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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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I'm getting random faltering, clicks and beeps during audio playback. There is no sign of them on the tracks themselves and if I scroll back and play a section again it won't be there but will come up again somewhere else.
I also sometimes get a beep when I make an action editing an effect whilst a track is playing.
Is there anything in my settings I should be looking at?
Thanks
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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Which operating system are you on and what audio drivers are you using, MME or ASIO?
How many tracks are you playing back when the problem happens and are you using any plugins?
This info will help us to advise you.
ROG.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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I'm on Windows XP using ASIO.
The project I'm working on has 4 tracks but I'm only playing back 2 at a time.
(I've been given a guide track and I'm recording bass tracks against it - one fretted and one fretless which is why I'm only playing back one of those plus the guide at any one time. The 4th track is a click track I've created but I'm not playing this back.)
An example of the second problem is that if I'm playing a track and open the DirectX/VST window, if I re-position it on the screen by dragging with the mouse, sometimes it will create a loud beep and sometimes it will cause the playback to falter. The same sometimes happens if I'm editing an effect during playback.
As you've probably already gathered, I'm not all that technically knowledgeable, but I'm not using anything that doesn't come with PTPA.
Hope this helps.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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OK. It sounds like it could be a problem with the ASIO buffer size. This is what to do -
Go to OPTIONS - PREFERENCES - AUDIO or you can hit the AUDIO button which will take you straight there.
In the audio prefs window click on the DRIVERS button. At the top right, you'll see another button for ASIO DRIVERS CONTROL PANEL which will take you into the ASIO settings.
Somewhere, there will be a setting for buffer size. If you're using ASIO4ALL, the value will be in samples - try a setting of 1024. If you're on a driver which has a setting in ms, try doubling the value.
There are other things it could be, but this is the most common. Get back to us and let us know how you get on.
ROG.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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OP
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Thank you - I've done as you suggested.
I'm using an Alesis USB Mixer as my audio interface and the ASIO driver is 'Alesis USB Audio Device'. It was set at '128 samples - 4.9ms / 17.2ms' so I've changed it to '256 samples - 7.9ms / 29.4ms'.
This seems to have stopped the interferance with the playback but not the the beep and faltering when editing effects or re-positioning the window during playback.
I'm not sure when it started happening but it was doing it before I updated from 2011 to 2012 a couple of days ago - I was hoping the upgrade would cure it!
If they're of any relevance, the Track Buffer is set at 65536 and the Buffer size for Edit/Save is 512 Byte.
Your help is much appreciated.
Last edited by GodfreyY; 03/18/12 07:05 AM.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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Try 512 samples.
Also, turn off windows sounds by going to your computers control panel and selecting SOUNDS AND AUDIO DEVICES - SOUNDS and under SOUND SCHEMES select NO SOUNDS. It's a good idea to disable any screen saver you have running and to edit the taskbar so as not to display the clock. All these things can affect how audio runs.
Final thing - click the MIDI button to go to MIDI DRIVERS and de-select all the output drivers. If you're using DXi or VSTi sounds you don't need output drivers and they can cause problems with the ASIO drivers.
Good luck. Keep us informed.
ROG.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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Just for reference, support has stated that *sometimes* enabling the MSWavetableSynth (even tough you are not technically using it) can actually solve some issues.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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Hi again
I've tried all these things including enabling the MSWavetableSynth but to no avail, and, contrary to my earlier post, I am still getting intermittent interference with playback even when I'm not editing effects.
Strangely, changing the samples to 512 seems to have changed the beep when editing effects to a buzz!
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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This yields a clue; try increasing buffer size (samples) in small amounts and see if the buzz goes away. If it gets worse, decrease.
ASIO can be a finicky format sometimes (depends a lot on the driver used). That's why switching to MME is often recommended as a test.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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Another possible clue is yesterday with the buffer size at 516 samples, I played back a project with 7 audio tracks. It was faltering badly and the individual track VU meters were flashing on and off until they all stopped working. This happened in both the Tracks and Mixer windows. The tracks continued playing but faltering and clicking all over the place.
My ASIO driver offers sample sizes in increments from 49 up and I've now tried them all. It's now set to the highest, 1064. There is no discernable improvement in playback and all the other problems (including the above) remain and the beep that became a buzz at 512 is now at a lower frequency, a kind of of vibrating sound.
