Subject:Acid 3 freezes on play back

Posted by: cyberbeat

Date:7/27/2001 8:47:22 PM

I'm running Acid 3.0 on an Athlon 1 GHZ processor with 128 MB of ram. My sound card is a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and I'm running Windows 98 SE.

I'm having a problem with Acid locking up in the middle of playing a project. It locks the entire system up so that I can't even reboot and I have to shut the computer off manually and then restart it.

This is very frustraighting since Acid is the only audio application that this happens in. I also have Sound Forge, Vegas, Cakewalk and Acid 2.0 installed and I've never had this problem with any of the other programs.

It happens regardless of how many tracks I have in the project and the type of files i.e. midi, beatmapped, etc.

Is any one else experiencing a similar lock up? Do you have any suggestions on how to solve this problem? Thanks for any help on this.

Steve

Subject:RE: Acid 3 freezes on play back

Reply by: BSM

Date:7/27/2001 11:18:34 PM

Yeah, similar things happen to me quite a bit. I used to run Acid 1 on a PI 166 with no problems. Acid III now chokes on similar projects with a PIII 550 and 256 ram with separate audio harddrives! Just two compressor plugs and it chokes. I sub-mix tracks together and leave only one recorded audio track - still boggs down.

Companies keep boosting the requirements of software ahead of the curve related to average computing power - so when you finally get a system to nearly handle it - out comes the new update.

I appreciate SF's creativity and updated style and features, but what I really want is less problems with playback of 15 loop tracks and one vocal!.

Subject:RE: Acid 3 freezes on play back

Reply by: Tede

Date:7/28/2001 12:50:08 AM

Yes, I'm getting freeze ups too. It didn't happen until I started using Assignable FX chains. My box is a PIII 933 with 512 meg ram.

Thanks,

Tede

Subject:RE: Acid 3 freezes on play back

Reply by: cyberbeat

Date:7/28/2001 10:24:05 AM

Okay, thanks for the responses. At least I know I'm not the only one. The question is can Sonic Foundry fix these lock ups with an update or is it caused by limitations of the computer hardware?

I just need something stable that I can work with and I'm seriously about to give up on Acid for now. I love version 2.0 because it's very stable and works well with my system. I only wish 3.0 was the same way because I like the MIDI support in it.

--
Steve

Subject:RE: Acid 3 freezes on play back

Reply by: Rockitglider

Date:7/28/2001 11:15:35 AM

Hello,

I've found that if you use more than 3 effects in a chain you will have a problem, So what I do is setup 1 or 2 assignable effects and don't put more than 3 effects on each one. And don't use more than 2 busses which you don't need more than 2 if your only running a machine with 1 sound card with 2 channel stereo out put, If you had 2 sound cards each with 1 stereo out, then you would be able to run 4 busses because proffessional sound cards have their own processors, and take the load off the CPU. So only need 2 busses. As far as effects you can have 2 assignable effects with 2 or 3 per chain and system should handle it then you could put graphic EQ on the master effect to adjust the mix on it's final way out. You can also turn off all the track EQ effects which are there by default when you put the track in the song. Just click the effect button on each track 1 at a time and remove the track EQ from the chain and the effect button on each track will turn white in color and be disabled. This gives you more power for other effects. If you distribute everything carefully your song should play ok. Hardly will you ever need more than 2 or 3 effects per chain anyway, And if your not using an effect get it out of there because the system is checking it even if not in use.

Hope some of this jabber helps.

See ya

Subject:RE: Acid 3 freezes on play back

Reply by: cyberbeat

Date:7/28/2001 4:58:41 PM

Thanks for the tips. That's some good advice.

In further investigation I've discovered that the lock up only occurs when I have midi devices selected under preferences. I unchecked all of the MIDI track playback devices and now I'm not getting the lock ups.

So, I think for now I'll just stick with using Cakewalk for recording and playing MIDI and just use Acid for audio exclusively.

Steve

Subject:RE: Acid 3 freezes on play back

Reply by: Rockitglider

Date:7/28/2001 10:30:48 PM

Hello,

Those settings are only for external Midi devices like keyboards and sequencers. You can still play Midi without selecting anything on the sync page. You can select playback devices on the Midi page without getting lockups too.

Glad it's fixed, Have fun.

See ya