Subject:Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio Playback

Posted by: Cheye

Date:1/27/2008 10:34:04 AM

I am just loving this Acid Pro 6d build 323 software, enjoying a new creativity flow and ease of use. It is the application of my dreams and I'm coming from the world of Cubase. With the new features of multi track recording, improved midi and editing features, I have finally found the perfect music creation tool. There is however a serious problem that I have seen posted throughout the forum and which is stopping me from completing any musical projects and they are...

1) crashes on scrolling vertical and horizontal bars while playing back audio

2) crackling and hesitations while playing back audio on scrolling, resizing, and general movement within the program

3) some problems removing UAD -1 plugins from the effect chains with crashes. I have one UAD plug on a specific track that when I remove it from the effects chain it crashes. All the others are fine accept for this LA 2A removal on track 12.

4) Acid Pro 6 not shutting down properly. When shutting down Windows XP I get the end now window bofore it will shut down.

I am trying my best to follow instructions from the very helpful posts and I realize that my system could be the culprit and I'm learning and trying to improve my set up and observe strange and bizarre system behaviours. I've got a team of scientists working on things at my end and I'm about to add more ram and get a new graphics card. I will post changes observed when I update my system in 3 days. Below are my present system specs...

Acid Pro 6d build 323
Intel P4 3.0 ghz
1 gig ram - (updating to 2 gigs this week)
Onboard graphics card VIA/S36Unichrome II -( new card coming this week)
IDE 40 gig drive
IDE 160 gig drive
Window XP Service Pack 2
Firepod - v 5.10
UAD 1 card

If you see or can recommend anything to help the issues posted above this would be very appreciated since I'm not the most tech savvy person.

There are some settings that someone had posted to disable in preferences that made my crashes less frequent on my system which I hope some other people will find useful...

Disable: Create poject file backups on save
Disable: Enable autosave
Disable: Automatically detect plug and play CD/DVD drives
Disable: Save media-usage relationships in active media library
Disable: Enable media manager

If anyone has some suggestions or new ideas please post or contact. I would also love to hear from a Sony tech on this matter if possible.

Many thanks

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio Playback

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:1/29/2008 10:32:58 AM

Try totally disabling video acceleration to see if that helps any?

(Right-click the Desktop, select, "Properties," then the "Settings" tab. Click the "Advanced" button. Under the "Troubleshooting" tab, set the video acceleration slider all the way to the left.)

Iacobus

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: Cheye

Date:1/29/2008 2:09:58 PM

Thanks Iacobus

I had previously tried this with no noticeable difference.

I'm just going out the door to get a new video card for 2 monitors and more ram. I'll post my results and hopefully this problem will go away. If not I have more ram and dual monitor use, which is also good.

I greatly appreciate your help. I'm still waiting to hear back from Sony regarding this matter.

Cheye

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: alltheseworlds

Date:1/29/2008 4:50:02 PM

I don't think Sony are going to say much about issues ! & 2. It is a known problem (at least to a lot of users) and has no definite cure. These problems happen on all sorts of machine with all sorts of video cards, cpus, mobos etc.

Not everyone has these problems, but it's common enough to mean that there must be a wide range of hardware and system configurations that are simply not 100% compatible with the way AP is coded.

There are various measures suggested that seem to help some people to varying degrees, but no overall solution.

It is a AcidPro bug, not an end-user issue.

Now if Sony, or anyone else, wants to dispute that I'd love to hear about it and all our problems with scrolling crackles and crashes can be solved.

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: kbruff

Date:1/30/2008 4:14:19 AM

ACID 4.0f

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: Cheye

Date:1/30/2008 6:54:31 AM

Yes, it seems that some people are experiencing the same issues on many different set ups. It is a shame that some of us are constantly racking our brains trying to figure this issue out and Sony is hiding from the issue. I certainly hope they are secretly hard at work figuring this one out for the next update or release.

Now I'm wondering about a post which is related to firewire cards (texas instruments) and an upgrade for XP Service Pack 2. Could this be part of the problem with crackling and audio hesitations? If anyone has done this update or noticed any improvements please let me know. Is this something we should all do?

Here is the info regarding this firewire fix...

look around for a "firewire" fix- it's a known issue on some pc's with either a certain chip (eg, texas instruments) or drivers. MS did a hotfix for firewire sometime ago, that may be of use. worth googling. M-Audio stuff is cheap, but really quite good value for the money.

Subject: RE: AP6 shut-down frequently
Reply by: Zacchino
Date: 1/21/2008 11:29:55 PM

If you guys are talking about the famous firewire fix for XP SP2, here's the link :

support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B885222&x=14&y=13

Any info regarding this firewire fix would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Cheye

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: Cheye

Date:2/18/2008 12:08:55 PM

I thought I would report back on this thread about Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio with ACID 6d 323. I did update my computer and here are the specs...

