Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread
Print Thread
Go To
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Folks, I am growing more and more frustrated over not being able to get BiaB to produce clean playback of my biab tunes. Just this morning, I'm working on a new one that has five RealBand tracks and one MIDI track. There's lots of noise and distortion. Lots of it. I'm running Win7, so the drivers I have available are MME, ASIO, and WAS (I think?). I've tried them all and they go from horrible to simply unacceptable in that order: MME, ASIO, and WAS. I've exited all other programs and even loaded Windows Task Manager, and removed all unnecessary Processes.

My machine has an AMD quad-core processor, running at 3.44 GHz with 16 GB of RAM installed. It is not a slow machine, but apparently it doesn't have enough horsepower for the bloated product that 2019 has become. I had occasional pops and crackles with 2017 (I skipped 2018), and it was nowhere near as bad in performance as 2019 is. I've just installed the latest v617 update and checked with that same song file I mentioned above, and the problems are still there.

So I'm fed up. Thus, I'm asking the forumind: what would be the ideal machine, one that I would put together, that will run BiaB properly? That is, what sort of motherboard and processor. Oh, and in my case, the MoBo would have to have at least two PCI slots and one PCIe slot. Or maybe it's finally time that I upgrade to Win10? Are there better drivers available for Win10 that would improve things?

Oh, one more thing I just thought of. I'm also using Cakewalk by Bandlab, and the older Cakewalk Sonar Platinum. I can get perfectly clean playback with Cakewalk, when running MIDI, audio or a mix of MIDI and audio. Usually I have to exit all other applications, but at least this will get me where I need to be. Now, Cakewalk is a big, serious program, and my machine runs fine with it -- why can't it do the same with BiaB?

Last edited by cooltouch; 02/06/19 07:42 AM.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,099
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,099
cooltouch,

Sorry you're having audio playback issues.

My initial thought is the cpu, motherboard and ran you currently have should be more than sufficient for audio playback of Band-in-a-Box files. This computer has a dual core Intel i3 with 8 GB of ram and it does not experience audio playback issues.

Having said that, both of our computers will soon become orphans. Microsoft is dropping Windows 7 support soon so now is the time to update computers.

I prefer Intel cpu and motherboard chipsets over AMD mainly because more audio components such as audio interfaces are validated on Intel hardware. However, AMD based hardware typically costs less.

Your 16 GB of ram should be more than enough unless you're using MANY VSTs at the same time or you're using a VST that loads multi-gigabyte samples into ram.

Cakewalk by BandLab and Sonar automatically balance cpu load over all available cores. That helps prevent the cpu from overheating. I do not know if Band-in-a-Box balances cpu load.

It is worth your time to check your computer power settings. The default Windows power settings are not good for audio. Make sure the cpu isn't going into power saving mode and that USB ports are not going into low power mode. You want everything at full power all the time, no sleep or hibernate allowed.

I'm sure I will be upgrading pretty soon. I WANT a computer with an Intel i5 or i7 cpu, 16 GB of ram and Windows 10 Pro. I'll likely GET what's on sale and be perfectly happy with it.


Jim Fogle - 2024 BiaB (1109) RB (Build 3) Ultra+ PAK
Cakewalk - Zoom MRS-8 recorder
Desktop: i7 Win 10 build 2004, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Laptop: i3 64bit Win 10 build 21H2, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
I guess you should check your graphics drivers, and disable hardware acceleration if possible. Too little info about your system here for further advice. Windows 7 should be OK still, for most use. MB: PCI slots are barely available any more for some 5 years now ...

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 18,838
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 18,838
Does your problem happen with both 32-bit and 64-bit BIAB? Like you, I have Win 7 and I've had no problem at all with sound.

My machine is also similar to yours.... quadcore i7, 3.4 GHz, 16 GB RAM.

What vsti/dxi are you using with the MIDI Supertrack? Having six BIAB tracks is certainly not pushing your computer's architecture too hard at all.

Also, does the problem happen with all songs or just the current one.

Lastly, are the tempos of your RTs matching the tempo of the song? There was a post recently where a song played a 105 bpm RT correctly when the song's tempo was 105 bpm but problems were created if the song's tempo changed.

Regards,
Noel




MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2024
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Thanks for the responses, guys. As far as optimization goes, I found this link over at focusrite's site. Followed their advice and it did noticeably improve my PC's performance. I had several of their recommended settings set correctly, but there were a few that I'd missed or didn't even know about that really helped. The recommended settings cover Mac and the various recent flavors of Windows. Here's the link:

https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/categories/200693685-Optimisation

I even posted a message here about this site, but got no responses. Here's the message I posted:
https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=74384&Number=515636#Post515636

Noel, to answer your questions, yes I was having problems with both the 64 bit and 32 bit versions. And the MIDI track was just plain MIDI so no vsti/dxi.

The problem has been occurring with various tunes, not just the current one. That was the reason why I felt compelled to post my woes.

Now, about the RT tempos matching those of the song, to be honest this isn't anything I've given any thought to. I will frequently play around with the tempo of styles that I'm trying out, or even after I've selected one. So this might be a possible reason for some of the problems.

But when you asked if this is happening to other songs, to be honest I was listening to only one song. But get this: this song was one that was born this morning. I gave a set of directions to the Melodist and then told it to generate a song for me. So everything about that song, and I mean everything -- except for the volume and balance and such, which I adjusted -- was composed by the Melodist. So you'd think BiaB would be able to handle it, wouldn't you. But it was one big distorted mess.

But anyway, I did as you requested. Booted the 64 bit version this time and then went and listened to a bunch of tunes I wrote -- about a dozen or so. And they all played back perfectly. Not a single Rice Crispy anywhere. So then I called up the song that got created this morning and gave it another run through. Prefect. No Rice Crispies to be found.

Dammit. I don't like it when software makes me a liar -- or a fool. I don't know why it decides to behave like this. The fact that it does sometimes and doesn't others means it is unreliable. I can't depend on it. And what's worse, I'm not sure how to cure the problem. Maybe just a simple reboot? I dunno.

