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Help! Tech S.O.S (Off topic)
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Joined: Dec 2011
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Uh-oh, I think I've posted this to the wrong sub-forum. I meant for it to go into the Recording, Mixing, Performance, etc. subforum. Moderator, if you think this should be moved, have at it.
Original Post follows: ====================== Well, the title sort of sez it all. The subject machine is my DAW. Right now my system is too easily sent into a frenzy of pops, clicks and crackles in my audio playback, and it's making it very difficult for me to generate decent quality audio files. I've even gone so far as making sure that no other program besides BiaB or RB is resident and that even unnecessary processes have been terminated (I use the Task Manager for this). Doing so helps some but not as much as I would have liked. All it takes is one click to ruin a recording. And I seldom get through an entire piece of music on this machine without at least one click being heard. So I'm kinda dead in the water right now if I want to use RB or BiaB going forward.
You know how RB has that little CPU Usage screen up in the top right corner. While a song is playing, the RB amount typically fluctuates between 17 and 20 %, while the Total number is usually only a couple of points higher. A similar readout in Cakewalk's Sonar delivers even lower numbers than these. I dunno about you, but to me these are quite low numbers and they seem to be indicating that my system still has plenty of reserve horsepower for this sort of work. So why all the noise? And why am I having such a noise problem with BiaB and RB when I don't with other DAW software like Sonar and Studio One 3?
My audio interface is an M-Audio Delta 66 PCI card, 24/96 capable, comes with an OMNI I/O unit that amounts to a compact mixer. It is a very quiet card. I'm running the M-Audio ASIO drivers. I've tried the MME drivers and they fare no better but the latency is worse. For MIDI, I'm using various synths for now, including Coyote and Sforzando.
My system is about five or six years old now. I don't recall exactly when I bought the MoBo and processor, but I do know that the MoBo is a really good one. As old as it is, it still supports recent processor technology. It is an AsRock 890 GX Pro 3 and takes AMD AM3 and AM3+ socket processors. Currently in the machine is an AM3 socket quad core AMD Phenom II X4 840 that's running at 3.44 GHz. So I'm thinking about upgrading to an AM3+ processor. The AsRock MoBo supports eight core processors, so whatever processor I do buy for it, it'll be an eight core. Prices range widely, from almost $300 to less than $100. I've got some homework to do before I make a decision.
Memory-wise, it's running 8 gigs of DDR3 SDRAM, and it has open slots for two more memory sticks. When I first upgraded my system to 8 gigs I thought that it would be a loooong time before I'd need more memory than that. Well, now, I'm not so sure anymore. I'm curious about what you folks think is adequate RAM for a DAW these days.
I just ran Geek Bench on it. I know some of you like to see these numbers, but I have no idea which numbers it is you like (although I'd like to), so how about them all? Here ya go:
Single-Core Performance
Single-Core Score 1879 Crypto Score 116 Integer Score 2218 Floating Point Score 1633 Memory Score 1928
AES 116 89.6 MB/sec LZMA 2331 3.64 MB/sec JPEG 2853 23.0 Mpixels/sec Canny 1977 27.4 Mpixels/sec Lua 2221 2.28 MB/sec Dijkstra 2356 1.59 MTE/sec SQLite 2262 62.7 Krows/sec HTML5 Parse 2488 11.3 MB/sec HTML5 DOM 952 862.7 KElements/sec Histogram Equalization 1947 60.8 Mpixels/sec PDF Rendering 2066 54.9 Mpixels/sec LLVM 3586 246.6 functions/sec Camera 2674 7.42 images/sec SGEMM 558 11.8 Gflops SFFT 1503 3.75 Gflops N-Body Physics 1643 1.23 Mpairs/sec Ray Tracing 1760 257.1 Kpixels/sec Rigid Body Physics 2141 6267.9 FPS HDR 2933 10.6 Mpixels/sec Gaussian Blur 2048 35.9 Mpixels/sec Speech Recognition 1493 12.8 Words/sec Face Detection 1777 519.1 Ksubwindows/sec Memory Copy 1105 3.06 GB/sec Memory Latency 5828 74.3 ns Memory Bandwidth 1113 5.95 GB/sec Multi-Core Performance
Multi-Core Score 3192 Crypto Score 240 Integer Score 3995 Floating Point Score 3057 Memory Score 2324
