skips

pwppch wrote on 2/22/2000, 4:21 PM

Could you offers some details on the problem?

Audio hardware?

Describe "skip".

What does your project look like? (Tracks, FX (Specific names),
busses,etc.)

How/when does the lock up occur?

Do you have a conistent repro?

Thanks
Peter

Porcupique Porcupique wrote:
>>I am still having vegas lock up and skip guite often. I
>>have a fast pentium II with 192 megs of ram. I am
>>wondering if my hard drive may be causing the skips (its
>>only 8 gigs total and I am down to about 1 free gig). I am
>>wondering if a 20 gig disk would solve my skip problem or
>>if I am better off buying a small scsi disk and storing my
>>tracks and FSK files on a cdrw (or two) and then dumping
>>the tracks onto the scsi drive when I record/edit. Thanks
>>in advance for any advice.

RickZ wrote on 2/23/2000, 7:12 AM

Porcupique Porcupique wrote:
>>I am still having vegas lock up and skip guite often. I
>>have a fast pentium II with 192 megs of ram. I am
>>wondering if my hard drive may be causing the skips (its
>>only 8 gigs total and I am down to about 1 free gig). I am
>>wondering if a 20 gig disk would solve my skip problem or
>>if I am better off buying a small scsi disk and storing my
>>tracks and FSK files on a cdrw (or two) and then dumping
>>the tracks onto the scsi drive when I record/edit. Thanks
>>in advance for any advice.

I recently updated my system with IBM 7200 rpm ATA-66 drives, and
Promise Ultra-66 Enhanced IDE card from www.microx-press.com. The
Promise card includes the required 40-pin 80 wire cable for running
at UDMA Mode 4. Everything works quicker now, and it wasn't very
expensive, $50 for card, about $175 for drive.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Rick Z

porcupique wrote on 2/23/2000, 2:37 PM

Thanks for the quick get back. My audio hardware consists of a
single sound blaster sound card (the 100 buck one). I have been
thinking of getting one of the multi-input Lexicon cards for live
recording (I am pretty sure vegas can handle multi-input multiple
track recording and playback, but can you let me know if this it
true). As far as describing skip--the system just stops playing for
maybe a quarter second or so. This usually happens when the
harddrive usage indicator jumps into the teens. I have no problems
at all if i am running less that four tracks, but if I get up to 5
with effects (I use the express fx) and busses and volume/pan
envelopes for each track then it just starts to skip along during
playback. I have been mixing to a new track and then muting all the
other tracks when I need to add additional tracks which is not that
bad, but when I need to do a final mix down I can not do it in real
time (because vegas will freeze up and skip) and that is really
tough. I am not sure what a conistent repro is so I dont know what to
tell you about that. Thanks again.

Peter Haller wrote:
>>
>>Could you offers some details on the problem?
>>
>>Audio hardware?
>>
>>Describe "skip".
>>
>>What does your project look like? (Tracks, FX (Specific names),
>>busses,etc.)
>>
>>How/when does the lock up occur?
>>
>>Do you have a conistent repro?
>>
>>Thanks
>>Peter
>>
>>
>>Porcupique Porcupique wrote:
>>>>I am still having vegas lock up and skip guite often. I
>>>>have a fast pentium II with 192 megs of ram. I am
>>>>wondering if my hard drive may be causing the skips (its
>>>>only 8 gigs total and I am down to about 1 free gig). I am
>>>>wondering if a 20 gig disk would solve my skip problem or
>>>>if I am better off buying a small scsi disk and storing my
>>>>tracks and FSK files on a cdrw (or two) and then dumping
>>>>the tracks onto the scsi drive when I record/edit. Thanks
>>>>in advance for any advice.

pwppch wrote on 2/28/2000, 7:00 AM

You should have more than enought CPU and drive speed to deal with
this. 5 tracks on a PII is nothing. I can't see that the SB is the
problem either. 10-20% disk activity is nothing either.

Something else is up. What, I don't know.

Do you have system monitor installed? I'd be curious as to the CPU
usage you are seeing.

Try increasing your buffering. The default is 25 ms. (This setting is
located in the Preferences.... Audio tab.

