Cool Edit Pro 2.0 issue with Soundblaster Sound Card?
Home > Home Recording Forum > Computers & Software > Cool Edit Pro 2.0 issue with Soundblaster Sound Card?
Posted on Nov 05, 2009 03:07 pm
drumguru99
Member Since: Nov 05, 2009
I have been having problems with playback in the multitrack view of CEP 2.0. I've read about adjusting buffer values and various other things from just poking around the internet and nothing seems to work. I ran across this site today and tought I'd give it a shot.
First of all, I have an AthlonXP 1800+ CPU, 768 RAM. And as I mentioned, a Soundblaster Sound Card (Live Platinum w/Live Drive)
The problem is every once in a while (more often than not) if I try to play all my drum tracks (7-8 of them)...sometimes it starts playing them ok, sometimes I just hear a loud click and the VU levels at the bottom go all the way up and stay there, and no sound comes out. VERY annoying, and I can't do anything from that point. Sometimes if I mute out a track or two, it will play the others fine (or just solo some of them together). If I try to mix them all down, it mixes it down just as I would always hear it: Plays fines, loud click, starts playing again....yada yada. Also, after it clicks, I can sometimes hear crackling noises until it starts to play normally. Very frustrating. Edit view works fine, it's just when I try to play a bunch of tracks (or at least that's when the problem has been reoccuring)
Anyone help??? Please?
Thanks!!!
[ Back to Top ]
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Nov 05, 2009 04:30 pm Have you looked into the performance meter? Maybe you're pegging the CPU, maybe you're over-taxing the HD, maybe the memory is getting full and you're paging a lot (though i doubt the last one).
Open performance monitor, and turn on some of the sensors, to see if you can track a culprit from there.
Page Files per Second will tell you if you're paging too much, whereas CPU and memory are pretty self explainatory.
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Nov 05, 2009 04:31 pm Also, I'd be sure you're running as thin as possible, stopping all unnecessary processes, and clearing everything from memory that you can, turn of network, etc. That CPU / Memory setup isn't really screaming, so you may have to run real thin to play 10 or so tracks.
Nov 06, 2009 08:54 am I will certainly give all that a shot this weekend. Thanks!
I was thinking of upgrading the CPU and memory up to what my motherboard will allow (I can go up to an Athlon xp 2600+, which is almost 2.0 mhz as oppossed to 1.53 (not a huge difference, but better) and I can install up to twice as much RAM (1.5 total). According to your post, it sounds more like the sound card is NOT the issue??? If you are correct....and this takes care of it...do you recommend all the CEP default settings for the cound card?
Thanks :)
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Nov 06, 2009 11:23 am eh, i wouldn't say that the SB card isn't contributing to some of the problem, Those cards are meant to be consumer 'soundcards', for playing 2 channel audio, and that's it. Not so much taxing, like a recording audio interface. So, I'd say that the converters may not be as fast at converting as an audio interface.
now, this may or may not be the case. I think there's a DPC latency checker somewhere out on the net, which gives you some numbers, and a thumbs-up if the program thinks you can work with audio processing.
So it may be difficult to decide definitively if the SB is the culprit or not. What's easier is to do the performance monitor checks i mentioned, and if there's a problem showing up, then you KNOW for SURE that there is a problem with that.
If you don't find any problems with CPU, Memory (page files), Hard drive access/speed, processes in ram, then you may start looking at the SB as a problem.
I certainly wouldn't rule the SB out, until I know there's nothing else seeming to present a problem. Plus, I would recommend a better soundcard anyway. Something with faster conversion, better conversion, lower latency, more channels maybe, etc. But I also know what it's like to be strapped, and try to improve things on a fishing-line sized shoestring =).
(i'd guess that the CPU is 100%, but do check to be sure)
Hope you can get it sorted out, and working well for ya.
CptTrippsCzar of Turd PolishMember
Since: Jun 20, 2006
Nov 06, 2009 12:56 pm So you have adjusted the payback buffers for your soundblaster? I play back tons of tracks on a realtek intergrated, but I must bump the buffers to 4096.
Nov 06, 2009 02:47 pm pjk,
"DPC latency checker" - is that the same as if you were to go to Task Manager/Performance tab? (I'm running Windows XP Pro) I can see what's taxing the system that way....
