Eratic Audio Malfunction

mark4man

mark4man

MoonMix Studios
People,

Since I have replaced my primary drive & reloaded my Creative software (running SB Audigy Platinum EX), while recording (& sometimes during playback) CWPA9 jumps into an audio malfunction that can only be described by comparing it to the sound of a tape drive in fast-forward with the gain full up! The audio squeals and squeaks in rapid random bursts; & then I drop out. (I'm not sure if Control Arm Read/Write Heads on a hard drive can inadvertently slide across the surface of a platter, but if they could; this is the sound they would make. It sounds almost like a needle arm skipping across an old LP Record; & catching short bits of audio in every groove.) Any idea as to the source or eradication of this problem? Application related? Sound Card related? (will post audio system specs if requested.) Thanks.

mark4man
 
acidrock,

Yes:

Direct Show Audio:

Audio Driver Bit Depth: 16
Sampling Rate: 44,100 Hz
File Bit Depth: 16
Playback Queue Buffers: 4
Buffer Size: 96 msec (app. 1/2 on Slide)
Effective latency: 289 msec
I/O Buffer Size 64KB
Sync: Full Chase Lock
Wave Out position For Timing: Yes
Buffer Characteristics:
@ 44,100 Hz:
Stereo Size: 896
Stereo Offset 1
Mono Size: 448
Mono Offset 1


Thanks,

mark4man
 
Markman, I wonder if this is related to the "Audigy squeal of death" problem described on the following pages ....

I have an Audigy myself (wost luck!), although I have never experienced the fault.


"Described as an "ongoing squeal" the Audigy series seems to be a problematic product when used with Windows 2000 or XP. Creative has now enlisted this "severe" problem in their knowledge base."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.americas.creative.com/support/kbase/article.asp?ID=959&Centric=207

ALSO

http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/drivers/Audigy/Windows2000.html

"Squeal of Death fix for Dell Dimension 8200/8100s/4300
It's named squeal of death since you will hear a shrill tone after the PC freeze/locks up. Creative and Dell describes as a faulty PCI register setting in some of the models in Dell's Dimension series. More details about this issue can be found in this newsgroup post on Dell's newsgroup and a report on Extreme Tech. Currently BIOS patches are available for the 8200, 8100 and 4300 systems. An update for the 4400 is expected to be available soon. "
 
Johnhoe (& acidrock),

It's not the "squeal of death". It's more like...well, the sound described above. When it actually happens, you can see the Position Needle (for lack of a better term) jump rapidly across waveforms in Audio View, & then the system drops out. I've been checking out my Sequencer's help files; & I believe the problem is "Stuttering". The major causes they list range from I/O Buffer size not matched to the hard drive, Mixing Latency set too low, Project file or hard disk excessively fragmented, etc. But they also list (& I think this may be the cause) outdated hardware. I've beefed up the RAM (on my Dell 700) to 512MB in the past year; & added 2 new hard drives (one for apps & OS; & the other for WaveData), but the fact is; I'm still running the original hard drive Controller; & my PCI Bus speed is only 33MGHz.

I'll try the recommended tweaks & hope they work, cause I'm not sure I can afford one of those new Dell P4/533 systems.

mark4man
 
This I have heard with the older Live card. It sounded to me like all the soundfonts playing in quick succession - rather amusing actually, except in the middle of a take.
I don't know the true cause - this only happened with the Sonar1 demo. When I installed the full version it never happened again.
Try unloading all soundfonts and see if it recurs.
The remedy may be to throw out the Creative card or try the alternative drivers from www.kxproject.com.
A friend who uses a Live card also got this under CubaseVST.
He cured it by installing APS drivers but they won't work on an Audigy.
The cause may be incompatability between the sequencers built in Soundfont support which is designed for the even older AWE cards.
 
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