[rob187]

Running 0404 from Laptop with Grado 225's. The laptop has a gig of ram and AMD Turon 64 1.8 ghz cpu.

Anyways, while listening to music, I occasionally get a little hint of static in the song, like a slight stutter. It's not clipping as it never happens in the same spot of the song. I usually get it around 2-3 times per song. This happens with my Lame mp3's as well as my lossless Wav's, and there doesn't seem to be a diffrence in it's frequence between the two filetypes.

I have a feeling it is somehow related to my Comp resources as it seems to happen more frequently with the more I'm doing (burning, ripping, surfing the web.) And when I disabled my onboard sound I noticed a great reduction in it's frequence, but the problem still remained.

This problem has gone from tolerable to entirely annoying, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Ross1]

what via driver are you using? My problem was solved by going from the via 4in1 driver (horrible, distortion, crackling the whole time) to the VIA HyperionPro driver (now sounds fantastic).

basically, its likely to be a problem with a driver.

 

[jiiteepee]

Check your system w/ DPC LAtency Checker - http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
(this checking shows you, if it's a driver issue)

Lower the PCI latency for graphics card to 64-128 - http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951
(most stuttering issues can be fixed w/ this setting)

- Are you using Wireless NIC or other wireless devices?
- Do you have power saving options enabled?
- Which device driver 'mode' (ASIO, WDM/KS, WDM, DS, MME) buffer settings are you using for audio? (ASIO and KS are the best 'modes' -> system audio and audio from sources like web pages don't disturb the playback)
- If you don't have SATA disk in use then, is DMA/UDMA transfer enabled (this may need some UDMA driver installation) and "Write Cache" disabled?

jiitee

 

[rob187]

In reply to Ross, I'm not using VIA drivers. Those are cpu drivers right? I guess I'm just using the standard drivers from Compaq (my laptop brand). I decided to update all my drivers though, so I went to Compaq's site and d/l'ed new drivers for everything, including CPU and Vid Card.

And Jiteepee, thanks for those links. The DPC Latency Checker is a great program, and I've deduced the problem is my Wlan card. Disabled, my average latency is cut in half and the spikes are infrequent and barely exceed 2000 and produces no crackles (at least no audible ones) in my music. Enabled, it spikes more frequently up to 16000 and coincides perfectly with the crackles in my music. Unfortuneately, I connect to the internet VIA wireless and I always listen to music and surf the web at the same time...would you say this is simply an issue of lack of resources, a bad Wlan card, or maybe a program like Norton firewall that's running?

In response to your other questions:
I have a few power saving options enabled (turn off monitor, turn off disks) after about an hour. Does that make a difference?
I'm not sure how to check my device driver mode...
My DMA transfer is enabled.

 

[crystal]

You could try changing your processor scheduling to "background services" and see how things go.

For Win XP......Right click on "My Computer"/Properties/Advanced Tab/Performance Settings button/Advanced tab

Just an idea.....you can always change it back.

Also make sure you're using a cable designed for USB 2.0 (like the one supplied) if you aren't already.

 

[jiiteepee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rob187 /img/forum/go_quote.gif ... And Jiteepee, thanks for those links. The DPC Latency Checker is a great program, and I've deduced the problem is my Wlan card. Disabled, my average latency is cut in half and the spikes are infrequent and barely exceed 2000 and produces no crackles (at least no audible ones) in my music. Enabled, it spikes more frequently up to 16000 and coincides perfectly with the crackles in my music. Unfortuneately, I connect to the internet VIA wireless and I always listen to music and surf the web at the same time...would you say this is simply an issue of lack of resources, a bad Wlan card, or maybe a program like Norton firewall that's running? In response to your other questions: I have a few power saving options enabled (turn off monitor, turn off disks) after about an hour. Does that make a difference? I'm not sure how to check my device driver mode... My DMA transfer is enabled.

In generally, the WLan technology is problematic for audio applications (this is stated on so many audio related forums). Maybe the tranfer/error correction etc. systems needs lots of resources which then effects to other components (audio issues you can hear but there maybe are some graphics performance issues too if you measure).

You could try increase the PCI latency for WLan controller using PCI Latency Tool. I suppose it's set to either 32 ot 64. Try values between 64 - 128 and then compare to when it's set to 0. Remember apply those changed settings and also check the "apply on startup" option.

I mean the device driver mode you're using in your playback software (ASIO, WDM, MME, DS, etc.). Some audio players supports more than just MME and DS. If you like to try if ASIO improves anything, install NI TRAKTOR BeatPort Player (this is the easiest to set up for some test - no need for additional output plug-ins like you do need fot Foobar, Winamp, MediaMonkey, etc.), set it use ASIO and so on... . You find the download link from my sig.

Some CPU's, used in laptops, reduces the processor speed for power saving sake when the system is less stressed (surfing and playing audio does not need much CPU power so system maybe 'thinks' that some amount of speed is not needed and ...). Some system hav a control for this setting ... some do need some tweak (IIRC, there is a registry tweak for this). I don't know if this would be issue w/ present processors used in laptops.


jiitee

 

[rob187]

Thanks Jit, tremndous help. I'll try fixing the latency and switching to ASIO. I've also found the static seems to be more of a problem when I first start playing music, and after a few songs it evens out a bit (but not completely gone). So the problem is a bit more manageable than I thought.