(I will try this when I get home this evening)
CptTripps,
I have tried putting in different values as far as "buffer size" and # of buffers (as well as mixer priority values) w/o any luck, but haven't tried to enter a value such as 4096. Under what CEP tab would that be? Multitrack? System?
Also guys, is there a way to reset all the default settings without reinstalling in CEP so I can try what pjk suggested to start with? (since I've already messed with them)
Nov 06, 2009 02:49 pm ALSO.....under "device order", should "wave mapper" be 1st, or should my soundcard? I believe the "wave mapper" was default
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Nov 06, 2009 03:03 pm If your using the SB card it should have its own driver selection that you would choose and should be first.
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Nov 06, 2009 06:11 pm here's the checker : www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
Don't know about CEP, never used it, so i can't help much there.
I think I use wdm kernal streaming with my onboard sound on my laptop. I use asio drivers with my ESP1010 and US122, so no help here. I too would think that the SB should have it's own entry. It's been quite a while since I used one of those though, getting close to 10 years, i think.
Nov 06, 2009 11:05 pm awesome...thanks for your help guys. Did some poking around and that was the "latency checker" pgm I saw online that I was going to download. Gonna check it out now and see what happens. Busy tmrw, but should know what's going on by Sunday. I will post what I find out. I have a feeling the way my computer has been acting lately that I have something dragging it down. I DO have Zone Alarm on here as well as some other things I could thin out while I'm mixing... THANKS AGAIN!!!
Nov 09, 2009 09:56 am OK, the "latency checker" didn't show any signs that my computer couldn't handle what I was trying to do. It said I should be able to dod what I want to do. Although, when I open task manager up and try to play the multitrack stuff, it does "peg" my CPU.
Some things I have changed that have helped was: Set CEP to "high priority" instead of "normal" in Task Manager. Under "device manager/advanced/performance settings, I did choose "programs" under memory usage instead of "system cache" (think I changed that before to see if it would help with no luck). On the task bar, I did tell Zone Alarm to shut off any internet activity. And, I changed from "wave mapper" priority, to my SB card. As of right now, it stutters a little while playing, but is overall better. I was able to mixdown 7 tracks to a stereo track (YEA!!!!) lol.
I'm sure there may be other things that I can "shut off" to help, but I don't know what I can w/o messing things up. I don't have anything else "opened up" while I'm using CEP, but I understand there are other prms that run "in the background". My neighbor knows my computer pretty well, I may have him come over and help me "shut other things off" that won't effect things negatively. He has updated things for me, and helped me before when I've don't "stupid" stuff - lol. Unless there are a couple other things I can try, or some tweaks you all can help me with to try first...
What doesn't make much sense to me, is that I can open a new session, import tracks into that, and get different results...almost like the previous one gets (for lack of better words), "corrupted". OR, I can delete a track, and put that wav file on another track, and get it to work. ? weird. I do NOT use realtime effects (reverb, etc. - no way in hell it works)....but I do use the realtime 3 band EQ. And if I try to change that while its playing, sometimes it crashes. I have to stop it, then change them to avoid that...
Thoughts?
Thanks - any more help will be gladly appreciated.
Nov 09, 2009 09:58 am ALSO, should I look to see if I can find a newer SB card driver???
Nov 09, 2009 10:01 am Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but trying the ASIO4ALL driver might be worth trying...some folks have great luck with it, some don't.
Nov 09, 2009 11:46 am thanks, I may give that a shot...
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Nov 09, 2009 02:03 pm Quote:
Although, when I open task manager up and try to play the multitrack stuff, it does "peg" my CPU.
I don't know if you need anything else to be wrong too, but that one there certainly is a show stopper. If the CPU is pegged, then you won't get anymore out of it.
Maybe there's some processes you can stop, but I doubt you'll get much help. 100% is 100%.
You need a better CPU.
Nov 10, 2009 09:56 am Well then, I guess this is my next question... the best I can upgrade to without replacing the motherboard is (as I mentioned) an upgrade from the Athlon xp 1800, to a 2600 - aprox from 1.53 GHz to about 2.0GHz. And like I said also...I have 768 meg of RAM, and I can upgrade to twice that (1.5), with that being said, is it worth upgrading to the max on this system??? Do you think it will be a noticable difference? It IS working better now...just not great.
