well either way it just confuses me because its only playback, not even recording right now. im trying to back up onto another drive and see how it works.

 

[JimmyS1969]

Yeah, it seems like something is weird there. One thing that used to give me issues, was Superfetch. Every few seconds, I would get a CPU spike. It can be disabled by entering services.msc from the start menu, but that was with my old AMD board. You shouldn't be having this with your i7. Well, other than the drive thing.

Actually, I installed W7 OEM on my recording PC, and still disabled Superfetch. There are many more unnecessary services running on a manufacturers version of W7. But still, if you optimized already, it seems something else is messing with you. There could be some bloatware stuff that the builder of your PC has running. Usually, most of this is killed, just by disabling internet while recording. Though, a program that is trying to find connection, could be taking away your connection. I am no computer pro by any means, but these are just things I found throughout forums to figure out my past issues.

 

[3tuxedo]

well, you are close to a pro to me. i just dont get it, i opened up another project just now and it was fine, it had 3 tracks of heavy plugins, and one that is just bare. i know that is only 4 tracks but it is about equal to the one i was getting crackles with. whatttt. could it be specific plugins? or possibly something im doing with certain tracks and not others? ill try disabling superfetch.