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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 22
Enthusiast
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OP
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 22 |
I've been using an old version of BIAB (2006, i think) on a Pentium M 1.66GHz laptop for drum practicing for years. Recently, I bought an Atom-based netbook and I've migrated everything onto it.
Now on the new netbook, song playbacks (just MIDI, no wav audio) will break up at random places. This is driving me nuts. I have nothing else running on the PC. The CPU load is low. So, the problem isn't CPU bound.
Config:
- Lenovo S10 netbook: Atom 1.6GHz, 1GB, 160GB HDD, Windows XP Home SP3
- "sound card": Roland UA-25EX USB audio interface. ASIO compatible.
- Using the default Windows MIDI Synth
I assume an older version of BIAB will be less resource hungry than a new one.
I have no idea how to tackle the problem...
--
John
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 493
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 493 |
Try running your songs out via the headphone jack on the computer and see if that works any better for you.
Good luck.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 812
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 812 |
Yes, I have seen this same issue on our Netbook. It is frustrating, here is a post of info I found from another site>
This issue does apply to both Digital Audio and midi....
I brainstormed for a while last night and may have found another solution to this problem. Back in late December I recalled reading on another forum about a guy who had stutters on his home wifi, but didn't experience them when he brought his netbook to other wifi sources such as his school or at friends' houses. I did a little research into wifi routers causing audio conflicts and didn't find much. I decided to try turning off the wifi on the netbook, then unplugging my wireless router and letting it boot up fresh. Then I turned my netbook wifi back on and it has been working like a champ for over 12 hours. I use a dsl 2WIRE wireless router, and rebooting it seemed to have made all the difference. I don't know if some kind of static or interference builds up in some routers, or why it would only seem to affect audio on my netbook, but since I rebooted my wireless router all is well.
Try rebooting your modem and testing for stutters, or even take your netbook to another wifi location and see if the problem goes away. It seemed like a longshot, but I've got results.
Let me know how this works for you, and maybe we can attribute this problem to certain routers. This might shake up the laptop/notebook world a bit because there are quite a few brands/models of laptop that have had stutter issues that i've read about, and it would be hilarious if it had been routers causing many of these problems the whole time. Wasn't always in relation to wifi, but it could be useful to people who hadn't noticed that the problem is particular to when wifi is activated. I imagine my stutters will return eventually, but if simply rebooting my router fixes it, then I'll be more than satisfied with my netbook.
The other thing Ive been told is that there is a Bios update that you need to make with your Netbook. I tried to update mine by going to the Acer website, and I spent 2 hours trying to get the right update file!
Hope some of this info helps you,
Ed
Last edited by Edward Buckley; 07/28/09 07:45 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 22
Enthusiast
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OP
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 22 |
Thanks.
@Barry: It definitely makes sense to try headphone in order to remove the Roland audio interface from the equation.
@Ed: Great info. It's interesting that rebooting the wifi router will fix the problem. Now think about it, both wifi and bluetooth are on on the netbook. Maybe I should turn them all off to see what it'll do.
--
John
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 22
Enthusiast
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 22 |
Some updates.
My wifi router is Linksys Wireless-G. Pretty old. Probably 5 years old.
- I've tried rebooting the router. No difference.
- I've tried disabling bluetooth service on the netbook. No difference.
- I've tried disabling the wifi connection on the netbook. Now, this work!
The next question is: why? And, is there anything we can do to fix the problem?
Last edited by sciomako; 07/29/09 02:41 AM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333 |
I have an Acer Aspire, and can use all midi, or all RealTracks with no problem.
My older Sony Vaio required that I disable the wireless network, it was easy because it had a front switch.
That said I am running band in a box on an external hard drive that Band in a Box ships on.
And it works fine with both the onboard sound and a Roland external mp3+ usb gizmo.
I played for 4 hours yesterday, and didn't even have the powercord plugged in, just the netbook out to my Roland Keyboard amp with the melody and piano part muted while I played jazz standards on the accoustic piano.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333 |
Xp home on both machines. The vaio is quite old, broken hinge, and I don't regularly use it.
I have an HP quadcore 1 terabyte with 6 gigs of memory beside my Roland keyboard in the big family room. I run that into a Behringer power mixer with 15 inch speakers.
Upstairs I use the wife's netbook, she works and just uses it for email. Ii sit it on the piano and plug in the hard drive and run a jack from the headphone connection to a Roland 60 Cube Amp. Never had a problem with the Acer and XP home, however I am unhappy with Microsoft for they made the Acer reboot this morning, and you don't get a choice. That just drives me nuts. I'm sure their intentions are good but.....