 

[jiiteepee]

... remember not to use too low latency settings w/ ASIO driver ... 20-100 ms (882-4410 as buffer size @ 44.1 kHz) is good for audio playback.

Did you adjust the graphics PCI latency to 32-128? I have it set 0 but, I don't game or render graphics at all so it truely don't need much CPU time.

Normally most of those performance issues becomes solved by following instructions found @ http://www.musicxp.net/

BTW, I have one old (build 2001) player here, which sometimes, when started to play, plays @ 10 x speed, sometimes it produces fully distorted audio, sometimes it jumps while playing and plays w/ different speeds or don't produce sound at all or just snaps once a second, etc. It's a true trouble maker I'd say. It uses DS/MME drivers only so I think this is the reason for all it's strange behaviour.


jiitee

 

[Autochthon]

I have a latency issue with my system also. It is relatively minor and shows up as a momentary latency spike at random times ONLY while music is playing. I'm currently using my onboard realtek sound while I make up my mind what setup best suits my needs. I suspect the culprit is the realtek drivers not playing nicely with kernel streaming but i'm still experimenting. It shows itself as a single spike, sometimes but not always, accompanied by a stutter in music playback. I've had issues with reaktek sound not playing nicely with other drivers so I'm not overly shocked it's being difficult. we'll see if ASIO fixes things.

 

[jiiteepee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Autochthon /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have a latency issue with my system also. It is relatively minor and shows up as a momentary latency spike at random times ONLY while music is playing. I'm currently using my onboard realtek sound while I make up my mind what setup best suits my needs. I suspect the culprit is the realtek drivers not playing nicely with kernel streaming but i'm still experimenting. It shows itself as a single spike, sometimes but not always, accompanied by a stutter in music playback. I've had issues with reaktek sound not playing nicely with other drivers so I'm not overly shocked it's being difficult. we'll see if ASIO fixes things.

IIRC, Realtek does not have native ASIO driver so you need to install Asio4All (or some other from those few listed in my sig.). Bad thing w/ non native ASIO is that it still uses WDM/KS functionality, but least it performs better.

jiitee

 

[Autochthon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jiiteepee /img/forum/go_quote.gif IIRC, Realtek does not have native ASIO driver so you need to install Asio4All (or some other from those few listed in my sig.). Bad thing w/ non native ASIO is that it still uses WDM/KS functionality, but least it performs better. jiitee

It shows a realtek KS driver in the options panel. I've tried DS KS asio various buffer sizes nothing seems to effect this problem. I say it was a realtek driver problem but I don't recall this always happening. Perhaps it's time to start trying older realtek driver versions.

I'm really leaning towards buying a 0404 usb to try and sidestep the problem. if I didn't suspect I might want some internal soundcard for transport to a higher quality DAC in the not so distant future I'd have bought that 0404 already

 

[crystal]

I read about some guy who removed his laptop battery and that solved his problem......seemed to be something up with his particular model.

 

[rob187]

I got a problem with ASIO and foobar. I downloaded the .dll, put it in my components directory. I selected the ASIO: E-MU 0404 USB as my output. But, when I try to play a song, I get the following Playback Error: Unrecoverable playback error: Requested ASIO driver not found. Anybody?

And BTW, Jitipee, that Traktor Beatport player you recommend played allright but for some reason wouldn't allow any of my other players to work after I used it (foobar, winamp, itunes). Had to uninstall it :/

 

[jiiteepee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rob187 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I got a problem with ASIO and foobar. I downloaded the .dll, put it in my components directory. I selected the ASIO: E-MU 0404 USB as my output. But, when I try to play a song, I get the following Playback Error: Unrecoverable playback error: Requested ASIO driver not found. Anybody? And BTW, Jitipee, that Traktor Beatport player you recommend played allright but for some reason wouldn't allow any of my other players to work after I used it (foobar, winamp, itunes). Had to uninstall it :/

Do you mean not let to play in generally ... did you check the samplerate settings used w/ TRAKTOR Player ... by the Digi-Lifes review, E-MU 0404 USB does not support "MME auto sample rate" functionality so, if you used MME w/ those other players and the SR used w/ TRAKTOR Player was different ... or vice versa (you used MME in TRAKTOR and ...).


Did you select those Output channels in Foobars "ASIO Virtual Devices" panel? You need to make some confifurations there by adding Virual ASIO Device and then editing it's channel mappings.

If you get that type of error from ASIO, you need to check
- settings you have in Foobar (are there multiple ASIO drivers listed etc.)
- registry data for E-MU ASIO (or any other ASIO you have installed)
- if you can find the .dll file(s) for your ASIO drivers (you find the installation location and .dll filename by following CLSID number(s) found behind ASIO driver keynames listed under registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO


jiitee

 

[Sytner]

I've had the exact same issue, at first I thought it was me imagining things and over-listening for the noise.

I've had ASIO working fine and have plenty of computing power at hand - it doesn't help, not for me anyway.

To make sure it isn't an issue with any of the outputs I've tried using the built-in headamp, both analouge outs > Heed CanAmp and the digital outs > DAC > CanAmp but to no avail.

The only thing left I can think of trying is upping my USB polling frequency.. otherwise I think it must be an issue with the unit itself, which is unfortunate, I really quite like how it sounds.

Edit: As expected.. it didn't help.