lmu2002

Great! My hopes were up when I read about the improved gaming performance. Now I just have to wait for the bios support for my B450 board.

I'm using Biasfx2 with no issues. Just make sure the path to the .dll (e.g. BIAS FX 2_x64.dll) is listed in  Cakewalk VST settings scan paths. You need to locate the .dll, not the executable program.

If this doesn't fix the issue then a reinstall could help.

I reinstalled audio driver (the third time) and it fixed the problem. There's been several win10 updates lately which could have something to do with it. Or planets aligning in an ideal constellation. Whatever it was, I'm relieved.

I started thinking this a little bit further.

If I had a new computer with storage options open I would buy the biggest m.2 drive I can afford and leave the other slot(s) free for future additions. As computers have a limited number of m.2 slots (1-3) it would not make sense filling the slots with smaller drives. The price of the drives are also getting cheaper every year. The  new pcie  4.0 offers even faster max read/write speeds (3GB-5GB per second), twice the speed of pcie 3.0. However, the full speed in both cases is available only on the bigger drives (1TB and over). And also, most likely only the first m.2 slot runs at the maximum speed (via cpu instead of chipset) which also favours the idea of just one disc.

To give a perspective regarding  DAW environment, if you have a 5min song with 50 full length audio tracks in 192KHz/24bit, your project is less than 10GB in size. So yes, one drive is fully capable of handling  unpacked audio of any sized project, even if all of your software is on the same disc. In real life you obviously don't  reach the benchmarked maximum speeds  but I hope this gives you a good picture of the current m.2 SSD speeds.

I'm not sure if two discs are considerably better if the one drive is big enough. As SSD doesn't have a moving reader head like HDD it shouldn't be an issue. However, for the same reason logical discs don't really give you any benefit either (separate folders will do) . Last time I had any issues with drive speeds were 20 years ago. Audio is light and easy for SSD drives. And nothing stops you trying with one disc, just add another if you run out of space.

Maybe users with gigantic sampler files can introduce a scenario where separate SSD drives are recommended.

On 8/20/2020 at 1:34 AM, Starship Krupa said:

Okay, @aidan o driscoll, @lmu2002, and @StudioNSFW, since your panacea is for him to buy an audio interface when all he would be using it for is a playback device, please, explain, in detail why he needs to do that, and in particular, martsave, how doing so would "fix" the problem he's having with MSoundFactory.

Every computer comes with a Realtek hardware CODEC on its motherboard, which can be run in WASAPI mode. Oscar, the OP, has stated that he is a composer/producer who works entirely via Piano Roll methods. He doesn't even require low latency for realtime MIDI performance.

School me. Why does he need to drop over a hundy on an external interface just so he can listen to a 2-channel playback?

I really don't know, you all obviously have more information than I do, you sound very confident. I only have my ears to go by, which tell me that when I plug my laptop into my monitoring system via its 1/8" out, using WASAPI in either mode or ASIO4ALL, it sounds fine. Excellent even.

I've already heard plenty of times that all Realtek hardware CODEC's are inadequate to the task of audio playback, so I don't need to be told it again in some variation or other. Yes, I know, I just need to be educated as to in what way they're inadequate,  how they're inadequate. If plugging my mixing cans directly into my laptop and going for it is compromising the final product vs. lugging around an external D/A converter, I want to know before I ruin any more mixes. I also want to warn my friends who don't read Internet forums and therefore don't know any better.

I'm not sure if I can educate you as you seem to know  much more about Realtek than I. But as the OP has a very specific wish, to be able to draw such real time piano roll curves with 1/16th notes, it's not exactly just playback anymore. Could be the CPU or many other things that causes the audio drop out, but I would just pick a cheapo second hand audio interface to rule out any asio vs wasapi vs mme issues. A few years ago I bought a nice old M-audio interface for 30€ when I was undecided what to buy next. It worked great. If not anything else, you get a volume knob on your desk compared to an integrated audio chip.

However, I started to be curious and must check how my Realtek sounds  😀

Edit. My Realtek sounds just fine. A lot different from my SPL card but absolutely usable when you let your ears to learn how it sounds. But not very powerful: with 80ohm cans they sound a bit quiet even with mastered material. Wasapi shared driver looks lighter and better balanced between cores  on CPU than my soundcard (in Cakewalk). I feel now educated.

It would be great though, graphics card computing audio plugins. There's tons of muscle idling when working with audio/music like Per Westin just stated above.

I would seriously consider a second hand sound card. You can get a decent one if you skip one night out with the boys and save the money for a soundcard. Actually very decent if you compare to the integrated ones which are meant to playback just simple stereo sound.

2 hours ago, Andy Hooper said:

Is the 3rd Gen Ryzen working well for you?

Yes. It's been a great cpu  for the past year. I hope my motherboard will eventually get the support for the 4th gen Ryzens too.

Every computer has it's limits. Mine works better with 'plugin load balancing' unchecked.

2 hours ago, Chappel said:

Regarding the M.2 SSD, they use two SATA lanes instead of the one other components use. Something to consider if one plans on putting extra hard drives in the case, or wants to use two DVD drives for copying purposes.

