After extensive testing, I discovered it's NOT my trusty behringer U-PHORIA UMC204HD audio interface that's been the cause of my audio problems, so IT MUST be a software setting. I've had the interface disconnect for the last couple of weeks and there's been no problem till this afternoon. I'm using the realtek HD audio drivers at the moment and THIS happened a few minutes ago.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q4xyzqujv97amsn/Untitled%20Song.MGU?dl=0

I'd be delighted if anyone could crack this issue once & for all, I was about to start looking for another PC, even though this one's only a couple of years old

Graham, I played this file on both 32 and 64 bit BiaB versions and there were no problems. Maybe you could post an audio version?

Also what is your video card? I have read where some Nvidia drivers were causing audio problems. Also are your audio or video cards sharing an IRQ with some other software? IRQ interrupts can cause problems.

Hi Mario, it's the Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 [Display adapter]

Wonder would a video card solve the problems ?


Have just done a major update on the graphics drivers I'll find out soon if that'll help

Hi Furry,

No, a video card won't help. That's only needed for video editing and gaming.

I'd check your Power Settings in the Windows Control Panel, that caused stuttering for me in Ableton Live when I first built my current computer.

Click the Start button in Windows 10, select Control Panel, and click Power Options.

Change Advanced Power Settings

Click Change Plan Settings next to the power plan you're using for your PC and then click Change Advanced Power Settings. Expand the Processor Power Management listing and then expand Minimum Processor State. Change this setting to 100%.

Please let us know if this doesn't do the trick, or if it was already at 100%.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

This is a common issue in Win 10 unfortunately without a common cause (except Win 10 do a Google search for audio stuttering on Win 10 you’ll get pages of guff and hundreds of “sure fire fixes”. I have been lucky to largely avoid the stuttering by following the stuff I have added before.

My laptop (which is a little underpowered) I use when performing. It started cutting out even simply playing song very little happening. I looked at the disc drive led it was hard on. Looked at the tasks nothing other than system stuff running but disc at or near 100%. I went through and turned off wifi, Norton, Windows Defender and more importantly Windows indexing (none of which I need during a performance). I got shy of ALL UNECESSARY Windows additions. (I have done similar on my main PC except for turning of the antivirus.). Note there are many programs running in the background sucking up CPU cycles, generating network I/O and causing the disc drive to run. The thing that really creates a crunch is Windows update. Always comes when you least want it.

Do not assume because you don’t use stuff that it is not running. Some clown at Microsoft understands your needs and potential interests far better than you do. You get what they want not what you need.

It takes time to sort it. There is a few things on the Web on stuff to turn off or delete from your PC. There have been a number of similar things on the forums.

See setting up your computer for music production https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X9U3PcpmYBE Or articles such as https://bandzoogle.com/blog/20-ways-to-optimize-your-windows-10-pc-for-music-productionmidi


All the best
Tony

Edit added links

HI
Yes indeed Kents advice is good worked for me in the past.
I am sure mine was set to that, but I think one of windows updates set it down to 10%
So I went from a working to none working situation over night, so always worth a check if trouble after an update.

Mike

Kent it was a 5 % No wonder it was poor, many thanks for the input

Thanks Tony, hopefully Kents' suggestion should help

Thanks Mike, I reckon Kents' suggestion is spot on as this was happening in my old pc as well

Folks, if your looking to read that bandzoogle article, try this link instead:

https://bandzoogle.com/blog/20-ways-to-optimize-your-windows-10-pc-for-music-production

Jeff

cheers Jeff

So, when someone mentions stuttering and latency..... the first question in my mind is what driver are you using?

The only driver that I use is ASIO and a quick search of the interface didn't show that it uses ASIO. It might but I didn't find it.
Realtek HD is a very basic driver that's designed to play your mp3 files and YouTube video music. It's certainly not the best choice for music like we do.

Of course, your settings matter but the driver matters more.

So... can your interface use ASIO? If it can, load it and then adjust the settings as needed.

I'll almost bet that if you do a rendering for export of the finished file, the rendered file will be perfect since there's no need to get everything to the speakers in a timely manner. Latency and stuttering are a symptom that the program, generally due to the driver and settings, is not able to keep up in real time, so it starts to drop and hesitate and delay the audio from the tracks. You hear the result. Try ASIO if the interface supports it.

Audio drivers are available for Realtek chips but you've got to do some digging.

Normally you'll acquire the audio driver through the computer motherboard manufacturer. The Realtek website offers drivers but recommends you use the driver supplied by the motherboard manufacturer as that driver will be optimized for the motherboard audio system, not just one chip within the audio system.

Another consideration is Realtek manufactures multiple chipset series that handle just audio or audio and other multimedia.

+++ HERE +++ is a link to RealTek's current list of audio drivers.

Thanks for the info guys, I've taken Kents advice for now and checked to see what the processor power was. Windows had decided 5% was enough for me so I maxed it up to the 100 %. No problems using my behringer interface and asio drivers and I had biab running for about 3 hours. So Kent, and everyone else thanks for the fantastic inputs

Graham, you might also take a look at my post today on processor power settings in the Help/Tech SOS forum.

Hi Graham,

I'm glad that did the trick!

This is a surprisingly common issue, I can't imagine why 5% is the default on so many machines. When I replaced my old 2010 MacBook Pro (Intel Core Duo processor, 4 GB of RAM) with a desktop featuring a 6-core i7 processor and 16 GB of RAM, I didn't see any improvement in audio performance, thought my MOTU interface was defective until I found this setting.

Cheers!
Kent
PG Music

Thanks Matt will do

Thanks Kent, I think it's a disgrace they're allowed to interfere with settings on a personal pc

Turn it up.... that was easy