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Subject:Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Posted by: knowbody
Date:1/17/2003 8:37:17 AM
well, I got some improvement to the stuttering situation. I can even use buses and effects. Now I only get stuttering right at the end of the project and only if I play the project all the way through. If I start half way through there's no stuttering. I'm really wondering if this is an Acid bug. CPU usage climbs into the high 80's after around four minutes of playback. If I hit stop it drops to near zero immediately. Is anyone else having problems like this? Here's what I did to improve the situation: 1. Uninstalled the Audigy Sound drivers and only installed the update ignoring the original CD (even though the update said not to do this). 2. Added dither to all tracks. 3. Made sure I'm playing in 16 bit at 48,000 kHZ 4. Followed all the tuning tips at http://www.musicxp.net/tuning_tips.htm apart from disabling system restore, balloon tips and hide icons. 5. Flashed the bios 6. Doubled-checked all my drivers are up-to-date. I'm thinking of following the other tips - especially disabling system restore but I'm going to try out Directx 9 before this and I want to keep system restore in reserve. If I disable it I understand all the restore points go with it. Any comments? Any suggestions? Chris (Hunt) |
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Subject:RE: Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:1/17/2003 10:54:32 PM
You shouldn't have a problem with DirectX 9. (I haven't as of yet.) I can't remember if I suggested that you render all FX with the track(s) in question. You don't have to render the whole track if you're just playing the same event over and over; you can just set the Loop Region over the event, solo the track and render. You could then find out if playback itself is merely causing the jump in CPU usage. HTH, Iacobus |
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Subject:RE: Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Reply by: knowbody
Date:1/18/2003 5:25:43 AM
Thanks for the suggestion, Iocubus - I'm not sure what you mean though! I know how to solo and render part of a track but I'm not sure why. I have rendered the entire project as a wav file and it plays back flawlessly in Winamp so I guess this is a playback problem. I've tried directX9 and the problem persists. Am I missing something really obvious? Chris |
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Subject:RE: Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Reply by: knowbody
Date:1/18/2003 9:27:01 AM
Well DirectX9 has gone! I found that as soon as I tried to load in a new midi track Acid crashed. After reverting back to DirectX8 (good job I kept sytem restore around in this case) uninstalling and reinstalling Acid I got midi back. Still getting a slight stutter at the end of the track - but if I cut the last three loops (that come in after a complete pause) there is no stutter at all. Would fiddling with the dither settings cure this - what dither setting should I be using to overcome the Pentium 4 CPU spike problem? Chris |
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Subject:RE: Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:1/18/2003 1:39:59 PM
I wanted to see if playback of the tracks without any FX (if any are used) would help solve the problem. Bouncing down tracks with FX will render the FX along with the new track, so ACID will just have to playback the track without having to apply FX on the fly. It may be a P4 denormal problem after all, since what you've described seems to be the same thing that's plaguing other users. Try checking out this SOS article. HTH, Iacobus |
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Subject:RE: Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Reply by: knowbody
Date:1/18/2003 6:20:34 PM
Thanks, Iacobus - I see what you were driving at now. I read the SOS article and applied dither to all tracks - but I still get the hiccup at the end of the project. The link to the tobybear pbugger seems broken - have you used that software? Also I'm not convinced this is just a Pentium 4 CPU spike problem. Thinking about it when I had Acid2 running on this system I had no problems playing anything. I switched to Acid 4 primarily because of the buses and midi support and I don't want to go back. But I don't know! I mixed everything down to one track and it plays back perfectly. Perhaps there's no answer to be found. Chris |
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Subject:RE: Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:1/18/2003 9:48:08 PM
Very weird. I know you can't be hitting a performance ceiling with the specs you mentioned. Did I or anyone suggest trying WDM instead of ASIO (if you're using it)? I try to help as many users in here as I can but I end up losing track. I know that won't help you with MIDI/VSTi's but it's worth a shot. HTH, Iacobus |
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Subject:RE: Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Reply by: knowbody
Date:1/19/2003 3:02:52 AM
Thanks Iacobus - what do you mean by WMD? Windows Classic Wave Drivers? I've tried that and the Microsoft Sound Mapper - same result. It's really irritating hat I can't pin this down! Chris |
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Subject:RE: Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Reply by: fulani
Date:1/19/2003 7:37:52 PM
i'm having similar problems on a PIII 850. 512RAM. 120GBdrive. itried running ASIO and went back to Windows Classic wAVe. i using a SBLive card and also have an AudioMedia III card installed which i use with PTLE. when i solo the problem tracks in ACID, i'm hearing clicking and poping in certain locations, but trackview magnified, there are NO SPIKES anywhere that i can see. none. it looks perfectly fine. these clicks and pops were not there previously . they seem to be multiplying at an alarming rate! :( One thing that I am finding on some of the tracks are what appear to be random Track Splits. very strange that they are there. By painting over the splits and re-joining the events, some of the clicks are gone, but i'm still hearing them where there is no anomaly on the track. where are these random splits coming from? |
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Subject:RE: Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:1/19/2003 10:01:09 PM
Have you copied and pasted parts of the project? That could be why you see splits that weren't intended, as you might've accidentally copied and dragged or pasted events unintentionally, especially if you aren't keeping track of what's selected. (Be sure to use CTRL+SHIFT+A to unselect everything before selecting a desired event or events.) HTH, Iacobus |
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Subject:RE: Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:1/19/2003 10:04:29 PM
WDM stands for Windows Driver Model; it's basically an alternative to ASIO. Didn't the Audigy have ASIO drivers? Iacobus |
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Subject:RE: Stuttering update (Audigy on XP)
Reply by: knowbody
Date:1/19/2003 11:33:33 PM
There are three options available under the audio tab: 1. Microsoft Sound map 2. Windows Classic Wave Driver 3. Creative Asio. I've tried playback in Acid with all three and still get the hiccoughs at the end. Chris |