Correcting audio dropouts

Transcription

1 Solution ID: Correcting audio dropouts If you are experiencing Audio Dropouts when you are trying to record, here are some of the steps you can take which can assist in correcting the problem. First, update your drivers and PatchMix software to the latest versions from our website. Next, optimize your PC for Audio Performance: 1 - Basic Configuration 1. Ensure your EMU card is installed in a PCI slot as far away as possible from components such as graphics card, CPU and hard drives. 2. Ensure that the PCI slot doesn't share resources with other devices in your PC (mainly graphics card, drive interfaces, etc...) 3. Remove all unnecessary hardware. Every device installed in your system uses some of the available resources, even if you do not actively use it. 4. Tidy up all cables inside your computer as electrical interference may be caused otherwise. 5. Ensure that audio drivers are up to date. 6. Download and install the latest chipset drivers and BIOS update. The major chipset manufactures are: VIA/ETEQ, AMD/Nvidia, Intel, SIS. Ali Note: If you have a motherboard with a hybrid chipset consisting of AMD Northbridge and VIA Southbridge, ensure you Download the latest driver package from your motherboard manufacturer. 2 - Toggle the DMA access for your drives: Windows 2000/XP: Click on Start - (Settings) - Control Panel - System - Hardware - Device Manager. Click on View and select Devices by connection. This allows you check which IDE controller the Hard drive(s) is (are) connected to In addition, be sure to verify that the Hard Disk Controller properties in Device Manager match that in system BIOS, especially if your motherboard and its chipsets are dated prior to the release of Windows XP. 3 - Reduce the Hardware Acceleration of the graphics card: Windows XP/2000: Right-click on your desktop Choose Properties - Settings - Advanced - Troubleshoot. Move the slider for Hardware Acceleration down 1 notch. Restart the system; if necessary, repeat procedure. 4 - Changing/disabling ACPI configurations in Windows 2000/XP Disable ACPI in your BIOS Note: We recommend you check with the motherboard manufacturer for more information about performing these steps Windows XP: Disable ACPI automatically

2 With ACPI disabled in the BIOS, reinstall Windows over the original installation Disable ACPI manually Copy the install CD to your hard drive Edit the Txtsetup.sif file to change the ACPIEnable value to 0. Save the file, and then rerun the installation. 5 - BIOS settings We recommend that you ensure that you install the latest BIOS update form your system vendor. The following suggestions require you to access the system BIOS SETUP. Please contact your system vendor, or motherboard manufacturer for assistance in accessing the BIOS SETUP page. There are several tools available to determine the motherboard manufacturer. Some of these tools are located at There is an option labeled MOBO TOOLS that will provide you with several options. On a BIOS level, ensure all unused on-board devices are deactivated. This usually includes, but might not be restricted to devices like: Serial Ports Parallel Port Onboard Sound Onboard Game port Onboard Graphics Note: Do not deactivate devices you require for the system to function properly (e.g. do not turn off your onboard graphics if this is the only display adapter you have in your system).the following is a checklist of settings that may need to be modified, and explanations to some of them. Your system`s BIOS may have all, some, or none of the following options. These options may be spread throughout different portions of the BIOS. Enable or Answer YES to the following settings: PCI Streaming PCI 2.1 Compliance PCI (Dynamic) Bursting Bus Mastering for PCI Slot Disable or answer NO to the following settings: Virus Warning or Boot Virus Detection VGA Palette Snoop (must be left disabled) Video BIOS Shadowing Video BIOS Cashable System BIOS Cashable Video RAM BIOS Cashable Primary or System Frame Buffer VGA Frame Buffer Power Management Write cache pipelining

