Pop & Crack in Midi only project

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ggg
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2011/05/03 15:42:14 (permalink)

Pop & Crack in Midi only project

What can cause a  midi only project to crack and pop on playback?

Ten track mix of True Pianos, Rapture, Dim Pro and Roland Groove synth

X1b prod- 246 midi playback 512 ms buf (not dropping notes...)

Audio - 44.1 @

16b Asio - 512 buf size
reported latencies = I - 15.9 msec. 699 samp. O - 31.7 msec. 1398 samp

XP sp3, Dual Dualcore Xeon xtrm, 4g ram, 2.5 tb hd, line6 ux2

any help appreciated...

ggg

It was all so different, before everything changed...

Sonar Platinum Lifetimer, CW Synths+++, HP Pavilion Laptop dv7t Quad i7 3610, 16g, .75t hybrid drive, W10 64bit


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14 Replies Related Threads

    daryl1968
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/03 16:43:10 (permalink)
    Hey ggg
    Are you using a control surface?
    Daryl
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    Stone House Studios
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/03 18:02:48 (permalink)
    There's no such thing as midi only if you are using soft synths.  The audio has to come from somewhere!
    You can try freezing a couple of tracks to free up some CPU - or, during playback raise your latency level some.  Low latency during playback can be a waste . . .

    Brian

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    ggg
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/03 20:03:50 (permalink)
    @daryl
        Yes, I use a Novation Remote 61 SL

    @Stone
        Sorry for the poor description. Yes, audio is coming from softsynths through instrument tracks. My point was that there is no recorded audio. CPU seems to hover around 25% during playback but one core is higher than the other seven but isn't peaking. I will try a higher latency number but my question would be asio or midi?

    It was all so different, before everything changed...

    Sonar Platinum Lifetimer, CW Synths+++, HP Pavilion Laptop dv7t Quad i7 3610, 16g, .75t hybrid drive, W10 64bit


    #4
    daryl1968
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/04 07:58:12 (permalink)
    Yes, try freezing soft synth tracks on playback
    #5
    ggg
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/04 13:58:22 (permalink)
    Yes, freezing will be good when I'm done tweaking but now things are in flux.

    My question - Is this typical? 6 - 10 soft synth instances and things crack up? Or is it my audio chain? 1398 samp on playback not enough?

    Or, is there something fundamental that I've not considered?

    Thanks again,

    ggg

    It was all so different, before everything changed...

    Sonar Platinum Lifetimer, CW Synths+++, HP Pavilion Laptop dv7t Quad i7 3610, 16g, .75t hybrid drive, W10 64bit


    #6
    rbowser
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/04 15:16:19 (permalink)
    ggg - It takes much more CPU power to drive a bunch of synths in real time than it does to play recorded audio - I think you get that now from the other answers.  If you've upped your buffers and still have a problem, then bouncing/freezing will free your system up.   My computer is way under-powered by today's standards, so in my projects with 30 or more synth tracks, I'm bouncing to audio several times before I've constructed the whole project.

    Randy B.

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    #7
    Stone House Studios
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/04 16:00:29 (permalink)
    Also, freezing is just a temporary bounce for those tracks that you are not tweaking at the time.  Unfreezing is a snap. 
    Just remember that tweaks to frozen audio go bye-bye if you unfreeze!

    Brian

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    ggg
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/05 01:08:43 (permalink)
    Thanks all!

    I guess I'm just disappointed that a machine that shows 8 cpu's starts to puke after 6 softsynths @ 30%+-. I was kinda hopin' I was jus' being slow.

    ggg

    It was all so different, before everything changed...

    Sonar Platinum Lifetimer, CW Synths+++, HP Pavilion Laptop dv7t Quad i7 3610, 16g, .75t hybrid drive, W10 64bit


    #9
    rbowser
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/05 01:15:26 (permalink)
    ggg


    Thanks all!