Whenever I do an action whilst playback is in progress I get this buzz and playback momentarily stops at the same time. This includes when I open the mixer or audio edit windows, drag a window to another position or try editing effects in the DirectX/VST window. Obviously all this makes editing and mixing pretty impossible.
I've disabled the internet connection and the anti virus software in case one of those was running something in the background that's interfering. I've also checked the Task Manager to make sure the only application running is PT and monitored CPU useage as it's playing back, which generally ranged between 2 and 10% with an occasional peak around 20%.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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Check with Alesis to see if there's an up-dated driver. It's also possible that there are different drivers for XP, VISTA, 7, etc. Make sure you're on the right one.
Which XP service pack are you on? SP3 has been known to cause problems with all sorts of programs. Power Tracks should run happily on SP2 if you can roll back.
Finally, as rharv said, try running MME drivers to see if the problem is still there. Then, at least, we know what we're dealing with.
ROG.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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It's amazing how often that one test narrows down (and sometimes virtually solves) weird problems. I only say it so often because of how much it can tell about the problem.
Try MME
There will be no difference in audio quality, and it may tell us for sure if it is an ASIO issue, or possibly something else (like video driver).
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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Thank you both again.
ROG, We've updated the Alesis driver (I say 'we' because my wife is rather more IT savvy than me and is helping with this). It said it was for all Windows versions.
We've also defragmented the disk even though it said it wasn't necessary at this time.
rharv, Yes, as you suggested we tried MME and playback is absolutely fine.
Finally, XP is Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 3 !
I bought the computer just before Vista came out and it was sold as Vista capable. When Vista became available we updated to it but that certainly caused havoc with my music programs, so we went back to XP.
Incidentally, changing the buffer samples in the Alesis ASIO control panel appears to do little more than change the tone of the unwanted beep - the smaller the buffer rate, the higher frequency the beep.
Maybe we'll try going back to service pack 2 as our next step. Will let you know!
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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Hmm....Going back to SP2 does not appear to be easy - we found a procedure in a Microsoft library that said you can do it from 'Add or remove programs' but that does not seem to be the case. We have the original OS disk but trying to do it from that came up with some alarming looking warnings and we were worried we might do more harm than good.
In the meantime we've un-installed PT 2012 and re-installed but the problems still remain.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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I'm also a bass player so know from what I talk. I'll give a couple ideas.
1. Just dump the ASIO. You don't need it just to track parts. Put what ever effect on after.
2. An issue I discovered during BETA is that,in RB anyway, the program will pick up VST effects and VSTi instruments and list them in the list of effects as if they were DX/DXi. If you load one of these they sort of work but not really.
LISTEN CAREFULLY.
VST effects and VSTi instruments need to be added with the "add VSTeffect" option that appears at the bottom of the DX/DXi window. Then use the one that shows up down at the bottom.
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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As John mentioned; if MME works fine, use that as a basis, and then deal with the ASIO issue when you *need* ASIO features.
Also note - sometimes the most recent ASIO driver is not the most stable on a given system. Personal experience and other posts have verified this. Maybe the driver two versions ago will work better in your environment. That's why most companies list multiple drivers for download insted of just the latest/greatest.
Like I've said before; ASIO can be finicky for some. Usually you can get it work with a little effort, but if you don't need it why spend the time on it? When you need it, it is nice to have, but many use it for no reason.
Your problem sounds ASIO driver related so far.
How much time you want to put into setting up ASIO on your system is your call.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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PowerTracks Pro Audio
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One thing to consider, is that when you say MME for PG products you are really talking about WDM, a newer driver than the original MME drivers, and that is not far from the speed of ASIO.
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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Quote:
...
I'm a day late and a dollar short; missed this post.
However I did see -
"rharv, Yes, as you suggested we tried MME and playback is absolutely fine"
Why not use MME until ASIO is needed? You will hear no difference in end sound quality (as mentioned it is actually WDM, and we've requested they change the documentation but it hasn't happened yet). Make it easy and have fun until you need to solve this problem. You may be spending hours solving a problem you really don't have, or isn't affecting your work at all.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Bob,
The problem went from technical to philosophical.You didn't miss much.
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