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March 31st, 2002
I have struggled to get PTF to play audio once I installed it. I found that by clicking Setups/Hardware/OK the software operates for about ten minutes and then begins to ‘stutter’, as if it’s struggling to keep up. I then have to click Setups/Hardware/OK again or the whole system freezes. This is the only way I can keep PTF functioning. Any thoughts on how I can overcome this problem? I have 319 Mb RAM, 800Mhz PCU. Thanks
Hi Alistair, I haven’t confronted this particular issue, but here are a few things to try:
Make sure you are not running any other programs at the same time.
Assign extra memory, larger than the minimum and suggested sizes, to both DAE and PTFree.
Check the disc cache settings (in the memory control panel), there is a fairly small buffer setting (512K) that PT likes, but all other programs think is crazy. Use that setting.
restart.
see if that helps, and let us know!
have you recently run a disc utility tool to repair and optimize your harddrive. i ask cuz in addition to jeff’s above list, fragmented soundfiles could be the cause.
also, wondering if you are running session in 24 or 16 bit?
Thanks for the replies. I ran scandisk and defragged 2 days ago so I don’t think that’s the problem. I’m running in 16 bit Beedge, is that OK?
No other programmes running at the same time Jeff. how do I assign extra memory, to DAE and PTFree? (excuse my ignorance of these technicalities) and where do I find the memory control panel?
I’ll get there, thanks for your patience. Alistair
What exact machine are you working on, which OS? We’ll figure this out!! I’m sure of it!!
I’m working on:
Celeron 800 Mhz CPU
319Mb RAM
Soundblaster "live" soundcard
Windows 98 OS
8 Gb ultra ATA 66 system Hard drive
1 GB Audio storage Hard drive
(I don’t know the speed of these drives – is there any way to find out?)
When my system starts to stutter I rectify it by clicking SETUPS/HARDWARE/OK… well, the Hardware window diplays the following information:
Sample Rate 44100
Hardware Buffer Size 8192 samples
CPU Usage Limit 70%
could the problem be linked to any of these variables Jeff?
definitely up the CPU usage to the max (85%, i believe).
the windows os has a dynamic RAM allocation, and, as i remember, you don’t need to, nor can you allocate a specific RAM size to an application. the os grabs and gives back RAM as needed. so that likely ain’t the prob. (windows users chime in, tho, i could be wrong).
(just for info purposes: mac os9 sets up a separate partition in the RAM as it launches each application, and you can set the size of an app’s partition. mac osX, i think, works like windows, no size setting needed.)
Hi. My computer has just started doing this, too. I’ve been using PT for more than a year now, and this is a first.
Recently, I’ve increased my DAE cache size, and started using a 48 khz sample rate instead of a 44.1. These might be possible avenues to investigate.
BTW what soundcard are you using? I wonder, and this is totally a guess, if there is some conversion problem between 44.1 and 48khz leading to the gradually increasing stutter as they fall out of sync. But it’s just a guess.
Adam.
I recently bought a PowerMac 9600 from a friend, and of course I wanted to buy cheap ATA drives for it so I went to Other World Computing and bought a VST Ultra-ATA/66 RAID card. (I don’t plan to use RAID, but this card is very inexpensive.) [I had a link to the card but the page seems to be down now, so maybe it's no longer available.]
This is the first time I’ve installed an ATA drive in a Mac that didn’t already have ATA built in, so I was not aware of this issue, but one of the things they mentioned in the product description is a "stutter" can occur with ATA cards installed in pre-G3 PowerMacs.
Several utilities are available to compensate for it, and the one for this card is called AV-Tek. "The AV-Tek Control Panel is only for Pre-G3 PowerMacs running OS 8.1 through 9.2.x. This software compensates for processor/bus speed issues that can cause issues during the play back of audio or video files."
The Other World software supposedly only works with their card but they imply that you can get other versions for other cards. If I understand it correctly, the software slows the card down to match the speed of the bus so the data flows smoothly. I have not seen the problem yet but I have not pushed the limits at all.
If your machine only recently started acting up, it could be that you installed a new driver or new drive, or maybe you just happened to hit the limit with your current project so you finally noticed it.
If your machine is a G3 or later, maybe your drive has become fragmented or is having some other trouble that is slowing it down….?
Alas, when I was poor and needed a new computer, I bought a PC (I know, I know…) so that’s likely not the issue at least for me. I’m not sure that it’s some conversion problem between 44.1 and 48 khz any more either, as it seems to happen with my 44.1 original files, too. I don’t know much about ‘puters anyway, so that was a total shot in the dark.
I don’t think it’s that I’ve hit a limit either. I have a 7200 rmp 40GB hard drive with plenty of space. And I actually freed up a fair bit of space just before I started this project.
Do you think that new soundcard drivers would screw it up? It seems strange to me, but possible.
Thanks,
Adam
> Do you think that new soundcard drivers would screw it up? It seems strange to me, but possible.
I think it’s VERY possible. If you have upgraded your sound card drivers, it’s worth trying to "downgrade" to the earlier version.
If you haven’t tried running defrag on the drive it’s worth a shot, too. In fact, it’s even better to have a separate drive for recording to that you can wipe and start from scratch without affecting your operating system or applications. If you do have a separate drive, the defrag is unnecessary — just erase or format the drive and start over.
I’ll try the downgrade. Thanks. And I’ll likely buy a new drive, too, since–astonishingly, I think–I’ve nearly filled my 40GB one.
Thanks again.
Adam.
I have fixed (I think) my and Alistair’s problem. It’s a sample rate thing. When I use only 48000 khz files, there’s no stutter at all. It happens every time with 44.1 files.
The PTF website mentions (after all this fiddling I find it) that the SoundBlaster cards have a problem with falling out of sync. It’s funny that my SB AWE64 card didn’t (much?), but my new one does. Such is progress.
The solution, anyway, is to record and edit at only 48 khz. Of course PTF won’t let me do it (and I’m NOT going to find out why), so I’ve been using another program for the recording part.
Thanks all for the help.
Adam.