system stuttering problem

[saxman72]

Hi there fellow Cubase users!

My playback (audio AND midi) stutters when I activate 6 audio inputs. Everything's just fine when I only have 2 or 4 activated, but with 6 audio inputs activated, stuttering occurs during playback. It's easy to de-activate the inputs when I don't need that many, but I DO need that many to record drums.

Is there some system setting I need to adjust to get smooth playback with 6 inputs activated? Or am I just out of luck with the set-up I'm running (below)?

Cubase VST/32 5.something
PIII 450 w/256K ram
GadgetLabs 8.24 soundcard


All input is appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Roker1]

my 2c

Havent had similar problems, so couldnt tell you exactly what you could do, but your system does seem a bit "slow"...but again..it doesnt have to be that....good luck anyway...

 

[Bass Master "K"]

Roker may have this one right. If 2 and 4 are working but when you go to 6 you get a stutter, you may be going over what your system can handle.

Things you can try without getting a whole new computer:

1) Make sure you don't have ANY unneccisary programs loaded up in the background. You can fix a lot of this by streamlining your computers startup programs. They run in the background and sap RAM

2) Make sure you have the newest driver for your soundcard.

3) Check your latency and buffering block in your "Audio Setup" section. If I am not mistaken trying to run your latency too lean when you don't have a lot of CPU power can lead to stuttering and I believe the buffering is related to what your latency is. Read in the manual about this as I have not had trouble with CPU power, but I thought I remembered reading about it as I was setting up my soundcard.

4) Invest in another 256k RAM if you can afford it.

Hope some of these suggestions help. Let us know how it turns out

 

[NYMorningstar]

4) Invest in another 256k RAM if you can afford it.

Check out if adding more ram is going to be able to be utilized before you do it. If I remember correctly depending on your OS and/or your motherboard, you can add ram and it may not get used.

 

[Bass Master "K"]

Thanks for bringing that up NYMorningStar, you are absolutely correct. If his computer is old enough it may have a 2x128 RAM setup and it may already be maxed and not be upgradable....some of the old machines won't recognize RAM larger than the motherboard was originally spec'ed at.

 

[saxman72]

Thanks for the info guys,

I'm trying to do some more little tweaks to get it to run with the 6 inputs. I think it's close. In a 4-5 minute song it would only stutter 3-4 times, so hopefully a little tweak here and there will do the trick.

I'm pretty sure I have another slot available for memory, but if the answer is to put more money into this 'puter, I think I'd rather get a more up-to-date system. I just don't want the headache of figuring out hardware/software/OS compatibility (or lack thereof) with a new 'puter.

I'm gonna make this work dammit!

 

[saxman72]

Woo-Hoo... sort of...

Ok, after hours and hours and a few heart attacks, I think I have it working fine now...

I did all the reading I could find on optimisation and tried all of them... Still the same result... I saw someone who was using pretty much the same computer as me and he was able to get 24 tracks going at once so I figured it's not the processor/ram/etc... I figured it must be my soundcard. THAT is bad news cuz I have a GadgetLabs card. It's a high quality 8x8 + digital i/o, 24/48, with excellent crystal converters... The bad news is that GadgetLabs went out of business about 2 years ago!

Upon further research I found a site that had the last released driver version. Well to make a long story a little shorter, I had to delete the old driver and some related files. Then the new driver didn't install completely! Cubase went nuts and re-routed everything (including midi) to who knows what!... Deleted the driver again (knowing that there was NO way to recover some of the original files) and reloaded the newest driver...

This time windows loaded everything properly... But cubase was still not happy. It became very unstable and kept crashing with every other move... It got to the point where I'd make one or two changes and then save before it crashed (which it would), and then reboot and save a few things again...

Well now I got it up and running again (with the new drivers) and there's a static like popping sound even when the sequence is stopped. No biggie, I think I'll be able to fix that (I hope)...

The good news is that I can now turn on 6 inputs and everything works just as well as with only 2 or 4 inputs! That's what got me into this whole goddamn mess in the first place! So mission accomplished, I think. Now I have to get rid of those crackles and pops... I think I'll save that for tomorrow... it's 4 am now...

Geez, if you read all that... Thanks!

hello?... hello?... hello?...

 

[Bass Master "K"]

Sounds like that old phrase "jumping out of the kettle and into the fire" Ain't technology great??

Glad you at least got the inputs going.

 

[NYMorningstar]

Well now I got it up and running again (with the new drivers) and there's a static like popping sound even when the sequence is stopped. No biggie, I think I'll be able to fix that (I hope)...

Geez, the good news is you got it up and running but the bad news is the popping is most likely caused by the drivers. Did you re-install Cubase after you installed the new drivers for the card?

 

[saxman72]

Geez, the good news is you got it up and running but the bad news is the popping is most likely caused by the drivers. Did you re-install Cubase after you installed the new drivers for the card?

Well, after some more research I learned how to set up a different "hardware profile" for when I'm doing intensive audio work. Everything seems to run just fine now, and acutally better than before. The audio sounds great and the timing is rock solid!

Thanks for your input everyone... got me started in the right direction and eventually I found what I needed!

Saxman72

 

[NoFO]

Me too!

I've been having the same problem, but with only 2 tracks active. here is my setup

PII 450 MHZ
684 MB RAM
Tascam US-428
Cubasis VST for Tascam US-428

I have this annoying, 1/2 second long stuttering that shows up every now and again in the middle of the take. I defrag before every session, i did everything I found on the Tascam website for computer audio optimization, Cubase did not want to help me, what do I do?

Everything else is turned off when I'm multi tracking. The other sound card, the modem, the printer, the scanner, everything. No programs are running in the background, and I'm only recording 2 tracks ata time, no FX, no EQ, 16 Bit. This does not make sense? Could it be a hard drive thing? I think my drive is 5400RPM, but that should be able to do what I'm trying to do. I have a 7200 drive on the way anyway, will this fix it?

Bass master quoted this-

2) Make sure you have the newest driver for your soundcard.

3) Check your latency and buffering block in your "Audio Setup" section. If I am not mistaken trying to run your latency too lean when you don't have a lot of CPU power can lead to stuttering and I believe the buffering is related to what your latency is. Read in the manual about this as I have not had trouble with CPU power, but I thought I remembered reading about it as I was setting up my soundcard.

I'll upgrade the driver, but what do you mean running the latency "too lean" and how is it related to buffering?

thanks!

 

[saxman72]

NoFO,

With that set-up you should be able to run a fair amount of audio. But how many will Cubasis allow you to run?

Anyway, here's a link to the info that seemed to clear my computer up more than anytyhing: http://gl.subcultural.com then click on "tips and tricks". The section about setting up a harware profile and disabling usb seemed to do the trick (although you're using a usb thing so you can't do that part). But shutting down the drivers from inside the computer is much more effective than turning them off or whatever... give it a shot and hopefully it'll work for you too...

 

[NoFO]

saxman,

the gl site you listed had all the stuff that was on the Tascam site, although the gl site explained the whle IRQ thing better, so i'll check that out. Thanks.

The version of cubasis i have will do 8 tracks. i have had it up adn running before, with effects and eq and all sorts of stuff. I'll just try reinstalling the software again.

lata