stuttering and popping playback -ACID Product Family

Subject:stuttering and popping playback Posted by: juice Date:12/13/2002 3:21:12 PM My acid 4.0 will not playback without stuttering and popping. i tried tech support. they told me to download the latest drivers to my santa cruz sound card. I did that; nothing changed. I called tech support a second time. they told me that's just what the program does. "it usually starts doing that at about 4 or 5 tracks." is this true? with only acid open, the CPU is generally working at 30%-50% and the Mem is at a constant 20%. is there anything i can do? i don't use any acid loops. all the tracks i record open as "beatmapped" even though i changed the setting to open tracks between .1 and 300 seconds as loops. i can change it to a loop individually; and i do, mostly because that's typically the only way i can use pitch shift. (i say "typically" because some beatmapped tracks will allow pitch change; and i can't really find an explanation or consistency in this.) and i also noticed the sound quality is compromised when the tracks is changed to a loop. is there anything i can do about that? my computer is a dell dimension 8100: pentium 4 processor - 1.5 G 256 RAM 60 Gig hard drive turtle beach santa cruz sound card any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks, jesse
Subject:RE: stuttering and popping playback Reply by: midiaxer Date:12/19/2002 12:03:26 PM I'm having that kind of problem too but only when I insert an effect on a track. When the song gets to that part where the effect is, it stutters and crackles/popping sound. I'm searching around for help, maybe I'll start a new topic....
Subject:RE: stuttering and popping playback Reply by: skot Date:12/19/2002 12:34:54 PM Yep similar problem here too!! when stopping playback or starting playback i receive a deafening pop/click from my monitors this is one of my many problems regarding AP4.0, i sometimes wish i'd never spent my money on something so unreliable ....i downloaded update add on 317b and its still riddled with bug's.. Then i read in another post about it's no use downloading the add on app you need the full 26 something MB?? well that's ok for cable but what about us poor 56k 'ers,, are sonic foundry going to send out the up date on cd for their loyal user's??
Subject:RE: stuttering and popping playback Reply by: Iacobus Date:12/19/2002 2:09:26 PM ACID is not a true multitracker, nor was it ever meant to be. There are people, however, who have been able to run multiple disk-based tracks without problems. Try splitting up existing tracks into Loops, or record tracks again in small increments. Increase playback buffering on the Audio tab under Options>Preferences on the menu bar. When using FX, and you happen to like the way the FX are when applied to a track, consider rendering the track with effects added, as your system and ACID won't have to render FX on the fly and will only have to playback the track. (This is actually a common technique many other users of other apps use.) You're actually asking a lot even for your system. This is digital audio we're dealing with here, not MIDI. You have a 60 GB hard drive, but you didn't mention what the speed was. A 7200 RPM model will give you better performance than a 5400 RPM model. Having a separate hard drive dedicated to just audio will also improve performance. Be sure DMA is enabled for the drive as well. It's pretty rare but it does happen. Be also sure that the drive is not sharing the IDE channel with a slower device; the transfer speed will yield to the slower device even if your hard drive is capable of a higher speed. A pro-quality soundcard (like those from M-Audio and Echo) will also likely yield better performance, as those cards (and their respective drivers) are geared more towards DAW use rather than general all around use. HTH, Iacobus
Subject:RE: stuttering and popping playback Reply by: pwppch Date:12/19/2002 3:35:02 PM Does it happen with a specific FX that you insert on a track? Peter

Subject:stuttering and popping playback

Posted by: juice

Date:12/13/2002 3:21:12 PM

My acid 4.0 will not playback without stuttering and popping.
i tried tech support. they told me to download the latest drivers to my santa cruz sound card. I did that; nothing changed.
I called tech support a second time. they told me that's just what the program does. "it usually starts doing that at about 4 or 5 tracks."
is this true?
with only acid open, the CPU is generally working at 30%-50% and the Mem is at a constant 20%.
is there anything i can do?
i don't use any acid loops.
all the tracks i record open as "beatmapped" even though i changed the setting to open tracks between .1 and 300 seconds as loops.
i can change it to a loop individually; and i do, mostly because that's typically the only way i can use pitch shift. (i say "typically" because some beatmapped tracks will allow pitch change; and i can't really find an explanation or consistency in this.)
and i also noticed the sound quality is compromised when the tracks is changed to a loop. is there anything i can do about that?
my computer is a dell dimension 8100:
pentium 4 processor - 1.5 G
256 RAM
60 Gig hard drive
turtle beach santa cruz sound card

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
jesse

Subject:RE: stuttering and popping playback

Reply by: midiaxer

Date:12/19/2002 12:03:26 PM

I'm having that kind of problem too but only when I insert an effect on a track. When the song gets to that part where the effect is, it stutters and crackles/popping sound. I'm searching around for help, maybe I'll start a new topic....

Subject:RE: stuttering and popping playback

Reply by: skot

Date:12/19/2002 12:34:54 PM

Yep similar problem here too!! when stopping playback or starting playback i receive a deafening pop/click from my monitors this is one of my many problems regarding AP4.0, i sometimes wish i'd never spent my money on something so unreliable ....i downloaded update add on 317b and its still riddled with bug's..
Then i read in another post about it's no use downloading the add on app you need the full 26 something MB?? well that's ok for cable but what about us poor 56k 'ers,, are sonic foundry going to send out the up date on cd for their loyal user's??

Subject:RE: stuttering and popping playback

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:12/19/2002 2:09:26 PM

ACID is not a true multitracker, nor was it ever meant to be. There are people, however, who have been able to run multiple disk-based tracks without problems.

Try splitting up existing tracks into Loops, or record tracks again in small increments.

Increase playback buffering on the Audio tab under Options>Preferences on the menu bar.

When using FX, and you happen to like the way the FX are when applied to a track, consider rendering the track with effects added, as your system and ACID won't have to render FX on the fly and will only have to playback the track. (This is actually a common technique many other users of other apps use.) You're actually asking a lot even for your system. This is digital audio we're dealing with here, not MIDI.

You have a 60 GB hard drive, but you didn't mention what the speed was. A 7200 RPM model will give you better performance than a 5400 RPM model. Having a separate hard drive dedicated to just audio will also improve performance. Be sure DMA is enabled for the drive as well. It's pretty rare but it does happen. Be also sure that the drive is not sharing the IDE channel with a slower device; the transfer speed will yield to the slower device even if your hard drive is capable of a higher speed.

A pro-quality soundcard (like those from M-Audio and Echo) will also likely yield better performance, as those cards (and their respective drivers) are geared more towards DAW use rather than general all around use.

HTH,
Iacobus

Subject:RE: stuttering and popping playback

Reply by: pwppch

Date:12/19/2002 3:35:02 PM

Does it happen with a specific FX that you insert on a track?

Peter