David Grammerstorf Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 Ok, this is driving me crazy. I'm getting clicks and momentary dropouts during playback, both when listening and trying to record. I've tried adjusting the buffer size from my Interface, as well as playing around with the File System I/O buffer size, but to no avail. Here's what I'm running: Latest version of Cakewalk Tascam US 4x4 Interface (latest drivers) 2020 HP Spectre x360 laptop with 11 gen i7 processor, SSD, 16gb ram I'm not asking a lot right of the software and hardware right now... just recording drums in three channels while listening to one guide track. I'm nowhere near peak CPU usage. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 (edited) Tascam make good interfaces and the new generation seem to have real good drivers. I still use a us1641 without issue. I set it at Normal. The control panel doesn't use numbers but I think that's 256. I see the 4x4 is NOT bus powered - good. because I was going to point my finger at that. I'm having to buy a PCI USB card for my Motu M4 just because of stupid bus power. I'm getting pour sound right now with simple projects just like you. Motu sent me this document you might want to read. Troubleshooting USB Audio Problems on Windows.pdf I might be sending my Motu back and Tascam is high on my list of replacements. The Scarlett 4i4 is missing to many features compaired to the Tascam and the Motu. And having a power supply is one of them. Edited December 30, 2020 by John Vere 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Grammerstorf Posted December 31, 2020 Author Share Posted December 31, 2020 Thanks John! I've fiddled with the buffer quite a bit, starting a 256 and going both up and down. I also just ran through the list on the Motu PDF you uploaded. I'm still getting those issues oddly. Since I've toyed with all of the settings I can think of in Cakewalk, I'm thinking it's probably Tascam-hardware related. I'm going to try posting there as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slartabartfast Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon On a "new" system it is likely some setting is not optimal, or a "feature" not present on older systems is the problem. Do you have the problem on the old system? Run latencymon. Many people find that interrupts from their wireless networking is the problem, but it could be a lot of other issues. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidan o driscoll Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 (edited) @David Grammerstorf I am encountering the same issue on my Core i5 laptop ( 16gb ram, nvidia card, 2tb hybrid drive ). My audio I/F is a new Audient EVO 4. I cannot play through a whole track without hearing distorted sounds, drop outs ( Audio Engine Dropout 18 ) even if I solo each track. Like you I have the latest updated drivers for evo, messed around with both sample rate and asio buffer sizes. No avail, same problem. I posted about this here a few weeks back, no real solution. I do reckon it seems to be under the latest CW update that this is happening. I am going to try the same vstis in Ableton and Reason now just to see if I get similar BUT I think I did that previously and it seems to be definitely particular to CW. I am using a wav bass drum audio track + 3 Cherry Audio DCO-106 synth track lines. I am now at a point that I cannot work with CW .. Actually can you downgrade CW to previous version? Edited January 1, 2021 by aidan o driscoll 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Grammerstorf Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 Thanks slartabartfast... I was hoping running in airplane mode would avoid issues from the LAN, but I will download this and try it shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twelvetone Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 In my experience HP have stuff running in the background that supposedly optimizes user experience but in fact sucks resources. I'd look to see what HP processes are running and if any are using excessive CPU etc., google them and see what others have done about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Somebody else was recently having issues and turned out the USB cable supplied with the interface was the cause. My main DAW is a HP and yes they come with bloatware like all off the shelf computers so it's always the first thing anyone should do is go into the Apps tab in settings and start uninstalling as much as you can. But that said when I first used the computer it worked perfectly without tweaking but that's a desktop, laptops seem worse for using as a DAW. It's sometimes in the BIOS where the problems hide. My son bought a Dell laptop and it was just unusable for recording. It was the BIOS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Grammerstorf Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 Okay, I ran LatencyMon. I'm getting the following conculsion: "Your system seems to be having difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks. You may experience drop outs, clicks or pops due to buffer underruns. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setups. Check for BIOS updates." So... what now? In HP's "Command center" I've set the Device Mode to "performance." (This seems to be HP's system for managing power throttle/battery management). Look for a BIOS update? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Grammerstorf Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 It also says, "Highest reported DPC routine execution is from wdf01000.sys- kernel mode driver ramework runtime, Microsoft Corp" Is that the issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacab Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 1 hour ago, David Grammerstorf said: So... what now? In HP's "Command center" I've set the Device Mode to "performance." (This seems to be HP's system for managing power throttle/battery Try losing the HP "Command Center". Often times the unnecessary "extras" that are preinstalled by the PC manufacturer can interfere with real-time audio. That is why some music production folks feel it worth the effort to wipe the drive of a store bought PC, and then clean install Windows from scratch, using Windows Media Creation tool, and not the manufacturers system recovery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Grammerstorf Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 On it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Grammerstorf Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 Sadly, killing HP Command Center and a couple of other little HP programs didn't do the trick. I'm still getting some windows drivers as the culprits in the reports from LatencyMon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacab Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 I ran across this post at HP Support: HP Spectre x360 - 13-aw0111tu - DPC Latency and Realtime Audio Issues https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/HP-Spectre-x360-13-aw0111tu-DPC-Latency-and-Realtime-Audio/td-p/7534940 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Grammerstorf Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. I'll give these steps a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted January 3, 2021 Share Posted January 3, 2021 Laptops are a pita because of the way they optimize them for power. I always have upgraded the HD and fresh install of windows. This has become tricky because the laptop comes with the OME software on the recovery drive and if you use it you right back in do do land. so your almost forced to use a cracked version or go pay for the real thing from MS. my laptops are still W7 for this reason. I had bought an actual disk copy and mine all have stickers with serial numbers that work. I’d hate to think what happens now with W10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Grammerstorf Posted February 19, 2021 Author Share Posted February 19, 2021 I give up. The only step I haven't exhausted is to do a wipe and clean Windows install, which I just don't feel like doing. It's the wdf01000.sys and ACPI.sys drivers that are killing me according to Latency Mon. My old Windows Surface Pro 4 still manages to run Cakewalk and record four drum tracks simultaneously, so I will continue using that. Very disappointing. Bottom line: Don't ever try using an HP Spectre as a DAW, no matter the specs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatstand Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 out of interest have you tried going into device manager and disabling the wifi adapter? Obviously this isn't a permanent solution but may pinpoint the cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 I think there are at least 3 threads running right now with the Laptop blues. They either work or don't. You shouldn't have to screw around so much just to record audio and on todays machines there seems to be fewer of these types of posts. When there are, it's a laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Grammerstorf Posted February 19, 2021 Author Share Posted February 19, 2021 Hatstand, I can't recall whether I tried that or not (I've done so many things!). I'll give it a go. Thanks. John Vere, I'm seeing the same thing. It does seem crazy that a laptop built in late 2020 can't handle real-time audio recording, but a Surface Pro 4 from 2015 can. Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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