Newbie with BIG Tracktion 2 problem HELP!!

[wcaley]

Hello to everyone,I have browsed KVR for months and finally got an account here.Very informative place,lots of stuff to learn!I am having a SEVERE problem with my brand new Tracktion 2 software I just bought.

I tried the demo and loved it,so I got the software.The demo worked great,but when I licensed the full version to my computer it LOCKS IT UP after playing for about 1 minute!I have 1 gig of ram,one 120gig hard drive and another usb external,80 gig.Older AMD Athlon processor,"pentium 4" equivalent.So I have no problem exceeding what is needed for it to work.The computer is an Emachines C2684,if that helps as well.

The CPU meter never even lights up,and even if only 1 or 2 tracks are recorded it just locks up,and sometimes freezes my whole computer!So I have to turn off the strip it's plugged into,and re-start.VERY bad!I made sure that some preferences for the audio card were correct,so as not to lock up the software,according to the manual.I use an M-Audio Delta 44,so I have a decent soundcard as well.

I have used Sonar 3(which just has "dropouts" when CPU is too high),and Cubase SX.Both worked fine,never froze up,but suck up too much CPU resource(Sonar 3 is really BAD haha),so I thought this program would be perfect.Yikes!

Do I have a bad version....defective maybe?This is highly irritating,as I have never had ANY software lock up my computer once! Please help me out somebody!Thanks in advance.

[pHz]

any chance you could provide some more detailed info about the project you are trying to play ... audio ... MIDI ... VSTs involved ... etc ...

... is there any way you can get into the task manager when these freezes happen and check whether it IS a CPU issue ???

slainte rob

[jplanet]

Are you using any plugins? This has always been the culprit for me. Sometimes Guitar Rig or Lounge Lizard cause T2 to freak out on me...

Othewise, what is your buffer? I usually go with 512 for stability while tracking with 11ms of latency.

[flanneljammies]

Could be a dodgey plugin?!? What exactly are you doing when T locks up? Give us some more information and we'll try to walk you through it. BTW: welcome to Tracktion and KvR.

[flanneljammies]

Wow are you guys fast. You both beat me to it while I was typing.

[kenjkelly]

I don't know of any problems with hyperthreading and Tracktion but, if that AMD processor has Hyperthreading you might try turning Hyperthreading off (in the BIOS). I'm running Traction fine with a Dual Core Intel processor (and Windows XP x64) but I purposely avoided the processor with hyperthreading because I heard of incompatibility with quite a few other cpu-intensive apps.

[IndiQa]

First this is NOT a flame on any manufacturer BUT I have a friend who has been figting with his eMachine for close to a month now.

First problem he found - CPU cooler not locked completely onto the CPU. Heat problems...lockups..and a major case of pissedoffedness.
Next problem and may not pertain to you The system BIOS was screwing up his use of a NVidea 6600 series graphic card. The system was still trying to use the onboard (MB) graphics chipset as well.

Third problem the power supply in the eMachine was borderline..just barely big enough to supply current to run the base system let alone the 6600 card which requires lots of power. And if you are running a processor intensive app well it may or may not run or may lock up the machine also. A 400+w power supply solved this problem.

Just double check everything hardwarewise. With enough power supply and all else being normal it should run T2 for you with no problems.

btw just to note that I use a P4 560j with HT and T2 runs fine. Just only on one core tho'.....

Curt

[wcaley]

Wow...thanks for all the input! Well,it turns out that re-installing it did the job.It asks you if you want to install some newer "Re-Wire Client",and this time when I installed again I clicked "no".Solved the problem.These Re-wire Client things caused me problems before,with Fruity Loops.I am still pretty stupid with all this stuff...I don't really know how to use MIDI at all,just use Fruity Loops and manually create drum parts/songs within it.I'm a rock/metal musician and basically don't use REWIRE or whatever.But I would like to learn more!

My guess is the Re-Wire client was conflicting with something.Now,I loaded all my "free" plugins into it,Fruity Loops and the bundled ones that came with it...works good,but has latency issues on playback.Any tips on fixing this?It does it worse when plugins are running,obviously,becuase my computer is not the best,you know?

Also sometimes has pops and glitches...still messing with it.Very cool program though man,WAY easier to use than Sonar/Cubase.I just did what took me months on those programs,in about an hour.Thanks for all the responses!

[wcaley]

Oh yeah,one other question:
Will the bundled LinPlug work like Fruity Loops?Can I create drumbeats,and then put them together...uh,I guess,does it have a "step" sequencer as well?I would rather use it if it can do what Fruity does,becuase I am not a dance/techno guy...just wanna make drumbeats for rock/metal music,and Fruity seems geared more towards the more techno stuff.
AND
since I don't have a MIDI keyboard,I have to manually click in drumbeat patterns on the grid.My only MIDI output is Microsoft MIDI-Mapper.I can't get Linplug to work...how do you set this thing up?

[Gargoyle]

RMIV is not a drum sequencer, more a drum sampler/synthesizer, so you'll need to program the sounds it plays using a separate sequencer. Which means putting it at the end of a track in Tracktion and then creating your drum sequences in MIDI on that track. Make sense?