Why can't EXT handle ANY audio without crackling?

[silicon/silicium]

This looks like a LOW memory issue to me.

it is, I sometimes get the same behaviour when I don't stop the pc during some days, then my firewall eat a lot of memory and ext give a lot of crackles (it don't crackles at all usually). restarting my firewall simply solve the problem.

[plastique]

jorgen , i know this may be a bit long shot , but would it be possible - it's just an idea and i don't know how feasible and time consuming it will be - to use Tobybear's OpenAsio.dll instead as an ASIO driver in eXT (it's open source as well and written in Delphi AFAIK, with some SSE optimizations) .
This would give on the one hand an alternative and also benchmarks could be made between both implementations for gathering more infos on improving the ASIO driver .

And just for the info , i also had crackle issues with my RME card , but i couldn't really say where the problem came from and (still think) it was mainly a chipset issue (crackles appeared already at 20-30% CPU) .
Also, the OpenAsio.dll worked fine with one particular onboard soundcard ,where eXT's driver failed .
Providing a different ASIO driver could maybe clear a few things up ?

[ik_ik_ik]

Sounds like a good idea plastique - hopefully it's doable.

Along those lines I've mentioned in previous threads re Echo drivers that eXT as a VST works just fine in Tobybear's Mini Host using the native Echo drivers. I wouldn't be surprised if others might find the same.

[Roland Babbage]

Ive been able to pinpoint it and someone else mentioned this too.
THIS IS WHEN MY PROBLEM OCCUS:
When i reboot my computer, the first pass through any song that has audio in the seq crackles..

I have this same prob with my host (Logic rather than ext). I just quit the host, run Ccleaner and relaunch host. Crackles gone.

[MadPsyance]

I've gotten the mad crackles today. Let me ask this question:
The task manager cpu readout is between 40 and 45 percent at all times when XT is loaded, but the indicator in XT's upper left-hand corner is almost full...all the way to the right. This is when slowdown and stutters are nonstop.

I don't understand why the XT bar is almost full but the task manager cpu says only 43 percent.

By the way, I'm using half a gig of memory...if I got another half would that help out a lot?

[LIMITAPROACHINGINFINITY]

Ive been able to pinpoint it and someone else mentioned this too.
THIS IS WHEN MY PROBLEM OCCUS:
When i reboot my computer, the first pass through any song that has audio in the seq crackles..

I have this same prob with my host (Logic rather than ext). I just quit the host, run Ccleaner and relaunch host. Crackles gone.

Then could i change this bug report to a feature request?

FR: Work upon startup without having to run crapcleaner.

Whoa that came off kind of sarcastic!

[stanlea]

IMV there are several issues : memory, ASIO, graphics... prior to my RME, I had a Marian MArcA, I had the same problems... so maybe we could post an accurate list of "how crackles occur", without any other discussions

[DarkStar]

The task manager cpu readout is between 40 and 45 percent at all times when XT is loaded, but the indicator in XT's upper left-hand corner is almost full...all the way to the right.

I've noticed a simialr discrepancy.
Taks Manager value is < eXT CPU indicator value

[MadPsyance]

So I'm NOT going mad!

[jorgen]

I've gotten the mad crackles today. Let me ask this question:
The task manager cpu readout is between 40 and 45 percent at all times when XT is loaded, but the indicator in XT's upper left-hand corner is almost full...all the way to the right. This is when slowdown and stutters are nonstop.

I don't understand why the XT bar is almost full but the task manager cpu says only 43 percent.

By the way, I'm using half a gig of memory...if I got another half would that help out a lot?

cpu in task manager and cpu in eXT is not the same thing, cpu in eXT shows how fast your PC is processing audio buffers before sending them back to your soundcard.

If you are using a 1024 buffers size, this is about 23ms in playback time on 44100hz. So your soundcard must receive a new buffer from eXT at least every 23 ms, or you will experience drop outs.

of course, the more plugins you are using in a song at the same time, the more time it takes to process all those plugin, and if it takes more than 23 ms (with 1024 frames), then you get audio drop outs.

eXT will show 100% cpu usage if it takes 23 ms to process, 50% if 11 ms etc, 25% on 5 ms etc...

unfortunately, I havent found a way to bypass the cpu limit yet, but Im working on it



cheers
jorgen

[MadPsyance]

Yeah, it's the whole adjusting the frame number thing that I get troubles with. I don't know much about it in the first place, so I try increasing the number little by little and it does a help..a little. Unless I put it too high and I get this blue screen that says something about an illegal operation and I have to reboot my computer.
When I increase this frame number the audio stutters less, but the graphics slow down a little it seems and vice versa when I put the number down. Is this right...I know very little about this kind of thing.
Also, which should I adjust...my soundcard's frame size or XT's? Or both? They're both defaulted to 1024 I think.
Thanks for the reply jorgen.

[Degradation]

Well, I fixed mine kind of . I am using the Novation Speedio and encountered a similar problem with the X-Station. There would be crackles in EnergyXt whenever I played VSTs or audio clips and it would sometimes occur in Sonar but less frequently. I turned off the MIDI in on the Speedio in XT and no help. I disabled the MIDI component (speedio device) in device manager and the clicks went away, even on super low latency settings. I don't know if this is a Novation driver issues, a problem with MIDI on my PC or if it is a problem with EnergyXT. I thought I'd pass it along. The driver is a custom version of usb-audio.de for the speedio, version 2.5.5.

[original flipper]

HI

How come after all this time everybody is having crackling, popping and the odd snap?

Did everyone suddenly start using q-tips?

Flipper.

[plastique]

I've gotten the mad crackles today. Let me ask this question:
The task manager cpu readout is between 40 and 45 percent at all times when XT is loaded, but the indicator in XT's upper left-hand corner is almost full...all the way to the right. This is when slowdown and stutters are nonstop.

I don't understand why the XT bar is almost full but the task manager cpu says only 43 percent.

By the way, I'm using half a gig of memory...if I got another half would that help out a lot?

cpu in task manager and cpu in eXT is not the same thing, cpu in eXT shows how fast your PC is processing audio buffers before sending them back to your soundcard.

If you are using a 1024 buffers size, this is about 23ms in playback time on 44100hz. So your soundcard must receive a new buffer from eXT at least every 23 ms, or you will experience drop outs.

of course, the more plugins you are using in a song at the same time, the more time it takes to process all those plugin, and if it takes more than 23 ms (with 1024 frames), then you get audio drop outs.

eXT will show 100% cpu usage if it takes 23 ms to process, 50% if 11 ms etc, 25% on 5 ms etc...

unfortunately, I havent found a way to bypass the cpu limit yet, but Im working on it



cheers
jorgen

that's why !

for me it was always the other way 'round:
eXT performance meter < Task manager .
But now i see where that's coming from .

[MadPsyance]

I drastically reduced cpu today by freezing tracks I wasn't working on, getting rid of mixer components and doing everything inside of the sequencer...basically making the workspace as simple as possible. I haven't seen the performance meter that low in FOREVER!!