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 1,114
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 1,114
Hi

Well I expect you have heard it all before but,
It seems likely to me that the times it fails is when windows may be doing some major task in the background , downloading up dates from Microsoft or new virus database definitions by you’re av programme, or one of the numerous programs that are constantly at in the background downloading this and that.

As a matter of interest have you made an exception for Biab for your AV programme that can be quite a big footprint checking everything you do.

Also don’t forget to check your min processor state is not set to5 or 10%
SEE THIS THREAD

https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=75149&Number=522493#Post522493

Extract from thread:

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

Hope this helps.
Mike


BIAB2021 UltraPlus,AsusN55S1Tbssd, W10/64,Akai EIEpro
Yamaha CVP405,SquireStrat, CoolsoftVMidSynth
Novatation Impulse61 Ctr kbd, Cwalk blab Kontakt

http://mikesmusic.byethost16.com/
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 20,638
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 20,638
The only time that I have audio problems is when my audio interface buffers are too low. I run very low buffer settings when I record. Sometime they are too low for playback so I have to increase those buffers. That eliminates all audio problems. So check your audio interface's buffers.

PS -what is your audio interface?

PPS - the most commend audio problems I have with playback is stuttering and cracking and popping. As I indicated increasing the audio buffers eliminated those. YMMV


Me, it's not about how many times you fail, it's about how many times you get back up.
Cop, that's not how field sobriety tests work.

64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 7,784
R
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
R
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 7,784
One small side point there is no such thing as playing just plain old midi. All midi requires a synth to run it. Either a wave table, dxi or VSTi or some synth. You are either using coyote or synthfont, or some Microsoft synth. Try using differ t synths for playback to see what works best


Lenovo Win 10 16 gig ram, Mac mini with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2022, Realband, Harrison Mixbus 32c version 9.1324, Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app, Komplete 49 key controller.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 1,986
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 1,986
my pc has lower specs than yours and BIAB runs fine on Windows 10

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Okay, thanks for the latest responses. I'll address your questions and points in the order they were posted.

Mike, whenever I'm experiencing issues like this, whether it is in BiaB or something else -- like Cakewalk, for example -- one of the first things I do, besides idling every other piece of software I have running, is I boot Windows Task Manager, and check to see what Processes are running. The amount of RAM they're consuming is what I pay most attention to, but even minor players that don't need to be there get the boot. So I'm confident that, when this was occurring, there were no resource-sucking processes going on.

You wrote, "As a matter of interest have you made an exception for Biab for your AV programme that can be quite a big footprint checking everything you do."

I don't know what this means. AV Programme? Is this a Win10 thing? I'm still running Win7, as I pointed out above.

About my machine's minimum processor state, I found out about that a couple months back when I was discussing similar problems with one of the PG tech staff. She stepped me through how to check, then adjust it to 100%. So I did this, but when I read that a M$ update may drop it back down to 5% again, I checked it again just now, and sure enough, it was back down to 5%. Dammit, MicroSloth, when I set something I wish you'd leave things the hell alone! That could have been most of my problem right there. But it doesn't explain why things cleared up the way they did yesterday.

Mario, I have my card's buffers set to 512 at the moment. When I began to run into this problem, I checked and they were set to 256, so I bumped them up to 512, and it didn't affect things then.

My "interface" is my trusty old M Audio Delta 66 card, capable of 24/96k recording -- although these days it seems like I'm always just using it at 16/44.1k. My Delta 66 has a dedicated I/O device, called OMNI I/O, which provides most options a full-featured USB interface would, except MIDI unfortunately. Here's a link to a page at ZZSounds which gives a good description of the OMNI I/O:

https://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOOMNIIO

RobH, I was using Coyote for a single MIDI track. I don't see how a single MIDI track would affect performance one way or the other. The other 5 tracks were RealTracks.

Bob, it's good to read your Win10 PC is running things fine. The thing that concerns me the most about upgrading to Win10 is my Win7 drivers -- especially the driver for my Delta 66. M Audio hasn't written an update to that driver in years. The current driver was written in 2012. I checked at the M-Audio forum on this issue though, found a thread where an M-Audio 1010 (same driver as for the Delta 66) owner was worried about Win10 compatibility and it was verified in that thread that the Win7 driver works with Win10. That's a bit of good news.

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 1,114
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 1,114
hi Michael

A V anti virus prog.
Any way with your processor set back to 5% that was your main problem i expect .
lets see how you go now.
Mike


BIAB2021 UltraPlus,AsusN55S1Tbssd, W10/64,Akai EIEpro
Yamaha CVP405,SquireStrat, CoolsoftVMidSynth
Novatation Impulse61 Ctr kbd, Cwalk blab Kontakt

http://mikesmusic.byethost16.com/
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Hey Mike, I'm just using M$'s security essentials. It seems to be doing it's job and it's not intrusive, I've found.

Yeah, about the 5% vs 100% thing, that's what I was hoping it was all the problem was, but I found out otherwise. Remember up above, where Noel commented about using RealTracks at tempo settings other than what they were set up for? Well, I was able to confirm this. I selected a few different styles that had real tracks, more or less at random, and then changed the tempo. The result was rather dramatic. If I varied the tempo by as little as 10 bpm it caused a major disruptive effect. Sometimes, if I'd let the tracks run, they'd quieten down, but sometimes they wouldn't and there would just be this continual distortion in the playback. So this is apparently a very real issue. And you know what? That's very unfortunate, the way I feel. I mean, why should I be restricted to these arbitrary tempo values? The musicians who recorded this info wouldn't have felt bound by any such strict tempos. So why should I be? I tell you what, it's infuriating. Like, I finally find a style that I really like, but its tempo is different from what I need. So if I select that style, all I get is garbage when I set it to the tempo I need.

Is there any way to "retrain" these styles so that they'll behave? Like I wrote above, I've had situations where it seemed that they sort of calmed down some, but they were still sensitive to any sort of changes.

What I've done for now is I've set my style picker so it selects MIDI styles. I like Real Tracks and all but if they can't do what I need, there's no point in including them in my searches.

