Cubase Sx

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Member Since: Sep 02, 2005

Hey guys I guees I'm the new kid on the block. I am busy rebuilding my studio from scatch. I am also pretty new to this digital recording stuff. I am using an 1820M and Cubase sx. Having a little trouble with scratchy sounds in my tracks. If I play them separately they are fine when I turn them all on I get noise. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I am thinking latency or buffers but I'm not sure at this point. What a pain.

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Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004


Sep 03, 2005 01:05 am

Welcome Pete,

I'm not a Cubase user, but I'm kinda thinking it's a general PC issue. Although performance can be gained by changing buffers, it might be something running on your PC in the background. Make sure all unnecessary programs, spam killers, antivirus, printer apps, video helpers, real-audio, bonzo, etc. are not running. If the PC is a brand name (dell, gateway, compaq/hp, etc) then the company will probably put boatloads of crap all over that runs everytime the PC starts. There's a few ways to remove unwanted programs, but that's a lot more detailed than this post.

Also, updated drivers may be an option. If they're 6mo old, then there's a good chance there'll be a newer driver (maybe, maybe not).

Sometimes a soundcard can be installed in a PCI slot that is shared with the video, but I think AGP will remove that problem. Maybe you have a PCI video card, dunno =)

More info on your PC and software setup (windows? 98? ME? NT? 2000? XP?) may help, maybe a re-install of the drivers, or maybe reload the whole PC operating system if there's tons of junk on it, or if it's old.

Also, if the PC has been on the internet, maybe there's a ton of malware on it, that's a possibility as well.

Also, if you're trying to play 100 tracks or something, that would tax out a PC.

Hope that helps some, yeah it is a pain.


jimmie neutron
Member
Since: Feb 14, 2005


Sep 03, 2005 07:12 am

EMU 1820M here, and lovin' every bit of silence and pristine conversion I get from it! I've got a 1.4g Athlon system, which I *thought* was a muscle-hoss, until I started multi-tracking... I don't know what you've got, but you do need muy-muscle for today's DAW. Also, be sure you've done the www.musicxp.net optimizations (if you've got XP - Win2K is a bit different). IRQ assignments (no conflicts with the 1820) and PCI bus utilization all come into play. The "sounds" you describe are most likely latency issues, either too big or too small. You can try to adjust in Cubase with the "Options", "Audio Setup", "System", "ASIO Device" drop-down box, "E-MU ASIO" and "Open ASIO window" (or however your version of SX shows it - check the Cubase help file for latency). Also, the more plug-ins you use, the more you stress the computer. Reverb & Delay effects are the bigger resource hogs (generally).

I don't know if you're aware of this site:

www.productionforums.com/...9f711058ab59b6f

but it's "dedicated" to the EMU stuff (mostly). The 1st thing to do there is look up JC (the site admin) in the members' list and look at a message from him. He has several links in his sig, 3 exclusively for the EMU hardware, that help explain system optimization. Good luck.

Member
Since: Sep 02, 2005


Sep 03, 2005 11:28 am

Thanks for input guys. I should have given you guys a little more pc info. The pc is one I assembled myself it is as follows.

ECS mobo 848P-A7 Socket 775
Intel 2.8 ghz cpu 1 meg L2 cache 800 fsb
1 gig ddr 400 mhz ram
Dual boot versions of xp pro 1 for everyday stuff the other strictly for recording. Also duel boot versions of Linux Mepis and two FAT 32 partitions for storage 40 Gig each. 6 partitions
in all on a WD 120 gig drive 8 meg cache

I set the latency to 4 ms (it was a 50 ms) and increased the preload from 2 seconds to 3 seconds and this seems to have helped. There is basicly nothing running in the back groud AV is off as well all network adapters are also off. I am beginning to think that when I recorded this stuff on the fly green as hell I might add, perhaps there is some digital clipping in the tracks. Maybe the combination of all the clipping is what is making the noise. individually not bad put all together not so good.

I checked the IRQ setting and the EMu card is sharing a slot with a usb controller on IRQ 19 I don't think thats much of an issue. Disabled the controlller for the usb and it made no diff. Thanks for the input guys I will keep poking at it. I am going to record some new tracks and see what gives.

Tonight I hook up the light pipe mic pre and see if that works (ADA8000) Keep you fingers crossed for me.

Pete

jimmie neutron
Member
Since: Feb 14, 2005


Sep 03, 2005 05:04 pm

You're most likely correct in your assumption of the USB & EMU sharing #19... You could go to

downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951

for "PCI Latency Tool". Download that and check your PCI bus utilization. Sometimes, the graphics cards take a 255 bite of bus and they really only "need" a 128 or so bite of it. That causes troubles for other devices trying to use the bus.

If you've got some "clipping" when recorded, you can see it with the SX mixer panel in the meters. They've got a "Limit" light (or whatever they call it). You could try to run each track thru the SX "Dynamics" plug with the soft limiter active (if you do have clipping), lowering the "top" to say -0.34 or so, and see if it gets rid of the "hard" noise of a digital clip.

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