Skipping on playback

darr wrote on 6/7/2000, 11:53 AM

This sounds like data transfer probs.Is your dma checked under device
properties for your drives?Is the drive you have the audio on only
full of the waves you are using;nothing else?Are the drives 7200's?
How many gigs is your project using on this 5 gig drive?
Only other thing to try is video card.What kind do you have and if it
has a switch to turn off bus mastering,turn it off.Also make sure
your properties for vegas's audio is set up for the same drive your
using.Also what fx and where are they patched?Using the assigned fx?
16 trax is alot with fx going,depending on the fx.Waves stuff are
pigs!!Don't get too many trax with their plugs cookin.Best method is
to try and render down to stereo pairs and work the fx into the
renders.This is pretty common even in pro tools.Let us know.:-)
David W. Ruby

mcm wrote:
>>I'm running a PIII 450, Win98SE, (2) 5gig Western IDE/UDMA
>>drives, 128meg ram, MOTU 2408
>>
>>I just transfered a 50 minuet, 16 track session into Vegas
>>digital from my DA88's. The hard disk was empty and
>>defraged before loading the continuous session. With 5
>>plugins and Vegas EQ and Compression on every track the
>>session playsback perfectly with about 33/128 of the ram
>>used and disk access sweeping back and forth from 0% to
>>25%. However if I stop and skip to anywhere else in the
>>song the session skips on playback with the same ram used
>>but the the disk access swinging from 24% to 48%, the skip
>>happening when the swing hits the higher percents. At any
>>time I can stop and go back to the beginnig of the session
>>and start with no skipping and low disk access. I've
>>adjusted the playback buffer with almost no effect. I've
>>tried setting the virtual memory from Window handeling it
>>to setting my own to none with no effect. I even added a
>>line in my system.ini file under [vcache]
>>MaxFileCache=12288 with no effect. But I'm still guessing
>>it's a memory management problem somewhere. Any help or
>>thoughts would be much appreciated. mcm

mcm wrote on 6/7/2000, 2:20 PM

David W. Ruby wrote:
>>This sounds like data transfer probs.Is your dma checked under
device
>>properties for your drives?Is the drive you have the audio on only
>>full of the waves you are using;nothing else?Are the drives 7200's?
>>How many gigs is your project using on this 5 gig drive?
>>Only other thing to try is video card.What kind do you have and if
it
>>has a switch to turn off bus mastering,turn it off.Also make sure
>>your properties for vegas's audio is set up for the same drive your
>>using.Also what fx and where are they patched?Using the assigned fx?
>>16 trax is alot with fx going,depending on the fx.Waves stuff are
>>pigs!!Don't get too many trax with their plugs cookin.Best method
is
>>to try and render down to stereo pairs and work the fx into the
>>renders.This is pretty common even in pro tools.Let us know.:-)
>>David W. Ruby
>>
>>mcm wrote:
>>>>I'm running a PIII 450, Win98SE, (2) 5gig Western IDE/UDMA
>>>>drives, 128meg ram, MOTU 2408
>>>>
>>>>I just transfered a 50 minuet, 16 track session into Vegas
>>>>digital from my DA88's. The hard disk was empty and
>>>>defraged before loading the continuous session. With 5
>>>>plugins and Vegas EQ and Compression on every track the
>>>>session playsback perfectly with about 33/128 of the ram
>>>>used and disk access sweeping back and forth from 0% to
>>>>25%. However if I stop and skip to anywhere else in the
>>>>song the session skips on playback with the same ram used
>>>>but the the disk access swinging from 24% to 48%, the skip
>>>>happening when the swing hits the higher percents. At any
>>>>time I can stop and go back to the beginnig of the session
>>>>and start with no skipping and low disk access. I've
>>>>adjusted the playback buffer with almost no effect. I've
>>>>tried setting the virtual memory from Window handeling it
>>>>to setting my own to none with no effect. I even added a
>>>>line in my system.ini file under [vcache]
>>>>MaxFileCache=12288 with no effect. But I'm still guessing
>>>>it's a memory management problem somewhere. Any help or
>>>>thoughts would be much appreciated. mcm

mcm wrote on 6/7/2000, 2:47 PM

David, My dma is checked under device properties. My drive "D" is
for audio waves only, nother else. The drives are older 5100 WD's.
The project is using 4.4gigs, 6 gigs drives not 5 and that is the
only thing on the drive. Video card is ATI Rage 128xpert 128. I
don't seem to find a switch for turning off the bus mastering, where
should I check? Properties in Vegas is set for the "D" drive. FX
are Vegas EQ & Compression on almost every channel (I'm starting to
think that the Vegas compression uses a lot of horsepower with that
many tracks). Also 4 DSP FX (studio reverb, pitch, exciter, room
amb.) Muting them has no efect on playback skipping but deleating 2
of them corrects the playback problem. Or by rendering 6 of the
tracks down solves the playback problem. Or bypassing the channel
EQ's and compressions solves the problem. So it's sounding like I'm
just reaching the limits of my computer. The only odd thing is it
plays fine if I play from the beginning of the music and let it play
through but if I stop anywhere and start again from the stop point it
skips like crazy. Thank you for responding, mcm

