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Subject:Would you like Rice Krispies with your soft synth?
Date:6/19/2009 5:56:58 AM

I have a problem. When I try to freeze a midi track attached to a soft synth a snap crackle pop sound appears. Even if I remove the soft synth the sound remains and carries over to other projects that I open. The only way to make it stop is to restart the computer. It seems more related to my audio interface no doubt. I've been having alot of problems with my interfaces lately. In fact I've been struggling with this BS for weeks. I'm just trying to find someone else that has encountered a problem like this.
Any advice is welcome.

HP a6745f
AMD Athlon Dual Core 2.6GHz
3.25 GB RAM
XP sp2
M-Audio Fasttrack Pro (I know...I know but my Presonus Firebox is being a punk)
Acid Pro7 & FL8 producers edition


The only other thing that may be relevant is that I have a Roland Juno-G connected via USB.

Also if someone can tell me of an audio interface that would work well with my computer model, OS, and Acid Pro7 I would be eternally grateful. I STRESS with my computer model for one shoe does not fit all when it comes to Audio Interfaces.
Subject:RE: Would you like Rice Krispies with your soft synth?
Reply by: Bremen Cole
Date:6/19/2009 7:55:35 AM

It sounds like the audio card/interface/driver issue for sure. I assume you are using ASIO drivers, so have you tried raising the buffer a bit? I have an old m-audio audiophile 2496 PCI card in a box similar to yours, and it works great.... but I would check the buffers, be sure you have the latest drivers...etc....also what happens with you unplug the Juno-G?

In general I have found that Acid seems to like Vista and Intel chips better that XP and AMD. My Vista Business/Intel core 2 dual laptop has had zero issues.I mean I can do anything and it all just works. (I have gutted most of the bloat from Vista and it is actually faster than the XP box) My XP/AMD desktop flakes out from time to time. And I've noticed most of the folks with stability issues on this forum are on XP and AMD..... just an observation......
Subject:RE: Would you like Rice Krispies with your soft synth?
Date:6/19/2009 10:26:36 AM

The Roland Juno-G seems to be without consequence. As for track buffering I have not changed it . It is set at .25. In the past I never had to adjust this. How will changing it effect performance? If I experiment with it, is there a threshold I shouldn't cross? I think I have an old 2496 sitting around somewhere and a creative X-FI Fatality with the front panel and all that jazz but unfortunately none of those has the balanced outputs I need for my monitor speakers nor do they have the balanced inputs. I could go back to using an optical or digital coaxial in but I'd rather not.
Subject:RE: Would you like Rice Krispies with your soft synth?
Reply by: Bremen Cole
Date:6/19/2009 1:59:34 PM

I was not referring to the track buffering, mine is at .50 FYI. I am speaking of the ASIO driver buffer size. It is often 256, 512 or some such, but seldom over 512. Are you in fact using ASIO drivers? If you go to Options/Preferences/Audio Device at the top it will show your audio driver. It should be an ASIO driver. If not then click on the little drop menu and select anything with ASIO in the name. If you do not have anything with ASIO in the name then you need to get up to date drivers for your sound card.


If you do have ASIO, select it then at the bottom of the Audio Device page you will see an Advanced tap. Select it and then at the top of that page select Configure. Now you are where you configure your ASIO driver. Somewhere you will have a way to select the Sample buffer. It is usually set in multiples of 64 ( 64, 128, 256, 512). If it is set below 512, for the heck of it raise it to 512. Back all the way out and see if that makes a difference.

Anyway, hope something in my rambling monologue helps :)
Subject:RE: Would you like Rice Krispies with your soft synth?
Date:6/19/2009 4:44:55 PM

No I've tried that already. My settings are at 512. Changing those settings seems to have no effect on my problem. Will I gain anything by changing the track buffering?
Like I have said, I never had to adjust this in the past. What is the main difference between .25 and .50?
Subject:RE: Would you like Rice Krispies with your soft synth?
Reply by: Bremen Cole
Date:6/19/2009 7:18:09 PM

I have to ask.... do you have any problems like this with FL8? I have had FL since FL3 and it is a very stable and capable host. I don't use it because I have never finished anything in it. For whatever reason it just does not work for me. Project 5 worked for me, but it is no longer being developed and does not have multicore support. So it is useless on modern computers and modern soft synths. But, again, does FL work perfect? What I am trying to figure out is if the problem is with your interface/computer (hardware) or with AP7 not working with the hardware. It really sounds like a hardware issue (or drivers) but it could be the way AP7 works with the hardware.

If you do in fact have a audiophile 2496, why not hook it up and see if it solves your problem? (of course download the latest drivers....set it up ASIO in AP7....etc) If it does then the issue is hardware, not software. You are on XP/AMD which tends to be the more problematic system with Acid Pro 7, but it should at least worK!

As far as the track buffering, I have no clue. Mine is on .50 for some reason, but that is not something that is common to other music software. I suggest you at least try it to see if it makes any difference.....

Subject:RE: Would you like Rice Krispies with your soft synth?
Reply by: jackn2mpu
Date:6/21/2009 6:08:34 AM

Not sure about working in Acid, but similar 'Rice Krispies' type sounds have been reported in other daw apps like Sonar when graphics-intensive gui's are on screen. Partly has to do with sharing of or conflicts with irq's between pieces of hardware. Check that out. Not all audio-related symptoms are caused by strictly audio hardware and software. Arturia softsynths are notorious for straining a computer system this way.

Jack
Subject:RE: Would you like Rice Krispies with your soft synth?
Date:6/21/2009 11:40:56 PM

Fl is in my opinion very stable. I don't use it much anymore but it can be used with Acid7 as a rewire device which sounds great but I haven't tackled that yet. I'd like to add that it comes with some really nice drum kits.

Getting back to the issue at hand:

I do believe it is my interface because the same problem persists in FL8 after it occurs in Acid. The other reason I think it is my interface is that my previous interface(PreSonus Firebox) will not allow me to uninstall it's drivers. I was able to prevent the firebox control panel from launching on startup using msconfig but the fact remains that those drivers are still on my pc potentially causing conflict. I'm in touch with PreSonus tech support. I'm supposed to call them to take care of it. I hope its the answer.

What other hardware issues would cause this? My computer is rather new and has more than enough power to handle acid. It is more powerful than my last two computers and they handled Acid just fine
Subject:RE: Would you like Rice Krispies with your soft synth?
Date:6/21/2009 11:50:01 PM

jackn2mpu,

If irqs were to blame, is there a way to fix the problem? I am using the "dedicated graphics" of my computer. For now I'm leaning towards the cause being driver conflicts previously stated. My system is working overall but if removing these pesky drivers fails me I want to have a Plan-B ready.
Subject:RE: Would you like Rice Krispies with your soft synth?
Date:6/30/2009 7:03:54 AM

I ditched the m-audio fastrack because I was able to get my presonus firebox to work properly. No more problems with softsynths.
Subject:RE: Would you like Rice Krispies with your soft synth?
Reply by: jackn2mpu
Date:6/30/2009 12:06:18 PM

Good to see you appear to have things sorted out. But back to your question about irq's - being you're using an onboard graphics chip which more likely than not is sharing memory with the rest of the computer (meaning your graphics setup has no memory of it's own) there's not a whole lot you can do about that.
Jack

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