[Brian loves music]

Hiya,

After hearing rave reviews about the emu 0404 as a solution to the poor intergrated sound of laptops, I'm a little disappointed. Yes that sound is phenominal, so clear and precise, but now i can't surf the web while listening to music or i got tons of static (crackles and pops) and skips.

Well after trying asio4all (pops and crackles all the time), foobar ks (which I couldn't get to work, unless i hit play, pause, pause everytime i wanted to hear a song...lol), foobar asio (really laggy when choosing songs), and winamp wth my new emu 0404 usb i got tons of static whenever browsing the internet. I'm running a dell inspirion 6000 which as least to my knowledge has usb 2.0 ports (there is one 'enchanced' port under control pannel>system>device managed>usb ports...).

Just wondering if people using laptops with emu 0404 have had this problem and have any tips for me. I think i'm gonna keep it cause it will be a major hastle to return and i'm pretty fine with not multi tasking while listening. I'm just gonna use winamp with asio and organize my music through windows folders (custumized with picutres/album art), which believe it or not i've been doing for a while.

Also, I read some things about kernal streaming putting less strain on the processor...The only way I could get it to work was if i hit play pause pause for every song...there must be another way.

Thanks guys as usual!

 

[Alleyman]

To reduce playback lag in foobar, set thread priority to be 5 or less:
preferences>advanced>playback>thread priority

Also I would encourage you to see if you can actually discern a difference between directsound and ASIO (I can't). If not, use DS and free up your CPU to allow you to surf the web freely.

 

[77Pat]

For me there was static with ASIO, KS was not an option, and I use DS with foobar. I only got static when my wireless adapter was enabled. When I disabled it or used an ethernet cord, the static went away. The only problem I am having and not sure if it is caused by the sound card, is that my computer freezes frequently during the middle of listening to music.

 

[d-cee]

i don't know what you're doing wrong, try another USB port perhaps, maybe not all of them are USB 2.0 spec or double check to make sure your motherboard chipset/USB drivers are installed?

why are you using ASIO4ALL ? the E-MU 0404 USB has native ASIO support

try using another browser maybe your IE is full of spyware lol that it's hogging up system resources?

 

[JimP]

Had used one with laptops before.

As Alleyman says, it relates to CPU from my experience. On a relatively recent IBM X60 core duo 1gig memory, I could run ASIO and freely surf web with virtually no problem. On a much older laptop (Athlon something with 512mb memory), I dare not touch or do anything on the laptop if I'm listening to music (both ASIO and DS).

 

[sejarzo]

Yeah, what's the deal with using ASIO4All? It's totally unnecessary with a device that has native ASIO drivers......is that because you are running Vista, perhaps?

Everyone seems to suffer the dreaded pause/pause bug with KS. No one seems to know exactly what causes it.

As a temporary fix, try using DS when surfing/multitasking and ASIO when just listening.

 

[Brian loves music]

thanks for the replies guys...using DS with either winamp or foobar makes it so i can surf the internet with just a few cracks and pops everytime i load a new page....still anoying but i'll probably use it


ya firefox gives me a little less static

i'm pretty bad a noticing differences.... i'm experimenting do you guys think a larger or smaller buffer will reduce pops due to cpu usage?

 

[milkweg]

Maybe it is the USB ports causing it. Does your laptop have digtial out? Connect the EMU to digital out instead and see if it goes away. That's how I use my EMU 0404. USB uses a lot more cpu resources for transferring audio. Still, I've used both methods and never got any static when using USB while browsing either, and that was using ASIO. I now use DS though because as someone else said, I hear no difference and DS uses a lot less cpu resources. I have heard electrical interference over the internal soundcard when web browsing though. Using digital out to the EMU solves that issue too.

 

[Brian loves music]

thanks for the reply

i have what looks like a exteranl monitor port and the thing next to it may be audio...what kinda of cable do i need and how would i hook it up to my emu 0404 usb?

here's a pic
http://img.dell.com/images/global/pr...0_Back_314.jpg

 

[sejarzo]

That appears to be an S-video port.

 

[axw]

Went through something similar with my m-audio usb.
Try this:
http://www.thesycon.de/dpclat/dpclat.exe
and tell me if you see any red peaks? If so, you have found your problem. Now look for the cause: switch off the antivirus software, if that won't help look for nasty drivers (ethernet or wifi are the most likely candidates).

good luck

 

[Brian loves music]

Quote:

Originally Posted by axw /img/forum/go_quote.gif Went through something similar with my m-audio usb. Try this: http://www.thesycon.de/dpclat/dpclat.exe and tell me if you see any red peaks? If so, you have found your problem. Now look for the cause: switch off the antivirus software, if that won't help look for nasty drivers (ethernet or wifi are the most likely candidates). good luck

yup. the read peaks correlate exactly with cracks/pops and happen when i surf the web...

i'm gonna try disabbling anti virus / firewall

 

[Ross1]

on the subject on static/crackles with the EMU 0404 USB.....

i went through similar troubles (although the solution certainly wont be the same!)

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/lo...ml#post2622311

as you can see, it was crappy drivers.

 

[sejarzo]

Interesting.....if switching off the anti-virus fixes the problem, please post what AV app you use and the version. My experience is that they are quite different, and sometimes a new version of what seems to be the best solution is actually a step backward.

Several years ago, I switched from McAfee to TrendMicro after PC-Cillin got rave reviews--and saw a huge improvement in bootup times and general responsiveness during multitasking. When TrendMicro sent me an email giving me a free upgrade to their new version, I "upgraded" only to find that I was far worse off than under the old McAfee product. I never had specific audio issues, just slow boots and what seemed to be sluggish response overall.

I reverted back to the latest version of McAfee, which is provided free by my ISP anyway, and have had no problems since.

Most recordists that use notebooks make a point of disabling all AV/firewall software, along with networking devices, before a tracking session--in their case, a glitch is truly costly.

 

[Brian loves music]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ross1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif on the subject on static/crackles with the EMU 0404 USB..... i went through similar troubles (although the solution certainly wont be the same!) http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/lo...ml#post2622311 as you can see, it was crappy drivers.

couldn't get this to help. tried downloading asiocaps and wouldn't install (probably cause emu 0404 already has drivers or something). So I can't change the latency. I wouldn't know where to begin with chaning drivers etc...kinda scared i'd screw something up.

I tried all my usb ports and they all have pretty much the same amount of static. I'm pretty sure i have 2.0 usb i've got one 'enhanced' usb in device manager...which is supposed to be how you can tell.

by the way, is there really much difference between direct sound and asio? is it minor/subjective or really significant. I'm bad at compaing soundstage, for peace of mind / to inspire me to fix it so i can use asio, i'd love a comparison.

thanks for the help guys...i'll keep trying

edit: just tried updating usb drivers and they were already up to date, so that's out