Tracktion Software

ModuLR · Post by **ModuLR** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 12:04 am

Been playing between my Echo drivers and the asio4all drivers.. and basically discovered that Asio4All has a huge impact on GUI response under load. In tracktion, it's particularly magnified... at very low latencies (128 samples), the asio4all drivers will literally make a cpu intensive project update the gui in a manner that is horrid. Like the screen is moving in huge paused out blocks. The echo driver is nothing like the asio4all experience.

Just thought I'd share this... made me wonder how many people who had horrible screen updates with tracktion were using Asio4all+low latency+cpu intenive projects.

Maybe it's particular to my machine.. but it actually demonstrates this behavior in my other hosts as well.

interesting stuff... cos I would have never thought an audio driver could impact the GUI refresh. hmmmm

mandolarian · Post by **mandolarian** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 12:18 am

Cool discovery, Mod! How far does this go? If you run T2 without any sound drivers is the GUI stupid fast?

darcyb62 · Post by **darcyb62** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 3:21 am

I had seen similar problems and stopped using the asio4all driver and went back to the native tascam driver. I had tried the asio4all drivers when trying to troubleshoot a stability problem.

dealwithit · Post by **dealwithit** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 3:23 am

mandolarian wrote:Cool discovery, Mod! How far does this go? If you run T2 without any sound drivers is the GUI stupid fast?

What graphics card? T (1.6) has gotten much faster switching from onboard VGA to a GeForce 6600GT. If this is with onboard graphics, the CPU may be working hard too hard on low-latency audio to give good graphics performance.

ceenda · Post by **ceenda** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 6:44 am

Since I upgraded my PC yesterday, the GUI on Tracktion has been much MUCH faster. At the moment, I'm still using ASIO4ALL and the same graphics card (a Radeon9800 PRO which shouldn't have _any_ problems rendering graphics, especially 2D vector graphics), so I'm certain that CPU cycles are causing the delays in GUI update, which could verify your suggestion.

Perhaps the new processor is eating up the overhead CPU cycles that ASIO4ALL is causing.

titanium · Post by **titanium** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 7:12 am

dealwithit wrote:
mandolarian wrote:Cool discovery, Mod! How far does this go? If you run T2 without any sound drivers is the GUI stupid fast?
What graphics card? T (1.6) has gotten much faster switching from onboard VGA to a GeForce 6600GT. If this is with onboard graphics, the CPU may be working hard too hard on low-latency audio to give good graphics performance.

Two words: PCI latency.

ouroboros · Post by **ouroboros** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 7:17 am

titanium wrote:
dealwithit wrote:
mandolarian wrote:Cool discovery, Mod! How far does this go? If you run T2 without any sound drivers is the GUI stupid fast?
What graphics card? T (1.6) has gotten much faster switching from onboard VGA to a GeForce 6600GT. If this is with onboard graphics, the CPU may be working hard too hard on low-latency audio to give good graphics performance.
Two words: PCI latency.

wellllll, technically, I think Peripheral Component Interconnect latency is 4 words at least, but who's counting?

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 12:28 pm

Does ASIO4ALL still count as a "background service" like normal ASIO drivers?

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 5:03 pm

Is it just me or did someone miss Mandolarian's joke?

Cool discovery. I find the GUI less responsive than before, too, and I've never used ASIO4ALL; however, it's a discovery that SHOULD help out a lot of people.

ModuLR · Post by **ModuLR** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 5:26 pm

(joke) heheh...

It might help someone... I was kinda surprised that it would have such a huge impact.

darcyb62 · Post by **darcyb62** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 5:30 pm

That was a joke? I thought I might try it out!

Beardedone · Post by **Beardedone** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 5:32 pm

DoubleDawg eh?

deaneager · Post by **deaneager** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 5:46 pm

Someone posted on here recently that ASIO4ALL is not a driver, but an ASIO wrapper for your soundcards own driver. If that's correct, then everything is gonna go through 2 drivers and eat more resources, surely?

ModuLR · Post by **ModuLR** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 6:11 pm

It's true that Asio4All is a wrapper in a sense. It's a layer between window's native audio streaming and asio. I went on a search for generic asio drivers and discovered a rather new one called AsioX ... (it's buggy with tracktion, but worked with eXT). It actually works just like the echo driver. The screen refresh was significantly faster. As wonderful and stable as it is, I think there is something odd going on in asio4all. I don't think it has to impact the gui the way it does.

djsubject · Post by **djsubject** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 6:47 pm

Hmmm,

i tested asio4all V2 at 5.4ms running nerly 20 dsp plugins from my uad-1 & poewrcore & a few vst's aswell (all audio files) & noticed no difference atall

But i have set my pci latincey realy high on grafix, both sound devices & both dsp cards

since chainging that T2 has run realy well for me

Subz

Tracktion Software

KVR Audio

Asio4All discovery -> GUI response