jeo49

27 minutes ago, mettelus said:

You may want to consider editting the original post to something like "[Solved for now] Help with Focusrite 18i8"

Otherwise this thread will get SB comments till the cows come home... at that point GirlDairy's thread will come back to life.

aha!  I did not know that.  I will do that.  Thanks

39 minutes ago, RobertWS said:

Another thumbs down on Sound Blaster.  They screw their customers.

Safe to say we can put the SB question to bed now.  

cheers

14 hours ago, Cactus Music said:

If all else fails I would ditch the Dell and try a different computer. My son had issues with Dell's BIOS not performing smoothly at all with audio.  Off the shelf computers can sometimes be so full of weird bloatware that  gets in the way of using them for audio or video production

You are probably correct.  My XPS 8930 is 9 months old and I have upgraded the bios 3 times already.  I think Dell issued these to address Intel chip vulnerabilities (Spectre, Meltdown, Foreshadow??)    Each time I update bios I have to re-authenticate some software, such as Melodyne.  In fact I ran out of authentications and they had to give me more!   

I am just an amateur and this computer is the best I could afford and a new one is not in the cards.  I can see someone in a professional environment would need better, more reliable hardware.   But yes, I strongly suspect something is going on deep inside the bios/hardware/Windows 10 complex that is messing up audio.

Good comment. 

Ted

38 minutes ago, razor7music said:

I think the moral to the story here is, don't ask Dell  for advice on pro-grade audio interfaces!

Seriously, I could not stop laughing with this comment.   It is so true! 

In my humble defense though I was trying to ensure that I did nothing to hamper my warranty with Dell and to make sure everything on this computer that I might add has been tested and is known to be compatible.  I would not do this for any external USB device, but since I was considering cracking the case and putting  a card in (until I was wisely advise herein not to)  I asked Dell about proven compatibility.    I own all of the software on my computer. 

But you are totally correct their technical knowledge does not extend to pro-grade interfaces, or software, or hardware or ...

To me the moral of the story is perseverance.   When I had the extensive talks/tests with Focusrite tech service a few months ago his parting advice was that I could try their beta drivers if all else failed.   I didn't but I should have. 

cheers and thanks for all the attention that this post got.  Much appreciated.

Ted 

Thanks Mark

I just did a recording test with the new drivers and CbB    I put my mic in front of one monitor, plugged into Scarlett,  played some podcast and recorded it with CbB.   Simultaneously I ran LatencyMon.  I got 30 mins recording with no issues.  LatencyMon reports suitable for real-time audio with no drop outs,  I just listened to the entire recording and there were no drop outs.

Ok so that is definitely a significant step forward.   I am going to keep things just the way they are for now and try making some music with some synths, add some vocals by mic and use melodyne to correct my awful singing.  Here is hoping . I will update after a few days. 

Thanks so much Mark , I think you were the one with my solution.

cheers

Ted

1 hour ago, msmcleod said:

Before you do that... just in case this works, try deleting AUD.INI from %APPDATA%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core

I found after changing settings, or re-installing drivers, this can get corrupted. 

CbB will recreate it the next time you launch.

Oh - and if you do upgrade your firmware/mix control to the beta version, you'll still want to delete AUD.INI, so that CbB can generate it with the new driver settings.

I have upgraded the mix control and drivers and deleted aud.ini.  About to give CbB a try again.  

Question - did the executable I downloaded for the Scarlett beta driver actually update the firmware on the interface?  After the upgrade the About tab on theScarlet MixControl says firmware is 6.08,  Scarlett MixControl is 1.10 and and Driver is 4.54.104-715.   

Is that where I should be?

Thanks ever so much for all your help. I really am impressed by how quickly and fully folks responded.  Much appreciated.  

Here's hoping things work better with CbB now.

34 minutes ago, Variorum said:

Here's one more thing for everyone to add to their drop-out troubleshooting checklist... 

A few years ago when I started switching over to SSDs, I installed a third-party disk cache manager (inadvertently) called Crucial Storage Executive. After DAYS of trying to find the cause of sporadic drop-outs and glitches during playback and recording, LatencyMon hinted at a process related to that cache program. Once I disabled and removed it, my drop-out problem was gone forever.

Just something else to check for... 

That is a really good suggestion. Thank you.

42 minutes ago, Chuck E Baby said:

I have to agree with these sentiments. I use a Focusrite 18i8 and it has been rock solid through Sonar and Bandlab (using Melodyne as well but there has been an issue with Melodyne 4.2 so im using a previous version).

I'm glad that you had a good experience.  Mine has not been quite as smooth.

Yes, thanks I have used Latency Monitor extensively in discussions with Focusrite Tech Support.  They looked at the files I sent them and everything checked out ok.  After performing all the checks they suggested the issues seemed resolved.  They did say there were beta drivers I could try but since things appeared then to be working I did not try the beta drivers.  Something happened in the past few months.  

I just upgraded Scarlett 18i8 to the beta drivers and updated Scarlett mix control.   Lets see if that helps.

By the way, thanks to everyone for the great suggestions and help.  I really appreciate it.

4 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

One thing you *could* try is upgrading your 18i8 to the latest beta drivers.

A big warning though - this is a one-way process! Once you've upgraded, you're stuck with the latest version, and there's no way of reverting.

I've upgraded all 3 of my Scarletts, without issue, but the risk is still there.

The latest beta version is Scarlett MixControl 1.10b3 (it should be top of the page here: http://beta.focusrite.com/

That is best suggestion so far.  I will give it a try. I currently have Scarlett MixControl 1.8.128.0   and  Driver 2.5.1 API 3.  This is a first gen 18i8  Thanks

37 minutes ago, mettelus said:

+1 to the above. Additionally, are you recording audio? That is really the kicker...

