playback buffer

[bdemenil]

I've been having some issues with skipping durring plackback (when doing many tracks). It seems to help when I increase the playback buffer size. However doing this creates a lag between the sound and visual controls. Also, I wonder if this will introduce a lag into recording. A funny side affect is when I turn the buffer size way up, my song cuts off slightly before it actualy ends - why would this be? Any recomendations out there on tweeking the buffers?

 

[DaveO]

I also had the "skipping" problem and had to increase the playback buffer size. And yes, there is a noticeable lag between mixer moves and when you hear it. There's a also a lag between what what you see on the VU meters and what you hear. But the manual says that's the price to pay for increasing you buffer sizes so I guess that's normal. It can be annoying, but it hasn't affected my recordings yet.
I haven't noticed any lags in recording. All my tracks still line up correctly.

I haven't had the "cut off" problem you mentioned, though. Also, I don't remember seeing any recommendations on buffer tweaking other than trial and error.

 

[Tom Hicks]

buffer issues have surfaced the last few builds

If you do a search on the n-track forum for "James Peters",JP has offered some suggested buffer settings as well as other specific PC tweaks to configure your machine for audio.
Tom

 

[bdemenil]

James peters not found

I searched the n-track forum for JP and James Peters, and didn't find anything.

 

[DaveO]

Tom,

Do you mean THIS forum or do you mean the discussion forum on Fasoft's web site?

By the way, if you guys haven't checked out Fasoft's web site definitely do it once in a while. There's a lot of good info there as well.

http://www.fasoft.com

 

[bdemenil]

he mean Fasoft

I found a message pertaining to buffering on fasoft's message board.

This is what I got -

Try 128000 for buffer size with number of buffers set to 4, with preload set to around 7-10 and 'disk loading' to 2. Too big buffering may be counter-productive as the program uses too much memory and the OS starts to try to use the hard disk as memory ('trashing').
You should be able to further decrease the latency using the 'disk loading..' parameter: for example if you're using 128k (128000) buffers and 'disk loading' is set to 2, you should be able to obtain similar 'track handling' performance with 64k and 'disk loading..' set to 4, 32k and 'disk loading' = 8 and so on. I've tried successfully up to 8k and 'disk loading' set to 16, with a latency of ~0.2 seconds.
It won't go much lower than that because of latency limitations of the standard Windows drivers (DirectSound drivers should perform a little better). As you suggest it should better with ASIO drivers, which n-Track should support soon..


I tried these settings, and they work Ok except that the delay between visual and playback is still pretty bad. Also, my songs cut off before they're through. It appears that n-Track stops playing when the visual controls (pre-buffer) believe the song is over. Whatever is in buffer at that time is never played. So if you have about .6 seconds of buffer, you'll never hear the last .6 seconds of your song in playback. Has anyone else noticed this, and can anyone suggest a fix?

 

[bdemenil]

also buffers

Also, can anyone give a coherent explanation as to what the different buffering parameters actualy do. The documentation isn't very clear, and neither is the previous post - taken from fasoft's forum.