Snap, Crackle ...Pop - Delta 1010

tmrpro wrote on 2/15/2003, 2:00 PM
I'm unable to make VEGAS using the Delta 1010 work right at all on a new machine that I just built specifically for multitrack audio recording with.

Currently using build 5.10.00.29x12(beta)DELTA Drivers, but had the same problems with build 5.10.00.27.

Playing through the card is sonically perfect. Recording in Sound Forge 6.0 works perfectly, also. When I record into Vegas or Acid the recorded track snaps and pops.

The glitch is incorporated into the file ... Opening the recorded file for playback in other apps results with the same issues.

I was led to pcAudioLabs.com to perform a fix suggested to me by Ron at M-Audio. The fix is to change from ACPI to Standard PC for IRQ management. Apparently, virtual IRQs can be a very serious problem with the DELTA. I did that.

The machine still works perfectly. Very fast, very stable. The only thing I had to do was move my Adaptec 19160 to IRQ 7 because it shared 9 with the Delta 1010. Nevertheless, it is doing exactly the same thing that it was doing prior to changing the IRQ management.

I'm stumped. Recording directly into Sound Forge 6.0 with DELTA is fine, but recording into Vegas or Acid does not work correctly on this system. It sounds like the clock is unlocked on playback of the recorded track. Interesting discovery was that the system can playback 24 tracks of 24 bit audio (recorded on an MX-2424 rendered and imported into Vegas) perfectly with asio or wav.

Machine specifics:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
ASUS P4T533-C Motherboard Intel 850E chipset
INTEL PENTIUM 4 2.4BG - 478
(4) 256MB 1066MHZ NON-ECC RAMBUS RDRAM (1 gig total)
Adaptec 19160 SCSI controller
Maxtor 18 Gig HD (for audio files only)
(2) IBM 120GB UATA-100 DESKSTAR 180GXP 7200RPM (for OS & apps)
LITE ON 48X/24X/48X EIDE INTERNAL CDRW
FILE SERVER TOWER W/SL400 400W Power Supply
Delta 1010

I've tried multiple buffer settings on both the apps and the sound card configs. I've also tried using the ASIO or WAV methods, each with the same results. Also, I've experienced the problem with both Vegas 3.0 and the latest 4.0 version.

I have a very similar machine with the ASUS P4TE with 1G of 800MHZ RAMBUS and I've ran up to 142 full length rendered tracks of 24 bit 48K audio perfectly with Vegas-3. Machine's hardware difference is it is using the ECHO - MIA sound card and the LYNXone sound card. I can only record up to two stereo pairs on that machine, but it works perfectly right out of the box.

I built this new machine because I want to start multi-tracking directly in to it using Vegas as my primary MultiTrack App and I thought I'd start with 1 DELTA and eventually move to 3 when I made it happy. It's not happy yet, and I don't know what to do to make it happy. Please help, anyone ...

Todd Rubenstein

Comments

tmrpro wrote on 2/15/2003, 6:14 PM
Okay.

Got it working. I discovered that if I write my files to a folder on my primary drive (DMA IBM Deskstar), the files record perfectly.

Tracking to my SCSI drive was where my failures were occuring. I've never used Maxtor drives before, but it does seem to be substantially slower than the cheetahs in my other system. Playing back off Maxtor works fine, though.

Does anyone know more about this?

ibliss wrote on 2/15/2003, 8:17 PM
How old is the SCSI adaptor? I've seen posts from other people (in other forums) having problems with older SCSI cards under Windows XP. I would imagine this is the source of the problems.

You could buy a new SCSI card... or ditch SCSI and get another large IDE disc for your audio files (probably not much in it cost wise and you'd get a bigger harddisc).
PipelineAudio wrote on 2/15/2003, 8:19 PM
can you try vegas 3 and record to the scsi drives and see what happens please?
tmrpro wrote on 2/16/2003, 9:21 AM
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I've seen posts from other people (in other forums) having problems with older SCSI cards under Windows XP. I would imagine this is the source of the problems.

You could buy a new SCSI card... or ditch SCSI and get another large IDE disc for your audio files (probably not much in it cost wise and you'd get a bigger harddisc).

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Hey Ibliss,

Well, the 19160 is the card that is suggested for workstations in this type of application. I use it in many other machines in this type of application. It has 160 MByte/sec performance, supports 64 or 32 bit PCI and is the latest technology from Adaptec (without RAID).

As far as ditching SCSI alltogether. Hmmmm .... I don't know.

I know that the DMA's performance is really good with static files when they are rendered and read from. In a "write to" case they are also good with linear files because the files are actually being delivered in a linear way and in this particular case the interupt wouldn't require a request because the OS and application are living and operating on the same IRQ.

But, I know when you get up in the 60+ tracks of 24 bit, 48k audio - DMAs have a tendency to force confusion in delivery because the system's resources are having to adjust the random recall to a linear delivery.

It is my understanding that SCSI reads and renders files in a linear way (audio and video files must be read and rendered linearly).

I think I would lean more towards the performance (or lack of performance) from the Maxtor drive itself before I thought of the controller. But I will research that side of things further to find out more about it.

Thanks for the suggestion!
Todd
tmrpro wrote on 2/16/2003, 9:33 AM
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can you try vegas 3 and record to the scsi drives and see what happens please?
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Hello PipelineAudio,

Thanks for your reply.

I have tried V3. I actually started with that.

Please read the first post in this series for a complete description of the system, the problem and the different methods that were used to try and resolve the issue.

Thanks!
Todd