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Any one have this happen. My last two times out the tracks have started to stutter at certain times during the performance. Could it be the speaker magnets or something like this? It only happens when I"m hooked up to the PA.
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I doubt that it was caused by hookup to the PA Ed.
About the only thing that could happen bad when hooking up to PA would be the Ground Loop "buzz" situation and that will only affect overall sound quality with noise, it really can't make Audio "stutter".
A more likely cause of the stuttering to look at would be lack of resources. The hard drive and the amount of ram memory involved.
It may well be the case that you simply haven't run the laptop as long when at home at one run as when on a gig. You might try a shakedown run at home with no PA, putting the program through the exact same paces as if you were at the gig and see if the laptop can reliably get through more than one run like that.
Another possible cause can be background programs interrupting things, this is especially a possibility when using a softsynth for the MIDI output. Virus scanning programs are somewhat notorious here, when I gig live I turn the Virus scanning program OFF. I also turn off WiFi on the laptop, as many program updaters may be seeking to make a connection to "phone home" -- and these can often generate interrupts, especially so when there is no WiFi connect available, as would be typical on the gig.
Using XP, I created a second User with its own Hardware Profile for live gigs. This Hardware Profile starts up with WiFi disabled, Virus Scanner disabled, a few other things that aren't needed on the live gig. A simpler and safer Hardware Profile, selected at bootup, not only does it eliminate the above possibilities of interru[tions, it boots faster and is all about "just" using only BIAB for performance.
Since my laptop uses shared memory for the Video, I also went into the BIOS and limited the video down to only 16mb of ram usage. Plenty for using BIAB or another audio/midi program, but frees up the rest of the typical 128m allocation for use with the music programs instead. I found this to be especially useful if using the Forte DXi synth, which loads its samples into ram and doesn't seem to do a good job of clearing that ram as you load more and more songs. Installing more ram into the laptop helped a bit with this problem, moving from 512m to 1g physical ram made the biggest difference here, eventually upping the ram count to 2g I found that difference to be only slightly better in comparison.
Lastly, sometimes shutting off Video Acceleration slider sometimes helps with softsynth stuttering problems.
BTW -- use of a hardware synth like the Ketron SD2, not only sounds much better, but in my case it totally eliminates any stuttering problems with BIAB, Powertracks or Realband. I think that is because the hardware synth does not put as much load onto the host cpu.
--Mac
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I think he is using mp3's for backup. (correct me if I'm wrong Ed)
This should be a light load on the system...
..at least that was the plan when we worked on some of Ed's songs
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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I've had that happen before. Make sure your wireless internet is turned off.
I didn't even know I had it! Apparently I bumped the button that turns in on Started seeing similar.
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Ed here read it's only 152 posts and I have related subjects as well. I thought I had fixed it by going from "main thread" to "high Priority thread". It indeed stops the stutter however at some point while playing a song and it can be 12 songs out the scroll bar will actually stop. Not a permanent fix. http://www.pgmusic.com/ubbthreads/showfl...true#Post235177
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+1 on the wireless.
When I got my first ThinkPad in 2002 (underpowered by today's standards -- single core, Pentium III) the mp3 tracks would hesitate when the wireless looked for a signal every few minutes. It drove me crazy for a while. The friendly tech support folks at IBM figured it out, I turned off the wireless, and it hasn't given me any trouble since. BTW, 7 years later, it's still running perfectly, those ThinkPads are built like tanks.
All my on-stage laptops have minimal programs running. No anti-virus, no "office", no Internet, no anything else except for the applications that Windows needs to run itself and the software I use to play my mp3s (which is Windows Media Player).
That way I have no conflicts, no unnecessary background tasks, and no interruptions of the music.
Insights and incites by Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton  Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
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& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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I've seen many reports on various Laptop forums regarding the wireless card affecting audio performance. It can result in something as simple as ticks and pops, all the way through audible stuttering. I would highly recomment turning off the wireless "radio" when doing music.
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA BB2026/UMC204HD&404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/Notion/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com (under rehosting/construction)
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My latest HP has a button to turn off the WiFi and it has 4GB RAM but if I don't turn the WiFi off it keeps beeping to tell me it has either found or not found a WiFi source. It MUST be off to make sure it doesn't search - something it does constantly when not connected to anywhere.
Of course, once it is off you can then turn off the firewall and the anti-virus, both of which take up now unnecessary memory resources
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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It took me forever to discover that the wireless button in the "on" position was causing the pops and crackles on playback. Last night on a gig I heard a couple of loud pops. And, sure enough, that slider had gotten bumped on some way. Once or twice, the real bass in BIAB has gone wackoo in the middle of a tune. Re-playing the tune from start seems to cure it. And, do you ever have a real track that fails to load properly? That happens with me occasionally, mainly with the bass track. I quickly reload the song and it plays OK.