Last edited by cooltouch; 02/07/19 12:11 PM.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 1,114
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 1,114
Hi Michael

Well any change in tempo to an audio recording will change the pitch of the recording,
So pitch shifting has to be done to compensate, this is resource heavy process until the buffer catches up if ever.
Think of it like the old wind up gramophone when the spring runs down (if you remember such things)
Mike


BIAB2021 UltraPlus,AsusN55S1Tbssd, W10/64,Akai EIEpro
Yamaha CVP405,SquireStrat, CoolsoftVMidSynth
Novatation Impulse61 Ctr kbd, Cwalk blab Kontakt

http://mikesmusic.byethost16.com/
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 1,382
K
PG Music Staff
Offline
PG Music Staff
K
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 1,382
Michael,

Let's go to Options - Preferences - RealTracks.

Is "Allow Auto-RealTracks substitution based on tempo" checked?

Also, what's selected as the Tempo/Pitch Stretching Quality?

Also, if you switch to your computer's onboard soundcard's MME driver, does the problem still occur? This isn't meant to be a permanent solution, just a test to see if the issue has to do with the Delta's driver.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Kent and Mike, thanks for your responses. Mike, what you wrote makes sense. That would explain why sometimes the noise problem clears up. Kent, I will check these settings in just a moment. Right now, I'm pretty sure I have BiaB set to use the WAS drivers because they were producing the least noise. WAS drivers aren't native to the Delta card, are they?

One other thing I think is fair that I should mention. I decided to play around some with the Melodist last night. I set it up to generate everything -- intro, chords, melody -- the whole enchilada. Most of the time -- yeah, most of the time -- the resulting tune that BiaB's Melodist created was so full of noise it was almost impossible to listen to. Sometimes the tunes would quieten down, but sometimes they wouldn't. And the types of tunes it generated seemed to be something of a determiner as to how much noise would be produced. I started out selecting jazz and smooth jazz tunes, which were noisy, and wound up with country and western, which for the most part weren't noisy.

I'm gonna go check some of those tunes right now -- I saved a lot of them -- and see if they are still noisy. Maybe several hours of "sleep" will have done them some good. And I'll check those settings against any that are still sounding noisy and see if it made a difference.

I'm probably gonna have to shut down the browser for it to play cleanly, so I'll go ahead and post this note. Then I'll report back after I've learned more.

Last edited by cooltouch; 02/08/19 03:37 AM.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Originally Posted By: Kent - PG Music
Michael,

Let's go to Options - Preferences - RealTracks.

Is "Allow Auto-RealTracks substitution based on tempo" checked?

Also, what's selected as the Tempo/Pitch Stretching Quality?

Also, if you switch to your computer's onboard soundcard's MME driver, does the problem still occur? This isn't meant to be a permanent solution, just a test to see if the issue has to do with the Delta's driver.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music


OK, first, I failed to mention this above, but I've been using the 32-bit version of BiaB when encountering these problems. Haven't even tried the 64-bit version yet.

So I played through about a dozen or so pieces that the Melodist created to see if I could reproduce this problem, and there was absolutely no noise. This is with the drivers set to WAS. All the tracks that were sounding just horrible last night sound clear as a bell this morning. So anyway, I checked the above settings. Yes, "Allow Auto-RealTracks substitution . . ." was checked, and the Tempo/Pitch . . . was set to medium. I bumped it up to high to see if I could get it to make any noise. I even left the browser with 15 tabs open (so it was using plenty of resources) and still no noise at all. So next I changed the drivers from WAS to MME. BiaB prompted me for Ins and Outs and I selected the Delta's 1 and 2 channels (like I always do). Didn't make a bit of difference. So next I went ahead and selected the Delta's ASIO drivers -- and finally I got some noise. It was just a couple of light crunchy sounds and they seemed to be transitory. Oh, and the tune I was trying these drivers on is 100% RealTracks. Only three tracks, but still that was enough. I've been letting the tune run for several minutes now and there has been no return of any noise with the ASIO drivers and with the browser open. (The only two programs running right now are the browser and BiaB.) So just now I decided to push things a bit, and opened another song -- this one has five RealTracks and one MIDI track using Cakewalk's TTS-1 synth -- and once again, it produced some noise when I first began to play the file. But it cleared up after a couple of measures. So, to see if I could get it to produce some noise with this tune, I stopped it and started it again. At first it was clean, then about a minute into the song, it started breaking up a bit. But that cleared up also.

So it seems that my Delta's ASIO drivers are causing some mild and transitory noise now. That's odd. They're rock steady with Cakewalk (by Bandlab).

Then something weird happened. I tried switching back to WAS. Had to indicate the Delta's channels. And after I did that it generated an orange pop-up in the bottom right of the screen. I don't recall the wording now, but it was error 9998. I tried several times to see if it would take the WAS drivers, and now I can't get it to. So I switched back to MME. They seem to be working fine -- for now. I've had to play musical chairs with the drivers before, hope I don't have to again. Odd about WAS though. First time I've ever seen that message -- or any orange message, far as that goes.

I have a question. You know how, in the style picker when it shows a style, it also indicates a tempo range somewhere in the description that it is best suited for? If the break-ups I'm experiencing are because of changing the tempo of a group of real tracks, doesn't that invalidate any sort of range recommendation? However, the fact that the noise has cleared up now, for the most part at least, does make this whole business highly annoying. I mean, I'm glad it's behaving now, but I'm just wondering how long it will last.

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 274
Apprentice
Offline
Apprentice
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 274
What happens if you take your focusrite completely out of the path? I have had some issues and have seen several others in forums having issues as well with popping in cracking.

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
I don't have a Focusrite in the path. I own a Scarlett 2i4, but it's broken, so obviously not in the path.

If you're referring to my Delta card's OMNI I/O, it can't be removed from the path. It is the path.

But let me just ask, to clarify for myself. If, assuming my Scarlett was functioning properly and I was using it as the interface here, removing it from the path would be the same difference. That is, the Scarlett would be the path, so how could I remove it from the path?

Last edited by cooltouch; 02/09/19 12:16 AM.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 274
Apprentice
Offline
Apprentice
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 274
Originally Posted By: cooltouch
I don't have a Focusrite in the path. I own a Scarlett 2i4, but it's broken, so obviously not in the path.

