Horrible crackling and stuttering in Cubase LE

Daftendirekt

Hi!

I'll just give you a little background here:

I'm not seriously into electronic music production, mainly a rock music chap, I just dabble for fun. I mainly use whatever free VSTi's, etc. I can get my hands on, don't have a computer dedicated to music production (yet).

Up until now, this has all worked fine for me.

Recently however, Cubase LE has just gone to hell on me. My settings seemed to reset themselves (PC got attacked by spyware or something, but that's sorted now). So I tinkered around with them a bit and got them back to normal.

Now though, whenever I play back the track I'm working on, the sound crackles and splutters horribly, the rhythm jumps around, and the pitch sounds like it's melting. Then it'll stop altogether for a moment, PC loads for a few seconds, and then the playback continues normally (not for long though). I'm using quite a few VST instruments and effects and some audio, but the VST performance meter is only hitting the halfway mark.

I think I've tried EVERYTHING here, different buffer settings, different latency settings among other things. I guess it's a possibility that my PC is just giving up on me, but it's all happened very suddenly. While my PC isn't exactly optimised for working with music, it's done the the job so far.

If anyone can help me out here, I'll build a little shrine to you in my room and burn incense on it every night for the rest of my life.

Thanks for reading!

PaulBrewer

Increase Buffer Size !

dav nagle

The larger the buffer size the less crackle. A large buffer for example 2048 will take the crackles and pops out but you will suffer from a huge delay on your keyboard (this is called latency). The more memory your pc has the faster applicaions will process and load. The more processors and the faster processors like the new Intel I7 willl allow you to run more plug ins, the combination of both is the lethal injection to making stress free tunage. Now get on you bike scamp! Gaming and the likes on your MC (music computer) then stop! Best of luck ..

frobisher

Even by just reading the thread title I guessed buffer too. Give it a go and see how you get on.

PaulBrewer

Actually, on reading the description it could be clocking too. I guess it should be on internal and not following Midi Time Code or suchlike.

Daftendirekt

Thanks for the replies. I already have the buffer size set to the maximum (although the maximum it seems to allow me is 256kb) and the clock source set to internal, no joy though.

Any other ideas?

DamagedTrax

Daftendirekt wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I already have the buffer size set to the maximum (although the maximum it seems to allow me is 256kb) and the clock source set to internal, no joy though.

Any other ideas?

what soundcard are you using that only offers a buffer size of 256??? :eek::eek:

if its something like a creative or one that ships with your PC then you've found your problem.

if this is the case download drivers called "asioforall" - this should sort your problem when you select them in cubase but its not an ideal solution. you should be looking at a dedicated soundcard, doesnt have to break the bank. m-audio do one for about €100 that will suit your needs perfectly

PMI

Please note, it was working fine in top post......

I would be thinking of a spyware/adware/virus thing possibly accessing the drive at all times....

Youve tried buffer size? have you updated drivers? this actually can be a problem rather than a help sometimes.....

What is the spec of system, processor etc..? graphics?

PaulBrewer

PMI wrote: »

I would be thinking of a spyware/adware/virus thing possibly accessing the drive at all times....
/QUOTE]

I'd never have thought of that - could that happen?

dav nagle

Send us your system spec please?

Daftendirekt

Ah! Got it. Downloaded ASIO For All and that sorted it. I know it's essentially just a band aid solution, but for now it'll do.

Thanks for all the replies!

TelePaul

Daftendirekt wrote: »

Ah! Got it. Downloaded ASIO For All and that sorted it. I know it's essentially just a band aid solution, but for now it'll do.

Thanks for all the replies!

Your usb/firewire sound-card's drivers should be putting ASIO to shame. ASIO is a good alternative to your stock sound-card but it'a weird that it's out performing your dedicated drivers. I generally disable all non-essential programs when I record; internet, anti-virus etc. Defragment your HD.

DamagedTrax

TelePaul wrote: »

ASIO is a good alternative to your stock sound-card but it'a weird that it's out performing your dedicated drivers.

eh? asio will out perform almost all drivers!

TelePaul

DamagedTrax wrote: »

eh? asio will out perform almost all drivers!

Sorry, I meant ASIO4ALL, not the Audio Stream In/Out protocol itself.

DamagedTrax

TelePaul wrote: »

Sorry, I meant ASIO4ALL, not the Audio Stream In/Out protocol itself.

asioforall is fairly spot on these days. i play all my gigs thru it on ableton and ive never had a hickup

dav nagle

Glad you got it fixed, if you need any help just ask, we are all good people here on Boards, except for me :pac::pac:

Daftendirekt

dav nagle wrote: »

Glad you got it fixed, if you need any help just ask, we are all good people here on Boards, except for me :pac::pac:

Yup, it's all good now, turned out Ad-Aware was running in the background, which probably didn't help matters.

Thanks for all the help, much appreciated.

PMI

DamagedTrax wrote: »

asioforall is fairly spot on these days. i play all my gigs thru it on ableton and ive never had a hickup

I use it as a secondary backup live and is great knowings its there as you said cause it does what it says on the tin piece of mind