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Icewalker38
Posts: 7
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 Posted - Mon Nov 19, 2001 4:09 pm
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I am new here. Have done a lot of hard-disk recording over the last 5 years and I always used SAW line of products. But ever since I tried CEP, it's practically all I need. A terrific product. I was also pleasantly surprised to see how friendly and responsive the crowd here is.
I have a little problem with my Presario (AMD Duron 700MHz, 128Mb RAM). I have a AudioMagic soundcard onboard (which I think is crappy), but I basically use my DMAN 2044 for recording, except for one thing: when I need to render my MIDI drum parts into audio tracks. Here's where it happens. When I run Cakewalk or just play the MID file in Winamp and hit record in CEP it starts acting up. The sound skips, loses beats and what seemed to be a smooth drum part transforms into a piece of crap.
However, I never have a problem like that with regular recording. I lay 8-10 tracks down, overdub and CEP always works perfect except for this situation. It all happens when playing back MIDI and recording the part in CEP. What's funny is that Windows Recorder still does the job. Any ideas?
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SteveG
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6695
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Posted - Mon Nov 19, 2001 5:35 pm
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Could you just confirm a couple of things? Which OS, and which version of DirectX you've got would do for a start. DX8 has been known to cause problems, and DX8a is supposed to be much better.
A few people seem to be having similar problems getting signals around inside PCs without involving the soundcard. If you have a look at this thread, it will give you links to various 'virtual' audio cables that may help:
'CE2K Invalid Page Fault'
Steve
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Icewalker38
Posts: 7
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Posted - Tue Nov 20, 2001 9:21 am
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Steve: I have Windows ME (basically I'd prefer 2000 but DMAN does not seem to support it) and I am not sure about DX version. I'll check it out and make sure to upgrade to DX8a to see whether it works.
Another potential reason that might be causing the problem I was thinking of is a USB port which I have an external cable modem on. Any known issues there?
Thanks for your help
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SteveG
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6695
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Posted - Tue Nov 20, 2001 2:29 pm
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I haven't heard about USB ports managing to mangle what is essentially an internal transfer! ME shouldn't pose any problems either - well, it doesn't here on my DAW, and yes, I have persuaded Winamp to run straight into CE. Whilst doing a flying conversion of MIDI into audio. With a Duron. But with rather more RAM, admittedly, but it worked before I did the RAM upgrade, so that's not it. I can't try it with Cakewalk, because I don't have that on the system. How are you generating the MIDI to turn into audio?
Steve
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Icewalker38
Posts: 7
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Posted - Tue Nov 20, 2001 2:51 pm
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Steve: if the question is HOW I create a MIDI per se, then it's pretty simple. I use Jammer Pro (have used it for a few years and love it!) to generate the parts I want, then tweak them a bit in Cakewalk before recording.
As far as my problem is concerned I start thinking that it's probably in that crappy onboard SoundMax (not AudioMax!) chipset that Compaq puts in their models. I guess I should disable it and try a soundcard with a decent wavetable, because my DMAN 2044 is a dedicated 4in/4out audio.
Also do you think that throwing in a few extra Mb of RAM will make a difference performance-wise? Did you notice it when you upgraded yours?
Thanks
Vlad
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Zombie
Posts: 281
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Posted - Tue Nov 20, 2001 3:05 pm
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I use external drum modules and synthesizers, that way all I need to have open besides Cool Edit is Media Player, and no wavetable infesting my system (I've always seemed to get horrible performance using internal synthesis, although now I would never need to)
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SteveG
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6695
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Posted - Tue Nov 20, 2001 3:39 pm
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Steve: if the question is HOW I create a MIDI per se, then it's pretty simple. I use Jammer Pro (have used it for a few years and love it!) to generate the parts I want, then tweak them a bit in Cakewalk before recording.
As far as my problem is concerned I start thinking that it's probably in that crappy onboard SoundMax (not AudioMax!) chipset that Compaq puts in their models. I guess I should disable it and try a soundcard with a decent wavetable, because my DMAN 2044 is a dedicated 4in/4out audio.
Also do you think that throwing in a few extra Mb of RAM will make a difference performance-wise? Did you notice it when you upgraded yours?
--Icewalker38 |
Sorry, didn't explain what I was asking very well. Once you've created the MIDI file, what are you using as an internal soundsource? is a better version of the question. But I think you've answered my question anyway.
To do wavetable synthesis, the onboard Soundmax chip has to use system memory for the sounds, and if the system trys to prioritise accurate MIDI playback, and accurate audio recording in CE, as well as trying to send a high-priority audio link via Winamp at the same time... well, maybe it could run into a timing problem.
So I recon you're right. Get a card with a dedicated synth that doesn't use up loads of system resources. Now, despite the fact that I'm not the world's biggest Creative Labs fan, I think that their on-board synth is pretty reasonable, and you get loads of editing options, and soundfonts. And this is what I used to test your approach here - An SBLive! card internal synth played by Winamp and recorded direct into CE. Rock-solid timing.
Do I notice the RAM difference? This rather depends how I configure the system. By altering all the cache settings to take advantage of it, I can fix the CD-writer so that the buffer stays at 100 percent, 100 percent of the time! Or set up a RAM drive, which can have some editing advantages. But I'll freely admit that the main reason that I bought it was because it was cheap! The price is going back up again, though, so I've heard, so if you can still get it cheap, and want it, I'd do it now.
Steve
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Icewalker38
Posts: 7
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Posted - Tue Nov 20, 2001 4:14 pm
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Thanks guys! Have to admit, I really like the friendly athmosphere here, unlike some other forums where you get truckloads of jerks as well as arrogant snobs.
As far as the rest is concerned, I don't think I can afford to throw a few hundred bucks on an external synthesizer at this point. Besides, I am not really a keyboard player. So a SB series might be an acceptable workaround for now. Plus boosting it up by adding a few extra Megs may not be such a bad idea either.
I would agree with Steve that Creative Labs cards may not be the best (performance-wise) in the world but they are rock-solid and stable. I never had any compatibility problems with those before (unlike many others like Turtle Beach series, Audiotrix, etc.)
Vlad
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