20ms ASIO-Latency? Audition 2.0 crackling..

freechess

Hi,

I seem to have a problem with the right settings somewhere around my 10k2. Working with Adobe Audition 1.5 / 2.0 I had to face the "constant beeping noise". Solved that problem by setting the pci-latency to 96 instead of 32. After short yippie! I realised that recording per ASIO is full of "crackling and popping", unless I set the Latency to 21.33ms/1024samples or higher (!). However it works that way, but while recording I hear an echo and here and there I get pops in the recorded file ..annoying.

Besides Audition 2.0 sometimes needs 50%CPU-Usage just to play a single wav-file. Does it mean Audition 2.0 sucks or is it my system, or maybe wrong kx version?

QUESTIONS:

Is my system too weak for recording/Audition 2.0?

Does someone know which settings could get me a stable low-latency-recording environment (without crackling and beeping stuff) ?
Any ideas?

Btw kx DSP rules! Thanks Eugene, Lex & Max!
It would really be a pity if I had to go back to old CL-Drivers, without potential..

Maddogg6

Are you using the adobe ASIO or KX ASIO - can you choose?

sorry - its all I can think of...

freechess

I can only choose btw "Audition Windows Sound" and "kx ASIO..."

thx for your thought!

Just wondering about "kx Manager/Settings/Setup Buffers" - window.
Which buffers are supposed to be controled here? Only Direct Sound or ASIO too?

Btw. when I click "kx Manager/Settings/ASIO Control Panel"
I get no window at all when Audition is running at same time,
in this case I get to the ASIO control panel only in Audition itself.

Maddogg6

Well - in not sure WHEN those take affect - only know NOT with ASIO - or I have not seen any performance changes when changing those playback & recording buffers (the others are more obvious to me, TANK/AC3/and GSIF - definitely should not have an affect on ASIO) - most likely for DSound and/or Wave out. Hopefully someone chimes in with confirmation.

Yes - this is normal behavior. You can make changes in KX ASIO CP when audition is closed (if you cant access it within audition - which I find weird/suspect) - and audition *should* adjust to those new changes - as opposed to audition changing the KX ASIO settings back.

Your performance may improve by trying different 'modes' and buffer sizes as well as latency settings (21ms is default I think) in the KX ASIO CP - tho I have found 'default' mode to be most reliable *for me* - and 'fast enough' with reliable 8 ms latency (which I also got in 3538h too) - but my computer is not optimized either - I think someone claimed 2ms with an optimized PC with 'L'.

Now I remember hearing about a 'beeping' problem - I *think* was associated with nForce chipsets/mobo's - that obviously (??) was resolved/worked around by changing PCI latency and or changes to KX - but increasing that PCI latency, I would think, would have adverse affects on ASIO latency as well. ???

Then theres the KX driver compatibility settings / 'HT/SMT' ASIO optimizations switch you can try if your CPU is capable of those features.

You may consider trying KX 3538m (latest release) - or revert to the older 3538h (a version I successfully used more extensively) 'L' had significant changes to accommodate Vista, and asio was changed too if I recall correctly. (the release notes/change log should indicate what changed) But I must confess I havent tested L/M as much - just a short little projects with L which seemed a little less stable than H but may be a result from playing with the different modes too (??).

Did you optimize windows ?

freechess

Flowing 8ms - that's what one can work with I guess,
(2ms - unbelievable)
21ms are too much I think.

that is my main suspect too,
but since I'm a technical layman I just don't know it.

Think I'll try another version (I heard 3534f did one of the best ASIO jobs..) and check out those "KX driver compatibility settings / 'HT/SMT' ASIO" as soon as possible. thx!

Well, I did a little system optimizing, used Tuneup Utilities, lowered the grafix bla bla, set up a studio-profile, where just 16 basic processes need to be started. That kind of stuff. Or did you mean something different?
Btw what is better: Processor time planning for "programmes" or "background services"?

freechess

GOOD News:

Well, by changing from 3538L to 3534F my system got power all of a sudden! Very clean recording results with 10ms, good ones with 5ms.
(1 stereo track 32bit)

CPU-Usage not over 40% while recording
20% while playing - that's what I call sensible

Multitracking not tested so far, but I can feel it, performance doubled!
3534f (+ ProFx v3.08) makes the difference for me.

Calinerti

Background services. I read somewhere that I cannot find now, that said ASIO is a background service and that this would be the preferred setting. Maybe someone else can confirm this??

EDIT:: Not where I originally read it, buts heres a link: http://www.pcmus.com/TweakXP.htm#background

freechess

Thanks for the link!

At pcmus I couldn't see how to find out whether my pci-, onboard-, agp- cards use shared-IRQ. Seems to be quite important, but my bios doesn't show on startup..

Who knows the trick?

Slowly I suspect my via-chipset causing the playback-trouble..
Maybe I should buy another MoBo.

Any ideas, which motherboard is the best for KX?

