Problem with SX solved! :D

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 6:10 am

Hello to all!

The last week I have been reinstalling XP. I have prepared the ultimate DAW system. I did everything as carefully as would ever be possible. I took images of my drive step to step. Defragmenting it after each installation... I mean i did everything PERFECT!

And I put this shitberg program and it's pops and clicks all over the place, with the VST Perf meter showing only 30% (Win Task Manager jumps to 100% though). The only way to make them stop was to put the ULLI to 23ms!!! I have a powerfull PC (P4 2,4, Intel 850E, 1GB RDRAM). I am sure it can do A LOT better than 23ms (and it has done in the past).

So, I did severall tests and have concluded the following:
- this bad performance is no way related with the Hard Disks
- it has neither got to do with any settings (as everything is as it should be)
So, it should either be a problem of SFP, of SX or of my Matrox G550.. To be honest, I dont think it has ANYTHING to do with SFP, because I can load loads of Masterverbs (15+ with my 2 Pulsars II) and see no error messages and hear no clicks and pops...

When reinstalling I had put the latest Matrox, and Intel chipset driver version (but not any beta ones)... I really suspect that it has something to do with Matrox.. (please! tell me which driver version are you using? Marcus I think u have 850E and G550 as well.. And any others...please help!)

But the thing that REALLY REALLY pissed me off, is when I downloaded and installed Samplitude 7, just to see if I had the same problems there...
I loaded the SAME track with the same plugins (except that I could not/didnt know how to create group channels) and pressed play...
I DIDNT EXPERIENCE NOT A SINGLE POP or CLICK!!!

And that drove me MAD!!! Because:
1) I have paid for the bloody SX and it has never worked properly
2) I REALLY HATE SAM's INTERFACE... Its so unintuitive, so different than SX.. I could never learn to use it
3) I dont want to pay even more money to buy another sequencer (Sam7), of which I hate the interface...

So, I need to make SX work properly... I have concluded that Pulsar, SX and Matrox are not compatible... If you think they are, then help me please... I am desperate this time!

P.S. My PC specs:
Asus P4T533-C (Intel 850E)
1GB Kingston RDRAM
Intel P4 2.4GHz 533FSUB
Matrox G550
CW Pulsar II and XTC
IBM 120GB and 40GB Hard disks (dont believe what they say about IBM harddisks...I am really happy with mine!)
Teac RW548E
Pioneer DVD-RW 106D
WinXP (no SP-1)
SX 1.06 waiting for SX2

P.S.2. I forgot to say that I ve tried Nuendo 2 as well and the pops and clicks were even worse! ...and they say that SX2 and NU2 are really similar...

[ This Message was edited by: rodos1979 on 2003-11-19 23:31 ]

[ This Message was edited by: rodos1979 on 2003-11-20 10:41 ]

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 8:41 am

Hi, yes i have a i850 with RDRAM and loads of devices loaded, DSP meter very often at 99%, 40 asio2-32bits source, 32 asio2-32bits destination, all hardware IO from luna2 + Pulsar1+ loaded and routed thru an external firewire "mixer/control surface/midi hub" (which kicks ass) using all 16 adat channels and everything work perfect with ulli@3ms, even recording 32 tracks in 32bits to VDAT.

So, the problem is not SFP, maybe CubaseSX2, but i've tried CubaseSX1 and didn't have that problem, should not be in SX2, i suppose...

I'd say it's probably the Matrox drivers or bad IRQ sharing.

BTW, in the matrox control panel have you deactivated busmastering? Crucial...

Or maybe, verify IRQ assignment, and NOT thru windows devices manager, but from your bootup screen, i mean real hardware assign IRQ. My i850 is in standard mode also, not ACPI. It also work in ACPI, but i had a couple of problem using extensively STS5000 in ACPI mode.

Also, you HAVE to completely deactivate USB2 on this i850, cuz it's a NEC USB2 controller that use PCI very badly. You have to deactivate it using jumper on the motherboard, the BIOS deactivation is not enough since the controller still use PCI bus for nothing.

Hope this help...

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 8:49 am

Sorry this doesnt help, but by way of confirmation, I run P4T533-C,1.8Ghz 512MB,G550,HighPoint 404 Raid,Pulsar 2 & SX 1.06 and it runs like a dream. Everything is stock standard, no over clocking and I use ACPI. I have disabled onboard sound and serial ports.

I am using latest drivers for everything and bios 1010 on the P4T533

Cheers

petal · Post by **petal** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 9:01 am

Have you remebered to finetune your XP according to these tips:

http://www.musicxp.net/

Just a thought....

Thomas

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 5:32 pm

Guys, thanks for the replies!

However, all that stuff is known to me already and have done ALL of it!

I'd say it's probably the Matrox drivers or bad IRQ sharing.

BTW, in the matrox control panel have you deactivated busmastering? Crucial...