(my mother board is a "MSI K7T TURBO 2 SOCKET A" just for reference)
I know it's a bit of a pain...but if I have to mix the drums down first (to a 2 track - which I'm able to do now...), THEN say...mixdown a handfull of guitar tracks, then mixdown a handful of vocals, etc, etc.... so I only have maybe 8 or 10 tracks going at once....(not REAL conveinent, but at the very LEAST "doable" without pulling out too much hair - lol - then I'm good with that - for the time being). Money's a bit tight to buy a new system right now, but I can manage a little "upgrading" ;) I can tell with what I have so far (kind of new at multitracking on a PC here), I'm going to have some really nice sounding "demo's" here. Let's face it, I'm no "Mutt Lange", nor will I ever have access to equipment like his...so I don't expect to come close to that.... ;)
*ALSO* I may try that ASIO4ALL within the next day or so (at least for sh!ts and giggles)
THANK YOU ALL for your help
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Nov 10, 2009 06:15 pm While you might see a bit of a performance improvement I can't say that it will be huge. Is it worth the $100 to $150 to do that upgrade? Again, I can't honestly say that it would be. But depending on how long it might take you to save for a newer system that might be the road to take. My honest opinion is that there is software out there that will use your system resources much better then CEP does.
You might run over to give Reaper a try. Its a full install and nothing is locked on it. Best is you can try it for free as it is shareware.
But I guess for now giving the ASIO4ALL emulated driver a try and see what it gets you.
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Nov 11, 2009 07:31 am There's guys over on the reaper board that state that reaper runs more tracks than on their previous DAW. of course, that may be subjective, and it is on the reaper board, but it's been stated.
So it may be worth a try, like Noize said, it's un-intrusive to try, leaving no residue behind when uninstalling.
And ASIO4ALL, that too.
Nov 11, 2009 09:29 am Thanks guys. I think what I will do #1 is try that ASIO4ALL. I also think I'm going to upgrade to that AMD XP2600+ CPU, and maybe snag a bit more RAM. Having problems finding a NEW cpu, but there are many almost new/used onces out there to at least give it a relatively inexpensive shot... Unfortunately, the FSB on my board is only 266MHz. But, I figure - it can't hurt - and even if it doesn't help much, I'm sure it will help overall with everything I do on this system - It will be upgraded to the fastest it can go, and at least if I decide to get another system, this one will work great as a second system. Always nice to have two...
I've never heard of Reaper. I love CEP - at least for the editing aspect. I've been using it for years and I think it's awesome... (and the fact that I'm fairly efficient with it). Honestly, I'll probably give a 2nd software a shot after I try these other things...
I'll keep you posted! Thx again!!!
Nov 11, 2009 12:18 pm OK - so (being curious), I dug up an article on REAPER today
www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun07/articles/reaper.htm
I've got to say, I was reading it through......WOW, this software sounds pretty damn awesome for the $. Have you guys actually used it??? So, I understand it can't be as great as ProTools...but I'm a novice: Where does it rate with the competitors? Entry level? Intermediate? Just curious. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about all this.
I guess I only need a decent software for what I'm doing. I'm using a Korg D888 as a portable interface. Record the tracks (only 44.1@16bit - but it does a good job), drag and drop them into my PC, insert them into a multitrack, and GO. So far, I've got pretty good results. May not be the best way to go about all this....but hey, it works :) Someday, I may have all the bells and whisles, but I'm a man that lives within his means... :D
Nov 11, 2009 12:20 pm I've used it in limited quantities, and yeah, it is cool...there are a few members here that have used it a lot and love it, so I'll leave it at that and wait for them to come in...
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Nov 11, 2009 02:22 pm oh yeah, reaper's the bomb-diggity. I've gotten into reaper around 2 years ago, after having indigestion when using N-Track.
I don't use all it's nifty features, but I do like the simple editing and stability. There's a pile of included effects, which aren't very easy to figure out, but nice. I use mostly the included effects, as do many reaperites, with great results.