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Yes, those darn WiFi buttons are easy to hit and accidently turn the radio transceiver back on again.
That is why I use a separate Hardware Profile, as mentioned earlier in this thread, for the live gigs.
In that Profile, WiFi network is completely disabled in Device Manager.
No more accidents.
--Mac
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I have a good Toshiba Tecra laptop and am running the midi files right through PTs.
I had turned off all running anti virus programs and disabled wi fi. It still stuttered.
Funny thing though it only happens when I'm out at a gig and hooked up to a PA. At home everything runs peachy. Don't get it.
I will try Macs idea and set up a separate profile for the next time. Maybe this will take care of some "unwelcomed guests" interrupting me.
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Hello,
Maybe it has something to do with using battery versus AC power?
Andrew
PG Music Inc.
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It happened one time while I was using battery power and one time using ac.
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Ed, get the DPC Latency Checker utility. Read the whole short article at the website, and it will be clear. If your laptop shows all green like the first illustration, you should have any stuttering. If you get the red bars, this tool and their suggestions will help you diagnose the problem. Go here to get it: http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Passed it with flying colors. Don't understand why it only happens when I'm hooked up to the pa system.
I tried mp3s and it still stutters only when hooked up to the PA.
Last edited by edbulmer; 11/06/09 04:08 AM.
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Describe how you are hooking to the PA exactly and in detail.
What brand and model of PA?
--Mac
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Yorkville-8 channel powered mixer. They have one channel with two rca type inputs that I go into from the headphones output on the laptop with a stereo cable. This first several times it worked fine. It's only happened these last two times and funny thing is the last two times the speakers were close to the laptop cause of the small stage spacing. It happens about every 45 seconds, and you hear this stuttering and the music loses a beat or so. I tired playing some mp3s in windows media and it did the same thing as what happened in pts. (Here's a another funny thing, I switched my computer with a Mac one time and everything went fine.) That's why I'm still wondering about some magnetic thing between my hard drive and the speaker magnets. When I'm running without the PA or when the speakers are more than ten feet away my peuter runs fine. Weird stuff.
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Quote:
That's why I'm still wondering about some magnetic thing between my hard drive and the speaker magnets. When I'm running without the PA or when the speakers are more than ten feet away my peuter runs fine. Weird stuff.
I think that coincidence is leading you down the wrong path with that one.
Have you cleaned that laptop recently? By "cleaned" I mean, downloaded and run anti-malware software such as MalwareBytes, also anti "phone home" stuff such as AdAware, etc. Also run CCLeaner or some other good Registry cleaner.
I'm thinking you've picked up a rogue piece of code that is interrupting things.
As for the speaker magnets affecting the hard drive, that is extremely unlikely. The physics are not supportive of that theory at all.
--Mac
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I have a laptop that makes audio mis-behaviour once a print job is started. The printer is wireless. After usage I have to shut down, I cannot find the part of the printer thing that is causing the interrupt. Again, it thinks it's managing the printer by checking the cartridges and wanting to get me to order them online. Argh..
I'm not doing everything possible in ubuntu. Bill Gates shut off all my computers this week. Drives me nuts.
And I spent the last while with a mystery illness, found on the floor on top of my laptop with a huge fever. They said it might have been sinusitis. Might. Same day my wife came down with cellulitus in her arm and missed her first day of work in 25 years. We both had IV nurses (different ones at the same time LOL) come to the house every morning and hang a bag of antibiotics. She recovered and I sit and read. I lost quite a few days and 15 pounds, don't remember some crazy stuff. My wife recorded some rants of mine when I was in the fever and it's hilarious. I was bossing guys at a forest fire, (which I did). And it was half french half english. Wow.
I have bought and backed up clean versions of all my computer's o/s onto external drives and labelled them. I install the o/s, Open Office, firefox, and now Band in a Box from the external drive, then do the backup.
I wasn't going to put band in a box on my big system and the two laptops, BUT, I can't shake the fact that the software gets all stupid about the missing Edirol on 2 of the 3 systems. That goes to the Ketron. I got tired of factory settings and deleting the interface file only to have it come back when it never saw the Edirol usb thing.
I will comment that the new Bose system, which sat here for the best part of 2 weeks not being used, has the external control interface with 4 inputs, and a USB sound device. You plug it into the computer and the wav output goes to the Bose without using jacks. Works great, sounds great. I just need more energy...
I restore my daughter's computer once a month, she's 18 and I don't dare ask.....just do it.
At the end of the day I'd be tempted to start over, do the save, turn off the networking etc. I even pdf the print lead-sheets and print them from another computer, so as not to have some printer monitoring system running a background process saying "Hi" to my printers.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Too bad it's not a Mel Tillis song.
Like the man said, "ain't that a kick in the head!"
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