3 PnP Aware OS or PnP OS Installed (Toggle) Peer Concurrency System Performance: Collective setting that sets a number of values to influence the systems performance (possible settings: "Turbo", "Fast", "Optimal", "Normal", etc. The naming depends on the BIOS version/motherboard manufacturer. If unclear, contact motherboard manufacturer for more information). VGA Shared Memory Size: Applicable if the motherboards onboard graphics adapter is active. Instead of having dedicated graphics RAM, some onboard VGA solutions require you to reserve a certain amount of the systems main memory. Increasing the memory set aside for the onboard graphics adapter can help reducing traffic on the system. Note: Ensure not to reserve too much of your systems RAM, as this might result in a systemwide slowdown. AGP Aperture Size (MB): It defines how much of your system's memory is to be used as a data buffer for your AGP graphics card. The default setting should be half the system''s RAM, however, certain cards work better with specific settings (e.g.: 128 MB despite having 512 MB in the system). Peer Concurrency: This setting defines if multiple PCI devices can access the PCI BUS simultaneously. Set this to "Disable" if you are unsure whether all PCI devices in your system support this option. Note: disabling Peer Concurrency may prevent IRQ being assigned to certain devices, and it can cause difficulties within Windows 2000 and XP if one of the several ACPI Hardware Abstraction Layers (HAL) is installed. This can cause Windows 2000 and XP to re-detect the hardware. PCI 2.1 Support: All EMU PCI sound cards adhere to PCI 2.1 specifications. This setting must be enabled for your Sound Blaster card to function properly. Note: Some BIOS's might have various options for this setting (e.g.: 2.0, 2.1, 2.2). Spread Spectrum Control: This setting reduces Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) by slightly modulating the master clock of your motherboard. Audio glitches might occur on some systems if this setting is enabled. PCI Latency Timer: The PCI Latency Timer is a mechanism that helps PCI bus-mastering capable devices to share the PCI bus. Each PCI device able to operate in bus-master mode is required to implement a timer, called the Latency Timer, that limits the time the device can hold the PCI bus. The timer starts when the device gains bus ownership, and counts down at the rate of the PCI clock. When the counter reaches zero, the device is required to release the bus. If no other devices are waiting for bus ownership, it may simply grab the bus again and transfer more data. If the latency timer is set too low, PCI devices will interrupt their transfers unnecessarily often, reducing performance. If it's set too high, devices that require frequent bus access may overflow their buffers, losing data. Experiment with this value. A good starting point would be 32 (often the default found in many systems BIOS's). Once the PCI Latency Timer has been changed, the new settings have to be saved and the PC needs to boot back into the Operating System. If this doesn't lead to the desired result, repeat the procedure with a different setting. Memory Hole:

4 This setting needs to be disabled unless you have a device that requires a 1 MB area assigned to it. AGP Fast Writes: Allows the graphics chip to communicate with the chipset / CPU directly. Enable this setting if your graphics card as well as your motherboard support this. 6 - Streamline the appearance of the computer: (This involves reducing the load associated with WinXP's "new Themes". This is valid for Windows XP Home and Pro. There are between 4 MB to 12 MB of RAM used for the new themes.) With the default Category Control Panel: Select Performance and Maintenance Select System Select Advanced Tab Under Performance, select the Settings button Select Visual Effects Tab Select "Adjust for best performance." Select the Ok button With the Classic Control Panel: Select System Select Advanced Tab Under Performance, select the Settings button Select Visual Effects Tab Select "Adjust for best performance." Select the Ok button After that, Disable and Stop the Themes service. With the default Category Control Panel: Select Performance and Maintenance Select Administrator Tools Select Services Select "Themes" service (Double Click) Select General Tab In the Startup type: select "Disabled" Select the Ok button to close the panel With the Classic Control Panel: Select Administrator Tools Select Services Select "Themes" service (Double Click) Select General Tab In the Startup type: select "Disabled" Select the Ok button to close the panel 7 - Defrag the hard drive.

5 Even if XP tells you that it does not need to, do it anyway. It has much tolerance for what "needs" to be done and what should be done. Defrag again after installing any applications and games. After that, there should be little need to do it again for awhile unless you delete/un-install/reinstall a lot of stuff. 8 - Adjust your sequencing package to reduce the chance of dropouts Program Specific Steps: SONAR: 1. Make sure that Read and Write Caching is disabled. 2. Make sure you try adjusting latency in the ASIO Control Panel Start at the lowest setting then move up noting as you move up whether the dropout has stopped. CUBASE: 1. Make sure you ASIO driver is set to EMU ASIO. 2. Make sure you try adjusting latency in the ASIO Control Panel Start at the lowest setting then move up noting as you move up whether the dropout has stopped Note: Product specification, technical or troubleshooting information are subjected to change. This is due to changes and/or updates in the new firmware/driver releases. Please refer to the web release notes in the download section for details.