Technophobia.
TechnophobiaA small question:
The CPU meter within Podium, does it just show the CPU use of Podium or general windows CPU.
The reason I’m asking is that I appear to be getting a CPU spike about every 50 seconds for some reason.
I’ll try and trace it a bit further.
Technophobia 8)
ZynewaveThe Podium CPU indicator tells how much time was spent in the audio processing thread. The CPU may be running 100% doing other stuff, like updating the UI, but since the audio thread is high priority it will get whatever CPU it requires, and the UI will just have to wait. There may be other high priority stuff running on your machine, in which case they may block out the audio thread long enough to cause a pop (buffer underrun).
darcyb62For example, if you open up your task manager, go to the performance tab and maximize the window, you will start getting a pop when the task manager window updates as you increase cpu utilization. I have also noticed that Podium seems to mnage this much better than Tracktion does. With Tracktion it doesn’t matter how low cpu utilization is, it will pop everytime the task manager window updates.
This doesn’t happen with Podium until you start getting the cpu utilization up there.
Max@Technophobia – are you working with EMU soundcard?
Technophobia@Max.
Yes. I am working with an EMU 1820m set to 10ms latency.
I recently had a Win’ 2000 crash and had to re-install completely, so at the moment I am going thru’ setting everything up. As I recall, on the previous setup, I don’t think I saw the same sort of spike as I am seeing now…strange
Anyhow, got the latest drivers for the 1820m and I’ve set it up as before. Presumably you’re aware of something about the card stealing some CPU time ❓
Any info you can pass on will be hugely welcomed.
Technophobia
8)
ConquistadorFWIW here is a very good link that provides information on background tasks. It provides not just information on what they are but also advice on disabling them or not and what the effects might be.
http://www.answersthatwork.com
Click on the TASKLIST button.
Matching background task entries on my PC with the ones listed on the website link above, allowed me to remove many useless tasks and better understand why others are best left alone. 😉 It also left me with a very smooth running system.
I simply opened up the Windows task manager and disabled the processes I did not need or disabled certain services and stopped them from starting up at all. As always exercise care.
Useless background tasks really are a sequencers worst enemy.
Max @Technophobia: read this post please:
http://www.zynewave.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3441#3441
I don’t know what’s the problem exactly, but it seems that it’s EMU ASIO drivers problem. 🙁
TechnophobiaThanks Max,
I must admit that I have read up on the EMU cards on various forums in the past. The various problems that people have experienced have not been a problem to me, but then, I am running a windows system that is much reduced in “Gates” clutter by using 2000Lite. I also have the latest drivers for the EMU which others report as being stable. 🙂
I think the answer lies in the fact that having to re-install windows has left me still setting up various parts of windows to minimise impact on running Audio applications. There is something I am missing that is utilising the CPU but I’ll track it down and kill it.. 😉
Thanks anyway for the pointers Max & Conquistador.
Technophobia 8)
TechnophobiaHi Frit’s
❓ I need some more clarification on the CPU indicator, if that’s Ok ?
I tried tracking down and killing all known background tasks and general pain software hooks. I’ll clarify what is happening a bit better this time.
Podium program open and a project loaded and arrangement open. Even if I leave Podium as is and do not start playback/recording I get the CPU indicator flashing red for about a second every 44 seconds approx. It doesn’t actually show up as a CPU value in the indicator, i.e. it remains at 0% but flashes red briefly…?
I don’t seem to be suffering from audio dropouts/asio problems but it is a bit disconcerting to see the red flash when I’m actually running it at about 40% max CPU.
I have also utilised the Windows resource monitor to see if it shows up CPU use but, it doesn’t seem to show any abnormal use.
Is this a normal thing for Podium to do (I doubt it) ?
Can you do a special version for me that doesn’t show up the red flash 😆
Any ideas…
I’m going to start to tinker around with my Emu 1820m to see if it’s causing a problem somehow. I’ll get back to you.
P.S. I have already altered the PCI latency settings for my Graphics card so it doesn’t hog the bus.
P.P.S. How is the Z-reverb progressing ?
Technophobia 8)
TechnophobiaHi Frit’s
To (again) partially answer my own question.
I have just disabled the MIDI ports of the Emu card – No differance.
I then tried disabling the Audio ports – Hurrah ! Success. No CPU red flash. 🙂
Only thing is, this means that the Emu card is causing this somehow. 😥
I’m guessing some sort of Sync signal is being sent to Podium. I’ll ask on an Emu forum to see if I can get an answer.
Technophobia 8)
ZynewaveEven if I leave Podium as is and do not start playback/recording I get the CPU indicator flashing red for about a second every 44 seconds approx. It doesn’t actually show up as a CPU value in the indicator, i.e. it remains at 0% but flashes red briefly…?
The red flash would then indicate that there is an ASIO buffer underrun. The normal cure for this is to increase the ASIO buffer size. If you let Podium run a while to get several red flashes, then you should see some ASIO errors on the report page in the interfaces setup dialog? Post the report here or email it to me.
Once every 44 seconds you say? Are you using 44100 samplerate? If you select a different samplerate, does this affect the error interval?
P.P.S. How is the Z-reverb progressing ?
I just posted a progress update in the zReverb topic.
MaxI’ve got exacty the same problems with EMU 0404. Yes, there’s ASIO errors on the report page (include silent driver restarts sometimes).
@Zynewave wrote:
If you select a different samplerate, does this affect the error interval?
At least tweaking the latency value affects the error interval.
Personally I think that EMU ASIO drivers is instable.
TechnophobiaThanks for the answers Frit’s & Max
I have just vented my anger over at an Emu forum. These cards have a great sound and would be excellant if Emu would pull there finger out and deliver on drivers… 😡
Oh well, I’ll just have to limit the damage somehow.
Technophobia 8)
xis23Install windows xp bare naked edition… it has all the unneccessary services etc stripped out and loads in about 2 seconds :)… Means no crappy background services you don’t need eating up cpu either.
Podianer@Technophobia wrote:
Hi Frit’s
To (again) partially answer my own question.
I have just disabled the MIDI ports of the Emu card – No differance.
I then tried disabling the Audio ports – Hurrah ! Success. No CPU red flash. 🙂Only thing is, this means that the Emu card is causing this somehow. 😥
I’m guessing some sort of Sync signal is being sent to Podium. I’ll ask on an Emu forum to see if I can get an answer.
Technophobia 8)
Hi,
some time ago on a different machine, I had the same problem. I had a M-Audio Delta 1010 LT. Now that I use an Acer Notebook 2 GHz Centrino, 2 GB of RAM and a Line6 Toneport audio interface, I thought I could get rid of the spikes. But I am not. They are still there. Some months ago Frits and me tried to solve this but there was nothing that helped. Especially when using Jamstix I had spikes with audio drop outs. I do not have these spikes with other hosts. It’s annoying.
Even at a higher latency (512 – 1000 samples) the problem is the same. So what I wanted to say: I don’t think it is a problem with your audio card, because I tried 2 audio interfaces, and the problem stayed. 😥
Max