Subject:Record/Playback Quality AcidPro 4.0

Posted by: TC52

Date:10/31/2002 9:19:24 PM

I have been working on this problem for a few weeks and still not much luck.I have an 866 amd, 128 meg ram,midiman audiophile 24/96 audio card. I am recording guitar tracks with a Digitech GNX3 thru S/PDIF. Any tracks recorded in Acid sound horrible (pops, hiss, garbled, etc) but if I use the sound forge studio 6 that came with Acid to record a guitar track it sounds fine (when played back in sound forge). Also if I paint a loop from one of the loop cd's onto a track and play it back it will sound good for about 5 measures and then sound garbled for about 3 seconds and then be ok. If I start the same track at the second measure it will start screwing up at the 7th measure. I have the same settings in both Acid and Sound Forge for record and playback. I have the latest release and latest sound card drivers. Anyone that can help would be very much appreciated. Thanks, Terry.

Subject:RE: Record/Playback Quality AcidPro 4.0

Reply by: AgentS

Date:11/1/2002 6:48:34 AM

Dear Terry,
Have you got the BETA version of the Audiophile soundcard drivers? There is a beta release for the 2496 drivers which specifically are called ACID PRO 4.0 FIX (when doing your driver search you must check the "show previous and beta versions" box), sadly they are only available for Windows XP users, if you are still using Windows 98 it is advisable to upgrade anyway since XP is much more stable and efficient for audio use.

Subject:RE: Record/Playback Quality AcidPro 4.0

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:11/1/2002 12:56:39 PM

In addition to what AgentS has said, on the hardware side:

Be absolutely sure that the Audiophile is sync slaving to the GNX3's master clock via S/PDIF correctly. Since the GNX3 outputs at 44.1 kHz sample rate, use that for the S/PDIF sample rate in the Audiophile's Delta Control Panel (under the Hardware Settings tab). Use this same sample rate for your ACID projects. (You can always switch to 96 kHz before rendering.)

Also be sure to use a 75 Ohm RCA coaxial cable only, as it's the standard for S/PDIF. Using any other type of cable can result in what you're experiencing.

I think you've caught this in the DigiTech forum, but I wanted to be sure you checked this out.

I've emailed you with other questions. One thing I've noticed and forgot to ask: Since Sound Forge Studio 6 records up to 16-bit only, does the problem only occur when recording in 24-bit in ACID Pro 4.0? Have you tried recording in 16-bit in ACID Pro 4.0?

Don't give up just yet! It's got to be something stupid. (It almost always is.)

HTH,
Iacobus

Subject:RE: Record/Playback Quality AcidPro 4.0

Reply by: TC52

Date:11/2/2002 11:41:48 AM

Hey MD, Yeah I tried recording at 16 bit but it didnt help. Now my playback is pretty good but only for about 20 seconds. Then it starts to break-up and may even clear back up agtain after another 5 - 10 seconds which sounds to me like a buffer issue. What do you think?
Terry

Subject:RE: Record/Playback Quality AcidPro 4.0

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:11/2/2002 12:48:47 PM

It could be.

I'm also thinking that because ACID is a little more soundcard-intensive than Sound Forge (merely because ACID plays more audio files back than just one standard stereo file), the Audiophile is trying to wrestle the IRQ it's sharing from the video card, which it needs to tell the system what it's doing. (I remember you telling me that the Audiophile was sharing IRQ 10 with the video card.)

Windows 9x is really terrible at letting devices share an IRQ and managing them. Windows 2000 and XP are much better but aren't perfect, from what I've heard. I never had too much of a problem, but I know I had better performance when the Audiophile had an IRQ all its own. (I'm using Windows XP Home.)

If anything, try getting the Audiophile an IRQ all its own. That more than likely means you will have to go into the system's BIOS to do so. (Be aware that some systems have it, and some systems don't.) If your system came with a motherboard manual, there should be a section that tells you where to go to adjust IRQ assignments. If your system didn't come with such a manual, contact the vendor via phone or their Web site. Usually you can glean info about your system like make and model and what the system contained. You can contact me at my email address or post back here if you need more help.

HTH,
Iacobus

Subject:RE: Record/Playback Quality AcidPro 4.0

Reply by: TeeCee

Date:11/2/2002 1:52:47 PM

Try using the MME driver instead of ASIO. I don't believe there is a beta driver for Win9x, just Win XP and Win 2000. If you are using Win9x, your best bet would be to upgrade to Win XP at your earliest convenience and get the beta M-Audio drivers. Or are you using the beta drivers?

TeeCee

Subject:RE: Record/Playback Quality AcidPro 4.0

Reply by: TC52

Date:11/2/2002 8:31:07 PM

Im not sure what MME is. It's not listed in the dropdown list. My options are Windows Sound Mapper, M Audio Delta ASIO, and Windows Classic Wave Driver.

Subject:RE: Record/Playback Quality AcidPro 4.0

Reply by: TC52

Date:11/2/2002 9:34:57 PM

OK heres the latest. I'm starting to think this is an IRQ sharing problem because after knocking hardware accelleration (graphics card) all the way down sound quality got a lot better. I still havent found a way to manually assign IRQ's though. I dont have a motherboard manual. I tried a few different things in the BIOS but still was unable to get windows to let me assign IRQ"s.

Subject:RE: Record/Playback Quality AcidPro 4.0

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:11/3/2002 3:15:24 PM

If possible, give the vendor a call. They should be able to tell you what make and model motherboard you have just by giving them the general make and model of your system (e.g. Dell Dimension 2300 Desktop). If they can't help you, contact me and I'll see what I can do.

Basically, you'll want to look for an area of the BIOS, usually called, "PCI Configuration," or something similar. You'd assign a specific IRQ to a specific slot this way. As said before, your BIOS may or may not have this feature.

You check out the Audiophile's WDM drivers (which are better than MME) by going to the audio options as before and selecting, "Windows Classic Wave Driver," and then select a specific hardware output, like, "M-Audio Delta S/PDIF."

HTH,
Iacobus

Subject:RE: Record/Playback Quality AcidPro 4.0

Reply by: TeeCee

Date:11/5/2002 9:57:35 AM

MME should be Windows Classic Wave Driver. In any case, try them all.

TeeCee

Subject:RE: Record/Playback Quality AcidPro 4.0

Reply by: TeeCee

Date:11/5/2002 10:00:16 AM

"OK heres the latest. I'm starting to think this is an IRQ sharing problem because after knocking hardware accelleration (graphics card) all the way down sound quality got a lot better."

That just means you have a greedy video card driver.

"I still havent found a way to manually assign IRQ's though. I dont have a motherboard manual. I tried a few different things in the BIOS but still was unable to get windows to let me assign IRQ"s."

You can swap PCI slots, that should change your IRQ. But the bandwidth hogging issue with your video card is usually draining the entire system, not because of an IRQ conflict.

TeeCee