I have a newer Vaio in my study, and it runs Ubuntu. I use it the most, and hope that the Mac port of Band in a Box can be compiled for Linux...that would be awesome.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333 |
I should mention that the HP digital workstation downstairs is running Vista 64. The only issue is that the Roland Dxi syth won't work with it, but I'm using a Ketron SD2 on that so it works fine.
The only thing is...don't get a blackberry anywhere within 20 feet of it, you can hear the messages coming in, sounds almost like a telegraph at a higher frequency.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502 |
Quote:
16. Why is my playback jerky in Band-in-a-Box?
Stuttering can occur if your machine is doing something else and hogging the CPU, like writing a big file to the hard drive or checking a Net connection, or if other programs are working in the background. Anti-virus programs are sometimes the culprit. Troubleshoot this by closing as many background programs as possible.
On Windows 2000/XP, look for icons in your task bar next to the computer clock, and close/exit/disable these programs. You can also troubleshoot by using the Selective Startup feature. Go to Start | Run, type msconfig, and press OK. Click on 'Selective Startup', and uncheck 'Startup items'. Press [Apply] and restart the computer. Note: Windows 2000 doesn't have the system configuration utility.
On Windows 98/ME:
Hold down Ctrl and ALT on your keyboard, and press DEL once. This brings up the Close Program window.
Click on any item listed in this window except for "Explorer" or "Systray" and press [End Task]. If another window pops up saying that the program is not responding, press [End Task] again.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each item listed in the Close Program window, EXCEPT for "Explorer" and "Systray".
Note: Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del twice in a row will restart your computer. If you restart your computer accidentally during this process, most of the background programs will likely be loaded again. You can configure which programs load at startup in the Windows System Configuration Utility (go to Start | Run, and typing "msconfig").
An improperly installed MIDI interface or sound card could also be the problem. Reinstall the sound card/interface, using the latest drivers available from the manufacturer. After you do this, reset Band-in-a-Box to the factory settings by deleting the 'intrface.bbw' file from the C:\bb folder.
Another issue might be that the PCI bus is being locked out by the video driver. This can be caused by accelerated video drivers taking over the system for 50ms or more. The solution is to disable accelerated video. On Windows 98/ME, go to Start | Settings | Control Panel | Display | Settings | Advanced | Performance. On Windows 2000/XP, go to Control Panel | Display | Settings | Advanced | Troubleshoot. Turn the Hardware Acceleration slider to none.
Try the trick I highlighted in bold type first.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,926
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,926 |
Mac,
You suggested disabling video acceleration as a solution another issue I was having at the time. While it appeared to work, I have always wondered whether it applies if you have a dedicated video card. Isn't the purpose of the card to take over video processing instead of having the CPU do so?
Signed,
Just Curious
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502 |
Quote:
Mac,
You suggested disabling video acceleration as a solution another issue I was having at the time. While it appeared to work, I have always wondered whether it applies if you have a dedicated video card. Isn't the purpose of the card to take over video processing instead of having the CPU do so?
Signed,
Just Curious
Onboard video solutions typically don't have their own ram memory onboard, so they must share RAM with the OS and everything else, typically by reserving a certain amount, sometimes up to 256m by default, for the video card. For DAW work, I recommend going into the BIOS and backing that allocation up by a goodly amount, as the DAW software doesn't really need a whole lot of video ram to function well, for example, on my laptop when I use it as a DAW, I have it backed up to 16mb instead of the default 256mb.
For the desktop, the same thing can apply if all you have available is the onboard video card.
Installation of a separate PCIe video card with onboard ram of its own is certainly a better situation, especially for the DAW user who is also a gamer or the like.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 22
Enthusiast
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 22 |
Thanks guys. I'll check out the video settings.
By the way, I did a bit more research (i.e. googling). I found it's a common complaint that the Windows Zero Configuration (WZC) wireless manager causes latency issue because it periodically polls for the presence of other networks even though you're already connected to one. What some people do is turn it off once the connection is up.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 22
Enthusiast
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 22 |
Tried various other things including turning off the video Hardware Acceleration. None of them makes a difference. I think I can now safely conclude wifi is the sole factor causing stuttering on my netbook.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 1,382
PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 1,382 |
I always disable the WIFI on my lappie when producing or DJing... it just frees up system resources, makes everything run a bit more smoothly.. And my laptop has a lot more power than a netbook will.
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