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Subject:At a loss here...
Posted by: Trap9920
Date:2/19/2005 10:38:18 PM
I had always used Acid 4.0 with my older Audgiy 2 platinum. Never had any problems with latency or playback.. Now I have an Audigy 2 platinum ZS... thing is AWFUL in playback... just stutters, bleeps, you name it... it does it. Recording is giving me crazy latency... everything is like 2 seconds off when I record. I have a gig of ram and am running on a pentium 4 2.4... i don't understand what my optimal settings are. I am sitting here with an acoustic guitar and a microphone and for the life of me I can not get two tracks to work together at all. This is driving me insane. If anyone can help me... heck even get on an instant messenger at some point and help me troubleshoot I'd be really grateful. As said, I've been using Acid for a long time and it's not agreeing with this sound card at all. I've screwed around with the buffering a ton and can't get even close to where I want to be. I will try every step anyone lists here. This is blowing my mind. I thought an upgrade in the soundcard would be a good thing... now I can't even record at all. |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: Trap9920
Date:2/19/2005 10:50:07 PM
I'm not even sure what the optimal bitrate and so on are at this point... I guess what I am looking for is to start from the default settings and work my way to getting things going. |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: mortalengines
Date:2/19/2005 11:03:52 PM
I just love it when the new version arrives & you get to re-live the old nightmares from when you nearly killed yourself to get 4 up & running. check under options/ preferences to get the drivers installed that are the most optimized for your sound card - this is obvious but, it screwed me up because I couldn't click on the OK box - if you can't see the OK box then you need to adjust your screen resolution or set the "auto hide" function for your task bar to click OK on ANY change you make to your audio preferences. I hope this helps. |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: Trap9920
Date:2/19/2005 11:11:38 PM
Another intresting thing here... this same stuff is also happening in 3.0.. so my card and this program are having some serious battles right now. I have set everything back to default. I need to know a few next steps... I'd settle for 3.0 if it came down to it. I just need to be recording, not troubleshooting programs. Mortal you are right, this is a nightmare. |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:2/20/2005 4:38:14 AM
You say this is a NEW Audigy 2 ZS. Any change of bringing it back to the store and buying something else? I ask because I owned an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and while the playback for gaming was totally awesome, the recording of live audio was "less than optimal". Creative just didn’t spend their money on good A/D converters for recording because they knew that 99% of consumers would just be using it for playback. If you can, get an M-Audio Firewire Solo, Audiophile, or FW410, or Echo Gina 3G. If these are too expensive an M-Audio MobilePre USB or Fast Track USB. Some cost less than the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and are far better for recording audio. Make sure you get one with a mic preamp. (all the one's that I listed do) If you can’t then here are some facts about the Audigy 2 card to help you configure it: 1. The Audigy 2 is a 16-bit card. It DOES NOT record 24-bit audio regardless of what the carefully crafted marketing literature says. They can make all sorts of claims but they don’t tell you that these are software tricks that the drivers do and NOT the hardware’s real capability. The card does do some 24-bit processing at 96KHz (hence their claims that its 24-bit) but I could never get it to work reliably. 2. The Audigy 2 only processes natively (in the hardware) at 48KHz. Again, regardless of what the carefully crafted marketing specs say, this card can only work at 48KHz internally. Any other sample rate is done in software not hardware. Therefore, set your project at 48Khz sample rate/16-bit sample depth. Set it to ANYTHING other than this, and the Audigy 2 will RESAMPLE your audio in SOFTWARE and cause LATENCY. In ACID use File > Properties > Audio tab. Set Sample rate (Hz): 48,000 and Bit Depth: 16 and click Start all new projects with these settings. Then go into Options > Preferences > Audio and set Audio device type: Creative ASIO or the Audigy 2 ASIO device for 48/16. Click the Apply button. Then click the Advanced button and a new dialog will pop up. Click the Configure button on that and set the latency to 5ms. You may have to play with this and set it higher (i.e., 10ms) depending on how fast your PC is. Any stuttering on playback will require you to increase this latency value until the stuttering stops. With these settings you should be able to record with no noticeable latency. Let us know how you make out. I now use an M-Audio Firewire 410 and am glad I don't have the Audigy anymore. ~jr |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: Trap9920
Date:2/20/2005 10:23:46 AM
With the settings just mentioned playback was totally illegible. I started the buffering at 5 and worked all the way through 50 and it just crackles the more and more you lower the number. It plays a single track fine. As soon as you add one more track, everything goes haywire. Any other ideas or settings anyone can think of? Also, I am surely considering the idea of dumping this card depending on whether or not I can get a few more ideas here to troubleshoot. Got the thing at Best Buy and I'm not sure how their return policy is about opened products. I'll probably have to pay a restocking fee or something. I'd like to just get this one working and not go through the hassle... but if it comes down to it I need to get my moneys worth too. |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: Trap9920
