what causes dropout?

[Noodlehoss]

Greetings All,

What causes this annoying thing? Is it the sound card? Is it a memory issue? Software? I'm currently running 256 MB. Should I consider going to 512 MB of RAM?

(2.4 GH, WinXP, SBLive, HS2002)

TIA

 

[James Argo]

Greetings All,

What causes this annoying thing? Is it the sound card? Is it a memory issue? Software? I'm currently running 256 MB. Should I consider going to 512 MB of RAM?

(2.4 GH, WinXP, SBLive, HS2002)

TIA

...You got those points beside pushing the latency slider way too left. Slide your latency a bit to the right (higher) in the Options --> Audio. Your soundcard is good for MIDI thingee, but for audio work... think twice, brutha Specialy it's driver... ooooouuuuhh . Speed of your HD also can cause Dropouts if you do a lot of audio tracks at once.


Jaymz

 

[dachay2tnr]

Dropouts are also effected by the nunmber of tracks in a project and the number (and type) of real time effects being used.

If you are having severe dropout problems, you can do as James said and increase your latency setting. You can also try some or all of the following:

- mix down several tracks to a single track and then archive the original tracks (e.g., mix the BGV's down to just one track, or mix all the drums down to one track)

- destructively apply and realtime effects (however, best to clone the track first and archive it, as there is no going back from this)

- If you are using the same plugin on several different tracks within a project, try using the plugin on an Aux Bus and routing those tracks to the bus


And of course there is always the better hardware route. E.g., get a dedicated hdd for audio (7200 RPM minimum), increase your memory, upgrade your CPU, get a better sound card, etc.