KVR Audio

tiggi · Post by **tiggi** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 7:34 am

After changing the firewire driver to legacy there is still
an audio dropout of a few seconds , sometimes after 10 minutes , sometimes after an hour....- Very ugly , cause it also stops the recording mode ...
Anybody same problems or a solution ?

sockofgold · Post by **sockofgold** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 2:05 pm

edit: nevermind. My issues actually seem to be caused by what appears to be a memory leak in GPO4/Aria, rather than an issue with Cubase itself.

krandr · Post by **krandr** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 2:40 pm

I have audio dropouts reproducing when ASIO performance reaches 70%-80% level.
With same ASIO driver and the same project a can't reproduce dropouts on Windows XP64.

It is the first reason why I don't want to switch from Windows XP

flugel45 · Post by **flugel45** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 4:52 pm

Make sure you've optimized your system for audio use. Just by disabling a few background processes, it can make a night and day difference in performance.

The following is a pretty thorough guide for this:

http://support.presonus.com/entries/119 ... -windows-7

Also, your FW chipset is important. Texas Instruments is typically recommended as most compatible, but I didn't find that to be true with my built-in TI FW ports, which gave me all kinds of problems. I took a chance and bought a SIIG PCI Firewire add-on card ($20)... It's been smooth sailing ever since.

FWIW, I'm on Win7 x64 with two different FW interfaces: TCE Impact Twin and Presonus Firestudio Mobile.

krandr · Post by **krandr** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:34 am

flugel45 wrote: FWIW, I'm on Win7 x64 with two different FW interfaces: TCE Impact Twin and Presonus Firestudio Mobile.

Please can you check if there are audio dropouts with 90% ASIO Performance Level and 16 ms ASIO Latency on your Win7 x64 PC?

I have E-MU1212M PCI + E-MU0404 USB + TASCAM US-800 USB ASIO interfaces with x64 drivers.
DAW - Cubase 6.0.7 Full

flugel45 · Post by **flugel45** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 5:07 pm

krandr wrote:
flugel45 wrote: FWIW, I'm on Win7 x64 with two different FW interfaces: TCE Impact Twin and Presonus Firestudio Mobile.
Please can you check if there are audio dropouts with 90% ASIO Performance Level and 16 ms ASIO Latency on your Win7 x64 PC?

I have E-MU1212M PCI + E-MU0404 USB + TASCAM US-800 USB ASIO interfaces with x64 drivers.
DAW - Cubase 6.0.7 Full

16 ms? That's kinda high. I usually set it at 256 or 512 samples - which gives me 5-10ms latency - and just leave it. No glitches or problems... but I never go beyond about 60% cpu usage.

I don't have a ASIO performance level - is that an E-MU thing? Or are you talking about cpu percentage? (If so, I would never push it that hard).

I also should have mentioned that my hosts are Studio OneV2 and Sonar X1. Have never used Cubase on my current system.

flugel45 · Post by **flugel45** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:03 pm

krandr wrote:I have audio dropouts reproducing when ASIO performance reaches 70%-80% level.
With same ASIO driver and the same project a can't reproduce dropouts on Windows XP64.

It is the first reason why I don't want to switch from Windows XP

Sounds like a memory issue... 64 bit is what is making the difference here - not the fact that it's XP. (IOW, you are hanging tight to XP for no reason, when you would likely get as good if not better performance with Win7 x64).

I would grab a copy of Win7x64 before Win8 comes out...

krandr · Post by **krandr** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 6:43 am

flugel45 wrote:
16 ms? That's kinda high. I usually set it at 256 or 512 samples - which gives me 5-10ms latency - and just leave it. No glitches or problems... but I never go beyond about 60% cpu usage.

I don't have a ASIO performance level - is that an E-MU thing? Or are you talking about cpu percentage? (If so, I would never push it that hard).

1.512 sammples / 44 kHz ~ 12 ms
2.16ms-12ms=4ms. Your latency is really very low

2.ASIO performance level shows how hard your ASIO driver works.
4.ASIO performance level window is implemented in Cubase.
5.I'm already have SonarX1 Studio with it's bugfest. I have made some tests with its latency. Result - SonarX1 lies about his latency. I just connected Cubase and SonarX1 to the same midi keyboard and start to record both outputs. After comparing recorded samples I have found that time difference is about ~8-10 ms.
So if you set Sonar's latency to 12 ms, the real latency is ~20-22ms!!!

flugel45 · Post by **flugel45** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 5:12 pm

krandr wrote:... After comparing recorded samples I have found that time difference is about ~8-10 ms.
So if you set Sonar's latency to 12 ms, the real latency is ~20-22ms!!!