AES 240 185.3 MB/sec LZMA 4848 7.57 MB/sec JPEG 4364 35.1 Mpixels/sec Canny 3646 50.6 Mpixels/sec Lua 3601 3.70 MB/sec Dijkstra 4345 2.94 MTE/sec SQLite 4301 119.3 Krows/sec HTML5 Parse 4847 22.0 MB/sec HTML5 DOM 2001 1.81 MElements/sec Histogram Equalization 3726 116.4 Mpixels/sec PDF Rendering 3338 88.7 Mpixels/sec LLVM 6284 432.1 functions/sec Camera 4207 11.7 images/sec SGEMM 872 18.4 Gflops SFFT 2343 5.84 Gflops N-Body Physics 3325 2.48 Mpairs/sec Ray Tracing 3179 464.3 Kpixels/sec Rigid Body Physics 4485 13129.9 FPS HDR 4892 17.7 Mpixels/sec Gaussian Blur 4251 74.5 Mpixels/sec Speech Recognition 2774 23.7 Words/sec Face Detection 4176 1.22 Msubwindows/sec Memory Copy 1514 4.20 GB/sec Memory Latency 5495 78.8 ns Memory Bandwidth 1510 8.07 GB/sec
Last edited by cooltouch; 11/22/17 07:53 PM.
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Help! Tech S.O.S (Off topic)
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Generally when you have clicks, pops, and drops, the issue is most often related to the sound card and the drivers. Most computers, even old ones, are very capable of running modern audio recording software. In fact, all of mine are over 10 years old and run like champs. One is a duo-core laptop running Vista and the other is a custom build i5 Intel running XP pro 32. I run a Focusrite Saffire Firewire card on them (I can switch it as needed between the 2 machines) and they give me flawless recording and playback without glitches.
The PCI card format is a fairly old one. My first sound card was PCI. When the manufacturer refused to write updated drivers for the next MS operating system, it became totally useless and I was forced to purchase a new external interface.
Before you do any more upgrades to the computer itself, I'd buy a decent modern interface such as a Focusrite 2i2 USB external or something else similar. Be sure it supports native ASIO drivers and try that.
You might also want to see if there are updated ASIO drivers for your PCI card from the manufacturer and be sure you have the audio settings to 44.1k/16 or 44.1k/24. I looked this card up online and it shows it to have a 48k sampling rate. You need to switch it to 44.1k if you have that option. The other option is to convert everything else to 48k. You can NOT mix and match the sampling rates and expect to get good performance. There are reasons to use either but they're not compatible as far as I recall.
If it's not an option to switch the sampling to 44.1, buy an interface that does support 44.1k.
Last edited by Guitarhacker; 11/23/17 06:48 AM.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Help! Tech S.O.S (Off topic)
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Joined: Nov 2008
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Hi Cooltouch,
It looks like your machine should have more than enough power to run Band-in-a-Box without issues. Which operating system are you using?
If you're using an ASIO audio driver, you might just need to increase its buffer size. In BIAB, go to Options - Preferences - Audio - Audio Drivers, then ASIO Driver's Control Panel, and look for a setting called "latency" or "buffer size". Then use trial and error to find the lowest settings that doesn't have pops and clicks.
Thanks Kent PG Music
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Michael, BIAB makes more demands of your PC than SONAR, unless you have lots of plugins running in SONAR.
In BIAB you should look at Options, Preferences, RealTracks. There are a few options for slower computers. My production PC is more powerful than yours but I run with Fast Generation turned off.
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
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Help! Tech S.O.S (Off topic)
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Matt, my machine had the fast generation checked, so I unchecked it.
Kent, glad to hear this machine has the hp to run the PG products. I've always thought it should. The OS is Win7 64bit.
I usually have the ASIO drivers enabled with this card (it has its own ASIO drivers). But for some strange reason when I took a look, MME was enabled. ??? So I switched it back over to ASIO. My card's buffers were set to 512. I upped them to 1024.
