GargantulaKon
I have been troubleshooting this issue now and would like some help to see what is going on here. I was scratching a 1 second wav file very fast and then letting it play after scratching. After I let the sample play after heavy scratching, it was choppy in small parts. It was choppy in terms of volume and it rarely played a small chunk of the file in the wrong place.
Confused? Since this is hard to explain by text, below are two audio samples to compare. I got the rare small-audio-chunk-in-the-wrong-place to appear in one scratching session. Please note that I am not cutting the crossfader on the choppy version while I let the sample play after scratching. In an audio editor, it is easy to see the waveform cut out when the sample is played. I saw the volume cuts and the weird small chunk after I recorded these files.
Scratch Samples
Clean Version (323 KBs)
Choppy Version (314 KBs)
Troubleshooting
Here are my current performance settings: (Note that the tab is spelled "Performances" with an "s". I think that is a typo. :-)
One way I can scratch to get the clean version, is to disable the Master Tempo, but I want the flexibility of scratching at any BPM without affecting the pitch. I want the highest quality sound since it works fine as long as I do not scratch the audio file. What if I want to scratch the song while the pitch slider is not at 0%? If I turn off the "Master Tempo" while the song is playing the audio will cut to the current pitch and sound really bad while scratching live. The highest that my CPU ever reaches is 25% while scratching so I do not think my CPU is an issue. This is while using my internal sound card that is listed at the bottom of this post.
Another way, I can get the clean version is if I set the scratching algorithm to "Simple Algorithm" and leave the Master Tempo as seen in the screenshot above.
Yet another way, I can get the clean version is if I set the "Master Tempo" to "Fast" and leave the scratching algorithm as seen in the screenshot above.
Setting the "Safe Mode" and "Overclock" settings does not seem to help. Actually with "Safe Mode" on, it makes the issue worse with even more artifacts and "sparkling". Turning "Overclock off" does not change the issue and changing the "Latency" does not help.
My Current PC Configuration
VirtualDJ Version: 5.0.4
Desktop PC Brand: None, custom built
Monitors: Two monitors, one for me and the other for the crowd to see videos and pictures at a resolution of 1024x768
Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling 510W
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHz Hyper-Threading (AKA Hyperthreading) 650 Prescott 800 MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T
Video Card: BFG NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256 MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
RAM: 2 GB RAM Corsair XMS2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4300)
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2
OS: Windows XP SP2
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech G5 Battlefield 2142 Edition
Speakers: Logitech 5.1 Speakers Z-640; I set the rear left and right rear speakers to output the same left and right from the front to immerse the audience.
Optical Drive: LITE-ON Black 16x IDE DVD Burner SOHW-1693S
Hard Drives: 3 Internal Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150
Printer: Canon iP4300
Headphones: Pioneer HDJ-1000
Audio Hardware: Behringer BCD2000; Behringer BCF2000; Behringer XM8500 Microphone; Yamaha PSR-290
All hardware drivers are checked for the latest version almost every week.
Confused? Since this is hard to explain by text, below are two audio samples to compare. I got the rare small-audio-chunk-in-the-wrong-place to appear in one scratching session. Please note that I am not cutting the crossfader on the choppy version while I let the sample play after scratching. In an audio editor, it is easy to see the waveform cut out when the sample is played. I saw the volume cuts and the weird small chunk after I recorded these files.
One way I can scratch to get the clean version, is to disable the Master Tempo, but I want the flexibility of scratching at any BPM without affecting the pitch. I want the highest quality sound since it works fine as long as I do not scratch the audio file. What if I want to scratch the song while the pitch slider is not at 0%? If I turn off the "Master Tempo" while the song is playing the audio will cut to the current pitch and sound really bad while scratching live. The highest that my CPU ever reaches is 25% while scratching so I do not think my CPU is an issue. This is while using my internal sound card that is listed at the bottom of this post.
Another way, I can get the clean version is if I set the scratching algorithm to "Simple Algorithm" and leave the Master Tempo as seen in the screenshot above.
Yet another way, I can get the clean version is if I set the "Master Tempo" to "Fast" and leave the scratching algorithm as seen in the screenshot above.
Setting the "Safe Mode" and "Overclock" settings does not seem to help. Actually with "Safe Mode" on, it makes the issue worse with even more artifacts and "sparkling". Turning "Overclock off" does not change the issue and changing the "Latency" does not help.
VirtualDJ Version: 5.0.4
Desktop PC Brand: None, custom built
Monitors: Two monitors, one for me and the other for the crowd to see videos and pictures at a resolution of 1024x768
Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling 510W
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHz Hyper-Threading (AKA Hyperthreading) 650 Prescott 800 MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T
Video Card: BFG NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256 MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
RAM: 2 GB RAM Corsair XMS2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4300)
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2
OS: Windows XP SP2
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech G5 Battlefield 2142 Edition
Speakers: Logitech 5.1 Speakers Z-640; I set the rear left and right rear speakers to output the same left and right from the front to immerse the audience.
