Why does my Cubase SL skip?

  • Thread starter Thread starter napoli187
  • Start date Start date
N

napoli187

New member
So heres my problem. When i'm using Cubase SL, after a few minutes of using the program it starts to skip and get distorted when i'm recording. It ruins the recording and once it starts i basically have to stop the session, turn off the computer and wait a while. What could be the problem?

Heres my set up: Apple Powerbook G4 laptop, Edirol UA-20 USB powered Audio Capture (using its ASIO driver)

I also have started using a Presonus TubePre mic preamp, but the problem still persists.

Should i maybe be using the laptops' built in audio controller instead of the ASIO drivers? I'm stumped, please help!
 
I dont know much about macs but i think you need to allocate more ram to cubase. How you go about this im not sure but i think its a process which is carried out for most music programs on te mac.




Hope this helps

Keith
 
Since I hvn't used a mac in ages I was hoping someone else would help ya on this, but if your desperate I'll take a few stabs.

Skipping is generally a sign that your computer is not able to keep up. Two common causes can be a HD that won't keep up, or a processor that is overworking. I can't remember if macs have a disc defragger function, but it must have some kind of equivilent. You want to make sure that you defrag your hard drive frequently...I do mine at the end of every recording session. This will put all your files back into place so that the HD can easily access files quickly and not have to search for little bits of them. I have seen defragging a drive solve a LOT of issues like the one you are describing.

Another possibility is if you are just using one HD. While there are people who have one HD systems, they also tend to be problematic with skipping and dropouts because the HD is overworked trying to read program info off of one part of the disk and write large audio files to another part of the same disk. Generally a recipe for problems. The majority of DAW users will tell you to have a dual HD system, one disc exclusively for recording, the main one for your programs.

Also, have you gone to steinbergs website and downloaded the latest patches for your program?? If your trying to use it straight out of the box there is a very good chance that there is an update available that will also fix some problems, if not this one then others that will develop.

Do any of these things possibly apply to what might be causing your problem?
 
thanks for the help. i'm going to check on the defragmenting aspect to see if that may be the case. i've already downloaded the latest patches so that shouldnt be a problem. as far as the HD stuff goes i really dont have any idea what to do. i've been told multiple times that this G4 Powerbook that i have should be able to handle everything ok, but now i'm not sure. i'm not sure i understood you right, but are you recommending getting another HD? does this mean one that hooks up externally, and how is this done? thanks!
 
Yes it does mean an external drive which will connect top your laptop via USB or Firewire. Firewire is by far the best and most external drives can be connected using this. Lacie drives are superb but shop around.



Keith
 
Exactly, since you have a laptop there would be no other choice. I had a friend who was getting a low budget DAW set up with his buddy building the computer out of extra parts from his computer business. I gave him two pieces of advice (since he had no choice on the processor speed) which was get as much ram as he will jam on there, and make sure it has two hard drives.

So he gets his computer and of course it has only one hard drive. I told him I'd help him all I could and I helped him set it up and it worked great for a week or so, then he was getting skipping and dropouts while recording and he was bitching about how cakewalk bit ass and stuff. I asked him if he defragged...always a good first question that solves a lot of problems. The response was "De-what?"

Nuff said...

So I walked him through it and it solved his problem until he tried recording 4 simultanious tracks at once and was getting major audio problems. Well, that was the single hard drive problem.

Digital audio generally creates very large files and when the HD is trying to read info at the same time it is writing it on the same disk...well sometimes it's too much for it to handle.

I can't gaurentee it's the problem, but it is a common (and good) first place to start.

Another thing you would benifit from is seeing if there is a website set up to help mac users configure their computer for audio. For us WindowsXP users we have www.musicxp.net
see if you can dig up something similiar for macs because there are a lot of settings that you can make to streamline your system that a non computer geek just wouldn't know about.

Keep posting here and let's see if we can't get you through all this. Good luck!
 
thanks for the advice. i'm looking into to several different things now. firstly, to defragment my mac i need to buy software since OSX doesnt come with it. is something like Norton Utilities ($99) good for this?

second, i'm looking to probably get another hard drive now. i looked at the apple store online and saw two different ones for $499 each. i know they give me tons of room, but damn, thats a ton of cash i dont have! are those the prices that i'm looking at for another hardrive?

oh and one more kinda related question. i tried to install my cubase sl on my friends new G5 apple computer. when we try to open it the program always freezes on "vst multitrack" in the startup box of cubase. any ideas?
 
yeah it does. and you know what, i think i figured out that the problem may be that the dongle was in the usd port when we installed cubase, which it shouldnt have been. i'll give it another shot tomorrow and hopefully that was the problem
 
499!!! you should be able to pick up a quality Lacie drive for under 100.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top