Major recording issues

  • Thread starter Thread starter Unto The Sky
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Unto The Sky

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Hiya


I've had my lexicon alpha all of 5 days and have been running into a few problems.

First off, since i've had it every so often it'll just stop working and no sound will come through, i have to switch driver and then back again and it'll be good for another while.

More recently, it's just stopped taking my guitar and replacing it with a loud, constant buzz/beep sound. I put it off for a while but it's getting more frequent and the last time I had it i haven't been able to get it to work.

I'm running with lexicons latest asio driver, a lexicon alpha interface and cubase.

anybody have any idea what the problem might be?
 
First I'd try another USB cable. PC? Is your computer setup optimized for recording performance?
 
Umm do you mean like specification wise?
It has 4GB RAM and two hyperthreading processors at 2.8GHZ. 512GBHD at 7200RPM, windows xp 32.
It doesn't seem to have any issues handling it. even with multiple instances of guitar rig and other vsts running. :s

ALso, I don't think i have another USB cable for it, but i'll take a look in town today.
 
You may just need to increase your buffer size (latency). Are you using the Cubase LE4 that came with it? if so, F12 will show the performance meter. If the red light comes on you are running out of juice.

One of many articles on the subject of optimizing for performance: Optimising Windows XP For Music
 
No problems with that I'm afraid. In fairness my buffer size wasn't that low to begin with, i was getting about 9ms. I know I don't have the fastest pc around, but i've done similar things on lower spec pcs without these issues :\
 
Unto The Sky said:
No problems with that I'm afraid. In fairness my buffer size wasn't that low to begin with, i was getting about 9ms. I know I don't have the fastest pc around, but i've done similar things on lower spec pcs without these issues :\
Click to expand...

No problems with what? Your DAW is? When you ask a question in the forum, you should read the response and actually answer back to it. No one can help you if you don't respond to help.

Good luck man
 
Well your general post concerned computer peformance, I checked all the things you listed including the articles content and it's already optimized for recording audio, i'm not anywhere my cpu limit. It just seemed a bit quicker than addressing every point. Sorry if it bothered you.
 
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I wasn't bothered man. I am here to help. My 'general post'? You mean my first post regarding your general question? I returned the response of 'setting up computer for performance' because your computer may seem to work well as far as performance and latency, but many settings, virus protection, update and such, may cause intermittent problems with audio recording. Then you responded with your computer specs and not an answer to my question. Your 'lower spec pcs without these issues' may not have something in the system that is messing with communication to your interface like your better comp has. You never answered what DAW (version of Cubase) you are using either. LE 4 is very buggy. LE 5 is way more stable but still has issues that only the full version of 5.5.3 update has fixed. Full versions have their own set of issues sometimes. Complete info is needed to help diagnose the problem.

'Reply With Quote' is the best way to respond directly to a direct question. I am only trying to get direct answers so that I can understand the issue correctly.

I'm trying to help man. Clear responses make this easier. :D

Jimmy
 
jimmys69 said:
I wasn't bothered man. I am here to help. My 'general post'? You mean my first post regarding your general question? I returned the response of 'setting up computer for performance' because your computer may seem to work well as far as performance and latency, but many settings, virus protection, update and such, may cause intermittent problems with audio recording. Then you responded with your computer specs and not an answer to my question. Your 'lower spec pcs without these issues' may not have something in the system that is messing with communication to your interface like your better comp has. You never answered what DAW (version of Cubase) you are using either. LE 4 is very buggy. LE 5 is way more stable but still has issues that only the full version of 5.5.3 update has fixed. Full versions have their own set of issues sometimes. Complete info is needed to help diagnose the problem.

'Reply With Quote' is the best way to respond directly to a direct question. I am only trying to get direct answers so that I can understand the issue correctly.

I'm trying to help man. Clear responses make this easier. :D

Jimmy
Click to expand...

Alright man, well I'm running a full version of cubase 5 so I'm hoping thats not the issue.

I see what you mean now in regards to cpu useage. I usually close most things off, however AVG is always running, i've never properly looked into closing it off. Updates aren't set to automatic or anything either.
 
Hey man, AVG may be the issue. Anti virus software running while you are in a Cubase session, can cause interruptions. If you must use your computer for both internet and recording, you will be best disabling all internet related programs and services while using Cubase. I myself use a second PC to do my major internet stuff. On my recording computer, i have internet access available for downloading/uploading files, but I have removed these programs from initializing on startup via 'msconfig'. When I need to use the net I enable the antivirus programs before doing so. This is part of the 'optimizing Windows for performance' deal. Your buffer settings may be high and not show high usage via the VST Performance meter in Cubase, but when one of these background programs decides to update, send a message, or otherwise rear it's head for any reason, it can cause your CPU to be overwhelmed. Ctrl/Alt/Delete to Device Manager. Click the performance tab. If sitting idle shows any usage over 5%, there is something running in the background that is going to mess with the stability of Cubase.

The most expensive 'high end' PC will need to be set up for recording. That is just what needs to happen with Windows based systems used for recording. Windows, especially Vista and 7, have many programs running (stock) in the background that will mess up your DAW. Many other programs can be running as well from the manufacturer of the unit that will only cause problems. My HP had many help/promotion programs that were wasting performance and had to be completely removed.

I hope I didn't come across as an ass at first. I had a crappy day and may have projected that in my response. My bad.

Jimmy
 
Just to add, antivirus programs can also mess with your dongle or ILOK licenses as well. I did a Microsoft update recently that made my ILOK unusable. I had to disable Defender, Anti Spy, and reinstall the ILOK software. Seemingly simple updates can really cause problems with recording software. I have heard of the option of installing your recording stuff on a separate partition on your drive so that two setups are possible in tandem. I do not however have a clue as to how to do this or how workable it would really be.
 
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