Good point. When using an m.2 drive you can use only 4 sata ports/drives  with a B450 mother board. If you need more you must get a B550 or X570 series board which also give you  PCIe Gen4 for futher future proof.

I'm curious what the audio specific hardware means exactly in terms of pc components such as motherboard, ram memory or cpu. I know Intel cpus seem  faster in extremely low buffer situations (but then Amd typically gives you more cores/threads for the  price), and X570 boards have an extra chipset fan on board which can be a pain.  And that an idle/desktop stopping Gpu fan is desirable for an audio pc. Other than that, I'm clueless.  Maybe I've been lucky but all the components I have bought have been working great with audio. Surely the more expensive stuff give you more power (and better cases likely keep the noise in the box better) but that should be obvious.

Plenty of very good thoughts from every one! Would be nice to see a comment from the OP.

Stock pc tends to be noisy and filled with low end components (power supply, motherboard, fans etc.) and unnecessary software that fill/slow your system.   If you have a possibility to buy a custom build pc you'd be more likely to use it longer and happier. Plus you get a nice clean Win10 install to start with.

Suggested recipe:

amd ryzen 3600 or 3700 (€200 or €350)

B450 motherboard (e.g. the pro series from Asus or MSI starting from €100)

2*8 Gb 3200 MHz ram (€80)

250Gb m.2 ssd for operating system (€80), Kingston offers good value

500Gb or 1000Gb sata ssd for audio and video (€70 or €120)

Nvidia 4 Gb 1050 or 1650 graphics card (€150-€200)

Case and 550w  power supply (€60 and €80)

add a few additional case fans to keep it ventilated (€20-€40)

For assembly don't pay over €100

You didn't mention budget. But this can work as a rough guide line which others can comment. At least it's more specific than 'don't buy a Dell' 😀

10 hours ago, Craig Anderton said:

Why not just load a cab simulator into your track, and monitor through that? 

Oh yes, that's an option. Or do it properly with a mic. But I plan to use  it mostly  as a practice toy. I was just curious what else it could be used for.

Ok. That's what I thought.

I just consider buying a Boss Katana kombo. Which begs the question: can I use it simultaneously with my current interface? There's a line out in case it doesn't, but the provided usb outputs the signal through a cab simulator. Which could be cool.

Yes. Both the input and output to focusrite. Then cw doesn't feed anything into creative sb. Just remember to hook your phones/speakers to focusrite to hear the music.

One more thought: try turning off your anti virus software and also wifi .  They can  mess your audio stream if not compatible with your sound drivers etc.

Maybe you could rule out plugins by freezing the tracks with vst on them. And then try the usb port as it's easy and quick test. And then inspect the usual culprits: wifi and antivirus.

Looks good to me. One benefit of having a fatter waveform is the visual cue you get in the track view (you can see where accents are etc). But as said above you can adjust the scale to your liking. Good luck with your recordings!

This is very nice! It's hard to judge the mix because I enjoy the music and playing so much. I get a  lot of Mezzoforte vibe here

A couple of things you could try to improve this further:

- everything  sounds   nice open wide stereo but drums are very narrow, maybe a wider reverb on the snare wouldn't hurt

- the kick is very snappy in this context and quite hard rock, you could try soften the hit/attack (with a Cakewalk percussion strip if you have it) or try another sample, or just cut between 2-4kHz

- are you sure you want to have the sax and guitar unison such a uniform sound? Why not separate them a bit: other brighter than the other and/or pan them a bit apart

Anyway, I could listen to this all day and forget about lockdowns and place myself somewhere warm and a drink in my hand and and...

Well done!!

14 hours ago, David Sprouse said:

Liked the music and animation alot.  What are the lyrics?

Thanks David! It's about disappointment and regret.

Thanks Douglas and Wookiee!

Vocalsynth is a godsend for crap singers like me. From unusable to bearable is a major jump in my books. You can play the vocals with your midi keyboard once you have recorded something that has words and decent rhythm. Obviously better singing gives better results. And I'm not insisting it will work for everybody and all styles of music. Worth trying at least!

10 hours ago, Barry Seymour said:

It works! You may not consider yourself a singer, but the vocals work here.

Cool animation. Where did it come from?

Thanks Barry! I might be encouraged carefully using my voice in future songs. The key being 'works here' so not gonna push it too far.

I wanted imagery to support the audio and searched hours for suitable stuff with such a retrospect view. Couldn't possibly produce  something like that myself. Beats a static photo doesn't it!

Thanks DeeringAmps! Happy to see someone liking it!

A new song I wrote. As I waited forever finding a vocalist to contribute my one man band, I eventually gave up and did the vocals myself with the help of newly purchased Vocalsynth2.

Guitars and bass go through BiasFx2 in case anyone is interested. The rest is  quite basic vsti stuff. I hope you like it!

https://youtu.be/ZXVmwUCkDHg

I have several pairs. But lately I have only used Beyerdynamic Custom Studio. They are great for anything really, and nicely priced.