Guitarhacker, I have the latest drivers installed for my Delta 66 card. It automatically downgrades itself to 44.1k if that's what the software requires. Actually this card supports 24/96 -- as well as intermediate rates. I run it at 24/96 in Sonar and Studio One 3.
I have a Scarlett 2i4 that I originally bought for my iPad, but which I've also used with my laptop. Unfortunately, it's down with electrical problems right now. I also have another interface around here somewhere that's more or less equivalent to the 2i4. It's still packed up in a box somewhere (we've moved recently and I'm still unpacking boxes). But I don't really need them with this machine. That Delta 66 has historically handled audio chores with ease. It typically runs -- with ASIO drivers -- at somewhere around 8 to 12 msec of latency. I can live with those numbers.
Here's hoping the driver switch and increased buffer size is gonna take care of this problem. I'm listening to a tune in BiaB right now that's using one VSTi and a trio of RealTracks in addition to one midi track. So far no clicks or pops.
Last edited by cooltouch; 11/23/17 07:52 PM.
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Help! Tech S.O.S (Off topic)
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Here's hoping the driver switch and increased buffer size is gonna take care of this problem. I'm listening to a tune in BiaB right now that's using one VSTi and a trio of RealTracks in addition to one midi track. So far no clicks or pops.
keeping fingers crossed.......
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Very good. Just a suggestion: change one thing at a time. That way you are more likely to learn which one made the difference.
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
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Matt, hehe, I've been down that road more than once. Didn't do that this time, though. Well, I tried it out with only the fast regeneration unchecked first. That seemed to have helped. But when I found that this machine was using the MME driver, I just had to get rid of it.
I just played back that same BiaB file that I was trying earlier. This time though I had a couple of CPU intensive tasks running in the background. No hiccups, pops or clicks. I see that as a good sign.
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Very good! I ask only so I can answer a question (or you and others can) when this comes up again (and it will).
So if I understand your post correctly, the combination of these two changes worked, but the checkbox got you mostly there? That sounds right to me. MME gets a bad rap sometimes. It’s generally fine unless you are recording with a keyboard along with BIAB playing.
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
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Help! Tech S.O.S (Off topic)
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I'm not really sure just how much good unchecking fast generation helped. I suppose I could give things a listen with it checked, then unchecked, before I give it a critical evaluation.
I've had varying luck with MME. Sometimes it behaves well and other times it apparently misbehaves. The different nature is probably due to whatever else I have running in the background. For example, right now I'm listening to a tune that has five tracks, only one of which is a real track -- drums, plus a VSTi on the melody instrument. And I'm getting a fair amount of static. But I have one window open that's downloading a file, plus I've got my browser open and it currently has 15 tabs open. And windows explorer's file window is open so I can click on .wav files I'm generating to try with Windows Media Player, which is also open. So I reckon if I closed a few of these windows that might help things. Actually, right at this moment the song is sounding very clean. The one window that was d/l'ing a file has finished. That might have helped things. Heh. Otherwise, I haven't closed anything yet. So as you can see there's some variability with this whole pops/crackles/drops thing.
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I've had varying luck with MME. Sometimes it behaves well and other times it apparently misbehaves. The different nature is probably due to whatever else I have running in the background. For example, right now I'm listening to a tune that has five tracks, only one of which is a real track -- drums, plus a VSTi on the melody instrument. And I'm getting a fair amount of static. ......... So as you can see there's some variability with this whole pops/crackles/drops thing.
it's been my experience working with DAWs and helping new people on the Cakewalk forums, that MME doesn't generally do well with synths. VST's and midi seem to cause problems. You can turn right around and load a totally 100% audio project and get flawless playback in the same session. It's when you have VST's running that problems tend to occur. Sometimes changing the buffers does the trick but often not, and only using ASIO drivers with the proper hardware makes the difference.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Help! Tech S.O.S (Off topic)
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Biab 2018 now uses the WASAPI driver called Windows Audio Session (WAS) and it's backwards compatible to Vista. On a decent system it's giving latency down to 25ms. Not quite as good as ASIO but plenty good enough for many.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Yeah, I've read briefly about these new audio drivers. I still haven't made my mind up about whether I'll be upgrading to 2018 soon. The special PG has going on is tempting. I wonder if the 49 pack they're offering now is the same as what I bought with 2017. And the 2017 version I bought came with the "Everything Pack" so I'm wondering just how much new stuff will be included in 2018. I've noticed that 2018 is not being offered with an Everything Pack version. Have they renamed it perhaps?
