Dropouts and stuttering sounds with X3 only

Hello forummmembers,
 
[this is about X3 Producer 32-bits]
 
yesterday bought X3 Producer, downloaded it all, including the update patches. Today installed the whole package. No problems encountered. After the initial installation processes/preferences, like setting up audio, midi, asio, Vsti's etc. I loaded an older project with only three midi-input-tracks:
1. solo violin used with VSL Solo Strings under Vienna Ensemble and loaded with Vienna Instruments Pro
2. track for harpsichord, RH
3. track for harpsichord, LH (both calling PianoTeq Harpsichord).
 
In the Audio FX, I am using Altiverb 6 (32 bits). The project played back with dropouts and stuttering sounds.
 
This didn't happen in Sonar 8.5.3. (32bits) or X1 (32bits). I didn't change anything only migrated it from the older Sonar versions to X3. I disabled Altiverb for testing purposes and now no stuttering/dropouts occur. Really strange. I have a strong idea that the stuttering/dropouts occur when the MIDI TEMPO changes. I had the same experience when using Altiverb in Overture notation. Still it is strange that the older SONAR versions had no problem with it at all. What can I do against this?
 
System: Windows 7 / 64 bits, Intel i7, 24 Gb RAM and a couple of HD's and other gear.
 
Thanks in advance,
 
 
Raymond
 
 

Using Altiverb 32 bits under a 64 bits host doesn't work. Not even with jBridge.
 
I can access max. 4 Gb, but using Vienna Ensemble 64 bits makes it possible using all RAM I have, because the RAM-allocation takes places somewhere outside the realms of the host. As an example: in Overture, which is a 32 bits program/host I can use several instances of Vienna Ensemble with a number of Vienna Instruments up to 10 Gb RAM (actual size of one of my orchestral works). When I do this in SONAR 32 bits the memory usage is far beyond the 4 Gb limit, similar to Overture.
 
I did rescan the VST plugins several times. I am on X3e. Autoupdate for Intel failed, but I will have a look at Intel speedstep in the BIOS.
 
Raymond

Don't forget, it is Altiverb 6 - 32 bits (the 64 bits version for Windows is still under construction).
 
The Tweak didn't change anything, so I "enabled" it again.
I experimented with a variety of buffer settings.
I also changed from ASIO to WDM (with its own buffers at various sizes) and set it back to ASIO.
I always rescan the VST plugins, at startup a scan performs in the background.
I tried using Altiverb in X3e 64 bits, no success, not even with jBridged version for a 64-bits host.
I tried using Altiverb in X3e 32 bits, no success.
 
What happened?
I went back to

• SONAR 8.0 - 32 bits
• SONAR 8.5.3 - 32 bits
• SONAR X1 - 32 bits

and in those versions Altiverb worked like sunshine.
What has changed in X3 that Altiverb doesn't work properly?
Unless one of you comes with a solution in the sense of "why didn't I think about that" I will put X3 aside waiting for "better" days.
 
Raymond

From your description it would seem that altiverb has some performance issues. Have you tried contacting their tech support?
One thing you can try is going into preferences and resetting the audio configuration to defaults.  That will set SONAR to the factory settings for audio. Then choose your ASIO driver and retest.
Another thing to try - does VE Pro support hosting normal VST plugins? If so you could load altiverb in a 32 bit instance of the VEPro server,  and reference VEPro from the 64 bit version of SONAR.
 
 

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
From your description it would seem that altiverb has some performance issues. Have you tried contacting their tech support?
One thing you can try is going into preferences and resetting the audio configuration to defaults.  That will set SONAR to the factory settings for audio. Then choose your ASIO driver and retest.
Another thing to try - does VE Pro support hosting normal VST plugins? If so you could load altiverb in a 32 bit instance of the VEPro server,  and reference VEPro from the 64 bit version of SONAR.
 
 

I don't have VE Pro, I only have VI Pro.
Audio Preferences were set at default... no success. Next I altered them acoording my wishes (as set in other versions of Sonar), no success either.
Performance issues of Altiverb? Maybe, but it is very strange and for me rather incomprehensible that this didn't occur in the previous versions of SONAR. Between X1 and X3e (I skipped X2) some programming must have changed to trigger this.
 
I didn't contact Technical support of Altiverb yet, just because I think it is some issue of SONAR. As everything remained the same with those older versions of SONAR, who/what caused this problem?
 

Again, what are your Playback I/O buffers set to?

Waiting won't solve anything if the right people don't even know there is a problem :)
If you are exclusively having a dropout problem with only this plugin in X3 there is a high probability that there is an incompatibility with this plugin and SONAR. Please have the manufacturer contact us via this form and we can work with them on troubleshooting it after we share the respective products.

I have not used Altiverb 6 in a long time, but reading this thread, I reload an old project that has Altiverb, using X3e 64 bit, reporting that there is no problem at all.
So at least, on my Win7 Ultimate 64 bit and Sonar X3e 64 bit, there is no drop outs and/or stuttering.
Before giving up, and trying to wait for Altiverb 7, which is like waiting for Wonderland, can you revisit the core parking by setting minimum and maximum state to 100%?
Also, did you have the latest driver for your interface? Just a long shot.
dan
 

OK then I shall try to insert a tempo change and report back.
 
dan
 

.

Sorry. Nothing did the job. I altered Core Parking at register level (as a sublink suggested). I set the Speedstep to disabled. I reset all VSt plugs and scanned them again. Between all actions I had a cold restart. I experimented with different ASIO settings and audio buffers. What else?
 
Anyway, many thanks for your help,
 
Raymond
[Intel Core i7 CPU 2.67 GHz / 24 GB, 4 HD's of which 2 are 500 Gb and two are 1 GB, ATI Radeon 4300/4500, EMU 1616M PCIe, Window 7 Pro / X64]

Dan Le - did you just change the tempo for the whole project?
 
Try starting with tempo A, then in the middle of the project somewhere
insert a ritard to tempo B.
 
 

I would personally be pretty suspicious of future support for Windows from Audioease, since they have been announcing version 7 for Windows for five years now and have been selling old copies of 6 under that pretense. Even if it does arrive I'd be wary. It's a really nice plug but it's not the only solution.

Raymond, have you downloaded Altiverb 7 yet.
After you do that, can you come back and report how it works, and how it sounds.
Thanks.
dan
 

Today I re-installed X3e. Also purchased Altiverb 7 and downloaded it. Installed it also. But I have to wait until the package arrives with the new iLok2. With the older version of iLok Alitverb won't work. If only I had this noticed before, now I have to transfer all licenses from one iLok to the other (later this coming week). Until then.... no answer concerning the stuttering problem.
 
Being patient, 
 
Raymond