If you're referring to my Delta card's OMNI I/O, it can't be removed from the path. It is the path.

But let me just ask, to clarify for myself. If, assuming my Scarlett was functioning properly and I was using it as the interface here, removing it from the path would be the same difference. That is, the Scarlett would be the path, so how could I remove it from the path?


Sorry for delayed response. I asked because my(the) scarlett has had several issues over the past year with distortion and crackling. just trying to see if IT was causing your issue and not the software

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Well, as you can see, it was impossible for my Scarlett -- or any other interface -- to have caused this problem, because it wasn't in the path.

Regarding the very last sentence to my above comment on 2/8 -- it didn't last. This morning, I went to play a tune that was operating without issues last night, and it's now full of static. So I went through the routine of shutting down all apps besides BiaB and even booted Win Task Mgr, to get rid of any processes I don't need -- there weren't any left. I'd already gotten rid of everything that wasn't necessary.

This particular file has 5 RealTracks and one MIDI track. So I tried another file, also with 5 RealTracks and one MIDI track. Same thing -- lots of noise. Then I tried a file that has five MIDI tracks and one RealTrack -- this one played back fine with only an occasional pop.

At this point, it would appear that BiaB is not happy with playing audio right now.

So, wondering if there might be something clogging up my system memory somehow, I reboot my computer, open up Win Taks Mgr and clear out everything that isn't necessary, and then load back in that first track that was causing all the problems. If anything, it's worse now.

I don't recall if I adjusted the tempo on these tunes, so I had the Melodist generate a fresh tune with RealTracks with unaltered tempo. Didn't make any difference. Still loads of breakup.

And yes, I did check to make sure that my minimum system performance hadn't been set back to 5%. It's still at 100%.

So, finally, as a way of testing the system, I load Cakewalk by Bandlab and then load a project that contains an audio file of the entire project. I play back this file and the playback is totally silent of any glitches. This is really frustrating. I'm gonna call PGM and see what they have to say about this.

Last edited by cooltouch; 02/12/19 07:50 AM.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 7,687
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 7,687
For whatever reason there is always a few like 2 or 3 people out of however many users on this forum who have this issue. It's very frustrating I'm sure because nobody else has this problem regardless of what kind of system they have. For 99.5% of us we install Biab, enter some chords, pick a style and hit Play and everything is good.

You mentioned ASIO with your Delta. That random crackling is a classic sign the buffers are too low. Just keep raising them until the crackling stops. It's also possible their old ASIO driver isn't that good, who knows? You can try downloading the freeware ASIO4ALL and see if that helps.

One point unrelated to this. You said you're using MS Security Essentials. Bad idea because it's simply not that good. One very big reason to upgrade to Win 10 is the new Windows Defender is much better and no it can't be added to an old Win 7 system. I'm not going into all that here, for a whole variety of reasons everybody should be on Win 10.

Bob


Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
Originally Posted By: jazzmammal
.... One point unrelated to this. You said you're using MS Security Essentials. Bad idea because it's simply not that good. One very big reason to upgrade to Win 10 is the new Windows Defender is much better and no it can't be added to an old Win 7 system. I'm not going into all that here, for a whole variety of reasons everybody should be on Win 10. Bob

I have a lot of drives and folders marked as safe in my AntiVirus, so that there won't be unnecessary scans ... Just dump MS security essentials, get a good antvirus, free ones like AVG are even a lot better. Use Malwarebytes and Spybot S&D occasionally takes out a lot of sh*t. too. F

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Bob, thanks for your response. I really really don't want to be part of this tiny minority. I mean, there has to be a reason at some level that this is happening. It's especially infuriating because it is intermittent. One day, things are fine, then the next, they're terrible. Haven't changed a thing, in fact sometimes I haven't even turned off the machine -- or, in a few cases, even exited BiaB. So Yeah, I'm frustrated -- to put it mildly.

It's worth mentioning that I didn't have this problem with v2017. I would get the occasional rice krispie, which was solved by shutting down unnecessary processes or exiting other programs. But nothing like I'm getting now. So something's changed. And I'm not talking about going to 64-bit either. I'm running 32-bit and will continue to run it until they've got the bugs worked out of the 64-bit version. So something has changed with the 32-bit version that causes it to occasionally become a resource hog whenever RealTracks are being used.

I've known about increasing the buffers for a long time. Currently I have them set to 512 which I think, if anything, is a bit on the high side. But I'll give it a try and see if increasing them will get rid of the distortion.

I haven't tried BiaB yet today. I left it up last night and didn't turn off the machine. Last night it was running RealTracks without issues. Hopefully, today it will continue to run RealTracks without issues. I'd give it a try now, but it wouldn't be a fair test. I have two browsers open right now. In the past, when it was running right, having a browser open didn't affect it any, but I don't want to push things, so I'll try it out after I've finished this post and exited both browsers.

I've been using the M-Audio ASIO drivers for years without incident. They work just fine with other applications, such as Cakewalk Sonar, now Cakewalk by Bandlab, and others, such as Studio One and Reaper. I don't think the M-Audio ASIO drivers are the problem. I don't like ASIO4ALL because it wants to take over your system and not let anything else play. Also, its menu is rather arcane and choosy and often takes a bit of finessing before it is setup correctly. It's a last resort, but I guess I should try it when nothing else seems to work.

Guys, I used AVG for years and finally dumped it when it got way too possessive of my system and became harder and harder to install the free version. I've been using MS Security Essentials for probably 7 or 8 years and it has done a good job. Occasionally I'll run Malwarebytes or Spybot but all they catch are malware that's attached itself to my browser, most of which is rather inoffensive stuff. Intrusive, yeah, but not much else.

Okay, well, time to shut down the browsers and give BiaB another try. Hopefully it's still working okay.

Last edited by cooltouch; 02/17/19 05:53 AM.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 21,609
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 21,609
Quote:
I've known about increasing the buffers for a long time. Currently I have them set to 512 which I think, if anything, is a bit on the high side. But I'll give it a try and see if increasing them will get rid of the distortion.