Or maybe, verify IRQ assignment, and NOT thru windows devices manager, but from your bootup screen, i mean real hardware assign IRQ. My i850 is in standard mode also, not ACPI

-There is NO IRQ sharing, and I have it all sorted from the BIOS (the 2 Pulsars assigned to IRQ 9)
-Bus mastering is deactivated
-PC in standard mode

Also, you HAVE to completely deactivate USB2 on this i850, cuz it's a NEC USB2 controller that use PCI very badly. You have to deactivate it using jumper on the motherboard

-have done that since I bought the PC one year ago

I have disabled onboard sound and serial ports.

-have done that since day one

Have you remebered to finetune your XP according to these tips:

http://www.musicxp.net/

-ofcourse!

What else could be the fault? Any more ideas? Could it be the PSU? (I have a 400W one)

But again....Samplitude demo seemed to ran with no problems...

I dont know what to guess...

P.S. strange appearance of this post is fixed

[ This Message was edited by: rodos1979 on 2003-10-09 11:30 ]

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 6:19 pm

Well, then SX2 suck big time?

Maybe?

How CubaseSX1?

Post by **hubird** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 7:27 pm

???
your message is completely disturbed, Marcus!
colors, text, planetz layout, everything, and reloading IE doesn't change that.

edit: jeez, mine too...
_________________
Let There Be Music!

[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2003-10-08 20:28 ]

valis · Post by **valis** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 11:48 pm

something happened in the post by rodos1979

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 10:39 am

Ok, guys I have fixed the post..everything back to normal again!

It may sound crazy but: I have downloaded the XP Certified drivers for the Matrox, I installed them and turned on bus mastering and write cache (is it called like that?)...
Cubase seems to be happy now with it... I still have some pops and clicks with ULLI at 3ms (which still is a poor performance, if you consider that I have a decent specs PC)
However, the SFP gui now is SSSSSLLLLOOOOWWWW....

So, one problem quasi-solved but a new problem appered now!

....I remember how nice was Logic with a Mac and a Luna II, back at college...

thorkell · Post by **thorkell** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 4:30 pm

I used to have Abit TH7II 850 mobo with my pulsar's with RDRAM. Never worked (spent a year trying to get rid of pops and clicks). Now I use BH7 Abit and matrox G550 without any problems. As i said I never got to the bottom of this problem and finally gave up on it. But one thing was clear that the explanation was not the matroc VGA card

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 11:36 pm

Turn off bus-mastering and make sure desktop is at 32bit depth not 16bit.

emzee · Post by **emzee** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 1:19 am

I'm having similar probs........I assume self-inflicted in my case. My XP installation tells me "Windows may only play wave files of the following bit rate:" then it defaults to 16 bit. I can't work out how to change this.....is this what you are referring to Bassdude?

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 4:36 am

Hi Mikka, XP can only play 16bits files. That's normal. You need something else to play 24 bits wav files. Like Wavelabs or Sondforge. I heard that winamp has a module for playing 24bits files.

emzee · Post by **emzee** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 4:41 am

Thanks Marcus. I've got Acid and Sound Forge...I was hoping that XP configuration was causing some of my stuttering problems....but from what you say...probably not.

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 4:23 pm

I give up guys... I decided to stop using the PC for 1-2 weeks or so and just practice my guitar and listen to Joe Pass...
I ll come back to it after my self-imposed "vacations".
I had enough of it all..

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Fri Oct 10, 2003 4:56 pm

Mikka, I was referring to the graphics bit depth of the desktop (desktop settings). In windows xp and 2000, the pulsar gui runs much faster at 32bit true colour than at 16Bit on my system. Whereas running win98 the recommendation was for 16Bit.

dellai · Post by **dellai** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 4:33 am

Why don't you have the SP1 Xp installed ? It really improved the performance of my DAW. I have a similair config as yours, even the wonderfull Matrox G550, but I have an older driver installed for the card. Also I have the DVI card version because of my TFT screen.

When I installed SP1 XP, I also set the virtual memory manually to twice the amount of mem I have in my daw. so for me that was 1024 - 1024 cause I am running 512mb's.

Maybe this will be of any help.

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 10:24 am

Hello and thanx for replying! )

Every time I had tried to install SP1 in the past, I was getting afterwards all sorts of problems. I dont know why. Anyway, I dont think that there is anything in the SP1 that would improve performance for a DAW. Or is there???
However, you reminded me something I had forgotten.. In order to take images of my installation, I had disabled altogether the Virtual Memory (anyway I have 1GB of RDRAM)... I ll see if by enabling it, the performance improves...

Post by **garyb** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 1:04 pm

it should DEFINITELY run better with virtual memory.some apps(such as logic or samplitude)will not function properly without vm.

dellai · Post by **dellai** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 7:58 am

Every time I had tried to install SP1 in the past, I was getting afterwards all sorts of problems. I dont know why. Anyway, I dont think that there is anything in the SP1 that would improve performance for a DAW. Or is there???

Well if I read your first post, you mentioned downloading, so I assume you have networking installed on your DAW. One of the Sp1 improvements is a memoryleak in networking tcp which really slowed down my DAW. Did you also run the Asio tests (just asking) ? and even more important: did it pass the tests ?

And another question just for the record. You are not using the "emulated" version of creamware card under SX ? This was a really CPU hog on my DAW.