Date:2/20/2005 10:40:20 AM
Looked at all those cards.... I can only spend maybe 250 tops on a card. I am using the crappy 1/4 input for a mic or whatever it is (i'm no recording pro.. I just need to be doing my little demos). All these cards use the larger input it appears.... I also like to have an input to plug bass in directly if possible. I always mic my guitar... Anyway, I have no idea what is reasonable for a microphone with the the normal plug on it... I've always used these ghetto crap mics. Are there any options for me that make sense besides the audigy? |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:2/20/2005 1:06:29 PM
> I can only spend maybe 250 tops on a card If I were you, I would look into the M-Audio Firewire Solo. It has a street price of $179-$199 (zZounds.com). It has phantom power so you can use condenser microphones. You will need a firewire interface on your PC but they can be had for $30 these days and all the new motherboards have them built in. Then get a better microphone. I like Audio-Technica mics. In the $100 range the AT2020 is a nice condenser mic aimed at the home project studio for around $99 street price. So for around $279-$299 you can have nice pro setup with a clean audio interface for both guitar and vocals and a nice microphone. I don't know what speakers you have but the Firewire Solo has 1/4 phone plugs for pro powered speakers. The M-Audio Audiophile DX4's are a nice near-field monitor for around $149 that will plug right in. (I have the LX4's which are the next version up and they are excellent) Using desktop PC speakers for mixing audio is not recommended as they color the sound too much. You can use them if that's all you have/can afford but eventually, you'll want to get something that gives you flat frequency response. ~jr |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: pwppch
Date:2/20/2005 2:13:48 PM
There is no reason why you cannot use the Audigy with ACID. I have used one on a regular basis. The use of the ASIO drivers will provide you a better recording experiance, but as long as your system is clean and configured properely, you should be fine. First suggestion: Get the absolute latest drivers from Creative. I would suggest a complete uninstall of ANY Creative software. Then go to the Creative Web site and use there "detect hardware" (or is it update driver) wizard utility. This will put the latest and greatest drivers on your system. Just make sure you completely remove any existing software that may have been installed with the CD provided with the card. Peter |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: Trap9920
Date:2/20/2005 3:40:53 PM
The good news is I have things apparently working.... figured out what the problem was. Hopefully if other folks have it they can revert to this topic... My PC has two hard rives... an 80 gig and a 120... I have acid on the 80 and was trying to save my projects on the 120... that is apparently not so cool with Acid. I started saving things on the 80gig and I'll be darned if everything isn't working really well. I appreciate all the help. You guys are nice folks. I am now going to look into some of the mics mentioned and enjoy recording again. It's been since September so it feels great to do it again. Thanks again. |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: pwppch
Date:2/22/2005 11:05:03 AM
ACID has zero requirments for the media or projects being on the same physical drive as the install of ACID is. I do this all the time. Your system is messed up or the harddrive control is busted or configured wrong in some way. Peter |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: Rednroll
Date:2/22/2005 12:56:05 PM
"There is no reason why you cannot use the Audigy with ACID. I have used one on a regular basis." You admit to that in a public forum? You should at least put a disclaimer on that, like "I have used one on a regular basis..... FOR TESTING PURPOSES ONLY, because the audigy is widely used by many Acid users and I want to make sure Acid functions properly with the Audigy." Then go on to elaborate, on how you would never recommend the Audigy for serious audio work because Creative can't make a decent sounding card with a low noise floor, as well as a decent driver to make it all run smoothly. Ok, maybe that's just me talking. :-) Red |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:2/22/2005 6:00:22 PM
Just to add to the bedlam: If these are EIDE drives, you'll ideally want to have your system drive as master on the primary IDE channel with the media drive as master on the secondary IDE channel. Don't daisy chain them together as master and slave. That'll hamper performance. As Peter mentioned, keep your software installations to a minimum. Creative has this uncanny knack of shoving apps on you that you will quite possibly never use. Always use the "custom" option when installing so you can customize what goes into your system. Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid Buy Instant ACID by JohnnyRoy and mD! Now! mD at ACIDplanet |
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Subject:RE: At a loss here...
Reply by: pwppch
Date:2/24/2005 8:31:13 AM
The Audigy's are a common denominator in our world. I run regularly with on during dev so I catch any isssue. Once you understand the limitations of the hardware, they never pose problems. Peter |