Mr. Torture

19 minutes ago, hockeyjx said:

It really is not hard these days. Tons of Youtube videos out there. It is just being thorough and "measuring a few times and cutting once" kind of approach. I have yet to build a pc that didn't boot up correctly the first time. There are resources to pick out your parts, and this forum is a great place to ask as well.

I'd say the biggest things are: understanding what you do with the DAW to determine the horsepower (samples and vsts require space and memory), not skimping on the motherboard/processor/memory (in other words, stick to the know names IMO - like ASUS/INTEL/CRUCIAL for me) and having a realistic budget. I'd say for about $1500-1750, you can build a super solid machine that will last for years. I think you can get Windows 11 free now as well.

Would you mind telling me what case you would purchase? I would like to build something that has 3 SSD drives, I9 processor and 32 gigs of Ram.

23 minutes ago, John Vere said:

I have no experience with modern PCIe cards so the wrong person to ask. It would sure be worth looking into. Go read the reviews. I think that  USB has become just as fast as other connections and the main reason PCI cards died was there's a chance of RF interference when placing audio circuits inside a PC.  

Is this the one you mean? https://www.rme-audio.de/hdspe-aio-pro.html

Way out of my league. Seems you would need a $4,000 console to go with this.  

That's the one, I have the previous version one now.

26 minutes ago, John Vere said:

First you should upgrade your audio interface. If it’s drivers are no longer supported then that might be your issue right now. It’s a shame that PCI audio interfaces faded away.

I have one made in 2004 by Card Deluxe that still runs , the driver was last updated in 2015 for W10. How’s that for support! But it only works in my old DAW which still had a PCI slot. 
RME is definitely the way to go if you have the cash. I made a video about how to look for interfaces 

 

RME still makes the same interface, PCIe. Updated of course, it's called the "Pro" now.  I prefer those type.  Would you suggest sticking with a PCIe if I can?

7 minutes ago, hockeyjx said:

$3700? I built my own, and it was only about $1200

Was it hard to do? I'm not overly computer builder savvy, so it scares me a bit.

I cannot comment on their laptops but my PC Audio labs desktop is still going after 12 years. I am starting to experience buffer issues now that I was forced into windows 10, but I hope to get those resolved.

On 2/24/2022 at 11:10 AM, John Vere said:

256 is what I use. There’s no reason to go lower unless you use real time effects like guitar sims. 
I have a brand new Motu interface and it will start giving me static on playback if I go below 256. And my projects are very simple compared to most. 

I’m also looking at an upgrade but right now is a bad time to buy. You can’t even buy a decent mid priced video card right now. 

I run a few VST's like Superior drummer, EZ Bass and keyboards. at 256 I start to get crackling, it's just really annoying especially since I could easily run this stuff in windows 7 with buffers at 64. I have done everything I can to optimize, all my drivers and firmware are up to date. I use a PCIe RME soundcard and they have always been rock solid. The computer was built by PC Audio labs. I just think maybe it's time to get a new sled, but holy smokes.. I am looking at around $3700... Yikes!

On 3/5/2022 at 11:34 PM, Mike Rainey said:

Mr. Torture, have you checked your CPU temperature? Thermal paste has a finite lifespan, you might be due for a fresh application of it.

 It should be pretty easy to check the temps, if they're high your CPU might be throttling. I'm not sure how likely it is, but I thought it was worth mentioning since it should be pretty easy to check (and rule out) if it's a problem for your system.

Certainly a good idea to check! 

I get it with the experience and all that, but I have yet to hear a mix that good out of a home or even project studio that sounds that good. I have been recording since 1989, I went through 4 tracks, reel to reel, adat’s then to DAW’s and never had a mix that good.  I scour the internet, you tube, forums and I hear home studio quality. Even local studios to me in my small city have not produced anything like that, I have even sent them songs to mix and they come out amateur. You would think over 30 years I would get lucky once with a mix.

I appreciate everyone here and have picked up a lot of knowledge over the years. I just hear mixed like that and it makes me wanna hang it all up. Been at it so long and never happy with my mixes. Just ranting…

How is it that every mix, no matter what band, or if you like the song or not always sounds so professional? I have been recording many years and have never come close to achieving what these studios can seem to do effortlessly. No matter simple progressions, a lot of instruments or just a few. They always seem to sound bigger and better. Let's face it, with digital recording, access to vast knowledge on the Internet and room treatment, we should be able to match this quality, however I just never have been able to. It's downright depressing..

On 11/28/2021 at 7:29 AM, msmcleod said:

1. Open Settings from the Windows Start menu
2. Click "Update & Security"
3. Click "Windows Security" on the left
4. In the main window, click "Virus & threat protection"
5. Under the "Virus & threat protection settings" header, click "Manage settings"
6. Scroll down to "Exclusions" and click "Add or remove exclusions"
7. Click the "+ Add an exclusion" button, selecting folder for each of the following, and any other VST folders/sample directories:
    C:\Cakewalk Content
    C:\Cakewalk Projects
    C:\Program Files\Cakewalk
    C:\Users\[yourusername]\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk
    C:\Program Files\VstPlugins
    C:\Program Files\Steinberg\vstplugins
    C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
    C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2
    C:\Program Files (x86)\VstPlugins
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\vstplugins
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST2

If your global audio folder is different from C:\Cakewalk Content, add that too.   You may also want to add any plugin specific directories within your Documents folder.

