Noob Help With Playback Skipping

[bluechevy75]

I love tape op. I've just been getting into recording. Some buddies set me up with some of their gear for the summer. I figured out how to record. But my computer skips on playback. I did some searching but found all kinds of different answers but I don't really know where to start. Maybe someone here can help me.

Don't laugh...I know my stuffs old.

Computer:
IBM Thinkpad
Windows XP 2002
Intel Pentium III
845 Mhz 512 MB RAM
Sound Card: Crystal Sound Fusion?

I'm using Sonar 6 and I've got a Mackie ONYX 1220 with firewire.

I purchased a SIIG Firewire Express Card that is TI chipset compatible.
I downloaded some latency checker. All was good with the checker. I played with some of my buffer settings but nothing seemed to help. I need some step by step instructions or some detailed help because I am very frustrated.

Thanks so much.

Kevin

[tjcasey1]

I'm a Mac guy so I can't be 100% sure, but even though the computer may be fast enough (845 MHz - I think my old Mac G4 was only around 400 MHz but it recorded well), I think 512 Mb is not enough RAM.

Check the recommended specs for the software and hardware. If it needs more RAM, see if you can still purchase some (after checking that the computer can actually hold more).

Also, remember that the higher the buffer settings, the less work the computer has to do (but the greater the latency if you're monitoring recordings through the computer).

[bluechevy75]

I'm a Mac guy so I can't be 100% sure, but even though the computer may be fast enough (845 MHz - I think my old Mac G4 was only around 400 MHz but it recorded well), I think 512 Mb is not enough RAM.

Check the recommended specs for the software and hardware. If it needs more RAM, see if you can still purchase some (after checking that the computer can actually hold more).

Also, remember that the higher the buffer settings, the less work the computer has to do (but the greater the latency if you're monitoring recordings through the computer).

I can't add ram. When I ran Task Manager it while using Sonar it showed cpu usage at 3%-6%. When I try play back my cpu usage shoots to 100%. My guess is that this is the problem but I don't know how to fix it. Does this have something to do with ram or is this another problem?

I tried downloading the AISO drivers instead of using WDM. I've made appropriate power changes in my control panel.

When I minimize Sonar during playback my CPU usage goes way down and oscillates between 30-70%. I think this is because my graphics card sucks. I hear there is a way to change the buffer settings on a graphics card but I don't know how.

Ideas?

Thanks,
Kevin

[bluechevy75]

Also:
1. Changed Video Card Settings
2. Reduced bit rate on display colors

Sonar 6 requires 1 GB of Ram. So I'm only half as much.

Any ideas on how I should compensate?

Have not tested the above items. Will test this afternoon.

KH

[casey campbell]

ok, you have a few things going that are putting the hurt on you.

1. you just need more of a hoss of a machine to run sonar 6. pentium III with that little of RAM is gonna struggle.

you could try increasing your virtual RAM by right clicking "my computer"

then properties

there you will find it. go easy on it. selecting 1536 twice on min and max usually works fine.

2. also, download "autoruns" by microsoft. run it, and then disable the plethora of microsoft movie maker filters that run in the background constantly. only remove those unless you really know what you are doing.

3. also go to "run" and then services.msc

from there you can disable remote registry, error reporting service, etc. please be careful cause you could screw your machine up if disable something critical. here's a great a list to go by:

http://www.blackviper.com/2008/05/19/bl ... gurations/

also - make sure you have your video settings selected for performance via right clicking your desktop and going to properties.

4. In Sonar, you are gonna get crappy playback if your buffer settings are not correct. try half of what you are set on now and move down. see if it gets worse, if so try moving up until your machine acts happier. im not kidding, this really works well...(sounds elementary i know). start with 256 first and see how she goes.

5. This might be helpful: http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1710561

[Snarl 12/8]

Try reaper. Free to try, cheap to buy. More lightweight than Sonar, I'd expect.

[bluechevy75]

ok, you have a few things going that are putting the hurt on you.

1. you just need more of a hoss of a machine to run sonar 6. pentium III with that little of RAM is gonna struggle.

you could try increasing your virtual RAM by right clicking "my computer"

then properties

there you will find it. go easy on it. selecting 1536 twice on min and max usually works fine.

2. also, download "autoruns" by microsoft. run it, and then disable the plethora of microsoft movie maker filters that run in the background constantly. only remove those unless you really know what you are doing.

3. also go to "run" and then services.msc

from there you can disable remote registry, error reporting service, etc. please be careful cause you could screw your machine up if disable something critical. here's a great a list to go by:

http://www.blackviper.com/2008/05/19/bl ... gurations/

also - make sure you have your video settings selected for performance via right clicking your desktop and going to properties.

4. In Sonar, you are gonna get crappy playback if your buffer settings are not correct. try half of what you are set on now and move down. see if it gets worse, if so try moving up until your machine acts happier. im not kidding, this really works well...(sounds elementary i know). start with 256 first and see how she goes.

5. This might be helpful: http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1710561

Yours was the most concise and most helpful advice I've found on the internet so far. Thanks so much. I made the changes this morning and will do some recording later today. I'll let you know how it goes.

KH

[bluechevy75]

ok, you have a few things going that are putting the hurt on you.