Optical Drive: LITE-ON Black 16x IDE DVD Burner SOHW-1693S
Hard Drives: 3 Internal Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150
Printer: Canon iP4300
Headphones: Pioneer HDJ-1000
Audio Hardware: Behringer BCD2000; Behringer BCF2000; Behringer XM8500 Microphone; Yamaha PSR-290
All hardware drivers are checked for the latest version almost every week.
geposted Tue 09 Oct 07 @ 7:04 am
cstoll
Safe Mode and Overclock are laptop only settings.
Change your latency to Auto
Also, the BEST QUALITY settings might be just out of reach of your system.
Try setting the Master Tempo complexity to a 2 or 1
What's the difference?
Change your latency to Auto
Also, the BEST QUALITY settings might be just out of reach of your system.
Try setting the Master Tempo complexity to a 2 or 1
What's the difference?
geposted Tue 09 Oct 07 @ 2:36 pm
GargantulaKon
cstoll wrote :
Safe Mode and Overclock are laptop only settings.
Really? Why does "Safe Mode" affect my sound card?
cstoll wrote :
Change your latency to Auto
OK, done. Same result.
cstoll wrote :
Also, the BEST QUALITY settings might be just out of reach of your system.
Try setting the Master Tempo complexity to a 2 or 1
Try setting the Master Tempo complexity to a 2 or 1
At 2, 1 and 0 I get the same results. I guess it is out of reach for my system. Overclocking my CPU to 3.7 GHz still has the problem. Does anyone else have this problem?
geposted Tue 09 Oct 07 @ 9:57 pm
cstoll
Why does "Safe Mode" affect my sound card?
It's an overall performance setting. So it can impact all aspects of the application which includes sound.
Also all of these settings are 'sound' performance - so the harder you push the performance settings the possibility you are going to get over the top of the sound cards ability.
So what are you using for your sound drivers ? The default WDM drivers? Or are they ASIO drivers? Or, the ASIO4ALL ?
It's an overall performance setting. So it can impact all aspects of the application which includes sound.
Also all of these settings are 'sound' performance - so the harder you push the performance settings the possibility you are going to get over the top of the sound cards ability.
So what are you using for your sound drivers ? The default WDM drivers? Or are they ASIO drivers? Or, the ASIO4ALL ?
geposted Tue 09 Oct 07 @ 10:00 pm
GargantulaKon
With "Master Tempo" off my CPU seems to also reach near 25% but with no audio hiccups. I just have to remember to set the pitch to 0% and take off "Master Tempo" if I want to scratch or pitch bend a song. I think that the problem is heard even when I am not scratching and during normal playing, but I need to test that aspect to make sure.
After some mild testing, it seems like it does not happen as long as I do not scrub through the song. My CPU jumped all the way to 67% while multi tasking with VirtualDJ running with no audio hiccup at all. After I back-scratched a song the audio hiccup occurs for about a second and then it is fine for the rest of the song. While scrubbing a song, the audio is skippy with "Master Tempo" on and fine even with fast scrubbing with it off.
I am using the latest and default Creative ASIO drivers (Sound Blaster Audigy 2, DR release 2.9.16).
After some mild testing, it seems like it does not happen as long as I do not scrub through the song. My CPU jumped all the way to 67% while multi tasking with VirtualDJ running with no audio hiccup at all. After I back-scratched a song the audio hiccup occurs for about a second and then it is fine for the rest of the song. While scrubbing a song, the audio is skippy with "Master Tempo" on and fine even with fast scrubbing with it off.
I am using the latest and default Creative ASIO drivers (Sound Blaster Audigy 2, DR release 2.9.16).
geposted Tue 09 Oct 07 @ 10:06 pm
GargantulaKon
Correction, I use the non-ASIO drivers. I use the 4.1 card options and I thought those were by default the ASIO drivers. I am going to test with the "SB Audigy 2 ASIO [EE00]" drivers with the ASIO options in the "Sound Setup" to see what happens.
Update: Now I remember why I do not use these settings, it causes my audio to distort even at 100 ms for the "SB Audigy 2 ASIO [EE00]" driver and the "Sound Setup" latency set to "Auto". The problem goes away with "Master Tempo" off. VirtualDJ performs better with the other driver, the "SB Audigy 2 Audio [EE00]" driver.
I think it might be my sound card's processing speed that is not up to par with the VirtualDJ algorithms. Anyone else in this community have a Sound Blaster Audigy 2?
Update: Now I remember why I do not use these settings, it causes my audio to distort even at 100 ms for the "SB Audigy 2 ASIO [EE00]" driver and the "Sound Setup" latency set to "Auto". The problem goes away with "Master Tempo" off. VirtualDJ performs better with the other driver, the "SB Audigy 2 Audio [EE00]" driver.
I think it might be my sound card's processing speed that is not up to par with the VirtualDJ algorithms. Anyone else in this community have a Sound Blaster Audigy 2?
geposted Tue 09 Oct 07 @ 10:23 pm