It may be rare, but I've also heard from a couple people that actually decreasing this buffer on Delta cards instead can make a positive difference (only when using ASIO).
May be worth a shot.
FWIW I've found 512 to be a pretty acceptable and stable setting for the 1010 interfaces I've worked with.
Never tried these drivers on a 66 though .. we have a few 1010s but no 66 models to test on.




Last edited by rharv; 02/17/19 07:26 AM.

Make your sound your own!
.. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
I'd usually blame windows first ... these days you need to be more or less a windows (10) tuner before one can work with it. A delta 1010? had one some 7 years ago for at least 10 years; was a great one. But PCI, so i had to change it because of a newer type PC motherboard; no more PCI alas.

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 9,301
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 9,301
Before you spend the bucks to build or buy a new computer and all the time involved in setting it up for audio......
Just go and buy a new Focusrite Interface. You might spend between $150 to $250 dollars on it. But, you have a new interface and then be sure you upgrade the ASIO driver per the factory.

Aren't those Delta things pretty old and have the octopus looking mess of wires coming out of the back? Or am I thinking of something else?

BUT..... before you do that..... just wanted to check on something....

Be sure you're not trying to run your DAW and BB and or RB all at the same time thinking you're using ASIO for them. ASIO will only support the first one of those programs you load. Everything else gets MME or whatever else is available but it won't be ASIO. Perhaps you already know this. It catches me off guard occasionally. If I try to do playback on an audio/midi project it's a mess.

Actually Sonar warns me that ASIO is not available but BB/RB doesn't and will let me try to playback something that won't playback nicely on MME.


You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Guys, thanks for the responses. First a quick comment about my system and BiaB: after I finished the above note, I shut down both browsers, waited a couple of minutes for their processes to exit memory, then fired up BiaB, which had been up since last night. In fact, I had a tune with five RealTracks loaded that had been playing fine last night. So I just decided to go with it. It sounded horrendous. Total distortion. But I waited, wondering if it might clear up, which sometimes happened. But it didn't. So I stopped the tune and checked what audio drivers I was using. MME. I switched to M-Audio's ASIO driver, and fired the tune back up. Same difference. I called up M-Audio's little mixer utility and tried various buffer settings, all the way up to the max of 4096, didn't make a bit of difference. So I quit out of that tune altogether and turned to working on one that just used MIDI -- which works fine.

To address your comments in order:

rharv: Yeah I thought of trying buffer settings both ways, I went lower as well as higher, but it didn't matter. The 1010 and the 66 take the same audio driver so they must share similar internals.

fiddler: I'm not so quick to blame the OS just yet, unless PG has done something like optimize BiaB heavily for Win10 that they're not telling us about. v2017 worked just fine on this machine with 8 gigs fewer ram than it has now. My next motherboard will have PCI slots. You can still find 'em with PCI slots. The good ones tend to be rather pricey now, unfortunately.

The M-Audio card with all the cables coming out of the back is, I believe, the 1010, which rharv appears to be still using with good results. Yes, these cards are older, but they're still quite capable. My Delta-66 has a single dedicated cable that connects to either a 4x4 breakout box or an Omni I/O -- a small, dedicated mixer, which is what I have. The Delta cards handle 24/96k signal processing; mine handles it just fine. Which just got me to wondering, come to think of it. I've been running everything here at 44.1k. I wonder what would happen if I changed the parameters within BiaB to a higher number, might that have a positive effect?

guitarhacker: I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 that has some sort of problem -- it doesn't work right now. But I also have an Alesis interface that's the rough equivalent to it. I've used it before and it works OK, although it requires that I use ASIO4All, which I'm not too crazy about. So if I feel like condemning my M-Audio, which I don't believe should be condemned because it's worked just fine with everything I've thrown at it, I'll give the Alesis a shot before I go and blow a whole wad of cash on another interface.

Good to know about the resource requirements on the drivers. I've seen a note pop up on Sonar before but didn't pay much attention to it because, frankly, I didn't know what was causing it. Now I know. At this time, however, I do not have any other piece of music software active, nor did I when this problem was occuring.

Last edited by cooltouch; 02/17/19 04:36 PM.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Time for an update on all this. Yesterday I finally got through to PGM's tech support and had almost an hour long discussion with one of their techs. He kept focusing in on my Delta 66 card as being the likely culprit for the playback noise. Even though my card remains very capable with its 24/96k sampling abilities, he explained that the architecture is very dated and that even the RealTek chip on my motherboard will handle playback better. I wonder if he'd still have that opinion if I were to tell him that the motherboard in this system is 10 years old. But, like the Delta card, it remains very capable. This isn't a slow system at all.

So anyway, he wanted me to configure Windows so that the RealTek chip was the default for playback, but an interesting thing has happened to my system. The monitor I'm currently using is an LG Ultrawide with HDMI connections only. So I had to buy a video card for it. The card I bought was a standard sort of card with decent video performance. It has an NVidea chip that handles the HDMI audio. Now, apparently, when I installed this card, the RealTek chip was removed from the selection possibilities in the Windows Sound panel. I checked with the Device Manager and it shows the RealTek as still being active, however, but there doesn't appear to be a way to get to it anymore. It's place is taken up now by the NVidea chip's sound driver. Until today, I was assuming that I didn't have any way to access the NVidea's audio. My monitor doesn't have built-in speakers, but just today I discovered that it has a headphones out jack. So I went back to the Windows Sound panel and made sure that NVidia was selected as the default for playback, then I fired up BiaB and loaded in a song with five RealTracks. And, guess what. It sounds even worse coming through that headphone jack, mostly because the fidelity through that headphone jack isn't all that great. So, so much for blaming it on my Delta card!

Yesterday, I explained to him that I wasn't having this problem with v2017, and his reply was "Apples and oranges," meaning I can't compare the two versions. Apparently, even though 2019 resembles 2017, the core of the program has been completely rewritten. I asked if PGM had heavily optimized BiaB for Win10 and he said, absolutely not, and that they have users who still have XP who are using v2019. I also asked him if he had any idea why BiaB straightens up and behaves occasionally. I told him that, when it behaves, I can have two browsers open with many tabs open, and I can be playing a file with five RealTracks and I won't be getting any audio problems at all. He didn't have any explanation for that either.