David W. Ruby wrote:
>>This sounds like data transfer probs.Is your dma checked under
device
>>properties for your drives?Is the drive you have the audio on only
>>full of the waves you are using;nothing else?Are the drives 7200's?
>>How many gigs is your project using on this 5 gig drive?
>>Only other thing to try is video card.What kind do you have and if
it
>>has a switch to turn off bus mastering,turn it off.Also make sure
>>your properties for vegas's audio is set up for the same drive your
>>using.Also what fx and where are they patched?Using the assigned fx?
>>16 trax is alot with fx going,depending on the fx.Waves stuff are
>>pigs!!Don't get too many trax with their plugs cookin.Best method
is
>>to try and render down to stereo pairs and work the fx into the
>>renders.This is pretty common even in pro tools.Let us know.:-)
>>David W. Ruby

blisster wrote on 6/7/2000, 3:01 PM

Did you try to increase the buffer under audio properties in Vegas? I
had similar situations which this helped slightly (only slightly
though). The disadvantage is you're working with a larger mixing
latency. The solution may be to upgrade that processor, if that's
within your budget. But then again, that's the solution to most of
life's problems, IMO. :)

mcm wrote:
>>David, My dma is checked under device properties. My drive "D" is
>>for audio waves only, nother else. The drives are older 5100
WD's.
>>The project is using 4.4gigs, 6 gigs drives not 5 and that is the
>>only thing on the drive. Video card is ATI Rage 128xpert 128. I
>>don't seem to find a switch for turning off the bus mastering,
where
>>should I check? Properties in Vegas is set for the "D" drive. FX
>>are Vegas EQ & Compression on almost every channel (I'm starting to
>>think that the Vegas compression uses a lot of horsepower with that
>>many tracks). Also 4 DSP FX (studio reverb, pitch, exciter, room
>>amb.) Muting them has no efect on playback skipping but deleating 2
>>of them corrects the playback problem. Or by rendering 6 of the
>>tracks down solves the playback problem. Or bypassing the channel
>>EQ's and compressions solves the problem. So it's sounding like
I'm
>>just reaching the limits of my computer. The only odd thing is it
>>plays fine if I play from the beginning of the music and let it
play
>>through but if I stop anywhere and start again from the stop point
it
>>skips like crazy. Thank you for responding, mcm
>>

mcm wrote on 6/7/2000, 5:20 PM

Vern, yes I did try increasing the Vegas buffer with, as you, only
slight improvement. I was holding out for the new PIIII 2000
megahertz machines with terabite hard drives but . . ., thank you, mcm

Vern Cooper wrote:
>>Did you try to increase the buffer under audio properties in Vegas?
I
>>had similar situations which this helped slightly (only slightly
>>though). The disadvantage is you're working with a larger mixing
>>latency. The solution may be to upgrade that processor, if that's
>>within your budget. But then again, that's the solution to most of
>>life's problems, IMO. :)
>>

althoff wrote on 6/8/2000, 6:03 PM

Uh, guys, aren't we forgetting something here? 128 megs of RAM is not
very much in these situations... After the win98 kernel and some
drivers are loaded, you have maybe 60-70 megs left, which is rather
quickly eaten up by Vegas and other applications...

I think a healthy memory upgrade (256 megs total might suffice),
along with some tampering with the Swap File size under Virtual
Memory in the Systems folder could actually improve win98 performance
a lot.

My recommendation is that you set the swap file size to 256 megs, and
make sure the "min swap file size" and "max swap file size" are BOTH
set to 256 megs. That way the file system won't have to adjust the
size of the swap file, saving valuable harddrive performance. Best of
all would be to get RAM enough to disable file swapping altogether.
I've learned this could affect stability though, although it beats me
how. I've never had any bigger problems with that.

mcm wrote:
>>Vern, yes I did try increasing the Vegas buffer with, as you, only
>>slight improvement. I was holding out for the new PIIII 2000
>>megahertz machines with terabite hard drives but . . ., thank you,
mcm
>>
>>Vern Cooper wrote:
>>>>Did you try to increase the buffer under audio properties in
Vegas?
>>I
>>>>had similar situations which this helped slightly (only slightly
>>>>though). The disadvantage is you're working with a larger mixing
>>>>latency. The solution may be to upgrade that processor, if that's
>>>>within your budget. But then again, that's the solution to most
of
>>>>life's problems, IMO. :)
>>>>
>>

mcm wrote on 6/9/2000, 1:53 PM

Johan, I just put in another 128 megs of ram, 256 total and set the
Virtual memory max/min to 256. Problem is no better. It still skips
if I start anywhere but the begining of the 40 min. song and no
problem if I start at the beginning. Also do you set a max/min File
Cache in the system.ini? If so what would you recomend. I've seen
numbers suggested for file cache as with virtual memory all over the
place. Any thoughts? Thank you, mcm

