[Roller]

Outdated drivers is often a source of issues. And I can't stress enough that if someone decides to make a computer as a dedicated audio source, its configurations have to be significantly changed, as it won't a balanced machine, like for gaming and network usage.
 
Also, if when you're listening to music on your computer, that's the only source of audio you use, the best thing would be to use WASAPI, it's also reported to have different latency.

 

[ohhgourami]

Too bad I do other activities that involve sound.  WASAPI cuts everything else out, but it's a bit inconvenient.  What other advantages are there?

 

[Roller]

Before anything else, what are your system specs?

 

[ohhgourami]

I'm using a sony vaio laptop with Core 2 Duo T9500 2.6ghz and 4gb ram and radeon 4370 gpu.  The thing is 3 years old but gets the job done.

 

[Roller]

The specs are high enough to get out of the way of any possible issues.
 
Update system drivers and DirectX. Then disable any power savings you might have enabled, those are very unfriendly of audio.

 

[ohhgourami]

I believe I should have the latest drivers and directx.  This thing is always set to high performance so that shouldn't be an issue.
 
I read about "maximizing system performance for background task", should I consider doing that?  So far, just reinstalling the driver for the DI seemed to have completely fixed the skipping already.
 
I gave WASAPI a brief try and did not notice any improvements from DS.  Should that be the case?

 

[Roller]

Well, WASAPI should present a somewhat clearer sound, and while its results depend on the hardware used, my DAC does sound cleaner. Of course that it has the disadvantage of being unable to apply any sort of processing, as any change in the sound chain breaks bit-matched playback.
 
So, if your issue is fixed for now, don't mess further with your system, as all further tweaks for optimizing a system for audio will lower performance on other areas.

 

[ohhgourami]

I just remember why I didn't use WASAPI now.  I have a 24bit album that doesn't seem to play when I use WASAPI but has no issues with DS.  Doesn't matter what bit-rate I set my foobar to, it wouldn't play.  Everything else worked fine except for this one.  It is a dvd-a file in the format of .iso if that makes any difference, played on foobar of course.

 

[N0sferatu]

does it happen even when laptop is plugged in versus running on battery?  Try another audio program...does it skip there too?

 

[ohhgourami]

Quote:

does it happen even when laptop is plugged in versus running on battery?  Try another audio program...does it skip there too?

Problem with skipping seems to have been fixed now.  Getting no issues even running on battery power, unless maybe if I set it to power saver mode.
 
 
 
On another note, my computer seemed to have trouble reading my DI today.  Seems like the issue was from today's windows update.  Definitely seems like issues are very driver sensitive...
 

 

[Roller]

Quote:

Problem with skipping seems to have been fixed now.  Getting no issues even running on battery power, unless maybe if I set it to power saver mode.
 
 
 
On another note, my computer seemed to have trouble reading my DI today.  Seems like the issue was from today's windows update.  Definitely seems like issues are very driver sensitive...
 

That's another reason why I like to use hardware that has its own drivers, rather than using generic OS drivers. You should consider dual booting (even if they're the same OS), in order to have an OS exclusively for music, enabling you to free up your main OS for general usage, otherwise you'll always be compromising somewhere.

 

[xnor]

Quote:

That's another reason why I like to use hardware that has its own drivers, rather than using generic OS drivers. You should consider dual booting (even if they're the same OS), in order to have an OS exclusively for music, enabling you to free up your main OS for general usage, otherwise you'll always be compromising somewhere.

I think you're going one step too far here. Any competent music player, such as foobar2000, manages thread priorities for instance to ensure that the critical operations get more CPU time from the OS.
On any of my computers I can get glitch-free playback and perfect output even if I load down all CPU cores (100% usage) - without any tuning at all.
 
Yes, up to date drivers are very important, especially with Vista/7 since MS changed the audio stack. However some manufacturers produce so horribly bugged drivers that the MS stock drivers turn out to be a better option sometimes.
 

 

[Roller]

Quote:

I think you're going one step too far here. Any competent music player, such as foobar2000, manages thread priorities for instance to ensure that the critical operations get more CPU time from the OS.
On any of my computers I can get glitch-free playback and perfect output even if I load down all CPU cores (100% usage) - without any tuning at all.
 
Yes, up to date drivers are very important, especially with Vista/7 since MS changed the audio stack. However some manufacturers produce so horribly bugged drivers that the MS stock drivers turn out to be a better option sometimes.
 

My systems run foobar2000 easily, without any issues that aren't easily fixed. The fact is that there are hardware setups that simply aren't audio friendly, and require as clean of a software configuration as possible, and on those systems I definitely think it's the best course of action.
 
Seriously, there are odd behaviors reports on certain configurations, and other than switching hardware or having a speck free software setup, there isn't really much one can do about that.
 
Well, it was a good thing of Vista/7 regarding drivers, things got more strict, and no more half done drivers, even if there are still some strays going around.

 

[xnor]

Roller, if a system has issues then yeah, either switching (broken) hardware or fixing the drivers is the way to go but doing things like disabling system services, messing with processes and their priorities etc. usually doesn't fix anything. In fact, such "tweaks" (which really are just workarounds) can do more harm than good.

I too like the Vista/7 audio stack, it's a great improvement. It took some time to mature but with the latest updates everything's rock solid on my systems. Sorry for OT.

 

[Roller]

There is hardware that just doesn't play nicely at all with certain hardware devices. Those specific cases do require hardware changes.
 
Tweaks aren't fixes, they can (not necessarily always) make things work, but they're patchwork. Do keep in mind that I'm very nitpicky about tweaking, specially since I use my system for general usage, audio included. Unfortunately, there are machines with non-audio friendly hardware, just like certain PSUs have horrible ripple, the only solution being a PSU replacement.
 
You know, there's one rather bad thing I've noticed about Vista/7. There is no way to select 24/88.2 stereo system output through USB audio devices, only 16/88.2 stereo and 24/88.2 mono output. Any idea on how to work around this?
 
EDIT: I should add that there are reports of 24/88.2 stereo not being supported at all, but I find that hard to believe.