Acid Pro 6d build 323
Intel P4 3.0 ghz
2 gig ram
Graphics Card - ATI Radeon 9200SE
IDE 120 gig drive
IDE 160 gig drive
Window XP Service Pack 2
Firepod - v 5.10
UAD 1 card

With the new Video Card and more ram it did help things to some degree. The crackling, hesitations and crackles improved on scrolling within ACID except for using UAD-1 plug ins and VSTi Atmosphere. I still get crackling when using above 54% of UAD card? I also get crashes when removing some UAD-1 plugs. Also, I get crackling when using VSTi synth Atmosphere. Some waves plugs also crackle when being used. Why is ACID so sensitive to using plugins? Lastly, when adding extra busses crackling and hesitations and crashes would occur. What a shame trying to work around all this crap! Can anyone help further or suggest ways to improve this problem with UAD-1 and Atmosphere plugins?

Any comments or help would be appreciated

Many thanks

Cheye

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: Cheye

Date:2/19/2008 9:34:20 AM

Hello Crash Experts

Would an uninstall / reinstall help this problem? I'm just running out of ideas and problem solving strategies. It does seem to be effecting many users with frequent crashes and playback problems. I'm not sure if I can use Acid 6 anymore, since I'm running out of work arounds to complete projects. Here are the problems again...

1) Acid 6 crashes when I remove UAD-1 plugins. Crackling on playback begins about 54% of UAD use.
2) Acid 6 crashes when I add most plugins (including Sony plugs) to busses.
3) Acid 6 sometimes just randomly crashes, usually beginning with crackling, hesitations then boom out she blows. Crackling and hesitations increase and get worse when you start scrolling windows within Acid
4) VSTi Atmosphere doesn't get along with ACID 6 and also starts problems on playback.
5) Acid doesn't shut down properly. It brings up an End Now window when shutting down Windows XP

Help! Here are my updated computer specs...

Acid Pro 6d build 323
Intel P4 3.0 ghz
2 gig ram
Graphics Card - ATI Radeon 9200SE
IDE 120 gig drive
IDE 160 gig drive
Window XP Service Pack 2
Firepod - v 5.10
UAD 1 card

Thanks Cheye

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: stuffedspacedog

Date:2/24/2008 6:13:38 AM

I remember one possible fix to this problem, which I also had a couple of years back... it had to do with disabling overlays in the graphics card settings... for me I had to go into the custom settings for the Matrox card. CPU usage dropped by over 40% as soon as I did this.

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: jumbuk

Date:2/24/2008 2:47:21 PM

What audio drivers are you using?

What Firewire interface? Is it the onboard one in the MOB?

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: Cheye

Date:2/25/2008 3:07:00 PM

Thanks for the tip on the graphic card settings.

I"m using a Firepod with the latest updated drivers v 5.10

I have a Texas Instruments PCI card firewire interface. It is not a motherboard firewire slot or one that came with the computer.

Cheye

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: tascolas

Date:2/27/2008 3:19:50 AM

Hi m8. Try troubleshooting your firewire card and the Texas Ins. card . Start by switching your audio driver to the windows default and start messing around with an arrangement. Of course your plugs will have lots of latency now but i guess u can still figure out if the behavior is better. If behavior suddenly doesnt have any hickups then switch back to your soundcard's asio driver and try raising the latency.Usually popsand crackles like these are just because the latency is too low. Similarly UAD cards don't like very low latency settings(i have one meself too :-)).
A better alternative driver would be the free Asio4all ,assuming u have one of those compatible with it onboard soundchips (eg.Realtek etc.) . After installing it,switch to the asio4all driver and try.
Best alternate yet is trying a pci card. If u could get a hold of something like an M-audio audiophile(about 65 euro) which is a proven card over the years, u ll know if its your firewire setup that's buggy . As u noticed i didnt say any Soundblaster card for pci just because their Asio driver suxx and u ll have to use the asio4all driver again with the SB. I saw ''alltheseworlds'' saying ''I don't think Sony are going to say much about issues ! & 2. It is a known problem (at least to a lot of users) and has no definite cure'' . Well , i am no sony representative but i have never experienced stutters and crackles on audio in any of my pcs many years now using Acid. Crashes due to Acid bugs, yes a few but no stutter,crackles or hesitations.To me the real known problem is incopatible devices on the same pc. I 've been seeing this over and over again.Just for the fun of it ,i will mention that it is well known that not all texas instruments firewire chips are compatible with all firewire soundcards as well as mobos too,so i would keep away from accusing sony on this particular subject m8 .Same goes for other manufacturer's firewire chipsets. In detail if your chip is a Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 or similar u ll see that others are experiencing problems too (from the presonus forum). Also assuming u have a Via chipset based mobo for intel northwood/prescott pentium4 (i think its northwood) ,thats also a major contender for being incopatible or at least very unstable with texas ins firewire cards as well.
Anyway,Cheye, i hope this will help,try out and keep us posted ,cheers,
Tasc
PS: Please state your full spec: type of motherboard ,type of ram,hd etc etc., the whole lot. Also plz state the display resolution you 're working at m8.