WARNING - because you're disabling virus protection for VST plugins, you should manually scan any VST plugins / plugin installers before you install them.

If you're using any cloud sync apps (e.g. OneDrive / Dropbox etc), you should either also exclude these directories, or at least make sure those apps are disabled when running Cakewalk.
 

Thank you, I will do this tonight. Seems I cannot record at anything less than 256 on the buffer, I should be able to record at 64, I believe I used to be able to when I was with windows 7.

I watched some YouTube tube videos on optimizing for windows 10, a bunch of settings needed to be changed.,I also updated my drivers, seems to be good for now, I will post again in a few days how it’s going. Thanks everyone!!

49 minutes ago, Sheens said:

Mr Torture,  I have a 10 year old budget Medion desktop that runs perfect on high sample rates, even at the lowest buffer size.

Maybe it's not the computer itself, or just 1 component that's causing the prob. 

For a start I would disable '64 bit engine'  and check settings in Sonar, fe.  try cache reading en/disable, etc. 

Also you could dowload a free latencymon  software tool, that might show you what the problem is.

 

Thanks, do you know of any guides I could follow to diagnose the issue I am having? You gave me a couple things to check, I appreciate that!

Thanks, I have experienced a lot of freezing lately running 24bit 48k with minimal instruments. Even with the buffers set pretty high.

the computer was optimized from PC audio labs when I bought it, but went through the windows 10 upgrade and it was never the same.

I went through and made sure all the settings are good and they are, I don’t know.. maybe the old girl is just tired..

computers are running $3K for anything decent, was hoping I could get another year out of mine.

My current processor is the 3.50GHZ Intel Core I7-3770k and I run 32 gigs of Ram. 
 

is that an outdated processor?

I discussed this briefly on another thread concerning sample rates. My computer is over 10 years old, I think it's time for an upgrade. I had it built at PC Audio labs, but am open for suggestions to other places. I have had really good luck with this computer and have no issues going back to them, but I like to keep options open. 

Also, what should I get for a processor? I want something that can keep up with multiple plugs. Thanks!

On 11/22/2021 at 9:17 AM, Alan Tubbs said:

You deserve a new computer.

Haha, I do for sure. Even at 24bit 48K Cakewalk will lock up on me during playback, even with buffers set to over 1,000

I have a 10 year old computer, purchased new from PC Audio labs. Computer has always worked great, but lately I have looking at recording in higher sample rates, such as 96K.

The old sled just cant take it, even with everything optimized on the computer. Pops, clicks etc...

My question is: Do sample rates matter that much? If I record at 48K versus 96K will it make that big of a difference?

Thanks!

21 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said:

@Mr. Torture I had vaguely similar issues with my Audient EVO 4... seems it was driver related. BUT maybe the solution outlined setting the windows Sound Playback default format to the same sample rate as CW

 

 

Mine are set the same for Cakewalk and windows sound. Old sound card is disabled, only the RME is showing.

21 hours ago, John Vere said:

https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

 

You buffer setting is obviously set to low. I have to run a 256 with my Motu M4. I can get to 128 with my Scarlett but some projects with lots of goodies will crackle. And this is my Latency monitor report.  

 

I use to run at 64 with zero issues and multiple amp sims, VST's etc. going. Now I have to run at 256 just to record one guitar track without crackling & popping.

Changing thread schedule didn't work. Honestly, all my trouble began when I was forced to upgrade to windows 10, never a lick of problems before that. I opened a new project with one instance of superior drummer only, set superior to 16 bit mode, used the smallest kit (Around 500 mb's) 

Set buffers to 64 and if I play any single drum it's all distorted and I get that clicking noise again.

Where do I get a latency monitor? I have never had to do any of this stuff, my PC has been trouble free for many years until Microsoft forced me into this.

Thanks, I will try that tonight!

2 hours ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

Try setting your Thread Scheduling Model to Agressive in Advanced Settings.

How is that done?

Here is CW with buffers at 128, yet everything sounds broken up and has this insidious clicking going on. I have 2 tracks of guitars with no plugins, One instance of superior drummer. That's all...

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz   3.49 GHz

32 Gigs of RAM

I ended up re-installing the drivers and now I have the ASIO drivers working. It’s very strange. At first when I got ASIO working it had massive dropouts. Only one audio track going in the whole session and it wouldn’t play more than 3 seconds, That was having it set at 2,000 + samples. 
 

after rebooting, changing where I plug in the usb on the computer I can now run the machine at 64 samples with no issues at all.