So, at least I'm not at the impasse I was just a little while ago, where I couldn't figure out how to get sound from the NVidia, but now that I have, I've disproved the tech's assertions that the Delta was the culprit.

One more observation: I just installed build 622. It seems like, with each successive build, this distortion problem is getting worse. So whatever PGM is doing to BiaB, they're really screwing it up for me. Unless I can get this straightened out, I'm sad to say that this will be the last time I upgrade Band in a Box, unless something significant changes on this end (like a new motherboard/processor, for example), such that it might warrant giving it another try.

Last edited by cooltouch; 02/27/19 07:20 AM.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
Thanks for all the info, enlightening. Pot blaming the Kettle as usual thus.

NVdia, it's about the same with AMD radeon. I always install the most basic drivers, even deinstalled them letting Micosoft use it's own windows driver.

Also try to avoid any gamers stuff and especially onboard audio; i posted on this a while ago. Also disable the PC's motherboard HD chip in BIOS, and nevertheless the realtek HD drivers keep being reinstalled. To keep them out of the way definitely: just disable them in Device Manager and leave them be marked with a triangle.

One thing you could try is to disable your NVdia's software to save all sorts of stuff occasionally to some unneeded log file, that's a must with AMD called ATIrecord, set it to zero. You do that in the registry somewhere under Local Machine, SEE PICTURE BELOW. And disable any possible hardware (graphics) acceleration in it's driver settings. There is some more editing to do on a motherboards BIOS, but you'll have to find that out yourself for your type MOBO. Gamer sites are often a good source for that sort of info.

Attached Files (Click to download or enlarge) (Only available when you are logged in)
atierecord registry.jpg (60.6 KB, 129 downloads)
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 1,114
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 1,114
Hi

Don’t want to rain on your parade but I seem to recall that, some video card sound hdmi drivers can cause problems in BIAB.
So much so that folks have had to turn them off (disable them) after windows update turns them back on.

Also you may find you can see your realtek chip drivers and use again if you do this.
You may need to show hidden unused devices in your sound settings in control panel, or sound settings.
Mike


BIAB2021 UltraPlus,AsusN55S1Tbssd, W10/64,Akai EIEpro
Yamaha CVP405,SquireStrat, CoolsoftVMidSynth
Novatation Impulse61 Ctr kbd, Cwalk blab Kontakt

http://mikesmusic.byethost16.com/
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
As i said before, windows update can only be stopped with a 3rd party tool like Windows Update Switch (windows 10).

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 6,960
PG Music Staff
Offline
PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 6,960
Hi,

How about if you go to MIDI options and uncheck the "Use DXi/VSTi synth" checkbox. Also, go to Audio | Audio Settings, and uncheck "Use RealTime plugins".

Now play your songs and see if the same thing happens, ignoring the fact that you might not hear MIDI.


Andrew
PG Music Inc.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Fiddler, I've thought about disabling the NVidia, but I'm concerned that I might screw up the video if I do this. Hopefully not. Nonetheless, it's something to try. I wonder, even if it isn't the active sound device, if it could be causing this mess?

Mike, I don't have any sound drivers that are hidden that I know of. Except the RealTek that I can't access now. Not a big loss, the way I see it, though. Maybe, if I disable the NVidia chip, it'll come back?

Andrew, that doesn't really solve my problem if I'm gonna lose my MIDI output. I'm not familiar with RealTime plugins. Can you explain what they are?

Okay, here's the latest. I had about an hour long talk with PGM's senior tech today. When I told him that the NVidia chip was also playing back garbage, he was at a loss. We tried various things, but nothing seemed to help. Finally, he suggested that I try and reinstall BiaB. A last resort, for sure, but when nothing else is working, it can't hurt to give that a try. So I installed 2019 into a fresh directory, leaving the old copy in place.

Well, guess what. The problem is largely cured. When I run this one file that has five RealTracks, it takes almost one chorus of 32 bars before it's finally settled down to where there is a minimum of rice krispies now. This file is one that was 100% generated by BiaB, by the way, using the Melodist to generate both harmony and melody -- so there shouldn't be anything particularly odd about its configuration.

Then I installed the 622 update. It appears that now it isn't as stable as it was before I installed the update. I'm talking the 32-bit version here. I'm trying out the 64-bit version now -- didn't try it before updating to 622. It seems to be about the same as the 32-bit version regarding stability.

Back when BiaB would occasionally run right, I've had two browsers running with a lot of tabs open, and it had no effect on BiaB's performance when playing this same tune. Now, however, with one browser open with multiple tabs, it doesn't like it. There's quite a bit of distortion and even slow-downs in tempo, although not as bad as it used to be. Doesn't seem to matter how long I let the tune run, either. It just doesn't like having anything else that sucks up resources running at the same time. Oh well, I can live with that. I usually run BiaB with nothing else resident anyway. I'm just glad to have it back. For now.

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 1,382
K
PG Music Staff
Offline
PG Music Staff
K
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 1,382
Hi Michael,

I just thought of something. If you go to the Windows Control Panel, then Sound, select your default Playback device, Properties, then Advanced, what's the Default Format? BIAB is locked into 16-bit/44.1 when using MME or ASIO, so if your interface and computer monitor are set to something else, that could be causing some playback issues.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
Originally Posted By: cooltouch
Fiddler, I've thought about disabling the NVidia, but I'm concerned that I might screw up the video if I do this. Hopefully not. Nonetheless, it's something to try. I wonder, even if it isn't the active sound device, if it could be causing this mess?

With my AMD radeon card the basic windows drivers work OK, the card's name is even mentioned in Device manager. Deinstall it and let windows install it's own on reboot. (In my case i use Widows 10).

Kent's suggestion is a good one, i hope that does it. However i never had any issues due 'set' sample frequencies in Windows 10 (and 7 Ultimate before that). I use 44.1kHz mainly, thought occasionally i work with Adobe Premiere, and 48kHz audio. No problems with that. But i have a more modern RME interface, and merging realtime automatic sample frequencies & converting from the inputs might be a piece of cake there. You might be off better with some modern audio interface. My old M-Audio 1010 was a good one, alas my current MOBO did not have a PCI slot anymore, only PCIe.