Another nice asset is the lite-footedness, running quite well on low-power systems. So it may be a real shot in the arm for your older set of hardware.
as far as competing with other software, it's kinda hard to compare. It does what I want it do to with great effectiveness, whereas others may find it lacking. I like the clean-ness of it, plus it runs nice on my older hardware, and doesn't glitch or hiccup. I know other DAWs have lots of added goodies that I would like to have, but i can live with what i got for now.
Justin updates the versions around 1 every week or two. So updates, fixes, and new features are brought in pretty quick. the forums are pretty robust, and people can discuss freely (somewhat). I've heard the forums are a lot better than other DAW software forums, but I don't go to others, so I'm not up on that.
I think MIDI may be an area that people aren't super happy with, but I use FL Studio for my MIDI stuff, so it's not really relevant for me. Others use R's MIDI a lot, so i guess it's workable.
Nov 11, 2009 02:52 pm yeah, I'm not much into MIDI - as of now. I do have a MIDI keyboard, but I don't use the MIDI function much. Well, it sounds like a no-brainer to me. I still will upgrade my system as much as possible here, and go from there. CEP has been a GREAT editing software for me...not sure with the m-track aspect of it....but all the other goodies work awesome.I've used it for probably 8 or 10 years now. I can use that in junction with another prgm (maybe Reaper if that works for me) and probably be completely happy with what I got...
I really appreciate everyone's help here...looking forward to recording and mixing down....on SOMEthing anyways LOL. The drumtracks are sounding pretty damn good if I do say so myself. My system can't handle the real-time effects (with the exception of EQ). Incrementally saving my files while as I add different fx...at least I can always go back. No super convienent, but I make it work. Once I get used to multitracking, I'll learn what to do and what not to do... EXCITED!
Nov 12, 2009 02:42 pm OK - forgive me for being a BIG pain here... but my neighbor, the one who builds systems, has probably just talked me into buying a new motherboard. Possibly a motherboard/CPU combo. I'd like to possibly keep it around $150...under $200 hopefully. I imagine a 3.0GHz with a gig or two of RAM should do the job. Of course the RAM I use now is SDRAM, but I suppose if it doesn't cost much to go with better stuff (DDR)... Can anyone recommend what to go with if I'm going to be spending some bills??? or any leads on any good deals? and as far as sound cards go (if I decide to replace the SB w/Live Drive I have)... what does anyone recommend? :P what to stay away from??? anything? anyone? lol I figured you guys would be the ones to ask...
THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nov 15, 2009 11:07 am Deleted By drumguru99
Nov 15, 2009 04:46 pm Wow, you guys were SPOT ON when it comes to that REAPER software. My CPU doesn't even come close to peggin out with it. AMAZING. In only an afternoon, I have two songs full of drum tracks loaded, effects busses set up, and had them sounding better than before. I'm using Cool Edit Pro 2.0 as my default editor, and it works really well together!!! I do like to clean up the tracks before I import them into Reaper (noise gate, limit/compress, as well as some EQ shelving and NR). Not sure if that a "norm", but I feel it's less work for the Multitrack software to perform "realtime". Is that what most mulitrackers do, or do they just import complete "raw" tracks in??? I keep a copy of the raw stuff (so my destructive style isn't COMPLETELY destructive). If I need to go back to a previously unmolested track, I can - no biggie.
Comments?
Anywho, still going to upgrade my system pretty soon. Probably makes sense so I don't run into problems in the future...
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Nov 15, 2009 06:08 pm If you can afford to I highly suggest stepping up the CPU though for sure. That is your primary piece for running the DAW. That and of course RAM, but you can always add RAM later. The X4 can be had now in a 3.2 and I do believe 3.4 or 3.6 for around $166 CPU alone for the 3.2Ghz Black Edition Phenom II X4. And believe me the Black Edition is worth the little extra cash if you can do it.
www.google.com/products/c...IwAw#ps-sellers
Nov 16, 2009 12:44 pm Well considering that I need to update the power supply, mother board, AND cpu... that may be a bit out of my range. What I did find in my range is a motherboard/cpu combo and a 650watt PSU. The cpu is an AMD Athlon II X2 (2.8Ghz).
Here's a link... could you tell me if this would be a good choice? I like what the MoBo has on it... (HDMI, Firewire, etc) I am thinking 2 gig of PC6400 DDR2 also... (800MHz)
www.tigerdirect.com/appli...mp;sku=B69-3254
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
