Snap crackle & pop

  • Thread starter Thread starter RetroMan
  • Start date Start date
RetroMan

RetroMan

King Of The 80s
I'm using, I guess, an old version of Cakewalk (Professional 7) everything seems to be working fine and I like the interface, but I'm getting some faint 'poping' sounds happening on playback - the more tracks I lay down, the more frequent they become.
At first, I thought it was because I had the "Enable Simultaneous playback/record" enabled in my audio options(which I understand degrades the sound quality (sampling Hz) while recording) and I thought that when I disengage it after I'd recorded everything (and the quailty was restored) it would go away, but when I did it - the pops where still there (only in better quality this time :rolleyes:)

Could it be something to do with the 'buffers' or something!? I'm a total newbie to digital recording and Cakewalk and I'm pretty much 'crash coursing' though it (I learn easier this way)

the pops don't appear to be happening AS I record - only on playback, and when I isolate the culprit tracks and analize them the pops ONLY appear when there is something being played into that track and seem to sound like a faint, out of time click track/metronome eg pop...........pop............pop.............pop...
and when I play a few tracks together, the pops seem to be almost in sync (some completely out) and faintly clicking like a spooky metronome

The sound card I am using is a Soundblaster LIVE

I hope someone can make sence of all this - I've tried to explain it as best I could ;)

thanks
 
hey... Make REAL SURE that the driver for the soundcard matches your windows version. I had a similar problem when I hooked up my Delta soundcard and was using Windows ME. The driver disk that came with the soundcard didn't have the ME driver.. I used one for WIN2000.. and got lots of pops... I had to go to the Delta site and download the correct driver. If you're using Windows 98... I'm not sure if whether you're using First Edition or 98SE (second edition) makes a difference as far as the 98 driver goes... Check it out though. I took me quite a few days of pulling my hair out... ...and a bunch of help from folks here, to get the kinks worked out. Good Luck!
 
This might be strange (and will also be an additional info to these threads that I'm replying to ;) ), but yesterday I installed new drivers for my network-card, and the sound was crackling and poping all over the place. It helped to rise the buffer latency in the cards control panel, but the problem didn't wanish completely. (Rising the latency is for me a no-go anyway...)

The sollution was to roll back to the drivers I used before.


Anyway, PA7 was a loooong time ago. I don't even remember if it has a "latency-slider". If it does, try to rise the latency.
 
Yup.. That Too... I sorta remember when I set up my computer with the new soundcard, I also set up a network, and seem to remember there was a problem with that as well, but I can't quite remember.....zzzzzzzzzz.... yeah.. but I simply disabled the network drivers while working with Cakewalk. I don't have to do that now, so who knows.....:confused:
 
You guys running ASUS mobo along with SB Live! ? uninstall ASUS's firmware mobo driver...
 
Fmmahoganyrush said:
hey... Make REAL SURE that the driver for the soundcard matches your windows version. If you're using Windows 98... I'm not sure if whether you're using First Edition or 98SE (second edition) makes a difference as far as the 98 driver goes
Click to expand...

Yes, I am using Windows 98 actually! (First Version) so I'm currently downloading the newest 98 divers for it as I type this so I'll have to see how it goes.

Originally posted by moskus
It helped to rise the buffer latency in the cards control panel, but the problem didn't wanish completely. (Rising the latency is for me a no-go anyway...)

The sollution was to roll back to the drivers I used before.

Anyway, PA7 was a loooong time ago. I don't even remember if it has a "latency-slider". If it does, try to rise the latency.
Click to expand...

I'll have a look for it in the options screens - what excactly is 'latency' - is it something to do with the speed at which the audio is mounted on the hard drive or something!? remember I'm a newbie to this ;)

thanks
 
Definition: Latency. The amount of time it takes to process a signal from the end of the signal to when the sound is heard. Example: Time between you press a key on you midi-keyboard and the softsynth plays.


:)
 
Thanks for the deninition there moskus - I understand it a bit better now :)

I downloaded the newest update I could find for windows 98 and it installed ok but I'm still getting the 'pops'
I increased the 'queue buffers' in the playback options and tried some other weird things like moving back my graphics acceleration
slider!? or deleting everything in my start-up folder (which are some of the things to try from the CAKEWALK FAQ under how to stop the popping) but none of them worked.
I have a feeling it is my soundcard, because I checked some older stuff that I recorded with my previous soundcard (AWE64) and there doesn't appear to be any popping noises. I'm tempted to put that card back in my machine, but the LIVE sounds better - so I'm totally stumped at the moment. I much have to look for a different driver again, or install Windows 98 second edition!?!?
 