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Kent, those settings are something I do check on occasion. And they're pretty much always set to agreement with BiaB, namely 16/44.1k. One thing about my M-Audio, when BiaB is resident, it is locked into 44.1k, so I couldn't set it to a higher number even if I tried. I asked the tech about this and he said that 44.1k is the only rate that BiaB will use.

Fiddler, I plan to get another audio interface. Ideally, I'd like to figure out why my Scarlett 2i4 isn't working. And my Alesis interface, which is just okay, requires ASIO4ALL to run, which I don't particularly like using. I've got my eyes on a few that are up at auction right now -- a couple of Tascams and an M-Audio Ultra. The latter appears to be the most powerful of the three. Still a couple of days before the auctions close.

I have an iPad with a lot of music apps on it, so the interface will mostly be used to replace the broken Scarlett for use with my iPad, but I plan to give it a go on my DAW too, see if off-loading the audio tasks to an interface might free up resources and take care of some of the problems I've been having. Besides, I can most definitely use the MIDI ports.

Regarding this whole HDMI business, I've just run into another problem that I actually don't think is related to my PC at all. My monitor has two HDMI "in" ports. I have another HDMI cable running from the second port to a set top box for my cable access and then to my home stereo for audio. This way I can watch TV on my Ultra Wide monitor. Well, this morning I switched the monitor over to the second HDMI port and turned on the stereo and set top box, set the stereo to Video 1, same as I always do. I'm getting a picture, but no sound. And I'm thinking, there's no way any of this can be related to my PC, can it? I mean, the monitor, when used like this, is no longer part of my PC system, right? Unless that NVidia is piggybacking somehow and screwing things up. I've tried restarting the set top box and the stereo and neither had an effect. Next I need to go check connections just to be 100% sure that nothing physical has changed. Puzzling.

Last edited by cooltouch; 02/28/19 04:51 AM.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
I would check out tascam if it's a good choice. Focusrite usually had a good support, had another model once and the techies sent me specially adapted drivers for some reason, curing a problem.

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Yeah, I like Focusrite, for sure. The Scarlett 2i4 I have, I bought used. Come to find, it had a worn out USB jack, so I bought just a jack and soldered it in. Not a difficult thing to do. However, after I soldered it in, the Scarlett no longer works at all. I dunno what I did to cause this, but apparently I broke it somehow. I'm figuring the cost to get it repaired will probably be at least what it's worth. So it's been indefinitely retired.

I've just been browsing interfaces, and I think that, rather than go for the M-Audio or Tascams I mentioned, which may or may not even work, I'm gonna buy a new one instead -- a Behringer U-PHORIA UMC404HD. 4 in, 4 out, 24/192k. Solid pre's. It's priced reasonably for what it is and, perhaps most important for me, it has gotten consistent great reviews.

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 6,960
PG Music Staff
Offline
PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 6,960
Quote:
Andrew, that doesn't really solve my problem if I'm gonna lose my MIDI output. I'm not familiar with RealTime plugins. Can you explain what they are?


The purpose of that was a test to eliminate the possibility of the problem being caused by some plugin you have (inadvertantly?) selected. I read through the thread a couple times and couldn't see this mentioned. The default would be to have the Coyote Wavetable as your default synth with no audio effect plugins chained. Reinstalling the program to a new folder as you did pretty much removed this as the culprit, however to be sure you could still do the simple test... just uncheck the box as mentioned and see if your song still crackles.

Quote:
The problem is largely cured. When I run this one file that has five RealTracks, it takes almost one chorus of 32 bars before it's finally settled down to where there is a minimum of rice krispies now.


It doesn't sound to me like the problem is cured, since you're still getting crackling. However it does make sense, since the program will still be generating tracks while the song starts to play (using a different core), so you'll get higher CPU usage initially, and more likely to have problems. (FYI you can disable this "Speed up generation of tracks" in the RealTracks Prefs dialog.)

I suggest that you try disabling your network adaptor. Also disable wifi and bluetooth if applicable. Unplug your ethernet cable. Obviously this is just to troubleshoot. If it fixes the problem, systematically enable one thing at a time until it starts happening again.

Also, have you watched the Task manager during playback and have you noticed anything unusual? I have noticed that some people use a free program called LatencyMon, maybe do some research on that to see if it could help you.


Andrew
PG Music Inc.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
I didn't have any plugins enabled. Just the MS Wavetable for MIDI cuz this was just sort of a test song file I had BiaB generate.

When I was talking to the PGM tech yesterday, the Task Manager was one thing we spent some time on. It was spiking all over the place when it was distorting really badly. But after I reinstalled BiaB, I booted the Task Manager and had a look. Completely different. There were small tremors in that top line, but that was about it.

As for my mention of rice krispies, they were quite minor and I've found in general that, once BiaB has had a chance to run a while, things will settle down.

I don't have Bluetooth or wifi on this machine. I can disconnect the Network adapter easily enough, but I'll bet that isn't the problem. Because, once again, I didn't used to have this problem prior to 2019. So I dunno why the network adapter should suddenly cause problems.

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,796
So, maybe start eliminating all possible influences one by one: What's exactly your computer, type, processor, internal memory, windows, power supply strong enough, how many USB devices use just one USB controller at the same time? (f,i, make a screendump Belarc advisor, or post a saved HTML file). And what software is running at the same time, see taskmanager?. Alas one cant make a screendump from a MOBO BIOS, but a phone might do the job. PS ever updated it's BIOS? Maybe the power supply sucks, happens often when it gets older; voltages can by vary-ing, ... ever cleaned out dust? Monitored hardware temperatures, there are tools for that showing sensor output? Sometimes a cooler sucks and things get locally too hot, like processor, memory .... F

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 6,960
PG Music Staff
Offline
PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 6,960
Ok glad to hear that it seems to be fixed. I still want to respond to clarify my points.

Quote:

I didn't have any plugins enabled. Just the MS Wavetable for MIDI cuz this was just sort of a test song file I had BiaB generate.


