Samplitude playback problem, need help.

PapillonIrl · 27th March 2005

Ok, so I recently moved to Samp 8.1. I have to say I absolutly love it, and in general it seems very stable, with some amazing new features.

However, yesterday in the middle of a drum tracking session, weird things started happening during playback. I was tracking drums for 14 songs (over two days) with a young band, and I was generally looking for two 'keeper' takes for each song.

I am using the Fireface 800 and putting down ten tracks at a time. Everything would seem to be fine until I got my first keeper, added ten empty tracks to the multitrak VIP view, muted them all, and moved my keeper tracks down on to the empty ones so I could use the armed tracks to go for another one.

When I hit playback (even though the first keeper was muted) is was ok for a couple of seconds and then seemed to splutter out. I was occasionally getting a 'Disk Usage' >100% as well.

I messed with some buffer settings, but the only way I could stop this happening (and I was under pressure to keep the session going) was to disable 'TrackSpeed', in the Advanced Buffer Settings.

I have a rough idea of what TrackSpeed does, but I'd like to know what it is in my system that is making it not work properly, and what the consequences of disabling it are.

Some system info:

Pent 4 3.2gHz
2 x 7200RPM HD, 80GB & 200GB (Both less than half full)
1GB RAM
2 x UAD-1 PCI ards
1 x Firewire 400 PCI card

Any advice/info much appreciated,

Cheers,

Nathan

manning1 · 27th March 2005

papillon. i dont know if these ideas might help you.
but the high disk usage could indicate that tracks that are muted are still being read back from the hard drive. in some audio apps there is an option whereby
the app does not read back tracks when muted. maybe look for this option if its available. because it sounds like a lot of tracks are being read back from the drive. question - do you hear a "churning" of the drive OR just the occasional "brrp" is the best way i can explain it.
listen carefully and report back please. what you hear.

another important aspect. SOMETIMES if xp has a problem with a drive it might default back to a lower disk transfer speed for a drive.
please check in win xp control panel that your drives are dma enabled or get a tech to check this. and that your drives are not operating at a slower transfer mode.
just 2 ideas. peace.
ps...dont know if youve seen this - info on trackspeed also
http://www.samplitude.com/de/feat_h.htm

PapillonIrl · 27th March 2005

Thanks, I had read the info in that link somewhere before (Prob Ver 6 manual), but thanks for the refresher.

I will look for a feature like the one you described...but if that was really the problem, it would suggest that I can't play more than 10 or so tracks back reliably...and I was up to 64 24bit tracks on version 7 on the same machine, so that can't be the case.

I hadn't heard much hard disk noise, but then again, the box is pretty isolated, and there was other noise going on. Will check it out,

Thanks,

Nathan

manning1 · 28th March 2005

nathan (butterfly ?)
well obviously somethings changed from the old version to the new 8.
if you were able to run that many tracks in the past - you are correct , you should be able to now at least. if were me i would load up the old version and look for any differences in settings just to check between the 2 versions.
but i'm not sure thats the problem.
could be a hard drive setting as i mentioned thats been changed. like DMA enabling.
i should say from my testing (earlier version)...i was highly impressed with how samp and its siblings handle disks so efficiently. totally brilliant was my summation because ive seen samp run on awfull pc configs.
just an OUT THERE IDEA....did you by any chance add any other cards in the pci slots of your pc recently or make any other changes in hardware on this pc you use to record with ?? also other out there ideas - are others using this machine you record on ? that werent using it before ? other family members for example ? using the net ? maybe something has been downloaded thats slowing down your pc ? - ive seen it happen ! peace.

PapillonIrl · 28th March 2005

Not really... the machine never goes online unless it absolutely needs to to register some hardware or software. No-one else uses it, it's password protected.

The only new hardware installed is the FireWire 400 PCI card to connect to the FireFace.

I will compare settings on both versions as you suggested.

Thanks

Nathan

P.s. How does everyone feel about defragging large hard disks full of audio files ? I've heard a couple of contradictory views on the subject.

manning1 · 28th March 2005

nathan. so there WAS a change.
you didnt tell me if you had checked your hard drive dma was still enabled. this is very important !!!. also while in control panel check there are no "flags" against
any of your pc devices. failing that i would check with RME for any comments on the card you installed in the pci slot. maybe there is some issue with that particular card that is not known.
on defragging. i would urge you to back up your tracks prior to doing this of course.
what sound solution were you using before with the previous version of samp that gave you lots of tracks ?

PapillonIrl · 28th March 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by manning1

nathan. so there WAS a change.
you didnt tell me if you had checked your hard drive dma was still enabled. this is very important !!!. also while in control panel check there are no "flags" against
any of your pc devices. failing that i would check with RME for any comments on the card you installed in the pci slot. maybe there is some issue with that particular card that is not known.
on defragging. i would urge you to back up your tracks prior to doing this of course.
what sound solution were you using before with the previous version of samp that gave you lots of tracks ?

I got a chance to mix large sessions with the RME, just not tracking any 24bit ones
.
I think I figured it out... I hope so anyway. I realised a few hours ago that the main change (besides going to 24bit) was that the new session was being recorded onto a different disk. I thought I was recording onto this disk all along, but investigation revealed that previous recordings had been going to my C: drive.

This was a result of me finally sorting out template sessions and creating song folders before the tracking session began.

