Audio dropout. SOLVED

[Starship Krupa]

3 hours ago, Gerry 1943 said:

Thank you everyone for your input.

Like a good little/old boy I did as I was told and am now in ASIO. However the issue of Audio Dropout has not gone away. It is still there.

So I guess MME vs ASIO has nothing to do with the issue.

I guess I will have to live with the problem!

Heavens, no, you've taken your first good steps toward getting your system working great.

Well done so far, I say.

Your system is quite capable of doing what you're trying to do, i3, plenty of clock speed, 8G RAM.

The original problem you were having was because Cakewalk was forced to deal with two different audio devices, one high-quality and capable of low latency (AudioBox) and the other made for playing back YouTube videos and whatever from the web (onboard Realtek).

When you do that, Cakewalk (or any program like it) will revert to the (s)lowest common denominator.

For low-latency droput-free monitoring while you record, you should remove the Realtek from the picture completely.

In Cakewalk's Preferences, make sure that you are in ASIO mode and that there are no references to the Realtek anywhere. Plug your speakers (or headphones) into the AudioBox.

This is the configuration to be in when you are doing DAW work, tracking or monitoring. If you still get dropouts when set up that way, check back here and we can help you sort it.

Now, as far as the question of how to still listen to YouTube videos and whatever else happens in programs other than Cakewalk.

The solution that I use, because I am one of those "golden ear audiofools," is that I don't use my onboard Realtek at all. I have Windows set up to play back everything, even YouTube videos and the rest, through the nearfield monitors connected to my PreSonus Firepod. Music is very important to my life, and life's too short to listen to it through a Realtek chip when I have a Firepod handy. ?

Windows will happily use just about any audio output device that's properly connected to it. In order to do this, just go into Settings, select System, then Sound, then Choose your output device. Your AudioBox should be listed as an option. Down at the bottom of the page there are further, more advanced audio options if you care to mess with them.

If nothing else, this will make your YouTube videos sound better when you click on the little gear icon and switch it to "720p."

Another solution, the one mentioned by Mark, is to use a physical switching device, or some people use "computer speakers" plugged into the onboard jack for browser sound.

You don't have to live with it, as I said, your hardware and Cakewalk are quite capable of doing this without glitches.

(I came up with the handle when I joined the Vintage Drum Forum, because I am silly, and a fan of Gene Krupa, and I like incongruities like taking the title of a prog rock/science fiction classic and combining it with the surname of a great drummer. If you complete the phrase, "Starship Krupaaaaa, flying overhead!" it's even weirder to imagine Gene playing drums, flying over your head. Or Gene Krupa dressed in a space suit battling giant insects? It fits my nitwit sense of humor.)

Edited July 25, 2019 by Starship Krupa

[abacab]

I happily enjoy listening to my Spotify web account through my firewire ASIO interface and KRK monitors on my DAW computer! Much better than stock Windows audio and a Creative 2.1 audio system. I use that for my non-DAW laptop!

[Starship Krupa]

Good for "referencing" mixes, eh?

[Jim Roseberry]

Has the OP checked the system for high DPC Latency?  That's the first thing I'd check.

High DPC Latency can cause glitches or drop-outs (depending on the severity).

[Jim Roseberry]

With 8GB RAM (if the OP is making use of virtual-instruments), the machine could be hitting VM Swap-file (in lieu of having enough physical RAM).

This will absolutely *kill* performance.

 

Additional unused RAM won't buy any additional performance.

You need enough physical RAM to run your largest projects.

 

Load said project... and have a look at the amount of RAM being used.

[Gerry 1943]

Thank you ALL. Took a little advice from a few of you and because of this,  this issue/situation seems to now be resolved. 

Everything is now running through my PreSonus Audiobox USB.  Realteck is out.

Increased my buffer to 512.  Have not had a dropout event in a couple of days.

By my handle you can guess my age...so thanks for your patience and support. 

 This is more than a hobby. To me I could not live without music in any way shape or form.

I'm not good ..I'm not an expert but......I enjoy. 

Thank you again.

I am posting an other issue...ha..ha

[Robert Bone]

Question - do you have any effects loaded into your projects, that use Look-Ahead processing, such as a convolution reverb, or a Linear Phase type of effect?  If so, you shouldn't use those during recording - those kinds of effects are meant to be used AFTER you finish recording, and have moved on to the mixing stage of your project.

Please conduct a simple test, with this project - hit the letter 'E' on your computer keyboard, which will toggle Off/On the processing of any loaded effects in the project.

If, when you have hit the letter 'E', to bypass the effects, your dropouts go away, then that is a clear indication that one or more of your effects are causing your audio issues with the ASIO Buffer Size set to its current size.  You will either want to temporarily swap out those kinds of effects (convolution reverb or linear phase types), or record with the effects bypassed, but doing the swap out is what I would recommend.  After you move on to mixing, and crank up your ASIO Buffer Size to either 1024 or 2048, THEN you can swap back in any convolution reverb or linear phase effects.

Generally speaking, you want a pretty small ASIO Buffer Size when recording, to keep latency down - I run at 128 most times, and though I could and sometimes run smaller, 128 is a reasonable balance between latency and CPU usage.  On the other hand, once I finish the recording phase of a project, and move on to mixing, it is THEN that I adjust my ASIO Buffer Size - all the way up to either 1024 or 2048, and that allows me to THEN be able to use convolution reverb and Linear Phase type effects, which NEED large ASIO Buffer Sizes to work properly.  So, recording - buffer set to 128 - Mixing - buffer set to 1024 or 2048.

And, hitting 'E' again will turn your effects processing back on, by the way.  The 'E' key simply toggles on or off the effects processing.

Bob Bone