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PC delayed playback and drop-out etc

Zerozeddy

Zerozeddy

Nov 17, 2004
305
19
Amersham, Bucks, UK
#1
This is really upsetting me now, tried various things and got nowhere. I throw it open to the panel as you've all been v helpful in the past...

I have an old PIII computer running Win98, with a Hercules Game Theater soundcard (comes with a little rack unit). When I try and record on Sonar the playback of input is delayed by a second which makes it unusable. If I try and record a track over whilst playing back an existing one, the timing goes to pot and drops out and all sorts.

I believe it's some kind of i/o problem, but I'm at a loss coz this soundcard isn't rubbish and worked perfectly well on my previous, lower-spec, computer.

Any suggestions gratefully received.
 
#2
If i understood you right you have a latency problem and because it's not a pro soundcard (at least thats what it sounds like from the name) you can reduce the size of the problem but you can't solve it for 100%.
pro soundcards have something that called "direct monitoring" and that solve the problem.

I think you have a problem with the driver and i recommend you to use ASIO4ALL ,this is a driver which reduce latency for the home type soundcards (pro soundcards come with their own ASIO driver....)

BTW if you don't know ASIO= Audio Stream In Out

I hope i understood your problem and helped. :)

Adisu
 
#3
Oo good, thank you very much - I'll try that tonight.

As I was faffing about trying to sort the problem yesterday I found out how to play (in real time) through the PC irrespective of whether it was recording or not. Hurrah!

However... the latency problem still exists when using Sonar when it's set to monitor recording input. Suggesting it's not simply registering what's coming through the card, but doing some processing itself, as it were? Or something?

Wish I had a four track analogue tape deck...
 
#4
Zerozeddy said:
Oo good, thank you very much - I'll try that tonight.

As I was faffing about trying to sort the problem yesterday I found out how to play (in real time) through the PC irrespective of whether it was recording or not. Hurrah!

However... the latency problem still exists when using Sonar when it's set to monitor recording input. Suggesting it's not simply registering what's coming through the card, but doing some processing itself, as it were? Or something?

Wish I had a four track analogue tape deck...
Click to expand...

First ASIO4ALL doesn't solve the latency problem completly, for this you need a better soundcard with a decent ASIO 2 driver (the ASIO4ALL driver still need to communicate with windows while the ASIO 2 communicate directly with the sequencer and back to the soundcard, thats why ASIO4ALL still have latency).
Anyway make sure that on the audio preference menu you choose The ASIO4ALL as your driver who run with your system.

I'm a cubase user for a long time (6 years now) and together with my semi-pro Soundcard (creamware's luna II ) i have almost zero latency and when i record audio signal i'm in full Sync with the playback (because of the direct monitoring).

You don't need 4 track analogue tape...believe me analog is fun but much more harder to deal with when it comes to editing.
All you need is a good powerfull system....good Soundcard and a good comp with strong CPU.

Salute :hyper:
Adisu.
 
#5
Try messing with buffer sizes and number in the Audio Options panel as well. Sonar still doesn't do a good job of auto-detecting sound card setups, despite the rigmarole when you first start it. I've always been able to get better performance by increasing or decreasing buffer size and number. I didn't solve my latency problems completely until I got a good audio interface, though (Echo Layla 24)
 

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