Does Win98 (first edition) support WDM-drivers (for audio)?

Have you tried to force MME-drivers? Options -> Audio -> Advanced -> Always use MME-drivers....
 
Retro, I just thought I'd chime in. I was having similar problems, and found out that my hard drive was not set to enable DMA. Once I changed this, the pops and clicks went away.

Windows will give you a scary message when you try to change this, but nothing went wrong on my system as a result.
 
moskus said:
Does Win98 (first edition) support WDM-drivers (for audio)?

Have you tried to force MME-drivers? Options -> Audio -> Advanced -> Always use MME-drivers....
Click to expand...

I can't seem to find this option - you mean within the Cakewalk settings? I'm not sure if Win98 FE supports it or not. theres stuff about DMA but not MME in the Advanced audio tab

maestro said:
Retro, I just thought I'd chime in. I was having similar problems, and found out that my hard drive was not set to enable DMA. Once I changed this, the pops and clicks went away.
Click to expand...

any chimes are good maestro! how do I go about enabling DMA on my hard drive if it's not already? I'm not sure how to do it, thanks
 
UPDATE: I just found my HD settings and DMA is enabled on both drives so unfortunately thats not the cause - thanks for the suggestion anyway maestro.

gosh, am I ever going to go to the bottom of this?!? :rolleyes:
 
yes Moskus is referring to options>audio>advanced in the Cakewalk menu up at the top of the main screen.
 
Toki987 said:
yes Moskus is referring to options>audio>advanced in the Cakewalk menu up at the top of the main screen.
Click to expand...

I think my version must be too old - I have to follow a different path tools>audio options>then click on the advanced tab
but there doesn't appear to be anything about MME Drivers.
It might be in a different place?! theres lots of other things to muck about with though, but I don't want to mess around with something I shouldn't
I was thinking maybe I should install Windows98 SE and see if that fixes it? it's a hell of a hassle if that doesn't fix it though!
 
RetroMan said:
I can't seem to find this option - you mean within the Cakewalk settings? I'm not sure if Win98 FE supports it or not. theres stuff about DMA but not MME in the Advanced audio tab
Click to expand...
Yes, my bad. PA7 is still a long time ago. PA7 will only use MME-drivers, so that's no problem at all...
 
moskus said:
Does Win98 (first edition) support WDM-drivers (for audio)?

Have you tried to force MME-drivers? Options -> Audio -> Advanced -> Always use MME-drivers....
Click to expand...

Mokus. From my history using 98 first edition, it doesn't support shit. Seriously, something as simple as trying to install a plug-n-play USB wireless network deal, it wacked the whole thing out.. ...and ME was no picnic either. 98 Second Edition is the most stable (and easy.. ...as opposed to XP) that I've used, however it's my understanding that Win2000 is right up there with 98SE.

Retro, it you have the 98SE upgrade, INSTALL IT!
 
Fmmahoganyrush said:
Retro, it you have the 98SE upgrade, INSTALL IT!
Click to expand...

Ok this question is off topic, but am I able to install it over the top of the version I have now, or do I have to re-format my whole drive and then install the SE ?
 
If you have the SE upgrade, so can certainly run it and it will upgrade the first edtion. I have run the 98SE Full Verson over 98FE and was able to upgrade without having to start with a clean drive. If I recall, I might have gotten a warning in the DOS text while Setup was initiating having to do with a compressed drive or disc cache, or something, but I just chose to continue, and it installed without a hitch. You proably wantto back up any important stuff prior to attemping this just in case.

Tom.
 
Ok, I'll give it a go (remembering to backup the important stuff smart thinking ;) )
Thanks Tom I have a good feeling about this.......well so far anyway
 
Fmmahoganyrush said:
Mokus. From my history using 98 first edition, it doesn't support shit. Seriously, something as simple as trying to install a plug-n-play USB wireless network deal, it wacked the whole thing out.. ...and ME was no picnic either. 98 Second Edition is the most stable (and easy.. ...as opposed to XP) that I've used, however it's my understanding that Win2000 is right up there with 98SE.
Click to expand...
I think WinXP (and Win2000) is great! My machine has never been better. I ran a dualboot with Win98SE and Win2000, and I figured that Win2000 was much more stable and easy to use than Win98. But that's just me... :D

A week ago I installed WinXP and I've never been more satisfied with a Win OS. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top