For a desktop, the onboard Realtek would already provide everything a SB card would for playback only (probably more, since I believe most Realtek chips are surround capable these days). I assume you have a Realtek chip on your motherboard... so the SB is probably moot.

Shifting gears to your underlying issue... I switch between my Realtek and Focusrite Saffire frequently... one issue with the Focusrite may be that you need to have it online (and seen by the system), then explicitly set the onboard Realtek as the default Windows playback device. This is done under "Sound" in the Control Panel. *IF* the Realtek is already the default device, set it to the 18i8, then set it back to the Realtek (again, the "default" assignment must be done by the user, not Windows). Once that is done, Windows will see it but not use it... only programs you explicitly ask to use it will gain access to it. This may be the issue you are seeing with your 18i8. If not done, Windows will let any application use the Focusrite (and lock the bit-depth/sample rate), which can then lock out the Focusrite from DAW usage.

Disclaimer... using both the Realtek and Focusrite as mentioned above will require two sets of monitors (one for each sound system).

Yes I am recording audio.  Yes I have a Realtex chip onboard and I use it with no issue.  I quickly learned here that SB is moot (LOL thanks).  Yes I am aware of the need to switch the default devices on the Sound Control Panel.   I have managed all of that for some time and often things work just fine.  And I do have two sets of powered monitors as well.  I am wondering if there is some issue somewhere with the Windows 10 sound settings and perhaps their last update has screwed something up.   As mentioned before I just want something that will work reliably.  

Thanks for all the suggestions, folk . I really appreciate the help.

17 minutes ago, Byron Dickens said:

Why in God's name would you downgrade a Focusrite to a SoundBlaster? 

 

That would be like those idiots who take an $80K Mercedes S Class to the home, home, home of the $1 install to have some bootleg, BS  car stereo scotchlocked in when the dang car COMES FROM THE FACTORY  with a $2600 surround sound system that is custom designed for it.

 

FWIW, I  have no problems whatsoever with my 18i20.

 

If you gave some information as to the nature of your issues,  someone here might be able to help.  Could be something as simple as a flaky USB cable.

LOL.  Thanks for your response.  I have spent hours with Cakewalk Technical Support and Focusrite technical support and have gone through all of the steps they recommend including running a bunch of 3rd party utilities to test the system.  I did get better performance but still these glitches will show up sometimes.   As I said in my original post I was thinking that  perhaps new (different) hardware would help.  So I contacted Dell to ask them what they would recommend.  They recommended the Sound Blaster Z.  I guess they are more experienced with gamers although I clearly explained it was audio production that I wanted.  So I have learned quickly here not to switch to SoundBlaster.  Got it. 

Ok good to know.  Thanks for your reply.  Budget is around $500.  But let me explain a little more.

The Scarlet 18i8 that I now use has all the inputs that I need for most recording production (4 XLR/ 1/4 in combo) plus 2 x 1/4" line in.    It has low latency and works really well with my system.   If I need more inputs and portability I use the Zoom R24.    If these things worked consistently well with CBL then I would need nothing further.

The problem is I get drop outs with CBL but not Ableton Live 10 lite which I sometimes use and not with Melodyne studio 4.2 when I record directly into it.  After long testing and conversations with Focusrite I concluded that there is nothing wrong with the Scarlet interface.  It just doesn't like to work with CBL.  I have so much invested with the old Sonar Platinum both in terms of $ already spent and time spent learning it that I am very reluctant to leave CBL.  But I just can't get it working reliably.  I spend more time troubleshooting than recording. 

So I thought maybe some new hardware would do the trick. 

What are your thoughts on internal sound card versus USB 2 ?  

Ted

Hello folks.  I am thinking of getting a new internal sound card for my music recording and production.  I want the new device to be fully compatible with Cakewalk by Bandlab (CBL).   I currently use two external usb audio interfaces.   Mostly I use a first generation Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 and sometimes use a Zoom R24 interface.   Both of these are quite old and from time to time I have issues using them with CBL.  I won't go into all the details but basically I have concluded that perhaps the best way forward to make music instead of dealing constantly with technical support, is to retire my USB devices and just buy a really good internal sound card that has been tested to work well with my system.  I contacted Dell and they recommended the Sound Blaster Z (PCie).   My own internet research confirmed that this card was a very good choice. 

I would like to know what you folks think about this card, and how it works with Cakewalk by Bandlab or if you have other recommendation.  

Back in 2015 I was talking quite a bit to Tech support at both Celemony and Cakewalk.  Celemony acknowledged the problem and said they were working with Cakewalk to fix the ARA integration issues.  Frankly, I don't think they ever fixed it entirely.  At least I have never got Melodyne and Sonar (Cakewalk) to work together smoothly.  I have also spent many hours with tech support at Focusrite thinking my Scarlett 18i8 was the issue.  We tried all sorts of utilities testing all aspects of the audio interface and everything tested out ok.  My computer is a new Dell XPS 8930 with 32 G ram and runs flawlessly, except when running Cakewalk by Bandlab.   I was really hopeful when the last Melodyne update came out a few months ago.  While it did fix some freezing issues and did work better with CBL, all of the issues are not fixed, for me at least.  I still use Melodyne mostly in the standalone mode to avoid the issues.  It is SO frustrating to spend more time with tech support than actually making music. 

I have Melodyne Studio 4.2.1.003 64 bit  and Cakewalk by Bandlab  (CBL) 2019.03 build 20, 64 bit.