Zynewave.
CadmiumRecently, I purchased the march edition of Computer Music Magazine and was really happy to find a copy of Podium on the included DVD. Wow, what a great DAW. After playing with it for a while, I figured out most of the basic things. I really like the object-based devices and the nesting of tracks. I got a drum VSTi and a soft-synth to work together, redirect it through a bus to an effect, bounce it to the master, etc. I haven’t had the chance to try out midi in with my AN1x yet, but I guess that will be set up with ease as well.
There are two things I can’t seem to figure out though. First of all, when I bounce the output to a wav, it shows in the track, but when I hit play, there’s no sound coming from my boxes (the mixer doesn’t show any activity either). I made sure that the B of the bounce track is active and that the plugins are muted. Saving the wav and playing it with another player does produce the expected sound.
Secondly, when I control the plugins by midi from the track and hit play, it produces the sound, but the indicator is running behind with the events of the sounds I hear. Also, it doesn’t run fluently. Again, when I save a bounced wav and listen to it, it does produce the expected sound.
Any ideas what causes these problems? Could this have something to do with my inexperience with midi events (I’m used to the good ol’ tracker ;))? I’m not sure how to use the midi clock, or whatever else is used to sync midi. Could it maybe be my soundblaster Audigy that’s not working correctly? I do hear a squeak once in a while.
Anyway, if I can figure out what’s going on and solve it, I really have a nice piece of software to use with my synth. Keep up the good work! Oh, and rewire would indeed be a great addition :).
Zynewavewhen I bounce the output to a wav, it shows in the track, but when I hit play, there’s no sound coming from my boxes
Boxes = speakers? Doesn’t the bounce track meter show activity?
when I control the plugins by midi from the track and hit play, it produces the sound, but the indicator is running behind with the events of the sounds I hear
So the events play ahead of the play cursor position? Normally it’s the other way around, if there is a problem with the soundcard driver. Make sure you have selected the proper ASIO driver. If you have sync problems with recording MIDI, try to disable the “use time stamps from driver” option in the interfaces dialog.
Cadmium@Zynewave wrote:
Boxes = speakers? Doesn’t the bounce track meter show activity?
Yep, speakers. Shows that you should never translate your mother-tongue directly into english ;). There’s no activity on the bounce track meter whatsoever, but the wave does show in the track. Also, the meter does show activity when playing the actual VSTs instead of the wave.
@Zynewave wrote:
So the events play ahead of the play cursor position? Normally it’s the other way around, if there is a problem with the soundcard driver. Make sure you have selected the proper ASIO driver. If you have sync problems with recording MIDI, try to disable the “use time stamps from driver” option in the interfaces dialog.
Yes, the play cursor starts at the beginning (right after the piano display). At the same time the events start playing, but not the events at the beginning. It seems to skip about a quarter of the displayed columns and start playing the events there, even though the play cursor’s not there yet. I’ll check the ASIO drivers again this evening, although I don’t believe there was more than one available.
I guess these problems don’t have anything to do with syncing, since I’m not recording any midi from an external device yet.
CadmiumIndeed there was only one interface to choose from, the Creative EMU10Kx ASIO.
Here’s what the report says after updating:
Podium audio manager status report
Log period: 1-3-2007 18:28:29 – 1-3-2007 18:29:00
ASIO device: Creative EMU10Kx ASIO
– Supported clock sources: Internal
– Current clock source: Internal
– Supported sample rates: 48000
– Current sample rate: 48000
– Input channels: 12 (111111111111)
– Output channels: 14 (11111111111111)
– Input/Output latency, buffer size: 196/96, 96
– PerformanceCounter: 3579545 Hz
– ASIO sample types: 16, 16
ASIO driver status:
– ASIO sample position gaps: 9 (-96..96)
Audio stream buffer errors:
– Output buffer skip count: 9
End of report
Not good, I think :(.
ZynewaveThere’s no activity on the bounce track meter whatsoever, but the wave does show in the track. Also, the meter does show activity when playing the actual VSTs instead of the wave.
Check that you haven’t muted the bounce track. If you move the bounced sound event to a regular audio track, does the sound play then?
ZynewaveASIO driver status:
– ASIO sample position gaps: 9 (-96..96)Audio stream buffer errors:
– Output buffer skip count: 9
This means you will hear stutter in the audio. Try increasing the buffer size, and check if this reduces the number of gaps.
Cadmium@Zynewave wrote:
Check that you haven’t muted the bounce track. If you move the bounced sound event to a regular audio track, does the sound play then?
The track’s not muted. The sound doesn’t seem to play in any audio track at all.
@Zynewave wrote:
This means you will hear stutter in the audio. Try increasing the buffer size, and check if this reduces the number of gaps.
That seems to have done the trick. Now all I need is audio output to check if the stutter is gone ;).
I’ll try to update my Audigy drivers.
ZynewaveThe sound doesn’t seem to play in any audio track at all.
Can you get any imported/recorded sound files to play on tracks? If you open the sound properties dialog, what’s the bit-depth, samplerate and channel configuration?
Technophobia@ Cadmium & Frits
I don’t know if you remember Frits, but a while back I had the very same problems with my EMU1820m card. I still have the audio gaps showing up in the report but it does not seem to cause any audio dropout. At the time you were concerned that the sample position was not being reported properly via the EMU drivers, i.e. an EMU driver problem.
Although your card is an Creative Audigy, I would not be surprised if EMU have some hand in writing the drivers for it.
Of course in my own way (I caused a stink at the EMU forum) I asked for new drivers to sort the problem out. Guess what, still no new drivers forthcoming (it’s only been a year or so).
Anyhow it doesn’t seem to cause problems but, then again I don’t as rule have 20 tracks going at once to stress the drivers.
Perhaps one day all software/firmware will be written by people that give a damn but, then again, maybe not…At least some people are like you Frits, they care about the stuff they write and subject the public (Guinea Pigs) to.
8)
CadmiumWell, installing the driver update completely screwed up my computer :(. I need to create a stable environment before moving on with Podium. I was planning on building a seperate computer just for music making. I guess that day has come earlier than expected. I’m going shopping today.
Thanks for all the help so far, Frits and Technophobia! I really appreciate it! Hope to be back soon! This time without problems ;).
CadmiumAfter a day of “building your computer from scratch”, I’ve got a pretty nice machine standing here. The one thing I did not buy yet, was a soundcard. Since this is vital for working with midi and audio, I want to make sure I make the right choice. I know opinions might differ when it comes to picking the right card, but I’ll give it a go anyway ;). Any cards you guys would (not) recommend when setting up a DAW?
ZynewaveIn the top end I can recommend RME. I have an old HDSP/multiface which has never let me down. Also if you are planning on running Vista or XP64, make sure the audio interface manufacturer has drivers for that platform.