Crackles and pops with Audiophile card - very odd

[karimelm]

Hello

I have finally fixed my \"Error Code 5: Unable to Allocate Memory\" problem while loading large performances and now have a terrible case of the crackles and popping sounds when the performance plays.

I made an interesting discovery while trying to record the crackles for uploading to this site. First of all, what I heard was almost completely ruined with crackles. I exported it to MP3 to reduce the file size and listened to it again – had less crackles and pops but still occurred every second or so. I tried listening to the MP3 recording once more on my friend’s laptop but was shocked to find no crackles present at all! There was a bit of skipping in the audio, but no cracks!

I have made extensive attempts to optimize my Win XP machine using the Tascam guide and several other optimization for digital audio workstation guides. These helped but did not eliminate the problem all together.

I am considering purchasing a second, faster hard drive (10,000 with 5 msec seek) to store the samples on. My friend advised me I might want to purchase a RAID controller to reduce the time between the two hard drives even further but I am just not sure if this will improvement my crackles or pops any.

The midi file is gigantic – 450 measures and 32 midi channels - which of course doesn’t help my situation any.

Any suggestions on getting past the crackles? Does it sound like it is my speakers (or sound card) that are the cause of the problem since the audio MP3 is ok (except for the audio cut off) on another computer?

My equipment:
•Dell Pentium IV - 2 gigahertz, 1 gig of RAM, 2 gig of Virtual RAM
•Windows XP
•80 gig hard drive (7200 RPM)
•Audiophile 2496
•Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
•GVox Encore 4.5, Cakewalk Sonar, Gigastudio 96 V2.5305

Thanks!
Karim

[gmontem]

The crackles and pops may be a result of your Audiophile\'s DMA buffer size latency being too small (or maybe too large?). Go to your M Audio Delta Control Panel under the tab Hardware Settings and try a different size. You may also need to uncheck Use Windows Default for MME found below the latency setting.

[Haydn]

Don\'t know if this issue is related or not. My father-in-law also has a Dell with the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card in it. I could not get audio files to play properly on this system - neither wave or mp3 files. Messed around with it for a long time and just could not find a solution to the issue. I was getting regular pops and clicks from both files on audio cd\'s and directly from the hard drive. Maybe try disabling the Turtle Beach card to see if this improves the issue.

[TEMPS]

I used to have a hideous problem with this sound card. I have since fixed most of the clicks and pops, but every once in awhile they still occur out of nowhere. I\'m not sure why. I wish that I had an explanation, but I know that many people have had problems using giga with this card. I may end up switching at some point, but I\'m still hoping that it\'s the Audiophile drivers and that midiman will fix them. Hope springs eternal.

[Sapkiller]

Hi Temps
I use W2K and Sonar on a Dell with a Hoontech
C-Port so I don\'t know if this will help you, but when I switched to W2K, I suddenly got pops and
clicks even when playing just one track of audio.
I increased the DMA buffer size in Sonar
(on the driver profiles tab of Audio options)
and it went away, so maybe you should just give it try.

regards
Bjarne

[tabbu]

Try installing new videodrivers. Yeah, it\'s grazy but it solved my problems with audiophile. Somehow XP\'s drivers were that bad...

Tabbu

[stevefu]

Also try turning down or completely turning off your graphics Hardware Acceleration (right-click desktop, Properties, Settings, Advanced, Troubleshooting, set slider to \'None\'). I also unchecked \'enable write combining\' on that page.

[VocalSampleSeeker]

I had a similar problem with a similar system: win xp, sonar, gs 160. Possibly it came because I tried to use the existing soundblaster card in addition to the Audiophile, but it did not go away even when I took out the Soundblaster. Fixed it two ways:

(1) a sonar audio option to \"always use MME\" instead of \"WDM\"

(2) Better: a new driver for Audiophile 2496 on XP offered by M-Audio within the last few days fixed it, though I wondered if just the uninstall-reinstall of the drivers would have worked too; then the WDM option worked fine.

[TEMPS]

Thanks for the update on the audiophile driver. I\'ll install it tonight. This update sounds like it might do the trick.

[TEMPS]

The update did the trick. Thanks again.

[MDesigner]

Aren\'t those beta drivers? The filename is Delta_29x12_Pro.EXE, right?