I honestly don't pay much attention to reported vs actual latencys and all the various explanations regarding that. The only thing I care about is midi keyboard response... Anything over 10ms is always noticeable to me and makes midi recording with keyboard very difficult.

And as I said earlier, I don't have any latency problems -- meaning it "feels" very responsive to me. I've been playing midi keyboards for about 20 years, and I can tell when latency is too high. With my current system, there just isn't a problem. And there is no way I could play my keyboard with 22ms latency without a noticeable delay!

BTW, I can get down to 2.9 ms on small projects, but have to bump it up as the track count gets higher. So 5-10ms on my (almost 5-year old) system is the norm. If you can't achieve this on your system, then maybe your interface drivers are the culprit. Have you tried ASIO4All, even just as a test?

tiggi · Post by **tiggi** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 8:28 am

thanks for all the response , but would like to come
back to my problem .
-yes , i switched from the default firewire driver to the legacy one,
which works for most people with heavy audio problems . It got much
better but didnt disapear .
-is it a cubase , a windows (w7 64 hp) , a firewire chipset (ricoh),
a edirol (fa66) or maybe a sony vaio problem ? that would be a next step.
-i did the standard pc optimisation and everything else works perfect.

flugel45 · Post by **flugel45** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 9:14 am

I believe Ricoh typically falls under the "bad" FW chipsets when it comes to audio use.

That is the problem with using Firewire interfaces and laptops - it is always a crapshoot (Unless, of course, you buy the laptop from a DAW builder who's already tested it).

Sometimes, you can buy a FW add-on adapter with a different chipset -- say, TI or VIA, and it'll just work. But if the laptop has a design that prevents the workaround (IOW, the FW internal controller is fixed, making any add-on useless) then you're out of luck.

Probably all you can do is search the forums and see if anyone else with the same model laptop has successfully added a FW express card.... Either that, or switch to a USB audio interface instead.

Good luck.

tiggi · Post by **tiggi** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 9:33 pm

today i did something , that solved the dropouts - as far as i can say
after 3 tests , all over several hours : Finished the "notification about changes
made to the computer" or so in the user account control .Seems that
it is important for the f....... dongle ! thanks to everybody
for the inspiration

krandr · Post by **krandr** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:16 am

flugel45 wrote: BTW, I can get down to 2.9 ms on small projects, but have to bump it up as the track count gets higher. So 5-10ms on my (almost 5-year old) system is the norm. If you can't achieve this on your system, then maybe your interface drivers are the culprit. Have you tried ASIO4All, even just as a test?

1. Checking with ASIO4All is stupid idea.
2. You rejected my request to check dropouts on you system with hard ASIO performance level.
3. My project is my live setup and I loads all my VST's and libraries into it.
Very low latency - stability problems and audio dropouts. Very high latency - midi live recording problems. So optimal latency for my live setup is 14-20 ms

flugel45 · Post by **flugel45** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:19 pm

krandr wrote:
flugel45 wrote: BTW, I can get down to 2.9 ms on small projects, but have to bump it up as the track count gets higher. So 5-10ms on my (almost 5-year old) system is the norm. If you can't achieve this on your system, then maybe your interface drivers are the culprit. Have you tried ASIO4All, even just as a test?

1. Checking with ASIO4All is stupid idea.
2. You rejected my request to check dropouts on you system with hard ASIO performance level.
3. My project is my live setup and I loads all my VST's and libraries into it.
Very low latency - stability problems and audio dropouts. Very high latency - midi live recording problems. So optimal latency for my live setup is 14-20 ms

Uh, why so rude? I was trying to help you.

I didn't reject your request. I asked you what ASIO performance level was, and you said it had to do with Cubase. I don't have Cubase (and said so), so I can't very well check that setting, can I?

I tried to offer other suggestions, but you clearly are the expert, who has no patience for ideas you find "stupid".

So, here's one last suggestion: Go buy a custom PC from a DAW builder. Or, better yet, some lessons in civility. (The latter will probably help more in the long run).

Good luck.

krandr · Post by **krandr** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:18 am

flugel45 wrote: Uh, why so rude? I was trying to help you.

1. How can you help me if may be the same problem is reproduced on your PC?
2. Why you try to resolve Cubase owners problems, if you aren't having Cubase and even don't know what is ASIO performance.
3. Resolving problems by buying new PC's it is really great idea:?:

cubase 6.5 ,win7 64bit home, fa-66,audio dropouts