I am trying to find out if the occurrence of an issue I am having is specific to my system or more widespread. Specifically, I am considering an upgrade but I would like to avoid a repeat of what I currently experience.
It would be GREATLY appreciated if you can confirm that you are or are not experiencing what I describe below. Bonus points if you list your system details!
I suspect that the cause is multiple UAD-1s; users of other hosts and audio cards are welcome to participate!
Procedure 1 (takes only a minute or two):
(1) Open the Lynx Mixer application.
(2) Open an empty, new Cubase 4 project.
(3) Check the Lynx mixer application for dropouts (look in the lower left of the Lynx Mixer Record/Play window) after launching Cubase. There may not be any, but if there is any dropout, reset the ASIO driver from within Cubase (Devices Menu > Device Setup > VST Audio System > Reset Button) so that there are no dropouts.
(4) In Cubase, add one mono Audio track.
(5) Add one UAD-1 plugin (any one will do) as an insert.
(6) Check the Lynx Mixer application for dropouts, there should not be any.
(7) Now add a second UAD-1 plugin (any one) as an insert.
(8) Now check the Lynx Mixer application for dropouts. Do you see any? I always have at least one. This is 100% repeatable on my system.*
* With only one UAD-1 card enabled, I get no dropouts at step (8). This behavior seems to be related to the allocation of UAD-1 plugins across multiple cards. Further, once at least one plugin has been allocated to each physical card, I generally do not get further dropouts.
If you did get any dropout in Procedure 1, please try Procedure 2 (you will want to!):
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Procedure 2 (looks long, but it takes only about 5 minutes):
(1) In the same project (with the dropout(s) still showing in the Lynx Mixer application), create a second and third new audio track.
(2) On track 2, record just a few seconds of silence.
(3) Open the silent event you just recorded in the Sample Editor.
(4) Select all and use Audio Menu > Process > Silence so that your event is now truly pure digital silence.
(5) In the Sample Editor, change the ruler display to "samples".
(6) Position the project cursor somewhere within the event and create a marker at that point. I choose something like 100,000 samples, but anywhere will do so long as you create a marker so you can easily get back to that exact sample position.
(7) In the Sample Editor, zoom it to the sample level and use the pencil tool to draw a "one sample spike" at full amplitude exactly where your marker is set.
(8) Exit the Sample Editor and record arm track 3.
(9) Physically connect the mono L playback out from your soundcard or converters to the mono L record in. If you have a Lynx Two or Aurora with the Lynx Cables, just physically connect Out 1 (XLR Male) to In 1 (XLR Female), for example.
(10) Record the playback of the "one sample spike" on track 2 onto track 3.
(11) Open the newly recorded event on track 3 in the sample editor, position the cursor at the marker position you set earlier, and zoom in. The recording of the one sample spike will not be a spike anymore, but is the highest peak at the same position as your marker? If it is delayed, by how many samples? (Use the range tool to select beween the marker position and the highest recorded peak; look to the upper left of the Sample Editor windo to see how many samples your selected range encompasses.**
** On my system, the delay is a multiple of the ASIO buffer, eg. with the buffer set at 1024, the delay will be 1024 samples (23 ms at 44.1K) or 2048 samples (46 ms at 44.1K), etc.
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My system: WinXP SP2, Cubase 4.1.0, A8V Deluxe (BIOS 1017), AMDX2 4400+, Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2, Lynx AES16 (firmware 25, driver 2.0 build 014e), 3xUAD-1 PCI (4.10), Matrox P650 (driver 2.4.0.179).
I am posting this on the UAD-1, Cubase, and Gearslutz forums, same user name: DAWgEAR.
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