Skipping, Stuttering, Hiccuping, Jerking, Lagging when Recording- Official Response Requested -ACID Product Family

Subject:Skipping, Stuttering, Hiccuping, Jerking, Lagging when Recording- Official Response Requested Posted by: Vinity Date:10/18/2003 1:03:06 PM I just looked through 600 posts on here and tons of people are having this problem with acid 4.0 Can we get an official response here please? I'm not happy that I just paid for an "upgrade" that can't handle 3 tracks and a recording. If anyone has fixed this, can they post here, (besides the usual sound card recommendations, and degrag suggestions-- It worked before with 2.0, it should work now) If previous versions don't do this, I'd like to see a Staff Member provide a link. This needs to be solved, addressed in the support knowledge base or SOMETHING. it's aggravating ! Please, can we make this the final "Problems when recording/skipping/hiccuping/lagging/tempo issues" post ? sheesh. I'm not a happy customer at all right now. Anybody can chime in, but I hope the staff will. ******************************~~~~~~~~~********************************************* UPDATE: here's a message by myst, with what looks like their official response from before. Posted by: MyST Date: 6/17/2003 9:20:10 PM From the Acid KB articles on the SoFo site... Summary: Troubleshooting skipping or gapping on playback Issue: Why does ACID skip, gap, or stutter during playback, and what can you do about it? Solution: Skipping and gapping in the audio during playback can be caused by several things. The most common cause is a lack of RAM. Most of the audio that you deal with in ACID will be stored in RAM. If you open a lot of files, RAM can be eaten up quickly. If too much of your physical RAM is being used, Windows will start "swapping" out RAM to your hard drive. If this happens to your loops, ACID will most likely gap when it has to swap the audio back into RAM. There is a handy RAM usage meter at the bottom of the ACID window. If the meter ever reaches the red stage, you might experience audio gapping. Another reason for audio gapping might be playing too many Disk-Based Tracks at once. ACID is not optimized to play more than one or two stretched Disk-Based Tracks at a time. Unstretched Disk-Based Tracks will perform better but will still top out at four or five, depending on your system configuration. ACID will also need a pretty fast CPU in order to play projects with large combinations of envelopes, plug-ins, and tracks. If your CPU can't keep up with all of the processing that is happening in real time, you will have to cut back on the amount of real-time processing or upgrade your CPU. To optimize your system and reduce the possibility of skipping, do the following: Update your video and sound card drivers to their newest versions. These should be available from the manufacturers' websites. Increase the Acid playback buffering (Options -> Preferences -> Audio) a little bit. It may take some trial and error to find the right setting. Lower the video acceleration. Go to Start ->Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> Performance -> Graphics/Application Performance to lower this setting. Close other running 32-bit applications/utilities before running ACID. Press CTRL+ALT+Delete and End Task on everything but Exlorer and Systray. ****************************~~~~~~~~~********************************************* Update 2, here's another message, from user Astrosphere Posted by: Astrosphere (Ignore This User) Date: 6/29/2003 11:48:58 PM Hi, Brasilia: I'm not sure if your stuttering problem is the same as one that I experienced with ACID 4.0, but if so, I think I have found a cure... I'll describe the problem that I was having: Once in a while, when I add a one-shot WAV to an ACID layout, and then go to play back the track, ACID will stutter and drag while those one-shots are playing. I have to quickly press "STOP" on the playback, or else it will drag to the point where I can't do anything but wait for the playback to stop. One night I discovered that I could right-click on the problem track and select "Edit in Sound Forge," then when the WAV opens in Sound Forge, I just select "Save As" and save the file in the same place as it was before (with the same name). Then when I go back to ACID, the WAV plays flawlessly. Of course, this fix requires that you have Sound Forge, but most of us probably do anyway. I hope this suggestion helps others out there who have the same problem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject:RE: Skipping, Stuttering, Hiccuping, Jerking, Lagging when Recording- Official Response Requested Reply by: MyST Date:10/19/2003 3:59:22 PM Sorry to here you're still having problems. Do you have the latest build of Acid? If not, here's where you can get it. http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/download/step2.asp?DID=405 Hope you get this resolved. M
Subject:RE: Skipping, Stuttering, Hiccuping, Jerking, Lagging when Recording- Official Response Requested Reply by: piotrk Date:10/19/2003 4:33:01 PM I've got Acid 4e and have just tried recording a third audio take and now it seems to freeze every time. I use a Wamirack 192L. I've also just realised that I have also had the windows sounds switched on and wonder if this had effected the Wami Sound Card. How can u check in XP if your sound card at that moment in time is ONLY dedicated to Acid. Any ideas please???
Subject:RE: Skipping, Stuttering, Hiccuping, Jerking, Lagging when Recording- Official Response Requested Reply by: Iacobus Date:10/20/2003 12:41:29 PM In addition to what MyST mentioned, you may want to buy a second hard drive and dedicate it just for media (specifically your digital audio) if you haven't done so already. Ideally, you'll want the second hard drive configured as master on the secondary IDE channel; keep your system hard drive as master on the primary IDE channel. Can we have specs on your system? (Software and hardware; be as specific as possible, like make and model of your soundcard, video card, etc.) We can make suggestions. I can tell you offhand that Creative's Sound Blaster line isn't as robust as more pro-level offerings from Echo or M-Audio just because the pro-level offerings are meant to do one thing and one thing only—pro audio, not gaming. Having/using a DAW is not as easy as that; many users, even ones that don't use Sony's software, have the same problem as you. You may be hitting a performance ceiling with your system; what you got away with before in 2.0 has caught up to you in 4.0. (Did you notice, for example, that your projects sound better in 4.0 than they did in 2.0? I would gather that, as a result of that improvement, ACID needs more computing power.) HTH, Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid mD's ACIDplanet Page