I started looking at the differences in the two HD's properties, and it turns out that D: did not have HD caching enabled. Now, I know that Samplitudes 'TrackSpeed' playback feature used caching, so I reckon this is the problem.

Anywho, further testing will tell, if not I will look into the FW card and the DMA settings.

Thanks for all your help,

Nathan

manning1 · 29th March 2005

nathan.
just a point.
ideally you want to be set up so that windows is on one hard drive, and your tracks are recorded to a second hard drive (with dma enabled as well).
this way you wont get head contention occurring for example if win was on the
c drive and you were also recording to the c drive as well.
for example one set up i have is win on the c drive and my song folders/tracks on the D drive.
also i dont know how much cache your hard drives have but samp will really appreciate drives with 8 mb caches i think youll find, as will any audio application. how much cache are your hard drives ??.
they are pretty cheap right now.

27th March 2005	#1
PapillonIrl Lives for gear Joined: Nov 2003 Location: Ireland Posts: 626 Thread Starter	Samplitude playback problem, need help. Ok, so I recently moved to Samp 8.1. I have to say I absolutly love it, and in general it seems very stable, with some amazing new features. However, yesterday in the middle of a drum tracking session, weird things started happening during playback. I was tracking drums for 14 songs (over two days) with a young band, and I was generally looking for two 'keeper' takes for each song. I am using the Fireface 800 and putting down ten tracks at a time. Everything would seem to be fine until I got my first keeper, added ten empty tracks to the multitrak VIP view, muted them all, and moved my keeper tracks down on to the empty ones so I could use the armed tracks to go for another one. When I hit playback (even though the first keeper was muted) is was ok for a couple of seconds and then seemed to splutter out. I was occasionally getting a 'Disk Usage' >100% as well. I messed with some buffer settings, but the only way I could stop this happening (and I was under pressure to keep the session going) was to disable 'TrackSpeed', in the Advanced Buffer Settings. I have a rough idea of what TrackSpeed does, but I'd like to know what it is in my system that is making it not work properly, and what the consequences of disabling it are. Some system info: Pent 4 3.2gHz 2 x 7200RPM HD, 80GB & 200GB (Both less than half full) 1GB RAM 2 x UAD-1 PCI ards 1 x Firewire 400 PCI card Any advice/info much appreciated, Cheers, Nathan __________________ ''Because your candle burns too bright, well I almost forgot it was twilight' Elliott Smith

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Samplitude Problem	mplancke	Music computers	18	19th November 2006 03:42 PM
TheGrand 2 sounds worse during playback 4 nuendo RAM problem or rendering problem?	rokuez	Music computers	2	22nd June 2006 05:16 AM
I've fallen and I cant get up! (PT LE playback problem)	Mils	Music computers	10	26th September 2005 08:50 PM
Samplitude Problem	Scott Alger	Music computers	7	15th November 2004 03:19 PM
samplitude problem	debu	Music computers	0	29th January 2004 02:32 AM

27th March 2005	#2
manning1 Lives for gear Joined: May 2004 Location: canada Posts: 3,998	papillon. i dont know if these ideas might help you. but the high disk usage could indicate that tracks that are muted are still being read back from the hard drive. in some audio apps there is an option whereby the app does not read back tracks when muted. maybe look for this option if its available. because it sounds like a lot of tracks are being read back from the drive. question - do you hear a "churning" of the drive OR just the occasional "brrp" is the best way i can explain it. listen carefully and report back please. what you hear. another important aspect. SOMETIMES if xp has a problem with a drive it might default back to a lower disk transfer speed for a drive. please check in win xp control panel that your drives are dma enabled or get a tech to check this. and that your drives are not operating at a slower transfer mode. just 2 ideas. peace. ps...dont know if youve seen this - info on trackspeed also http://www.samplitude.com/de/feat_h.htm

28th March 2005	#4
manning1 Lives for gear Joined: May 2004 Location: canada Posts: 3,998	nathan (butterfly ?) well obviously somethings changed from the old version to the new 8. if you were able to run that many tracks in the past - you are correct , you should be able to now at least. if were me i would load up the old version and look for any differences in settings just to check between the 2 versions. but i'm not sure thats the problem. could be a hard drive setting as i mentioned thats been changed. like DMA enabling. i should say from my testing (earlier version)...i was highly impressed with how samp and its siblings handle disks so efficiently. totally brilliant was my summation because ive seen samp run on awfull pc configs. just an OUT THERE IDEA....did you by any chance add any other cards in the pci slots of your pc recently or make any other changes in hardware on this pc you use to record with ?? also other out there ideas - are others using this machine you record on ? that werent using it before ? other family members for example ? using the net ? maybe something has been downloaded thats slowing down your pc ? - ive seen it happen ! peace.

29th March 2005	#8
manning1 Lives for gear Joined: May 2004 Location: canada Posts: 3,998	nathan. just a point. ideally you want to be set up so that windows is on one hard drive, and your tracks are recorded to a second hard drive (with dma enabled as well). this way you wont get head contention occurring for example if win was on the c drive and you were also recording to the c drive as well. for example one set up i have is win on the c drive and my song folders/tracks on the D drive. also i dont know how much cache your hard drives have but samp will really appreciate drives with 8 mb caches i think youll find, as will any audio application. how much cache are your hard drives ??. they are pretty cheap right now.