Johan Althoff wrote:
>>Uh, guys, aren't we forgetting something here? 128 megs of RAM is
not
>>very much in these situations... After the win98 kernel and some
>>drivers are loaded, you have maybe 60-70 megs left, which is rather
>>quickly eaten up by Vegas and other applications...
>>
>>I think a healthy memory upgrade (256 megs total might suffice),
>>along with some tampering with the Swap File size under Virtual
>>Memory in the Systems folder could actually improve win98
performance
>>a lot.
>>
>>My recommendation is that you set the swap file size to 256 megs,
and
>>make sure the "min swap file size" and "max swap file size" are
BOTH
>>set to 256 megs. That way the file system won't have to adjust the
>>size of the swap file, saving valuable harddrive performance. Best
of
>>all would be to get RAM enough to disable file swapping altogether.
>>I've learned this could affect stability though, although it beats
me
>>how. I've never had any bigger problems with that.
>>
>>mcm wrote:
>>>>Vern, yes I did try increasing the Vegas buffer with, as you,
only
>>>>slight improvement. I was holding out for the new PIIII 2000
>>>>megahertz machines with terabite hard drives but . . ., thank
you,
>>mcm
>>>>
>>>>Vern Cooper wrote:
>>>>>>Did you try to increase the buffer under audio properties in
>>Vegas?
>>>>I
>>>>>>had similar situations which this helped slightly (only
slightly
>>>>>>though). The disadvantage is you're working with a larger
mixing
>>>>>>latency. The solution may be to upgrade that processor, if
that's
>>>>>>within your budget. But then again, that's the solution to most
>>of
>>>>>>life's problems, IMO. :)
>>>>>>
>>>>

mcm wrote on 6/10/2000, 11:03 AM

Johan, Skipping fixed. After setting the Virtual memory I defraged
my hard drive and everything runs smooth. I didn't think that since
I loaded the 16 tracks of music in one continuous stream to a
dedicated clean empty drive that defraging would be necessary. It
will now be part of the routine after load in. Thank you for your
help. mcm

mcm wrote:
>>Johan, I just put in another 128 megs of ram, 256 total and set
the
>>Virtual memory max/min to 256. Problem is no better. It still
skips
>>if I start anywhere but the begining of the 40 min. song and no
>>problem if I start at the beginning. Also do you set a max/min
File
>>Cache in the system.ini? If so what would you recomend. I've seen
>>numbers suggested for file cache as with virtual memory all over
the
>>place. Any thoughts? Thank you, mcm
>>
>>Johan Althoff wrote:
>>>>Uh, guys, aren't we forgetting something here? 128 megs of RAM is
>>not
>>>>very much in these situations... After the win98 kernel and some
>>>>drivers are loaded, you have maybe 60-70 megs left, which is
rather
>>>>quickly eaten up by Vegas and other applications...
>>>>
>>>>I think a healthy memory upgrade (256 megs total might suffice),
>>>>along with some tampering with the Swap File size under Virtual
>>>>Memory in the Systems folder could actually improve win98
>>performance
>>>>a lot.
>>>>
>>>>My recommendation is that you set the swap file size to 256 megs,
>>and
>>>>make sure the "min swap file size" and "max swap file size" are
>>BOTH
>>>>set to 256 megs. That way the file system won't have to adjust
the
>>>>size of the swap file, saving valuable harddrive performance.
Best
>>of
>>>>all would be to get RAM enough to disable file swapping
altogether.
>>>>I've learned this could affect stability though, although it
beats
>>me
>>>>how. I've never had any bigger problems with that.
>>>>
>>>>mcm wrote:
>>>>>>Vern, yes I did try increasing the Vegas buffer with, as you,
>>only
>>>>>>slight improvement. I was holding out for the new PIIII 2000
>>>>>>megahertz machines with terabite hard drives but . . ., thank
>>you,
>>>>mcm
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Vern Cooper wrote:
>>>>>>>>Did you try to increase the buffer under audio properties in
>>>>Vegas?
>>>>>>I
>>>>>>>>had similar situations which this helped slightly (only
>>slightly
>>>>>>>>though). The disadvantage is you're working with a larger
>>mixing
>>>>>>>>latency. The solution may be to upgrade that processor, if
>>that's
>>>>>>>>within your budget. But then again, that's the solution to
most
>>>>of
>>>>>>>>life's problems, IMO. :)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>