Shouldn't this Basic setup work??

S

Snowdog

New member
I'm dipping my toes into the digital realm. I'm using Cakewalk Guitar tracks 2 in my PC. I'm running with 192mb of ram. I composed about a 4 minute track using Drop and Drag drummer and used my Pod to record a guitar track on channel two. Upon playback the 2nd track starts lagging behind at around the 3 min. mark and gets progressively worse as the recording moves along. Twice I've gotten "Time out" and "Drop out" messages. This is with only 2 tracks! I would think 192mb ram would be enough to run the Starship Enterprise let alone Cakewalks most inexpensive multitrack program. Any suggestions?
 
Forgot to mention I am using a SB sound card but it should be capable of simultanious playback and recording.
 
check wav position out for timing.... options/audio/device profiles...this helps with midi...take trouble shooting audio help section and methodically try everything they suggest....I've had success following their directions...good luck...
 
My specs seem quite meager in comparison to what your running Sdog, but I am getting better results. My midi may occasionally drop out of time on me but recorded audio parts usually are OK. If I recorded them OK.

You may want to consider re-recording the dragging part and then make comparisons between both versions.
 
When I asked about the hard drive, I meant, is it 5400 rpm? 7200 rpm? UDMA-66, or UDMA-33, or just old fashioned EIDE?

The drive and drive controller type can make a tremendous difference.

For some info about tuning a PC to be a DAW, here's a link:

http://www.audioforums.com/win95_setup.html

-AlChuck
 
Well, that might have something to do with it. When I had such a setup in a P-200 MMX last year I only got maybe 4 tracks if I was lucky. Read this article at Cakewalk's website:

http://www.cakewalk.com/support/faq.htm#38

The crux of the article is "your audio hard disk must have an 'uncached' or 'sustained' transfer rate of 3.1 MB per second or higher." They have a pointer to a tool called WintTune that lets you test this parameter.

Good luck!

-AlChuck
 
I ran the test and the results were an uncached performance rate of 3.47 mb per sec. Shouldn't that be fast enough to run 8 tracks?
 
Well, good... then you have a chance of getting it to work. Did you go through all the points in that optimizing audio article?

-AlChuck
 
Thanks Alchuck and Kennedy!! I also ran Echo Reporter and it said my system should be able to playback 32 channels so I started changing some settings and it appears to be working much better now. My Pod sounds awesome and no more tape hiss!! My Tascam is now a submixer(for the time being).
Now on to my next question. I don't want to eat up all my hard drive space with audio files and it was suggested to me to put evrything on 250mb zip disks via my USB port. Is this a good idea? Or is there a better way about it? Please excuse my lack of knowledge on this subject. I'm sure these questions are very elementary in nature to some of you.
 
If you have a zip drive, by all means archive your audio tracks to zip disks. I have a CD-RW drive and I use CD-Rs for the same thing. Plus I get to make audio CDs of my stuff too (if I ever finish anything!).

-AlChuck
 
pod noise

I see both you guys have the pod....any ideas on reducing the noise from it? Also have you had any luck with the sound diver...I couldn't get it to work at all...I'm Baffled.
thanks
 
Mine is VERY quiet provided I keep my distance from my monitor. That seems to be very important. Also patches with Chorus seem to want to be noisier than others.
AlChuck, with the zip disks can I download the entire project in seperate track format so it can be reinstalled at a later date when I feel I can improve it? I have a CD burner in my CPU. Can I use it for the same purpose?
 
SnowDog,

Hmmm, with Cakewalk you should really save it as a BUN file so all the audio is tied together with the project file. I guess with big enough files it might not fit on a 250-MB disk... I wonder if you can export the individial tracks as WAVs and reassemble the file again from the pieces later?

I guess this might also be an issue with CD-R since you still have a ceiling, though 400 MB more than the ZIP disks you mentioned...

kennedy connor,

My POD doesn't seem any noiser than a miked guitar amp would... and yes, I have managed to get the SoundDiver to work, though it's cryptic as hell and I haven't bothered to really learn how to use it... did you download the PDF manual from the emagic website?

-AlChuck
 
the pod revolution

pOD....WELL it just went psycho at a gig and I promptly unplugged for the rest of the evening....probably user error....the hum issues may be a "homestudio" grounding problem... too many wall warts?
Cake Storage...Alchuck is right on about CDR/CDRW is definitely...it....i saved a 20+ audio track /7 mins. song on one cdr.....but you can't put much else on it... If you are goung to put wavs on seperate disks check the CWAF tool to make sure you get ALL of them...
 
about that pod

my pod is great, the only thing i ever had a problem with was a clipping type noise, but i figured it out.
i don't know about you guys, but even with all the options on the pod for effects i like to record with no fx then add them from the higher quality dx fx. with the channel volume high enough, you can actually get digital clipping from the
pod's reverb or fx section because they are digital fx, not analog. the only way i've found to fully disable the reverb is in the soundiver software (when you turn the knob full counter-clockwise, it's still on and in the signal path). so there is at least one advantage to getting the software to work. but also, as was mentioned previously, monitors cause a great deal of electromagnetic interference all the way to about 12 feet in front of it. i just set up the recording track then turn the monitor off, this results in sweet recordings with great dynamic range and a very low noise floor. well, there's my two cents...
Aaron
 
directX vs pod?

Part of my pod noise seems to happen because the monitor(audio) isn't loud enough and i end up cranking the pod. Lately I've been monitoring the pod from the computer output this greatly reduces necessity for hi volumne.

I like the directx plugins but really hit the wall quickly when I use them....especially Waves which of course sound the best....I am runnung P3 750,256 ram 7200 hd. Is there something I'm doing wrong? the other day I had fifyt+ tracks with no efx....?
 
I find most drop out problems in cakewalk due to the harddrive. Especially with only a 5200RPM oldy EIDE. Probably whats goin on, is the harddrive isnt fast enough to move the head to find files that the computer needs to run windows, cakewalk, etc, and to move it back to continue the streaming with the audio. Anyone can have this dropout problem with even a 7200RPM ATA100 (and possibly even SCSI). Its the fact that the harddrive has to move the head of the drive to a different location to access files it needs, interupting the audio processing stream, which causes a dropout. My recommendation...get 2 harddrivs, one with windows and all your other running programs on it, and the other just used for straight recording ;).

Hope im giving true information here and if im not, someone correct me. And i hope i helped yah out in anyway.

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