Clicks and pops

[Blackbelt]

When I play any gig file via an external keyboard I get intermittent clicks and pops that seem independent of the current \"notes in use\".

However, if I record a “note intensive” Joplin tune (Maple Leaf Rag) in cakewalk and play it back via cakewalk the clicks and pops do not appear (even though I hear them while recording). In this scenario the midi goes directly from cakewalk to GigaStudio without involving any hardware.

I checked the system properties and the Soundblaster and the USB (AMT8) are on the same interrupt (10). But Win98 won’t let me move either to a different interrupt!

Any ideas on what to do to fix this?

My system:

Celeron 300A @450MHZ
Seagate Barracuda ST320420A (7200/8.2 ms)
Soundblaster Live Value
Emagic AMT8
Win98 SE
Cakewalk 9.03
GigaStudio 160 2.01.26

[SteveMitchell]

Hi Blackbelt - It sounds like the USB port and the PCI slot your SBLive is installed in are set to use the same PCI INT (common, and in a lot of cases, OK, but not with audio). Move the SBLive to another PCI slot.


Steve Mitchell
The Classical MIDI Resource (\"http://www.classicalmidiresource.com\")
The CMR Players (\"http://www.mp3.com/cmrplayers\")

[Blackbelt]

Ok, I tried moving the PCI cards so that the soundblaster had an exclusive interrupt. This did not fix the problem!

However, my AMT8 Midi interface supports either a USB or COM port interface into the computer. So I disabled the USB driver and installed the COM driver. After rebooting the clicks and pops are gone. It appears the the USB Midi was \"hogging\" the PCI bus and stopping the Soundblaster from keeping the audio stream going.

Now I need to contact EMagic and see about a new USB driver....