    I guess I'm just disappointed that a machine that shows 8 cpu's starts to puke after 6 softsynths @ 30%+-. I was kinda hopin' I was jus' being slow.

    ggg


    "8 cpus"--?  Do you mean 8 gigs of RAM?  Just not clear what you mean.

    RB

    Sonar X3e Studio
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    #10
    Stone House Studios
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/05 06:57:04 (permalink)
    ggg


    Thanks all!

    I guess I'm just disappointed that a machine that shows 8 cpu's starts to puke after 6 softsynths @ 30%+-. I was kinda hopin' I was jus' being slow.

    ggg

    As said earlier - many things beside CPU's can cause a little glitchiness - including whether or not your audio device and its drivers are up to the task. 
     
    Brian

     Core i7-6700@3.40Ghz  Windows 10x64 16 GB RAM
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    ggg
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/05 18:57:06 (permalink)
    rbowser


    ggg


    Thanks all!

    I guess I'm just disappointed that a machine that shows 8 cpu's starts to puke after 6 softsynths @ 30%+-. I was kinda hopin' I was jus' being slow.

    ggg


    "8 cpus"--?  Do you mean 8 gigs of RAM?  Just not clear what you mean.

    RB

    Well, I guess there are really only 4 cpu's but they hyperthread so it shows up as 8.  4 gigs of ram.

    It was all so different, before everything changed...

    Sonar Platinum Lifetimer, CW Synths+++, HP Pavilion Laptop dv7t Quad i7 3610, 16g, .75t hybrid drive, W10 64bit


    #12
    ggg
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/05 19:06:14 (permalink)
    Stone House Studios


    ggg


    Thanks all!

    I guess I'm just disappointed that a machine that shows 8 cpu's starts to puke after 6 softsynths @ 30%+-. I was kinda hopin' I was jus' being slow.

    ggg

    As said earlier - many things beside CPU's can cause a little glitchiness - including whether or not your audio device and its drivers are up to the task. 
     
    Brian

    Yeah, might be my audio device. Still just disappointing... But, if it's the audio device shouldn't it crap out with a similar audio at some point?


    It was all so different, before everything changed...

    Sonar Platinum Lifetimer, CW Synths+++, HP Pavilion Laptop dv7t Quad i7 3610, 16g, .75t hybrid drive, W10 64bit


    #13
    Stone House Studios
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/06 05:14:06 (permalink)
    ggg


    Stone House Studios


    ggg


    Thanks all!

    I guess I'm just disappointed that a machine that shows 8 cpu's starts to puke after 6 softsynths @ 30%+-. I was kinda hopin' I was jus' being slow.

    ggg

    As said earlier - many things beside CPU's can cause a little glitchiness - including whether or not your audio device and its drivers are up to the task. 

    Brian

    Yeah, might be my audio device. Still just disappointing... But, if it's the audio device shouldn't it crap out with a similar audio at some point?

    I think that you are trying to isolate the cause - but what I meant was that when you are playing back and creating audio in good amounts at the same time (rendering from synths) there are many pieces working together that contribute including processors and audio drivers.  Did I mention video as well?  : )
     
    Brian

     Core i7-6700@3.40Ghz  Windows 10x64 16 GB RAM
    Sonar Platinum/Studio One     PreSonus Studio 192
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    ggg
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    Re:Pop & Crack in Midi only project 2011/05/07 00:06:20 (permalink)
    How many softsynth tracks will run concurrently (non-frozen) before your setup cracks up?  Seems to me we ran a forum test like that with a standard midi file to loop and add tracks and synths... Looked for it but didn't find it. Might be interesting to run a group test like that.

    You would have to define the test with exact synths, midi events and patches to add in a certain sequence to get like kind results... 

    Oh, well... I guess I'll just go back freeze some tracks and try to make music.

    ggg

    It was all so different, before everything changed...

    Sonar Platinum Lifetimer, CW Synths+++, HP Pavilion Laptop dv7t Quad i7 3610, 16g, .75t hybrid drive, W10 64bit


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