Audio dropouts have replaced the incessant crashing

Dropouts....I have been having much better luck with crashing. Not doing it nearly as much but now i cant get through a basic 10 maybe 12 tracks song without constant audio dropouts. Anyone else have this issue?

I agree with brundlefly. I'd also add that it not crashing is cause for optimism. Dropout issues are generally fairly easily curable by tweaking this or that setting.

Sorry for the delay in answering guys...here is the info you asked for. I have done all the various system tweaks that are indicated on many pro audio websites. Services set to background etc etc Win 7 Pro Intel Duo CPU E7500 @2.93 GHz 2.93 GHz 4 gigs ram 64 bit M-Audio fast-track ultra Sonar X1c

It's a really persistent myth that won't go away, that one. Still crops up in magazines and whatnot.

Have you run DPC latency checker yet? You can find it at the following site: http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

This can be a really helpful diagnostic tool; when you run it, if you're seeing periodic latency spikes happening, that would point to a driver or a device like a network card that's mucking up audio performance.

There's also a more specific diagnostic program recommended by one of the audio PC-makers who hangs out on the SOS Forum -- i can't remember the name of the program, but i can dig it up when i get home. It links latency spikes to specific processes and services in your task manager. I'll post the link later on.

Regards
Glenn

Just built a brand new rig.  Whata nightmare.  Read everythgin I could find.  Thanks for the many tips and shared experiences guys.  For the OP, here is what i found to be very relevent as a result of my specs.

1) Get to know and understand your bios!  Any new Mobo and chipset is like MS software, full of bugs and the user base is the testing agent.  You will be undoing alot of thier toys just so you can play with yours.  ie., cpu stepping, anything power management, throttling (similar but different)

2) Understand that bluetooth, Wifi, USB hubs (built in to your case) usually front usb racks on your case are hubs of the main USB ports, are not friendly to your sound card!

3) You spent alot of cash on your desktop, now to be a really good audio rig you have to disable about 65% of all of its features in the bios, as well as the device manager if necessary.

4) After all of the above, you still need to tweak your sound device, especially M-Audio to not clip or over drive the master or audio metewr in X1(x) build(x)

5) Experiment up and down the spectrum of 4100 - 9600 and smaple rates.  I find each VST and plugin to react differently.

6) Since doing most of the above I can pretty reliably sample at 9600.  The odd thing is that when I use standalone soft for the plugins they allow better rates but are prone to polyphony pops.  Within X1 however, 4800 seems to be the staple to use to arrive at low latency while being able to load massive audio and midi into the racks without rice crispies.

This has been my learning curve so far.  I have tested this out on X1, FL, Reason, Pro tools, CB, and several stand alone soft synths and sample packages now.  It took me about 2 weeks of tweaking and scrathing to get here.  48 hours without a BSOD and I can actually hear what I play in real time and not get rice crispies in record or play.  I also did a test song with 8 tracks overloaded with Fx and automation without a crash last night.  Way more than I would normally use.  Tomorrow Im going to try hosting 3 external progs as plugins with full automation and fx simultaniously to really overload the system and see how it works out.  If I don't crash it doing that, then I think I am close to the finish line of enjoying being creative again.  I belive that 64 bit is wonderful, however, the driver dev's are still playing catchup with the architecture of the hardware we now have available.  And always remember, Microsoft and the hardware manufactures never had us in mind when they made any of these.  So it's up to us to really explore the systems we build adn give them feedback on issues they never even thought of becasue we are creating it for them as we go. :)

A couple posts up, i mentioned a DPC Latency diagnostic program whose name i had forgotten. It's called Latency Monitor by Resplendence, http://www.resplendence.com/main

From the Latency Monitor website; "[size=2 font="segoe ui"]LatencyMon checks if a system running Windows is suitable for processing real time audio by measuring DPC and ISR excecution times as well as hard pagefaults. It will provide a comprehensible report and find the kernel modules and processes responsible for causing audio latencies which result in drop outs..."

The program was recommended by a professional builder of pro audio (and other) PCs who is active in the PC audio section of the SOS forum. For the most part, the program is pretty much over my head, but the results clearly point out where latency spikes are happening, and point to the culprits behind these spikes.

Regards
Glenn

Great advice Zephron!  I don't use the set for background use to me it sounds like a bad idea.  I think you want it go to what you are doing.  I know some usb interfaces were seen as background but that was some time ago, an old tweak not needed anymore IMO

Well 6, I personally miss recording with the guys on an Old Akai 8 track before the days of ADAT's.  I love music, playing since 1966. >.<  I have built now a total of hmm, 25 music machines.  I got out of music to raise a family and now am gettign back into it since they are grown and on their own.  The really funny thing is I went to university for E. Engineering.  True to what you said is that the level of trouble you have with a system is relative to how much coin you can afford to toss at your gear.  Each system is like a child when it's born.  You have to learn it, nurture it, build it to what you want and then when a problem happens go back through what you know about it and figure out the cause adn teach it not to behave that way anymore.

In the Comp Sci world there is a phrase that started in the late 70's. GIGO  (garbage in garbage out)

I am not a wizard at DAW's (yet)  I am a pretty creative musician. :)  We will someday get there when the world of music is as plug and play as the cell phones and business apps we all use.  But we arent there yet.  Until then, I will remain conviced that we are the user base to test their ideas and help them patch the highway to better music creation.

Now if I could only get back my old Oberheim OBXa I sold when my oldest son was born.

You guys are great.  Conversation is always good.  Ideas and sharing help is true to the spirit of musical collaberation.  I'll let ya know how bad I can load that rig up as at this stage my studio days with 5 other guys are over but I'm sure I still have a few good works of art left in me. 

   'While I would have agreed with you some time ago I can't now see it as necessary to get that far into these various system "tweaks". '

I think i didn't express myself clearly...i don't actually believe it's worth making all that many general tweaks. I follow SOS Magazine pretty closely on this topic, and one of the senior SOS writers says that alot of suggested tweaks, e.g. disabling various services, customizing page file size, etc, frees up such a minor amount of additional CPU resources that they're basically not worth the bother.

Here's one SOS article that talks about needless Windows tweaks that get promoted alot on the internet; (it's about Vista specifically but apparently it applies to Win 7): http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov08/articles/pcmusician.htm

On my DAW, I do disable the LAN card when i'm not using the internet to authorize plugins, etc. But i do very, very little else.

The program i mentioned, Latency Monitor, is helpful mainly when it comes to indetifying specific problems that cause audio dropouts. But if your DPC Latency checker is showing decent general latency results, and no yellow or red spikes, i don't think that Latency Monitor will help you identify the cause of your specific problem.

Regards
Glenn

6string : Fast Track Ultra 03/24/2011 Installer: 6.0.8 - Driver: 5.10.0.5100

thats win7 32 sp1 driver..the 64 driver is the same..

please provide me with the make and model of your motherboard ..