Lex Nahumury

@freeches,

Not beeing able to playback just 3 ASIO tracks without glitches on any >1Ghz PC is simply too weird.
In such case, forget about all those 'fine tweak tips' and 'system optimalisation tips'.
(those are generaly meant to optimise an already normal working DAW system, squeezing out some extras)


Things I would check first;

1. does your card share an IRQ with another device?
See: Programs->Accesories->System Tools->....System Information
(and/or look at your BIOS boot screen)

If so, try to fix that the usual way;
That is, by moving the card to another PCI slot,
and/or disabling unused on-board periphials in the BIOS freeing up IRQs if possible.

WARNING: always turn of the PSU entirely before swapping cards into PCI slots!
Creative cards eeprom can get corrupted easily if you fail to do so.
(best to unplug the mains power cord and wait a few minutes before swapping)

2. Try another sequencer!(It amazes me that you haven't done that yet)
I don't know anything about Adobe audition, but in your case I would definatly try another
sequencer just to rule things out before even thinking of buying another mobo.


A tip concerning kX and ASIO software:
Always make sure your sequencer software is setup to work entirly @48000hz!!


Good luck,

/Lex

freechess

Thx, Lex

It's a pity, changing the software after many satisfying years of using
coolpro - audition. That's why I hesitated trying another prog.

But Audition 2.0 sucks really far too much of my pcu's performance, playback of the 3 tracks costs the cpu amazing 80% efforts as I was surprised to see (!)
Probably the reason is this very detailed grafix, that Audition offers, and the included wave-editor.. too bad, however..

Tried Kristal (freeware) and the cpu performance was at 20% - without noise at all, though, lacking a wave editor + the feature of routing the signals of each channel to a single asio-stream. So Kristal is clean sound, but a bit too modest.

Any recommendations for mainly wave-based recording?
Somewhere btw Kristal and Cubase?

Thx for your help!

Lex Nahumury

Yep, I understand. It was just meant as a test to rule out the software
trying to isolate the problem.

Ok, but have you checked the IRQ sharing as mentioned?
Even if Audition's playback engine uses up 80%, it should playback 3 tracks without glitches wouldn't you say?

Well, there's n-track but no, not really, sorry.
Personaly I still use Cubase SX1.68 which uses hardly any CPU for it's rec/playback engine.
Maybe other users know more alternatives.

cheers.

freechess

IRQ channels are not sharing, forgot to say that..
For me the case gets clearer, I need a new - less grafix orientated - recording software. Even when it hurts..

Audition's probably meant for rich G5-users with DC and 8Gigs of ram or SLT...
Or does anyone here have another opinion?

greets

freechess

Ouch!

Cubase and Kristal do the same stuttering in playing back just a view tracks!!
Obviously it must be hardware-related after all..

Interesting:
I changed the BIOS-PCI-Latency-setting from 96 back to 32 and - aha? - Audition does a fine playback-job..

However, after half an hour of testing this playback I come to the old "constant beeping noise" - bug (that I had conquered with the 96 latency ;(
and which is definitely hidin' the origin of the whole problem... frustrating.

Fazit:
The Latency setting of 96 kills the "constant beeping bug"
but gives birth to hardly acceptable stuttering playback..

BAD DILEMMA

Meanwhile I'm a bit tired of researching miles of posts..
Maybe s.o. has found another solution for the BEEPING NOISE?

PLEASE HELP! Anybody!?

ps: I know I should put this post to the "beeping noise" - topic, but in the moment I'm too depressed to do so..

thomasabarnes

It looks like you have an older systems, since you tried just about everything else, it wouldn't hurt to try using a Standard PC configuration, instead of an ACPI PC confiuration.

Using a standard PC configuration was the solution for a number of people who had stutturring, playback/record problems, using older PC systems.

The best way to get a Standard PC configuration is to select it when freshly installing Windows (pressing F5 or F6 when booting from the CD/DVD drive when installing windows).

Or you can just go to Device Manager and under Computer, if it says ACPI, update the driver to Standard PC.

Very important: If you're gonna try this, do a search on Yahoo or Google search engine for "Changing from an ACPI PC configuration to a Standard PC configuration." so you'll know how to do it.

Here's a Guide that tells a bit about the subject: http://www.musicxp.net/installing_xp.php

GoodLuck.

EDIT:

OK some links: http://www.csm.de/download/pdf/acpi_winxp_en.pdf

http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/dis...p?TopicID=4941

freechess

Thx Thomas!

After changing to standard pc - configuration (simply in Device Manager), I faced the constant beeping after ~ 30th hit on play in foobar 2000. For me it was clear that I had to raise the pci-latency again, out of curiosity I thought:

"Let's give 128 a try - What can I lose?"

And actually the Playback - Stuttering (Audition-Asio-44khz-48khz)..
..IS GONE!!

So I think I tricked both the "constant beeping noise" by raising pci-latency,
and the former resulting "playback-stuttering" by changing from ACPI PC to Standard PC.

Hoping everything will stay that clean, I just can add:

THANK YOU!

thomasabarnes

Always glad to be of some help.