So Bob, have you upgraded to 2018? I'm curious, does one install it over 2017, or does one install it into a new directory, preserving the older version? I'm inclined to do the latter, even though, from what I have learned, BiaB is typically installed into just a /bb subdirectory.
The most recent version prior to 2017 that I have is 2014 and I had installed it on a different machine than this on.
Last edited by cooltouch; 12/03/17 10:22 PM.
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Yes, they changed the package name this year.
Most users install new versions over the old. This saves space and preserves custom settings, user styles and Bonus Pak purchases.
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
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Oh good. Over the years, I've bought various extras. I think I have all the styles that were available up to v2014, and then whatever new styles I got with the Everything Pack and 49 Pack this year. And they are all in my bb subdirectory. Plus I have hundreds of realbook-style tunes and hundreds of midi tunes, all which I located inside the bb directory, for better or worse. So I'd just as soon not have to move all that stuff.
I guess my only concern with 2018 will be bugs. BiaB has never been a bug-free environment for me and I'm concerned if I go for an early release of the next version, I'm gonna pick up another helping of fresh bugs.
I suppose I'm also concerned about system requirements. I feel like with this system, which is plenty fast enough for Sonar and Studio One 3 and Notion, it's at the ragged edge with both BiaB and RB. I plan to upgrade the system's RAM from 8 gigs to 16. I'm hoping that may put things off for a while. I can also buy a faster processor. The mobo takes AMD, either AM3 or AM3+ sockets. The processor I have now is a quad-core AM3, and it's possible to upgrade to an AM3+ eight-core. But I'll have to find a used one or NOS, since they've stopped making the ones that will work with my six-year-old mobo. Still it'll be faster than what I have now, just not a great deal faster.
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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Band-in-a-Box® 2024 German for Windows is Here!
Band-in-a-Box® 2024 für Windows Deutsch ist verfügbar!
Wir waren fleißig und haben über 50 neue Funktionen und eine erstaunliche Sammlung neuer Inhalte hinzugefügt, darunter 222 RealTracks, neue RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, "Songs with Vocals" Artist Performance Sets, abspielbare RealTracks Set 3, abspielbare RealDrums Set 2, zwei neue Sets von "RealDrums Stems", XPro Styles PAK 6, Xtra Styles PAK 17 und mehr!
Paket | Was ist Neu
Update Your PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 Today!
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This free update is available to all RealBand 2024 users. To learn more about this update and download it, head to www.pgmusic.com/support.realband.htm#20245
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Backup copies are offered during the checkout process on our website.
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Note: the Band-in-a-Box® keychain is only included with flash drive backup copies, and cannot be purchased separately.
Handy flash drive tip: Always try plugging in a USB device the wrong way first? If your flash drive (or other USB plug) doesn't have a symbol to indicate which way is up, look for the side with a seam on the metal connector (it only has a line across one side) - that's the side that either faces down or to the left, depending on your port placement.
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With this update, there's more control when saving images from the Print Preview window, we've added defaults to the MultiPicker for sorting and font size, updated printing options, updated RealTracks and other content, and addressed user-reported issues with the StylePicker, MIDI Soloists, key signature changes, and more!
Learn more about this free update for Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows at www.pgmusic.com/support_windowsupdates.htm#1111
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A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."
"MIDI SuperTracks partial generation showing six variations – each time the section is generated it can be instantly auditioned, re-generated or backed out to a previous generation – and you can do this with any track type. This is MAJOR! This takes musical experimentation and honing an arrangement to a new level, and faster than ever."
"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."
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The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!
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We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!
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