New computer

[Mr. Torture]

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!

[John Vere]

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 

 

[hockeyjx]

3 hours ago, Mr. Torture said:

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!

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

[Mr. Torture]

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.

[Mr. Torture]

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?

[John Vere]

20 minutes ago, Mr. Torture said:

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?

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.  

Edited March 9, 2022 by John Vere

[hockeyjx]

4 hours ago, Mr. Torture said:

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

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 known 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.

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by hockeyjx

[Mr. Torture]

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.

[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.

[hockeyjx]

9 minutes ago, Mr. Torture said:

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.

I have a Cooler Master SIleo Silent, but that is no longer available. I found one on Newegg that is similar (I get plain jane cases, and get near/silent fans): https://www.newegg.com/black-fractal-design-define-r5-atx-micro-atx-mid-tower/p/N82E16811352048?Description=atx case&cm_re=atx_case-_-11-352-048-_-Product

Also, get a silent Power Supply, something like this: https://www.newegg.com/corsair-rmx-series-rm750x-cp-9020179-na-750w/p/N82E16817139233?Description=silent power supply&cm_re=silent_power supply-_-17-139-233-_-Product

And frankly, I would get an i7 as opposed to an i9, and double the memory. I haven't seen any of my projects really even getting to 50% CPU. But I would say if you are doing primarily rock, an i7 is a better choice unless you just use a crapload of CPU-intensive tools. Nothing I use is a hog. Modern Motherboards usually have 2 m.2 slots, I use my two on the board and then have 2 ssds in there for storage.

[msmcleod]

14 minutes ago, hockeyjx said:

I have a Cooler Master SIleo Silent

Me too... I had two... and only just managed to get my 3rd one from eBay after waiting about 3 years for one to turn up!

[Mr. Torture]

Well, I'm back again. I created a copy of my session which included a couple audio tracks, superior drummer 3, EZ Bass & a keyboard VST. 

I removed the keyboard VST and found that I could record multiple tracks of guitar at buffers set to 128, no crackling, no issues. I thought I had found the problem.

Last night I started a brand new session consisting of Superior drummer and 2 audio tracks only. I was forced to run buffers at a minimum of 256, other wise it just crackled and popped, the guitar signal sounded choppy and terrible.

So why is it that I can do one session with a few VST's and multiple audio tracks at 128, but when I start a brand new session I can only run at a minimum of 256? I wonder could the hard drive be going bad? Could that cause this Intermittent buffer issue?

[msmcleod]

4 hours ago, Mr. Torture said:

Well, I'm back again. I created a copy of my session which included a couple audio tracks, superior drummer 3, EZ Bass & a keyboard VST. 

I removed the keyboard VST and found that I could record multiple tracks of guitar at buffers set to 128, no crackling, no issues. I thought I had found the problem.

Last night I started a brand new session consisting of Superior drummer and 2 audio tracks only. I was forced to run buffers at a minimum of 256, other wise it just crackled and popped, the guitar signal sounded choppy and terrible.

So why is it that I can do one session with a few VST's and multiple audio tracks at 128, but when I start a brand new session I can only run at a minimum of 256? I wonder could the hard drive be going bad? Could that cause this Intermittent buffer issue?

Whenever this has happened to me, it's been Windows Update downloading stuff in the background, or Windows Defender deciding to do a scan.

I'm normally pretty pro-active about manually checking for updates and installing them when they appear, so I don't often get this issue. But if I forget for a few days, this comes up every now and then.

[Mr. Torture]

3 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

Whenever this has happened to me, it's been Windows Update downloading stuff in the background, or Windows Defender deciding to do a scan.

I'm normally pretty pro-active about manually checking for updates and installing them when they appear, so I don't often get this issue. But if I forget for a few days, this comes up every now and then.

Thats interesting, I will check that out, Thanks!

[Bill Phillips]

20 hours ago, msmcleod said:

Whenever this has happened to me, it's been Windows Update downloading stuff in the background, or Windows Defender deciding to do a scan.

I'm normally pretty pro-active about manually checking for updates and installing them when they appear, so I don't often get this issue. But if I forget for a few days, this comes up every now and then.

I've been following this topic and wanted to chime in with a thank you for that comment. Like you I pro-actively check for and install updates manually to avoid "transparent updates." I've always worried that I might be assigning causation where it didn't exist because my paranoia was clouding my judgement on this. But, for as long as I can remember, I've frequently noticed that when apps (not just Cakewalk) stop working or become unresponsive out of the blue resulting in me shutting down or restarting out of frustration to give it a fresh go, I'll get that "install updates and shutdown" or "install updates and restart" dialog and realize that the Windows "transparent update" feature really doesn't work and never has.

[Mr. Torture]

I shut off the auto updates, but still cannot get buffers lower than 256 when running 2 audio tracks and one instance of superior drummer. Even with 256 I can hear the occasional quick crackle. I cannot understand how on one session I was able to do it, but now I cant using less VST's. It's become very fickle..

I checked every setting on this computer and googled every setting that can be turned off. Windows 7 I never experienced this issue, I think it's just time to move on from 12 year old tech.

[msmcleod]

14 minutes ago, Mr. Torture said:

I shut off the auto updates, but still cannot get buffers lower than 256 when running 2 audio tracks and one instance of superior drummer. Even with 256 I can hear the occasional quick crackle. I cannot understand how on one session I was able to do it, but now I cant using less VST's. It's become very fickle..

I checked every setting on this computer and googled every setting that can be turned off. Windows 7 I never experienced this issue, I think it's just time to move on from 12 year old tech.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think all that switching off auto-updates does is tell it not to install the updates,  I don't think it stops Windows from downloading them for you.

[Mr. Torture]

1 hour ago, msmcleod said:

I'm not 100% sure, but I think all that switching off auto-updates does is tell it not to install the updates,  I don't think it stops Windows from downloading them for you.

This is what I did:

To disable Windows 10 Automatic Updates:

Go to Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services.

Scroll down to Windows Update in the resulting list.

Double click the Windows Update Entry.

In the resulting dialog, if the service is started, click 'Stop'

Set Startup Type to Disabled.

[Mr. Torture]

So, I was getting the cruddy buffer thing again. So I decided to play with the settings a bit. First thing I did was shut off the SPDIF, as I don't use it. Leaving the main in/ out's going on my soundcard. The buffer issue went away and I could record with buffers at 128.. So bizarre...

Edited March 21, 2022 by Mr. Torture