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: Cheye

Date:2/27/2008 3:45:50 PM

Thanks Tascolas for the great info. I will try various things and get back to the forum regarding issues. Things are a lot better now with my new graphics card and more ram and I'm only ever experiencing issues with crackling etc with UAD-1 card at about 55%. Also, with vsti synth atmosphere. This could be the latency settings being to low as you stated. I will play around with this for awhile.

I took your advice and checked out the presonus forum on texas intruments pci cards and found positive information about them. I also picked up this very useful info on setting up a PC system for audio recording...

I want to share with all of you my experiences and solutions I’ve come up with for getting my Firepod, and now my new Firestudio to play nicely with my PC. These solutions are basically the same steps I took with every other piece of audio interface gear I acquired throughout the years and can be a helpful guideline for any future configurations, and except for one instance these steps worked each time. It just takes patience, but once you hit it you’ll be rockin’!

Your computer’s components should be adequate or you’re dead in the water right off the start.

1. Be sure that your computer components have a good reputation for this application. This will involve some research on your part based on what audio interface you will be using, but typically Intel chipset on the motherboard (vs. Via) and Texas Instrument chips for a firewire controller prove to be the most compatible.
2. Be sure that each reputable component is able to handle the processing tasks with plenty of room to spare.
3. A 2nd hard drive for recording & playback of audio is almost essential. Recording to a partitioned OS HDD doesn’t cut it.
4. RAM! At the bare minimum, 1GB of good quality RAM is needed. Corsair is a good brand that never fails me.

Performance tweaks for Windows.

1. Other than a graphics card, do not physically install any sound cards, controller cards (except for HDD) etc. at this time.
2. With a fresh install of the OS and it’s latest updates, go through these performance tweaks for your OS: http://www.sweetwater.com/expert-cen.../d--06/11/2004
3. In addition to the OS tweaks, reduce your graphics resolution and color to 16 bit. It also helps to reduce hardware acceleration by a notch or two.
4. Install the rest of your programs including your audio recording/editing suite. Don’t install a bunch of unnecessary programs – KEEP IT LEAN!

The physical location of your firewire or audio interface card will make a difference. Whether there is an IRQ conflict or not, you will need to determine which slot works best.

1. Physically install your audio interface card or firewire controller for your audio interface. Install only the card needed to connect your interface. In my experience, the slot that seems to almost always work best is the 2nd furthest from the AGP slot. The slot next to the AGP slot almost always shares an IRQ with the AGP controller.
2. Install drivers of the firewire card / interface.
3. Check for IRQ sharing of the firewire card / interface. It needs to be on it’s own IRQ.
4. Test your audio recording & playback performance. Start out recording one track at low bit & sample, and then work your way up with track count and higher fidelity. Then try recording some tracks while playing back (overdubs). Record continuously for at least a couple of minutes and listen back. If everything sounds good except for maybe a couple of clicks here and there, you’re ready to move on to the next step. If you experience system freezes, dropouts, excessive “static” or clicks etc, relocate the firewire card / interface to another slot and try again from step 3. Sometimes something doesn’t agree with the card’s location, even though there are no IRQ conflicts. The idea is to first find a location for the card that causes the least amount of problems before adjusting buffers and adding other cards.
5. If you still have a few clicks here and there, try lowering your graphics hardware acceleration and color depth to 16 bit. If still getting a few clicks, increase your audio interface buffer. The idea is to allow the card to perform as good as possible before increasing the buffers (latency). In a couple of cases, I have had to roll back the driver version of the audio interface that completely cured all problems. The latest & greatest drivers aren’t always better!

I may have left out some small detail, but this should be a good guide to follow for most. I will try to edit this if I think of something of value to add.

GOOD LUCK!

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: dvan

Date:3/3/2008 10:21:34 AM

I've been having the same problems with both Acid 5 and 6. Wondering if there is a version 7 coming out that will address these issues? Otherwise I'll have to switch programs.

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: pwppch

Date:3/3/2008 3:16:14 PM

dvan,

Do you want to provide any information as to your problem?

Could you fill out your system spec in your profile?

Peter

Subject:RE: Crashes, Crackling, Hesitations on Audio

Reply by: Cheye

Date:3/6/2008 6:42:32 PM

Hi Dvan

What types of problems are you having with Acid 6? Is is crashing or audio playback problems when scrolling within program? Are you having any trouble with
VSTi's and UAD plugs?

Would love to try to solve some of these issues, since you are not the only one having troubles.

thanks

Cheye