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I've been having playback problems with biab for the last two-three years. At first it only occured using real tracks, now it happens with midi as well. The problem is that the sound distorts. Sometimes restarting the song does the trick. It's ok if I export all the tracks as a wav, so no problem there. Now I've tried using my PCs audio chip ( I've taken the soundcard out ) & the problem persists. It's just as bad using MME drivers or ASIO. My soundcard is a terratec dmx fire ( old but good ) Here's the details of my set up. I'm running biab from the maxtor 500gb external hard drive. The problem was happening using biab hard drive, my internal hard drive as well. It's driving me nuts and has just started playing up using midi as well. Wondering could it be a power problem ? It's a 500w power supply so there should be enough juice.
I'm running Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 64 bit Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. M2N-MX SE Plus Rev x.xx 853.37 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity 523.38 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
Maxtor 6V250F0 [Hard drive] (251.00 GB) Maxtor OneTouch USB Device [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) WDC WD2000JD-55HBB0 [Hard drive] (200.05 Gb 2944 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE [Display adapter] 2.70 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 256 kilobyte primary memory cache 1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache 64-bit ready Multi-core (2 total) Not hyper-threaded
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By the way I've disabled fast generation in the song settings and it's not made any difference, also tried a factory reset of all drivers. I'm pretty sure the problems lie within windows as I've no problems playing back CD, online music streaming, youtube or any other audio software programme.
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Quote:
I'm running Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 64 bit
Graham -
I'm not criticizing here, but I am concerned why you chose to run XP 64-bit. It was never well accepted or supported when it came out and it didn't get better from there. Microsoft got better support (from 3rd party hardware/software manufacturers) with Vista 64-bit, and now Windows 7 is pretty well supported.
But XP 64-bit has always had troubles. Google "windows xp 64-bit problems" and you get 20,800,000 results.
If it's an affordability issue, I can understand not upgrading to Win7, but with only 3GB of RAM on your computer, I don't think you're getting much benefit from 64-bit, and all the PGMusic programs are 32-bit. I don't know, but does the 64-bit license allow downgrading to 32-bit. You may find your experience much better with that.
Just a suggestion.
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA BB2024/UMC404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/MixBus/Notion/Finale/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com
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Just noticed that it's a 64 bit READY system John. IT IS a 32 bit system I'm running !
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Getting help from the tech team
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Despite a marvellous effort by Rob, we STILL havn't figured out why the playback's distorting on BIAB. However, we DID discover that whilst testing directx there was some distortion on playback. Now I downloaded the latest directx from microsoft and the problem still persists. I'm wondering if there's a way in the bios I can get more juice to the cpu ?
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Graham: This might be a known old problem where XP detected a certain number of disk errors in a row - and automatically reverted the disk setup from DMA (Direct Memory Access) to PIO (Program Input Output). This problem is characterized by longer bootup times, more CPU usage than necessary, since the CPU must handle the disk read/write overhead when in PIO mode - and it also can make for audio stuttering. Ctrl-A;lt-Delete to bring up the Task Manager, then hit the Performance tab at the top, start playing back a known troublesome program audio and see if the CPU ramps up to 100% or so and stays there. It would normally ramp up high, but would then go back down. If it stays there, suspect the PIO reversion problem. There is a little program that you can download and run that will put a disk that XP reverted back to PIO mode back into DMA mode. This is cool beause it bypasses all the commands that you would have to do one at a time and in the right places to get Windows to put it back for you. Instead, just download the program and run it once. http://winhlp.com/node/10 Read that page, then download the program, which is named, "resetdma.vbs" to your dewktop, scan it with your antivirus just to be safe, then double click to Run it. Now check your audio again with the same program and content as before. If this works, fine. If it doesn't, it should not harm anything by running it once. Give that a try, Graham. --Mac
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Quote:
Graham:
This might be a known old problem where XP detected a certain number of disk errors in a row - and automatically reverted the disk setup from DMA (Direct Memory Access) to PIO (Program Input Output). .
There is a little program that you can download and run that will put a disk that XP reverted back to PIO mode back into DMA mode. This is cool beause it bypasses all the commands that you would have to do one at a time and in the right places to get Windows to put it back for you. Instead, just download the program and run it once.
http://winhlp.com/node/10
this may be a little simpler:
You can check if DMA is enabled on any internal drive by going into the control panel, device manager, IDE controllers - Primary IDE - Advanced settings - General Trnasfer Mode.
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Checked DMA, it IS enabled. Nothing amiss in the bios either
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Good. That's out of the way.
Another thing that can cause these sorts of audio interruptions is IRQ sharing of sound device and certain other peripherals.