Peter

Porcupique Porcupique wrote:
>>Thanks for the quick get back. My audio hardware consists of a
>>single sound blaster sound card (the 100 buck one). I have been
>>thinking of getting one of the multi-input Lexicon cards for live
>>recording (I am pretty sure vegas can handle multi-input multiple
>>track recording and playback, but can you let me know if this it
>>true). As far as describing skip--the system just stops playing
for
>>maybe a quarter second or so. This usually happens when the
>>harddrive usage indicator jumps into the teens. I have no problems
>>at all if i am running less that four tracks, but if I get up to 5
>>with effects (I use the express fx) and busses and volume/pan
>>envelopes for each track then it just starts to skip along during
>>playback. I have been mixing to a new track and then muting all
the
>>other tracks when I need to add additional tracks which is not that
>>bad, but when I need to do a final mix down I can not do it in real
>>time (because vegas will freeze up and skip) and that is really
>>tough. I am not sure what a conistent repro is so I dont know what
to
>>tell you about that. Thanks again.
>>
>>
>>Peter Haller wrote:
>>>>
>>>>Could you offers some details on the problem?
>>>>
>>>>Audio hardware?
>>>>
>>>>Describe "skip".
>>>>
>>>>What does your project look like? (Tracks, FX (Specific names),
>>>>busses,etc.)
>>>>
>>>>How/when does the lock up occur?
>>>>
>>>>Do you have a conistent repro?
>>>>
>>>>Thanks
>>>>Peter
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Porcupique Porcupique wrote:
>>>>>>I am still having vegas lock up and skip guite often. I
>>>>>>have a fast pentium II with 192 megs of ram. I am
>>>>>>wondering if my hard drive may be causing the skips (its
>>>>>>only 8 gigs total and I am down to about 1 free gig). I am
>>>>>>wondering if a 20 gig disk would solve my skip problem or
>>>>>>if I am better off buying a small scsi disk and storing my
>>>>>>tracks and FSK files on a cdrw (or two) and then dumping
>>>>>>the tracks onto the scsi drive when I record/edit. Thanks
>>>>>>in advance for any advice.

jpe wrote on 3/7/2000, 2:22 PM

I am also seeing this skipping. Cake walk and Cubase run fine (so
does sound forge) I have a PIII 450, 128mb ram, 20 gb disk free
(ata66 with a promise card) and a MOTU 1224 system, together with a
SB-Live card. I get the skipping if I play one track (recorded on
cake walk) with no effects. I've all but given up trying to fix this
(I'm using the demo software) and gone back to using horrible (but
functioning) Cakewalk.

Thanks,
Julian.

Peter Haller wrote:
>>You should have more than enought CPU and drive speed to deal with
>>this. 5 tracks on a PII is nothing. I can't see that the SB is the
>>problem either. 10-20% disk activity is nothing either.
>>
>>Something else is up. What, I don't know.
>>
>>Do you have system monitor installed? I'd be curious as to the CPU
>>usage you are seeing.
>>
>>Try increasing your buffering. The default is 25 ms. (This setting
is
>>located in the Preferences.... Audio tab.
>>
>>Peter
>>
>>
>>
>>Porcupique Porcupique wrote:
>>>>Thanks for the quick get back. My audio hardware consists of a
>>>>single sound blaster sound card (the 100 buck one). I have been
>>>>thinking of getting one of the multi-input Lexicon cards for live
>>>>recording (I am pretty sure vegas can handle multi-input multiple
>>>>track recording and playback, but can you let me know if this it
>>>>true). As far as describing skip--the system just stops playing
>>for
>>>>maybe a quarter second or so. This usually happens when the
>>>>harddrive usage indicator jumps into the teens. I have no
problems
>>>>at all if i am running less that four tracks, but if I get up to
5
>>>>with effects (I use the express fx) and busses and volume/pan
>>>>envelopes for each track then it just starts to skip along during
>>>>playback. I have been mixing to a new track and then muting all
>>the
>>>>other tracks when I need to add additional tracks which is not
that
>>>>bad, but when I need to do a final mix down I can not do it in
real
>>>>time (because vegas will freeze up and skip) and that is really
>>>>tough. I am not sure what a conistent repro is so I dont know
what
>>to
>>>>tell you about that. Thanks again.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Peter Haller wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Could you offers some details on the problem?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Audio hardware?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Describe "skip".
>>>>>>
>>>>>>What does your project look like? (Tracks, FX (Specific names),
>>>>>>busses,etc.)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>How/when does the lock up occur?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Do you have a conistent repro?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Thanks
>>>>>>Peter
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Porcupique Porcupique wrote:
>>>>>>>>I am still having vegas lock up and skip guite often. I
>>>>>>>>have a fast pentium II with 192 megs of ram. I am
>>>>>>>>wondering if my hard drive may be causing the skips (its
>>>>>>>>only 8 gigs total and I am down to about 1 free gig). I am
>>>>>>>>wondering if a 20 gig disk would solve my skip problem or
>>>>>>>>if I am better off buying a small scsi disk and storing my
>>>>>>>>tracks and FSK files on a cdrw (or two) and then dumping
>>>>>>>>the tracks onto the scsi drive when I record/edit. Thanks
>>>>>>>>in advance for any advice.

