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Subject:video card too fast for sound forge?
Posted by: peahix
Date:9/6/2002 11:56:48 AM

hi-

i'm wondering if anyone out there has any specific suggestions on a good video card to get that will work well with sound forge. the problem i'm having is that, i think, the various cards i've tried recently have all been too fast. i do alot of editing by zooming in and drag-selecting to locate edit points. this used to work fine with my 3-year-old ati card, but that card crapped out on me and i haven't found a replacement that works the same way. the problem is that if i, for instance, drag-select while scrolling forward or backward, as soon as i want to stop, i pull the pointer back into the main part of the window, but the scrolling continues briefly after that, thus preventing me from being able to stop on the dime within the sound file. the amount of time that this lag continues is proportional to how long i've drag-selected. ie, if i've been drag-selecting for about 5 seconds, the lag time could be as much as 2 or 3 seconds before the scrolling stops, by which time i'm way past the point that i *wanted* to stop at, and i have to scroll back in the file to find it again. it's sort of like some weird pointer-inertia or something.

now, i HAVE tried slowing down the graphics acceleration in the video card preferences, and while this had *some* effect in winxp, i've since moved back to winme and that doesn't work.

since i've had this problem with several recent video cards, i'm assuming it's a pretty common problem- am i right? or am i just missing something here? my mobo is an asus a7v133. the current video card i've got (which acts as described above) is an nvidia m64.

can anyone either suggest a fix for this or suggest a card that works solidly?

let me know if you need more system info.


thanks!
peahix

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: MJhig
Date:9/6/2002 8:45:18 PM

Did you try Options > Preferences > General tab, putting a check in "Default to slow scroll when drag selecting"?

MJ

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: peahix
Date:9/6/2002 8:49:48 PM

hi-

yes, i did that, and it doesn't solve the problem. it does the exact same thing, only in slow-motion!


pea

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: sirshambling
Date:9/7/2002 3:29:25 PM

Don't recommend the ATI Raeon 9000. Got mine the other day and SF6 doesn't even load!

The splash screen appears then the whole PC locks up requiring a warm boot from the reset button.

WinXP lays the blame at the Catalyst drivers.

Don't know what to do now - use SF6 every day...

John

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: ATP
Date:9/7/2002 6:04:24 PM

do you drag select when you're zoomed in closely? because then i can see how you can easily pass the point where you want to stop too fast.

what i do, i zoom way in and start my selection where i want to begin. then i drag select for a few secs. then i zoom out until i have a bigger overview. then i drag the right side of the selection to about the point where i want the selection to end, and zoom in again, adjusting the position of the selection as needed.

just a tip, in case you didn't know already. :)

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: MJhig
Date:9/8/2002 12:14:27 AM

I use the same technique as ATP describes above which I know doesn't answer your question exactly. But if misery loves company I today sent off this question to Microsoft MVP and here's the conversation.

Question...

Win 98 SE
Word 97 SR 2

When trying to highlight text with the mouse, starting at the upper left and dragging downward to the lower right, the speed in Word is much too fast and unusable.

Answer...

1. Upgrade to Word 2002, in which it is finally corrected.

2. Downgrade to Word 95 (or maybe even back to Word 6.0), where it was not broken.

3. Downgrade to a much slower computer, since the scrolling speed is processor-dependent.

4. Use a variety of keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse to select text.

Microsoft MVP (Word)



Hope your solution is less painful.

MJ

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: Rednroll
Date:9/8/2002 9:37:18 AM

My memory slips me at the moment, and I'm not sitting at a computer with Sound Forge installed. But if you hold down the "SHIFT" key while selecting then it will slow down the scroll and give you what you're looking for....I think, it's the "Shift" key...it may be the "Cntrl" or "Alt" if not.

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: peahix
Date:9/9/2002 1:18:35 AM

hi-

thanks all for taking the time to write, but i think i need to re-iterate that this is definitely a problem with the video card that is different from what it seems y'all are imagining, from the sound of the advice given so far. no amount of slowing down of the scroll rate or adjusting the zoom has any effect on the "pointer inertia" that i described in my original post. it's not that the scroll goes too fast for me to stop accurately at the right place- it's that the scroll literally keeps going for a *couple of seconds* (not exaggerating) after i tell it to stop, which means that i end up overshooting my mark by a great deal- not just a slight amount. as i said, this is not a problem which occurred with older/slower video cards. i suppose i could dig up an older card, but really- there must be SOME way to get a current card to work correctly with sound forge! my current card isn't given me problems with any other sound apps.

thanks again-
pea

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: Rednroll
Date:9/9/2002 11:57:41 AM

Have you gone to the video cards website and downloaded the latest driver and installed it yet?

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: peahix
Date:9/9/2002 12:49:22 PM

hi-

yes, i have... and also, like i said, i've tried 3 or 4 different video cards recently, and have had this problem with all of them. because of this, i had assumed that what i was experiencing must be a common problem, but given the responses so far, i guess that's not the case...? i suppose this would point to the mobo as the culprit...


cheers-
pea

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: ATP
Date:9/9/2002 1:08:45 PM

i have a pretty fast videocard myself (geforce ti 4200) and i experience no such problems. also, it doesn't make sense to me that a new program like SF 6 will not work properly with new hardware. you don't think they beta tested this program on S3 Virge cards, do you? ;)

have you tried to set the virtual memory swap file manually? i currently have it locked on 300 mb, rather than that i let Windows manage it. it may be your computer is experiencing some kind of buffer problem, or can't access its ram fast enough. could be a swap thing. hth.