To get to your IRQs, go to "Start", "Run", and type in "msinfo32"(no quote marks, of course). Click "OK". In the resultant left-hand window pane, click on the "Hardware Resources" plus sign (+), click on "IRQs" and, after "polling" the computer, the right-hand pane will display what IRQ each peripheral is assigned to in the right window. Sort the table by clicking on the column headings.
Post your results into the forum for analysis.
Right click on My Computer, then Manage. Among the items you should see at the left side of the window is Device Manager. Click on that and a list of all devices installed in your computer will appear. At the menu on top, click on View then Resources by Type. Expand the Interrupt Request (IRQ) tree by clicking on the + sign. Next, either attach a print screen copy of the IRQ list for storage on a site that will let you link to here or make a note of all entries and paste it here as described below, which might prove easier. That will help us diagnose your problem further.
You can also “click & drag” in the IRQ table windowpane to “highlight” the text. Press <Ctrl><C> concurrently to copy the text. Use <Ctrl><V> to paste it into your posting.
--Mac
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I wonder would a bigger PSU help ? I remember some issues with audio when I first got this PC. They were caused by the PSU which was only 350W. The company I bought the PC from sent me a bigger PSU ( 450W ) I've got a hunch 450W might be a tad on the small side with all the extra work the CPU has to do ?
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I've read this thread over and unless I missed it, can you play any other audio, from Media Player or a DVD , CD and get clear audio? Or is it just BIAB? I had to reinstall everything once when my USB ports were just not working right. I did everything I could. I had no virus. But the only thing that fixed it was starting over and cleaning out whatever was interfering with it.
Can you get any other Music to play from other software clearly? I'm sorry if I missed it, if you already stated it. Since this started it's been bugging me, because I can't see why this is happenning to you. I had my BIAB running on a Pentium D (the worst CPU I ever had), slow and hot, with 1gb RAM and a fan that sounded like a hoover. And it has a really small power supply. But it still worked fine, even with the realtracks that I have. I find it hard to believe it's a lack of power, but every computer's different. Wayne,
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All other music plays perfectly. Spotify, you tube, cds, DVDs streaming radio etc... I've ran biab from it's own hard drive, from two different internal hard drives, and at the moment from a 500gb external hard drive. Same results every time. At the moment it's at the stage where it's virtually unplayable.
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Your power supply USUALLY doesn't enter the game until you use another piece of hardware that draws power, like a DVD drive or an external camera. That doesn't sound like you are overtaxing it just running BIAB.
My question is the volume settings. Are you maybe recording so hot you are clipping? Well, no, that was a stupid question. You are not recording, you are generating tracks....
Okay so when you play back, if you take it down to low levels, is it distorting even at low levels? Have you tried different speakers or headphones? Not likely going to help you if streaming internet radio and CDs play cleanly, but one more thing to check.
Everybody has given you solid t-shooting steps so far.
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.
1. How much did you make in 2023? 2. Send it to us.
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I agree Eddie. The power supply doesn't enter into this. Only BIAB and the MIDI as well. It's a puzzle. He's installed it on internal and external drives. Maybe and old version that came on DVD. Try a quick simple install with RTs and stuff. I'm stumped.
Last edited by redguitars; 08/06/11 02:22 PM.
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For at least the last 6 BETA test sessions Graham has had constant issues with his computer.The reason I say this is that it's not a specific issue with any version of BIAB. One thing I will ask Graham is have you totally removed BIAB from your internal drive and tried to reinstall it. Maybe install an older version like 2008 before RTs and see if you can play MIDI files through the VSC DXi. If you can go to the next version. I'm shootin' in the dark here. Anyway that the drives you receive in the UK may get corrupted? Security scanning or some such thing.
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Quote:
All other music plays perfectly. Spotify, you tube, cds, DVDs streaming radio etc... I've ran biab from it's own hard drive, from two different internal hard drives, and at the moment from a 500gb external hard drive. Same results every time. At the moment it's at the stage where it's virtually unplayable.
But how about other music DAWs. Have you tried opening RealBand and then opening the .mgu file and see if it plays.
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I DON'T have biab installed on the pc at all guys. I've tried running direct from it's own hard drive and the external Maxtor hard drive I use. Same problem. It's real tracks that seem to cause it grief. When this happens you can see the CPU go through the roof. Could it be I've had a faulty CPU from the getgo ????????
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Quote:
Maybe install an older version like 2008 before RTs and see if you can play MIDI files through the VSC DXi.
That's exactly what I meant, but failed totally to say. 2008, only with MIDI and the VSC dxi. I reread my post and it was so vague. I'm glad you said what you did.
Boy, I am missing the mark lately. Got to stay away from the dart board. Wayne,
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Have you tried RB? Yes if the processor is going through the roof that certainly is not good. It should go up and then settle down a bit. I run BIAB fine with the Toshiba mentioned in my signature. Fast generation and all.
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
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