Need help with Choppy sound issue on laptop and M-Audio Fast Track USB Interface on 8.5.3

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MistaMacc
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2011/05/15 14:16:27 (permalink)

Need help with Choppy sound issue on laptop and M-Audio Fast Track USB Interface on 8.5.3

Hello,
 
I am having problems with choppy sounds on an Acer laptop (http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/notebook/2009/acer/aspire/Aspire5517/Aspire5517sp2.shtml) connected with an M-Audio Fast Track USB Interface (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrack.html). I am a long time Sonar user for my home PC. I am borrowing an Acer laptop until I can save up enough money to purchase a more DAW friendly laptop for my mobile work away from home.
 
I currently have the laptop and the interface connected, but I am getting a choppy sound during playback of all instruments in Sonar 8.5.3. I kind of sounds like the speakers are bad and cracking. But this is not the case as this comes out on 2 sets of monitors and headphones to test out.
 
Is this a issue because of the laptop not being powerful enough to handle this work?? I had this same issue about 2 years ago with my home PC and connecting my M-Audio Fast Track Ultra, BUT cant for the life of me remember how I fixed the issue!!!
 
Here are the Acer laptop Specs.
Manufaturer: Acer (Windows 7 Home Premium) (SP2)
Model: Aspire 5517
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) Processor TF-20 1.60 GHz
Installed Memory (RAM): 3.00 GB (2.75 GB usable)
HDD: 160 GB
 
Is this a issue I can change in my control panel settings or even Sonar 8.5.3 settings?? Or is the laptop specs to weak for this? Any advice would be great. If you need anymore information from me about this choppy sound issue I am having with this laptop please let me know.
 
Also I am looking at when I save enough money is this laptop
 
ADK 1Q AR
Description: Powerful Dual Core with Hyperthreading (4 core)i5/i7 Processors and up to 8 Gig DDR3 1333MHz memory. Radeon 4570 Grapics with 512Meg Ram
http://www.adkproaudio.com/systems/viewsystem.cfm?recordid=119
 
Its a little high in price. but if this is a solid laptop for what I am doing in creating beats and recording artists in Sonar the price is not a big issue. PLUS I can change features of the laptop as I order and build the unit... Any input there would be great in helping me find a nice solid laptop on the go for mobile studio away from home....
post edited by MistaMacc - 2011/05/15 14:21:26
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    dariunas
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    Re:Need help with Choppy sound issue on laptop and M-Audio Fast Track USB Interface on 8.5 2011/05/15 16:41:30 (permalink)
    Not powerful enough most likely.

    Adjust M-Audio Fast Track's Buffer settings from its Control Panel. It may be at something like 128Kb/256Kb. Push it up to 512. Then click (in Sonar) on Options, Audio. This buffer/latency setting is what you'll need to be playing around with till you get glitch-free playback. Consult the manual or use the Search function on this forum for more details. I'm sure this problem has come up dozens upon dozens of times and there'll be loads on it. :)

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    johnnyV
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    Re:Need help with Choppy sound issue on laptop and M-Audio Fast Track USB Interface on 8.5 2011/05/15 22:43:02 (permalink)
    Have you disabled the battery management and the wireless card? Download and run the DPCLAT latency meter and see if you are getting spikes. Until they are gone you'll have issues
    There's nothing terribly  wrong with your laptop,  computers need to be set up properly or they will not work for audio. Laptops can have more issues because of background processing, you need to eliminate as much of it as possible.

    http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
    post edited by johnnyV - 2011/05/15 22:44:25

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    MistaMacc
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    Re:Need help with Choppy sound issue on laptop and M-Audio Fast Track USB Interface on 8.5 2011/05/16 23:25:00 (permalink)
    dariunas


    Not powerful enough most likely.

    Adjust M-Audio Fast Track's Buffer settings from its Control Panel. It may be at something like 128Kb/256Kb. Push it up to 512. Then click (in Sonar) on Options, Audio. This buffer/latency setting is what you'll need to be playing around with till you get glitch-free playback. Consult the manual or use the Search function on this forum for more details. I'm sure this problem has come up dozens upon dozens of times and there'll be loads on it. :)


    Cool, thx for the help... I got it now.... I had to change my ASIO settings as well the latency adjusted... I just for got all this as I have not done this in about 2 yrs for my home setup... Now I am good on the laptop until I get my new one made for DAW's in a few months... thx again for both of your help for me thanks.....
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