Vegas is skipping and stalling

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Signal 9 Studio

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I have recently developed a problem with Vegas. It skips alot and I cant even monitor my mix without muting half of the tracks. I only can work with about twelve tracks at a time. Before, I worked with 16-20 with about 5 songs worth of files on my drive at a time. Now I have two songs 16 tracks each and no go. Soundforge runs fine. Any help?
 
There are a few things that can cause this, but you've left out important info that could help pinpoint the problem quicker. It's usually a good idea to describe your computer system when posing a computer question (ie, processor, processor speed, amount of RAM, operating system, etc.). Here's what I'd look at, though, and forgive me if any are obvious.

1. Not enough RAM. How much do you have? The more the better with Vegas. You can set Vegas to read ahead up to 2 seconds and that will help some, but that will also create lag time between making a change and hearing the change in real time.

2. Slow processor. My old computer ran at 400 MHz, and it used to start skipping and stuttering at around 20 tracks. My new computer runs at 2 GHz (800 MHz FSB). No more skipping even with 30+ tracks.

3. Too many FX on. FX eat up processing time, and the slower the processor, the more likely it will skip.

4. Badly fragmented hard drive. Do you defrag? It's a must. Also how big is the drive and how full is it? Some drives seem to operate better when they're not near capacity. Also, it's a good idea to have a second hard drive that is dedicated to audio files. Most agree that you don't want your audio on your main hard drive.

5. Running anti-virus software while using Vegas. Also there are other programs that run in the background that can interfere with audio.

And it's likely that it's not just one of these things, but a combination of two or more.
 
Sorry I should know better than to leave out that info.

My computer is running ME and it is 2 ghz
it has 511.0mb of RAM
it is still 85% free for system resources.

I am using about two effects per file. It also takes forever to render to a new track there is no way that I could get 30+ tracks. Its basically a brand new computer used only for studio purposes.

I do defrag frequently

still dragging down

should I restore it to an earlier date when it functioned correctly?

I do nee a second drive though.
 
I am putting my money on the effects:

Reverb can really knock your dick in the dirt! :D

Render each track with reverb first by itself.
 
Hmmm. I don't think running just two effects would drag it down that much. My bet is that it's because you're only using one hard drive. That machine should be plenty fast. Your render times should be really quick.

Have you downloaded the most current update?

Which version of Vegas? ME is not one of the recommended OS's for Vegas 5.
 
I think I have had this problem before... Problems with drivers, if you have Vegas 3. Your OS doesn't help you much. I would stick with 2000 or XP prof.

Check your background services and see what might be hogging your cpu. Also monitor your resources and see if you're running high. Also make sure you're well ventilated and not running hot. There really are a lot of factors that could be involved. Let me know what vegas version you're using.
 
I am using V3.0 The reason I am using ME is because I record with ADATs and ADAT connect doesn't work with W2000XP...is there a newer version of adat connect or another way to transfer my files?
What are you referring to as "background services"? Are you talking about my background of my monitor? I have read that backgrounds and screensavers slow things down.
Someone suggested rendering the verb to the tracks before mixing. How would you know the amount and right ones to use without hearing the whole mix?
What resources are you talking about....If you haven't figured it out I'm new using a computer as a mixer and editor. I do welcome and appreciate your help though.

While I am at it do you any good links to buy a second hard drive? Also, do I just store the wave files there?
 
Sort of adding to what's already been said...

1. For starters, the fan on your CPU, or a case fan, could be going bad. If the CPU is too hot, you'll get stuttering.

2. Your power supply might be going bad, or IT'S fan might be going bad.

3. Depending on the manufacturer of your computer, you might have a system that uses shared RAM, and shared RAM sucks.
 
wow, so it is Vegas 3. Sounds like something is stealing your processing power, and using the mme drivers doesn't help; but Vegas 3 doesn't support ASIO drivers. So you're stuck with the mme drivers.

So, first let's try some stuff before we go buying new hardware.

Disconnect from the internet.
Do a full sweep with your antivirus and anti spyware software then proceed.
Disable all antivirus software including firewalls.
Disable background services such as spyware blockers, Instant Messaging, Quicktime, Screensavers, special little things on your taskbar such as weather devices to tell you the temperature outside and everything else that is there. These are all background services you can stop. You can view all background services by pressing ctrl+alt+del once and viewing the processes tab. Here you can also view your cpu usage and monitor it so leave this open.

Now start Vegas and give it a shot, see if it works better. and tell us how much cpu is being used. Also remember that the Acoustic Mirror plug-in seriously hogs cpu. So if you're using that, remove it. That one is best used in Sound Forge once the tracks are mixed.

Let me know what progress you've made.
 
The computer has never seen the internet. I bought it new and a friend who works for a studio reformatted the hard drive an put ME on it. Also on it are Vegas, Acid, Sound Forge, ADAT edit and connect. A wave player and a few other things that are packaged with the windows programs. Nothing is running in the task bar except a disc recognition program.
 
t glyptic said:
You can view all background services by pressing ctrl+alt+del once and viewing the processes tab. Here you can also view your cpu usage and monitor it so leave this open.
Click to expand...

Must remember that the fellow is using Windows ME here. No services on that OS. ;)
 
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