Zynewave.
baconI’ve been using Podium since may, and although I’m very happy with the program, there are a few annoying issues that have bothered me since the start.
When I use the soundcard outside of Podium I haven’t experienced this problem. Admittedly, I haven’t used it extensively; I only got it earlier this week.
My system:
Dell Inspiron 1764 laptop
Core i5 430M processor (2 cores, 4 threads)
4GB RAM
ATI 500MB graphics card
Cakewalk UA-25EX USB soundcard
Windows 7 64-bit
Zynewave@bacon wrote:
I get audio dropouts every few minutes. This happens whether I have one plugin active or dozens. Podium runs along at 20% CPU, or even as low as 4%, when suddenly it spikes at 100% and all sound cuts off for half a second. This happens during playback and recording, and even when the transport is stopped. It doesn’t matter if there are any audio tracks playing or only VSTis. I first thought this was a problem with my laptop’s built-in soundcard (which I used with ASIO4All), but the problem persists with my Cakewalk UA-25EX with the latest drivers from the manufacturer’s homepage. Oh, and sometimes the audio dropout comes without the CPU meter going red.
When I use the soundcard outside of Podium I haven’t experienced this problem. Admittedly, I haven’t used it extensively; I only got it earlier this week.
The spike can be caused by some high-priority system software. If you for example have the Windows task manager open, it can cause a spike each time the task manager updates its curve. If you have any background software installed, such as anti-virus, try to temporarily disable these to see if this gets rid of the spikes. On some laptops I know that Wi-Fi or network adapter cards can cause spikes. Try disabling these.
When I go into Options, change the soundcard settings, and click Apply, Podium crashes.
It have this on my todo list. I believe you can avoid the crash if you switch off the power button in the arrangement editor, before you change the sound driver in the interfaces dialog.
bacon@Zynewave wrote:
On some laptops I know that Wi-Fi or network adapter cards can cause spikes. Try disabling these.
That did the trick.
How on earth can the Wi-Fi drivers be so badly written as to take over the whole system for a fraction of a second? Or is it a problem inherent to Windows and/or the hardware?
@bacon wrote:
When I go into Options, change the soundcard settings, and click Apply, Podium crashes.
It have this on my todo list. I believe you can avoid the crash if you switch off the power button in the arrangement editor, before you change the sound driver in the interfaces dialog.
I haven’t had time to try this yet but I’ll report back as soon as I have.
Zynewave@bacon wrote:
@Zynewave wrote:
On some laptops I know that Wi-Fi or network adapter cards can cause spikes. Try disabling these.
That did the trick.
How on earth can the Wi-Fi drivers be so badly written as to take over the whole system for a fraction of a second? Or is it a problem inherent to Windows and/or the hardware?
I think it is poor driver support, but it is a common problem with a lot of laptops. I don’t know specifically why Wi-Fi drivers are prone to blocking the system for a long period.