I just looked through 600 posts on here and tons of people are having this problem with acid 4.0

Can we get an official response here please?

I'm not happy that I just paid for an "upgrade" that can't handle 3 tracks and a recording.

If anyone has fixed this, can they post here, (besides the usual sound card recommendations, and degrag suggestions-- It worked before with 2.0, it should work now)

If previous versions don't do this, I'd like to see a Staff Member provide a link.

This needs to be solved, addressed in the support knowledge base or SOMETHING. it's aggravating !

Please, can we make this the final "Problems when recording/skipping/hiccuping/lagging/tempo issues" post ?

sheesh. I'm not a happy customer at all right now.
Anybody can chime in, but I hope the staff will.

********************************~~~~~~~~~*************************************************
UPDATE:

here's a message by myst, with what looks like their official response from before.

Posted by: MyST
Date: 6/17/2003 9:20:10 PM

From the Acid KB articles on the SoFo site...

Summary: Troubleshooting skipping or gapping on playback

Issue: Why does ACID skip, gap, or stutter during playback, and what can you do about it?

Solution: Skipping and gapping in the audio during playback can be caused by several things. The most common cause is a lack of RAM. Most of the audio that you deal with in ACID will be stored in RAM. If you open a lot of files, RAM can be eaten up quickly. If too much of your physical RAM is being used, Windows will start "swapping" out RAM to your hard drive. If this happens to your loops, ACID will most likely gap when it has to swap the audio back into RAM.
There is a handy RAM usage meter at the bottom of the ACID window. If the meter ever reaches the red stage, you might experience audio gapping.

Another reason for audio gapping might be playing too many Disk-Based Tracks at once. ACID is not optimized to play more than one or two stretched Disk-Based Tracks at a time. Unstretched Disk-Based Tracks will perform better but will still top out at four or five, depending on your system configuration.

ACID will also need a pretty fast CPU in order to play projects with large combinations of envelopes, plug-ins, and tracks. If your CPU can't keep up with all of the processing that is happening in real time, you will have to cut back on the amount of real-time processing or upgrade your CPU.

To optimize your system and reduce the possibility of skipping, do the following:

Update your video and sound card drivers to their newest versions. These should be available from the manufacturers' websites.
Increase the Acid playback buffering (Options -> Preferences -> Audio) a little bit. It may take some trial and error to find the right setting.
Lower the video acceleration. Go to Start ->Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> Performance -> Graphics/Application Performance to lower this setting.
Close other running 32-bit applications/utilities before running ACID. Press CTRL+ALT+Delete and End Task on everything but Exlorer and Systray.

********************************~~~~~~~~~***********************************************

Update 2, here's another message, from user Astrosphere

Posted by: Astrosphere (Ignore This User)
Date: 6/29/2003 11:48:58 PM

Hi, Brasilia:
I'm not sure if your stuttering problem is the same as one that I experienced with ACID 4.0, but if so, I think I have found a cure...

I'll describe the problem that I was having: Once in a while, when I add a one-shot WAV to an ACID layout, and then go to play back the track, ACID will stutter and drag while those one-shots are playing. I have to quickly press "STOP" on the playback, or else it will drag to the point where I can't do anything but wait for the playback to stop.

One night I discovered that I could right-click on the problem track and select "Edit in Sound Forge," then when the WAV opens in Sound Forge, I just select "Save As" and save the file in the same place as it was before (with the same name). Then when I go back to ACID, the WAV plays flawlessly.

Of course, this fix requires that you have Sound Forge, but most of us probably do anyway.

I hope this suggestion helps others out there who have the same problem.

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