So you can confirm that if you run Band-in-a-Box from your new folder the CPU spikes don't happen, but if you run Band-in-a-Box from the OLD folder the spikes DO happen. (that would definitely be useful information by itself). With your new bbw you are using the GS Wavetable and not using a DXi synth, if I understand what you said (?) If that's the case it certainly DOES seem like a plugin you were using is responsible for this, or at least aggravating the problem.


Quote:
It was spiking all over the place when it was distorting really badly


What was spiking... overall CPU usage? Next time that happens, look to see what individual process is spiking and you might have your answer.


Quote:
I don't have Bluetooth or wifi on this machine. I can disconnect the Network adapter easily enough, but I'll bet that isn't the problem. Because, once again, I didn't used to have this problem prior to 2019. So I dunno why the network adapter should suddenly cause problems.


A couple things: (1) If you installed 2017 (into a different folder) and compared with 2019 with default settings I would be surprised if you noticed that significant a difference in CPU usage. i.e. I think it is more likely that something on your system changed or some setting in the program. But you could confirm that easily enough by installing 2017 and trying it.

(2) There are definitely reasons why network related activity could contribute to problems with audio playback. I don't see why you wouldn't just eliminate the possibility... you've probably already spent countless hours doing complicated things, all I suggested is one simple test.

But you're right, if it isn't broken...


Andrew
PG Music Inc.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Journeyman
OP Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 457
Welp, being a big believer in Occam's Razor, I decided to try the simplest thing first. One suggestion that was made was that I reset BiaB back to factory settings. I was loathe to do this because of various tweaks I've made, but considering that I've installed another copy now, I figured, hey, what could it hurt. So I booted v2019 from the offending directory and reset it to factory settings. Then I loaded this same Melodist-generated file with the five RealTracks that has been giving me so much grief and gave it a spin. And guess what. No distortion. A minimum of rice krispies that cleared up after about 20 measures, which might actually have been caused by my moving the mouse around.

So, now we know that I had something set with the fist 2019 install that it really didn't like. I note that BiaB was nice enough to save my settings so that will give me the opportunity to reinstall them and then go through things one by one to find out what the culprit was.

I'm just really glad that we've finally solved this riddle -- a riddle that stumped PGM's senior tech, by the way.

So onward and upward. I have bars and bars to go before I sleep.

Last edited by cooltouch; 03/01/19 06:19 PM.
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Go To
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

Link Copied to Clipboard
ChatPG

Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.

ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.

PG Music News
Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!

The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!

There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.

If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.

We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!

Congratulations to the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

We've just announced the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

There are 45 winners, each receiving a Band-in-a-Box 2024 UltraPAK! Read the official announcement to see if you've won.

Our User Showcase Forum receives more than 50 posts per day, with people sharing their Band-in-a-Box songs and providing feedback for other songs posted.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed!

Video: Volume Automation in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®

We've created a video to help you learn more about the Volume Automation options in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows.

Band-in-a-Box® 2024: Volume Automation

www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024full/chapter11.htm#volume-automation

Video: Audio Input Monitoring with Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®

We've created this short video to explain Audio Input Monitoring within Band-in-a-Box® 2024, and included some tips & troubleshooting details too!

Band-in-a-Box® 2024: Audio Input Monitoring

3:17: Tips
5:10: Troubleshooting

www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024full/chapter11.htm#audio-input-monitoring

Video: Enhanced Melodists in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®!

We've enhanced the Melodists feature included in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows!

Access the Melodist feature by pressing F7 in the program to open the new MultiPicker Library and locate the [Melodist] tab.

You can now generate a melody on any track in the program - very handy! Plus, you select how much of the melody you want generated - specify a range, or apply it to the whole track.

See the Melodist in action with our video, Band-in-a-Box® 2024: The Melodist Window.

Learn even more about the enhancements to the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows at www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024upgrade/chapter3.htm#enhanced-melodist

Band-in-a-Box® 2024 DAW Plugin Version 6: New Features Specifically for Reaper®

New with the DAW Plugin Version 6.0, released with Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows: the Reaper® Panel!

This new panel offers built-in specific support for the Reaper® DAW API allowing direct transfer of Band-in-a-Box® files to/from Reaper® tracks!

When you run the Plugin from Reaper®, there is a panel to set the following options:
-BB Track(s) to send: This allows you to select the Plugin tracks that will be sent Reaper.
-Destination Reaper Track: This lets you select the destination Reaper track to receive media content from the Plugin.
-At Bar: You can select a bar in Reaper where the Plugin tracks should be placed.
-Start Below Selected Track: This allows you to place the Plugin tracks below the destination Reaper track.
-Overwrite Reaper Track: You can overwrite previous content on the destination Reaper track.
-Move to Project Folder: With this option, you can move the Plugin tracks to the Reaper project folder.
-Send Reaper Instructions Enable this option to send the Reaper Instructions instead of rendering audio tracks, which is faster.
-Render Audio & Instructions: Enable this option to generate audio files and the Reaper instructions.
-Send Tracks After Generating: This allows the Plugin to automatically send tracks to Reaper after generating.
-Send Audio for MIDI Track: Enable this option to send rendered audio for MIDI tracks.
-Send RealCharts with Audio: If this option is enabled, Enable this option to send RealCharts with audio.

Check out this video highlighting the new Reaper®-specific features: Band-in-a-Box® DAW Plugin Version 6: New Features Specifically for Reaper®

Band-in-a-Box® 2024 DAW Plugin Version 6: New Features Video

The new Band-in-a-Box VST DAW Plugin Verion 6 adds over 20 new features!

Watch the new features video to learn more: Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2024 - DAW Plugin Version 6 New Features

We also list these new features at www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.plugin.htm.

Forum Statistics
Forums66
Topics81,395
Posts732,494
Members38,441
Most Online2,537
Jan 19th, 2020
Newest Members
zagrajbarke, Ernest J, Izzy, BenChaz, Csofi
38,440 Registered Users
Top Posters(30 Days)
MarioD 195
Al-David 124
DC Ron 112
dcuny 87
rsdean 82
Today's Birthdays
CeeDee, SethMould
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5