1. you just need more of a hoss of a machine to run sonar 6. pentium III with that little of RAM is gonna struggle.

you could try increasing your virtual RAM by right clicking "my computer"

then properties

there you will find it. go easy on it. selecting 1536 twice on min and max usually works fine.

2. also, download "autoruns" by microsoft. run it, and then disable the plethora of microsoft movie maker filters that run in the background constantly. only remove those unless you really know what you are doing.

3. also go to "run" and then services.msc

from there you can disable remote registry, error reporting service, etc. please be careful cause you could screw your machine up if disable something critical. here's a great a list to go by:

http://www.blackviper.com/2008/05/19/bl ... gurations/

also - make sure you have your video settings selected for performance via right clicking your desktop and going to properties.

4. In Sonar, you are gonna get crappy playback if your buffer settings are not correct. try half of what you are set on now and move down. see if it gets worse, if so try moving up until your machine acts happier. im not kidding, this really works well...(sounds elementary i know). start with 256 first and see how she goes.

5. This might be helpful: http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1710561

Yours was the most concise and most helpful advice I've found on the internet so far. Thanks so much. I made the changes this morning and will do some recording later today. I'll let you know how it goes.

KH

[bluechevy75]

A marked improvment. Thanks so much.

[CraigS63]

I think it would be nice to have a list of Cakewalk/Sonar versions vs. the machine specs they ran on (either the recommended minimums or what was commonly used back in the day).

[casey campbell]

A marked improvment. Thanks so much.

you are very welcome.

dont forget to defrag as well. auslogics disk defrag is super cool and very quick!

clean up all of your junk files first via piriform ccleaner. then defrag it.

ccleaner:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

auslogics disk defrag:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_auslo ... sk_defrag/

if your disk is heavily fragmented, it will really slow things down quite a bit because it has to pull all of the fragments together in memory, and then once they are all together, then it presents the information to you.

[bluechevy75]

A marked improvment. Thanks so much.

you are very welcome.

dont forget to defrag as well. auslogics disk defrag is super cool and very quick!

clean up all of your junk files first via piriform ccleaner. then defrag it.

ccleaner:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

auslogics disk defrag:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_auslo ... sk_defrag/

if your disk is heavily fragmented, it will really slow things down quite a bit because it has to pull all of the fragments together in memory, and then once they are all together, then it presents the information to you.

I did have enough sense to get rid of junk files and defrag. but any knowledge like that is helpful.

I did notice that enabling chache reading/writing caused a lot of problems.

what is as "safe" buffer for tracking? currently the lowest I can go without dropouts is 3ms.

KH

[casey campbell]

hey, i also thought of something else. turn off read/write caching in sonar.

[casey campbell]

A marked improvment. Thanks so much.

you are very welcome.

dont forget to defrag as well. auslogics disk defrag is super cool and very quick!

clean up all of your junk files first via piriform ccleaner. then defrag it.

ccleaner:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

auslogics disk defrag:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_auslo ... sk_defrag/

if your disk is heavily fragmented, it will really slow things down quite a bit because it has to pull all of the fragments together in memory, and then once they are all together, then it presents the information to you.

I did have enough sense to get rid of junk files and defrag. but any knowledge like that is helpful.

I did notice that enabling chache reading/writing caused a lot of problems.

what is as "safe" buffer for tracking? currently the lowest I can go without dropouts is 3ms.

KH

ha! you beat me to it! ha ha

[casey campbell]

here are a few more tweaks:

turn off indexing on the c: drive by right clicking it and selecting properties.

you'll see that option towards the bottom.

it'll ask you if you want to include all of the subfolders and tell it yes.

this will disable your ability to search for random hidden files under "search," but will make a big difference cause windows runs its indexing service constantly in the background. make sure you also disable the indexing service via services.msc in the "run" box as well.

also, you could disable system restore as well, under Properties when you right click "my computer" system restore is almost pointless and is a favorite place to hang out for the malware crowd anyway.

also disable automatic updates under the same menu.

these are all processes that run in the background while you work, and for a machine of those specs, might really slow you down at times.

now once your machine is working okee dokee, and really moving good...download a program called driveimage xml and image your laptop hard drive to an external hard drive.

once that is done, get another laptop hard drive of the same specs or larger than your original one, and through driveimage xml, restore the image you just made onto the new laptop hard drive. that way, if your hdd should crash in the middle of a session, you can just pop in the other one within a minute and the session is back up with all of your settings how you like it. this will keep you from having a day of reinstalling everything and applying the dreadfully slow MS xp udpates.

you'll need a usb to ide adapter to do this though...which these items are a lifesaver and are extremely inexpensivo....

now, one thing to keep in mind, is that you can create the new partition on your new hdd (which has to be created before you place the image on it) as via a partition program such as Free Fdisk (which can be downloaded and used for free as an ISO). Make sure you mark it as active as well during this process. ONLY DO THIS ON A BLANK HDD NOT DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO YOUR MACHINE. DON'T GO SCREWING AROUND WITH YOUR CURRENT HDD THAT HAS ALL OF YOUR DATA ON IT.

IF YOU DECIDE TO DO ALL OF THE FORMATTING OF THE NEW HDD WITH DISK MANAGEMENT VIA YOUR WINDOWS OS, MAKE SURE YOU CHOSE THE EXTERNAL DRIVE RATHER THAN YOUR C: DRIVE!!!! JUST BE CAREFUL.