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: ReliableSound
Date:9/9/2002 2:16:54 PM

I know this sounds dumb, but I thought something similar was happening to me once. Turns out I had the "Auto Snap to Zero" function accidentally turned on. Your selection point won't ever be where you manually put it if it's on. Under the options menu. Maybe worth looking at. :)
-J.R.

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: peahix
Date:9/9/2002 2:37:03 PM

hi-

i hate to keep coming back with these kind of responses, since i DO appreciate people taking time to send their comments, but i've been a sound forge user for years and know the software inside out... in other words, no, the problem has nothing to do with zero-snap, which is a feature i fully understand and use constantly.

does anyone from the sofo staff have any comments on my problem?

cheers-
pea

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: Sonic
Date:9/9/2002 3:19:08 PM

Actually, I see it when I make the window very large and use a 15 minute file with WinXP and a Matrox G400.

Are you maximized or close to it?
Does the mouse cursor lag or float a little when you try to bring it back?
Does it also happen when you just release the button outside the app frame?
Does it get better with a smaller or shorter window?
Does it get better at higher zoom?
Does it get better with shorter files?

If the answer to all these is Yes, this is not new to Sound Forge 6.0. I fired up 4.5 and saw the same behavior. It is probably more obvious in 6.0 since we go below 1:1.

The video card is pigging out on repaints and is cheating Sound Forge out of it's hit-testing. The problem went away for me when I knocked h/w acceleration down a single notch in the Display control panel. I see you tried that and it worked in WinXP but not WinMe? Ugh! Not sure what to say about that...

Regards,
J.

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: sk
Date:9/18/2002 12:38:18 AM

Well, pea, this isn't help in terms of a direct solution, but I want to ask more or less the same question in terms of WHAT FREAKIN VIDEO CARD does either SF recommend, or else users here recommend. COME ON, RED...you crusty old coot...quit dodging the question, and NAME NAMES. I've used SF from 4.5 on, and have NEVER figured out how to get the damn time line in sync with the music file, no matter how many configurations I've tried. And it always seems to come back to SF's finger pointing that the reason their program doesn't work right has nothing to do with their program not working right; it's always the video card's fault. Well, I've finally gotten tired of hearing that, so I would like to know just WHAT VIDEO CARD(S) either SF believes actually WORKS with their program, or what video cards other members here have found to work well. Give it up, Red! (Of course, knowing Red, and what with him being from the "Old School" and all, he's likely to have something he rigged up from his Atari days!) ROCK ON, RED!

lol

sk

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: Rednroll
Date:9/18/2002 2:03:48 PM

Lol!!! You're killing me SK. Everytime I put a PC together, the video card is the last thing in my budget I buy and tend to skimp on the most. After all...I'm doing audio right? What the hell do I need a high-end graphics card to whatch waveforms scroll down my screen for? Now if I was playing DOOM or some games like that, then I might enjoy the primo cards. I have tended to stay with ATI Technologies when it comes to the video cards, I have had no problems so far with these cards and SF apps. I don't even know which current one I have....I think it's the Rage Pro, or something like that. I usually just buy whatever ATI card seems to be the best, for around 75 bucks on WWW.PRICEWATCH.COM at the time I'm building my PC.

As for further suggestions for the original problem. Since this probably seems to be a MB problem and not a video card problem, because the user already stated they have tried 3 different cards with the same problem. Have you looked at your IRQ assignments? I would try moving your sound card away from the slot closest to your video card slot. Some mother boards put the AGP slot and a PCI slot on as a "shared" slot. I am guessing that maybe your sound card and Video card may be sharing a slot assignment. Try moving your sound card to another slot further away from the AGP slot and see if that fixes the problem. Try disabling any hardware that is next to that AGP slot in the control panel. Also insure that the video card and sound card isn't sharing the same IRQ and assign them each their own IRQ, shared with nothing else. I'm really thinking you have a hardware conflict happening. Another technique I do is create different hardware profiles and individually remove hardware and see which piece of hardware is the problem piece. Strip your system down to everything but the video card using the above technique and see if you still have the problem.

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: sk
Date:9/18/2002 3:46:29 PM

Ok, Red. You go with ATI and have never had any problems. I have an ATI Raedon 7500 dual display graphics card with 64 MB memory. And unless I just don't understand the concept at all of how the moving time line on top of the moving wave file are supposed to sync up, they never do manage to sync up. And according to SF, the reason they don't is related to problems with video cards. Is that just something you don't even both with, and hence don't have any problems, or have you configured your system to compensate, or does it just sync up for you right out of the box, so to speak?

sk

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: Rednroll
Date:9/19/2002 8:31:15 AM

Yes, I have never seen the problem you are seeing. In terms of Video cards now, mine is kinda old, but is 4x ADP compatible with 8Meg of video ram. Before this, I was running a Pentium 200Mhz with an ATI card, and saw no problems with that either. I built a system for a friend which had an ATI ALL-IN Wonder 64MB, and still no problem.

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: RiRo
Date:9/19/2002 1:10:05 PM

I've not seen this problem with my Geforce 128 mb.

I have a dead slow 500mhz processor and 512 megs of ram on Win98se. I had a generic video card before when I first started using Forge, and the line did not sinc with the sound. When I swapped out the generic soundblaster for an Echo Gina (sb was noisy!) the problem cured itself. I assumed it was a sound card problem, ie. the display was ok, the sound wasn't wasn't in sinc. Anyway, since changing sound cards, I have changed motherboards and video cards, processors and ram, but have not seen the sinc trouble again.

RiRo

Subject:RE: video card too fast for sound forge?
Reply by: sk
Date:9/20/2002 6:37:03 PM

Then it just must be me. Oh well; back to the drawing board!
Happy tunes, all -

sk

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