Sound Card problems?

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Hey guys, i think ive got a problem with my sound card.

Or something else in my PC.

When using cubase i cant use VSTs without it crackling up (im using a Presonus Firepod, PC is P4 3.2ghz equiped, 1Gb ram, plently HDD and a creative live 24bit sound card).

Also, when using guitar pro, the real sound engine thingy it uses gets crackly aswell.

Both cases show CPU usage going through the roof.

Any suggestions guys?

 

[Chunk-O-Funk]

Do you have a way of monitoring you input level?
If you signal is too strong (clipping) it will cause distortion. If that's what you mean my crackly.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Its not the input

Its tracks which have already been recorded which are causing the problem, they have played fine before, its more like a latency issue, but its always with the CPU spiking madly

 

[lemur821]

If you're not clipping, you may be trying for lower latency than you can handle. What are your latency settings?

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Its been at 12 and 18ms and still giving problems.

When it was first put on, i was running at 4ms with no problems.

Could it be a driver problem?

 

[TheButler]

I have been having trouble in Sonar recently. When i play VSTs the audio starts to desimate and then eventually it drops out. This never happened before, i just literally turned it on one day and it happened. However, it is very temprametnal...

For the record i am using a E-MU 0404 USB 2.0 soundcard. 2.0 ms latency, 96Khz 16-bit

Thread should maybe be in Recording gear and Equipment ?

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Could be, its just that it happens in anything that require some audio processing, and it happens with both of my sound cards, which blows!

Since its happening with both of them, i was putting it down to maybe being something else?

Maybe scotland just has electricity which is bad for audio recording right now ?

 

[bearfoot]

Sorry I don't know a specific answer, but the way you guys describe the problem makes me think it is a PC problem, maybe a conflict.
I would advise cleaning the PC, of course defrag. If in the middle of a project, it might save you a lot of time troubleshooting if you backup your files and just do a fresh install of Windows & your various drivers.

 

[bearfoot]

Also make sure there are no issues by checking the sound card(s) in Control Panel/System/Device Manager. There should be no shared IRQ with audio devices when you want to record. If you have onboard audio that you also use, also try disabling it entirely when you are recording, that helped me in the past with my old Gadgetlab interface. (I miss Gadgetlabs, they were the nuts.)

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

IRQs?

Ill give disabling the other sound cards a shot tomorrow.

I dont think my computer needs cleaning.

I formatted it especially so it would be clean when we recorded. Then it went all crappy, so i formatted it again, and its still crappy.

Im thinking it may be conflicting sound card drivers, but should be easily fix able i hope.

 

[TheButler]

I have already diabled the Realtek RC97? idea and i still get dismation and Audio drop out. I think it might just be some sort of conflict somewhere...

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Ive played about a bit and am getting better results now its only the firepod.

Im thinking maybe i dont have enough ram? Maybe 1Gb (512 per channel) isnt what it used to be

Would running 3 VSTs two on prerecorded tracks (EZ Drummer and Amplitube) while recording with one (Ampeg SVX). Is just too much for the computer to handle?

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Your Creative Live card shouldn't matter if your audio in and out is your Firepod. Go here and follow the directions:
http://www.presonus.com/faq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=30&id=28&artlang=en

Following those directions ironed out my clicks I was initially getting with my Firepod. 1gig should be fine for what you're doing