Audio output NOT satisfying

Saga Musix · January 31, 2007, 19:53:57

Hey guys,

I have a new soundcard which supports ASIO. So I enabled ASIO output in MPT. To be honest, it is not satisfying. I get high cpu usage (hm... it gets very low when i hit the "open file" or "save file" button... veeery strange, eh?) and it prodcues clicks from time to time, even if i set the buffer lenght to 50ms (no difference to 10ms). What's wrong? Am i st00pid or is it modplug which has bad asio support?

edit: my cpu is an amd athlon 1900+, so this shouldn't be a problem. my soundcard is an ESI JULI@, driver version 1.21.

LPChip · January 31, 2007, 21:23:32

First of all, this is not a bug, so I'm moving it to general chatter.

High CPU usage when playing means that your CPU runs out of power.

There are a few reasons for this to happen.

1. You have loaded VST Plugins (effects or instruments) and they do require alot of CPU power, and can easilly result in this behavor.

2. Your ASIO driver is a software driver and not a hardware driver which means that it will use your CPU to calculate everything. Especially with ASIO where low latency is guaranteed, CPU usage will increase if you use a software driver.

3. Your soundcard doesn't have an onboard processor which means that it does all the calculations on your CPU which is in addition to option 2 even worse (and explains why option 2 is happening).

4. You've set a higher mixing rate which causes more calculations and therefor needs more CPU power.

Or it can be a combination of these.

Bytheway: I had an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ and I ran out of CPU power too, so 1900+ doesn't say that much. Okay, I did used over 40 VST effects...

I'm wondering if you had the same before you've purchased this soundcard.

Saga Musix · January 31, 2007, 22:23:56

Hum...

1) This also happens with tracks with a few channels and without vst...
2) The soundcard is classified as a very good recording card and works together very well with other programs (ya know, cubase and stuff...)
3) I have a mixing rate of 44khz...

LPChip · January 31, 2007, 23:07:48

Just to get things straight...

If you switch to DirectX mode or Wave Out mode, this problem doesn't occur?

Saga Musix · February 01, 2007, 19:46:34

I think i had thos crackles and clicks and whatsover also in directX modus, but not as much... but you can truly imagine what clicks add to a piece, it doesn't matter if it are 10 or 100.

LPChip · February 01, 2007, 21:37:55

Quote from: "Jojo"I think i had thos crackles and clicks and whatsover also in directX modus, but not as much... but you can truly imagine what clicks add to a piece, it doesn't matter if it are 10 or 100.

Yes I know, but I'm trying to reach a conclusion here. So far the only conclusion I can draw is that it has to be something with your soundcard. Wether its a misconfiguration or driver conflict, thats still unsure.

There's another thing I'm curious about. If you are not running MPT how much is your CPU usage?

And if you run windows into Safe mode, does MPT run at all, and if so, does the problem still occur? (Thinking about other causes like spyware and such)

Saga Musix · February 02, 2007, 17:35:06

-My soundcard supports asio 2.0 fully, so this shouldn't be done by an emulation, right?

-Hm, this especially happens when i have programs like firefox, trillian, etc. open. The clicks seems to be gone when i *only* run modplug. CPU usage is ~10% with those programs.

-I checked my computer some days ago with hitman, no scanner found malware...

-plus, it's still strange, that all the cpu usage is GONE (!!!) when i hit the open/save file dialog... this is a very confusing thing...

LPChip · February 02, 2007, 19:28:09

This confirms that you're troubled by somekind of software conflict.

If it doesn't happen if only modplug is open, then this problem is not caused by modplug or your soundcard.

Run these programs that make these clicks start, and then check in your taskmanager, processes and see what proces has a high value.

I bet it is somekind of spyware/virus that affects your processor in such way that it causes it to reach its limit.

Be aware: most download programs like kazaa, torrent etc, are known to cause lots of CPU usage.

But also alot of applications can cause this, cus each uses a bit of your processor which adds up to eachother which eventually get to 100% usage.

Its logical that open/close doesn't cause for clicks as at that point, modplug has less cpu power. The entire GUI doesn't get rendered when this is open, so only sound output occurs. I'm still sure that you're near 100% when you have the dialog open. Its just that if you are below 100% all the time (even if its 99%) you won't have clicks and pops.

Saga Musix · February 03, 2007, 00:47:59

eeerrr... even the patterns scroll when i hit the open file dialog, so where's the difference?

and i see that the 100% are mainly caused by modplug...

Sam_Zen · February 03, 2007, 01:30:39

An advice to avoid such troubles in the first place : If you're working with audio, close as much applications as you can.

Saga Musix · February 03, 2007, 22:28:51

Of course, this is not possible if i want to listen to a module quickly...
I do it of course when i am tracking..

LPChip · February 04, 2007, 00:43:02

The only thing you can do now is to isolate what program(s) make MPT go nuts.

If you have any questions regarding this matter where you have additional info: like: I noticed that program X make mpt get a higher cpu usage... Please ask, and we might be able to provide an answer, and maybe we even can identify a bug or so which would allow us to solve the issue.

Saga Musix · February 05, 2007, 21:00:04

Hm, the first thing i'll do now is to install the Athlon version of modplug. maybe this can help a bit.

Saga Musix · April 18, 2007, 14:30:04

Hm, after reinstalling windoze, modplug seems to run more stable, but still at 100% cpu

at least, it works for NOW

LPChip · April 18, 2007, 15:24:28

Good to hear

If you need any help, let us know and I'll see if I can be of any further assistance