Help with new Pentium Duo Core PC!

[tdawgg]

I built a new system, Pentium Core Duo, 2.13 with 1gb RAM. The only thing installed is:
PT 7.1 M-Audio
a separate Firewire card (PCI)

Everything works fine, but...as soon as I arm an audio track in PT, a "crackling" noise...I have checked IRQ conflicts, tried adjusting sample rates, etc...nothing works! I am using an Apogee Mini Me as a clock, but even when I turn that off, and run the internal clock on the Projec Mix, same problem. I had the exact same set-up on my old system, and everything worked flawlessly...i went to a Duo Core to take advantage of less strain on the system when running plug-ins in PT 7.1. I have contacted M-Audio tech support, sent them a copy of my IRQ settings, and they didn't really offer any suggestions. I don't see anything wrong, anywhere. I had a similar problem, with my old system, and I was running a stand alone HD and the Project Mix from a firewire hub. I removed the hub from the eqation, and problem solved. Anybody have any ideas? thanks!

[Sizzleboy]

Originally Posted by tdawgg

I built a new system, Pentium Core Duo, 2.13 with 1gb RAM. The only thing installed is:
PT 7.1 M-Audio
a separate Firewire card (PCI)

Everything works fine, but...as soon as I arm an audio track in PT, a "crackling" noise...I have checked IRQ conflicts, tried adjusting sample rates, etc...nothing works! I am using an Apogee Mini Me as a clock, but even when I turn that off, and run the internal clock on the Projec Mix, same problem. I had the exact same set-up on my old system, and everything worked flawlessly...i went to a Duo Core to take advantage of less strain on the system when running plug-ins in PT 7.1. I have contacted M-Audio tech support, sent them a copy of my IRQ settings, and they didn't really offer any suggestions. I don't see anything wrong, anywhere. I had a similar problem, with my old system, and I was running a stand alone HD and the Project Mix from a firewire hub. I removed the hub from the eqation, and problem solved. Anybody have any ideas? thanks!

What motherboard and graphics card? There are known issues with certain PCI-E graphics cards causing problems with audio.

[Ladia - Audeum]

Hi,
I recently had a few similar issues on several different machines.
there were 3 different solutions.

1. Onboard Audio, if you don't need it disable it in BIOS.

2. Your Firewire port, mine was onboard and I had to use PCI card to resolve that issue, that was Gigabyte motherboard. try to change PCi slots for your FW controller. Now we are using only Intel manufactured boards (made in Canada).

3. Latency settings , I don't know what kind of noise you are experiencing but if it sounds like there is a tractor running over your audio tracks then try to adjust you latency in your recording software and also within OS drivers for your audio controller.

hope it helps, if not let me know.

Ladia - Audeum

www.audeum.com

[SONICA]

Hi,

download and install the Firewire and Dual Core Hotfix patches from this page;

http://www.shop-sonica.com/support.cfm


They are under "Microsoft Windows XP SVP2 Patches" near the end of the page.

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by tdawgg

I built a new system, Pentium Core Duo, 2.13 with 1gb RAM. The only thing installed is:
PT 7.1 M-Audio
a separate Firewire card (PCI)

Everything works fine, but...as soon as I arm an audio track in PT, a "crackling" noise...I have checked IRQ conflicts, tried adjusting sample rates, etc...nothing works! I am using an Apogee Mini Me as a clock, but even when I turn that off, and run the internal clock on the Projec Mix, same problem. I had the exact same set-up on my old system, and everything worked flawlessly...i went to a Duo Core to take advantage of less strain on the system when running plug-ins in PT 7.1. I have contacted M-Audio tech support, sent them a copy of my IRQ settings, and they didn't really offer any suggestions. I don't see anything wrong, anywhere. I had a similar problem, with my old system, and I was running a stand alone HD and the Project Mix from a firewire hub. I removed the hub from the eqation, and problem solved. Anybody have any ideas? thanks!

It's obviously not the source of your problems (as using your Procject Mix internal clock didn't apparently help) but you might reconsider the wisdom of using an external clock if you're not actually using the Mini Me's converters. Reason is that any contemporary, well-designed converter operating standalone should get higher sampling accuracy using its internal clock than an external clocks. External clock sources (or, perhaps more properly, the clock of the first converter in line) obviously must be used when synching devices in a digital audio chain but they tend to introduce more jitter in subsequent synched devices.

Both Dan Lavry and Digidesign have written white papers about this issue and the "fallacies" involved in the "unnecessary" use of external clocking (when its not needed for synch). Bottom line: they both suggest, not entirely in jest, that people who like "the sound" of external clock driven converters may actually be responding (positively) to the (presumably subtle) distortion induced by more jitter.

[tdawgg]

I tried d/ling the hotfixes from Sonica...no help...I guss my next step is to move the PCI card I am using for firewire input to another lsot...this is driving me nuts! I just can't find any obvious reason for this...I appreciate everyones advice..

[tdawgg]

ok...I tried a work-around...hooked up my M-audio Fastrack pro to a USB port, .1, plugged in my monitors, opened PT 7.1, armed two tracks ( I am running a Mesa Recording Pre), and, viola! No more "sizzling bacon"! So, I would assume that my problem lies somewhere in the firewire connection. I have tried d/ling the latest drivers, and I remember that there was a firmware update for the project mix IO, so maybe I need to run the firem ware update again? I tried moving the card to a differnt PCI slot, bit to no avail. BTW, the Mesa sounds savage thru the SPDIF input of the Apogee Mini Me!