saff wrote on 3/7/2000, 3:00 PM

Before giving up, go here: http://www.audioforums.com/win95_setup.html

I had skips early on, as well. I have made nearly all of the changes
suggested at the URL listed above. Making these changes (and
switching over to 7200 RPM SCSI) has been the difference between
lackluster Vegas performance and ideal Vegas preformance. The only
suggested change that I haven't made is to reduce my graphics card's
hardware acceleration.

Some of these changes will affect how quickly your system reacts
during certain operations (such as starting up applications), but the
benefit when working with Vegas is substantial. I can run 24 mono
tracks with multiple effects with no problem on a system very
comparable to yours (though AMD driven as opposed to Pentium).

Good luck,
Carl

Julian Emmerson wrote:
>>I am also seeing this skipping. Cake walk and Cubase run fine (so
>>does sound forge) I have a PIII 450, 128mb ram, 20 gb disk free
>>(ata66 with a promise card) and a MOTU 1224 system, together with a
>>SB-Live card. I get the skipping if I play one track (recorded on
>>cake walk) with no effects. I've all but given up trying to fix
this
>>(I'm using the demo software) and gone back to using horrible (but
>>functioning) Cakewalk.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Julian.
>>
>>Peter Haller wrote:
>>>>You should have more than enought CPU and drive speed to deal
with
>>>>this. 5 tracks on a PII is nothing. I can't see that the SB is
the
>>>>problem either. 10-20% disk activity is nothing either.
>>>>
>>>>Something else is up. What, I don't know.
>>>>
>>>>Do you have system monitor installed? I'd be curious as to the
CPU
>>>>usage you are seeing.
>>>>
>>>>Try increasing your buffering. The default is 25 ms. (This
setting
>>is
>>>>located in the Preferences.... Audio tab.
>>>>
>>>>Peter
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Porcupique Porcupique wrote:
>>>>>>Thanks for the quick get back. My audio hardware consists of a
>>>>>>single sound blaster sound card (the 100 buck one). I have
been
>>>>>>thinking of getting one of the multi-input Lexicon cards for
live
>>>>>>recording (I am pretty sure vegas can handle multi-input
multiple
>>>>>>track recording and playback, but can you let me know if this
it
>>>>>>true). As far as describing skip--the system just stops
playing
>>>>for
>>>>>>maybe a quarter second or so. This usually happens when the
>>>>>>harddrive usage indicator jumps into the teens. I have no
>>problems
>>>>>>at all if i am running less that four tracks, but if I get up
to
>>5
>>>>>>with effects (I use the express fx) and busses and volume/pan
>>>>>>envelopes for each track then it just starts to skip along
during
>>>>>>playback. I have been mixing to a new track and then muting
all
>>>>the
>>>>>>other tracks when I need to add additional tracks which is not
>>that
>>>>>>bad, but when I need to do a final mix down I can not do it in
>>real
>>>>>>time (because vegas will freeze up and skip) and that is really
>>>>>>tough. I am not sure what a conistent repro is so I dont know
>>what
>>>>to
>>>>>>tell you about that. Thanks again.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Peter Haller wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Could you offers some details on the problem?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Audio hardware?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Describe "skip".
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>What does your project look like? (Tracks, FX (Specific
names),
>>>>>>>>busses,etc.)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>How/when does the lock up occur?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Do you have a conistent repro?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Thanks
>>>>>>>>Peter
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Porcupique Porcupique wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>I am still having vegas lock up and skip guite often. I
>>>>>>>>>>have a fast pentium II with 192 megs of ram. I am
>>>>>>>>>>wondering if my hard drive may be causing the skips (its
>>>>>>>>>>only 8 gigs total and I am down to about 1 free gig). I am
>>>>>>>>>>wondering if a 20 gig disk would solve my skip problem or
>>>>>>>>>>if I am better off buying a small scsi disk and storing my
>>>>>>>>>>tracks and FSK files on a cdrw (or two) and then dumping
>>>>>>>>>>the tracks onto the scsi drive when I record/edit. Thanks
>>>>>>>>>>in advance for any advice.