Platform: PC Product: Cubase Section: Timing Fixing timing problems Introduction: This document contains information related to timing problems that can occur with your hardware setup. Some problems manifest themselves not just as simple hardware errors, but may have subtle effects on the working of the program as a whole. Please refer to the "Getting Started" manual for general information on how to adjust your settings. For more detailed information, please read the chapter: "Optimizing Audio Performance" in the online documentation (Getting Into the Details). That chapter will also give you a comprehensive introduction to hardware related issues such as the ones that will be discussed here. We recommend that you read that chapter first. Furthermore, while reading this chapter you will notice that some recommended solutions are similar for different types of problems. This is due to the fact that the performance of your system is the result of many different interrelated factors and that problems with your hardware setup can cause a wide variety of symptoms. Overview: MIDI Q: What do I do when I encounter MIDI timing instability? Q: Why are MIDI and audio tracks not properly synchronized in a system with a Windows Multimedia compatible audio card? Audio -- General audio problems: Q: What do I do when I experience audio dropouts? Q: Why does recording stop unpredictably? Q: Why am I experiencing audio crackling/clicks? Q: Why are some audio recordings stuttering or not played back in their entirety? -- Audio card issues: Q: What audio cards can I use? Q: How do the different audio cards perform? Q: What are the recommended configurations for my audio card? Q: Why do I get the message "Device could not be opened" for an audio input? Q: Why do I get the message "Device could not be opened" for an audio output? Additional hardware information Q: Which computer types are compatible with Cubase VST 3.5 and how do they perform? Q: Which is the best type of hard disk controller card? Q: What type of hard disk should I use? ---------------- MIDI Q: What do I do when I encounter MIDI timing instability? If MIDI events that once were "tight" suddenly are slightly delayed in a random fashion, you are experiencing MIDI timing instability. Related information on this subject is also found in the section: "Why are MIDI and audio tracks not properly synchronized in a system with a Windows Multimedia compatible audio card?". If you encounter MIDI timing instability, please check the following Cubase VST settings: * System Preroll (Synchronization...) The System Preroll setting in the Synchronization window determines the amount of pre-calculation of MIDI information. System preroll works like a MIDI buffer ("storage area") ensuring that all MIDI messages are prepared in advance just before the actual playback. The higher the value, the more MIDI information will be pre-calculated. This increases the accuracy of MIDI timing. In order to raise the System Preroll setting, proceed as follows: 1. Open the Synchronization window from the Options menu. 2. Increase the value in the System Preroll setting. The default value is 500 ms which works on most systems. There is no point in raising this value above 2000 ms. 3. Close the Synchronization window and start playback. Check whether the MIDI timing is tighter. Repeat the above steps until you are satisfied with the result. Please note that the higher the value the bigger the delay of all realtime MIDI processing. * Priority Setting (Audio System...) Using the Priority setting in the Audio System Setup window, you can determine the priority of MIDI versus audio. With the "Low" option selected, Cubase VST 3.5 will give MIDI a higher priority than audio, and with the "Highest" option selected, it will process audio with a higher priority than MIDI. The other options allow various settings between these extremes. Giving MIDI a higher priority will decrease the tendency of MIDI timing instability. Proceed as follows: 1. Open the Audio System Setup window from the Audio menu. 2. Change the value in the Priority setting. 3. Close the Audio System Setup window and check whether MIDI timing is tighter. Repeat the above steps until you are satisfied with the result. Caution: Selecting a higher priority for MIDI will increase the accuracy of MIDI timing but will decrease audio performance and may cause dropouts if your system has limited processing power. * Color Depth The color depth (number of colors) can influence MIDI timing. By reducing the number of colors to 256, less processing time is required for performing graphic updates. This allows your computer to allocate more processing time for MIDI (and audio) which decreases the risk of MIDI timing instability. Q: Why are MIDI and audio tracks not properly synchronized in a system with a Windows Multimedia compatible audio card? If MIDI and audio tracks drift in relation to each other, they are not properly synchronized. This may also cause irregularities in MIDI performance, similar to MIDI timing instability, as MIDI playback may periodically get faster and slower. If this happens, please check the following Cubase VST 3.5 setting: * Sync Reference (ASIO Multimedia settings...) Using the Sync Reference setting (in the ASIO Multimedia Setup window) you can decide how Cubase synchronizes MIDI playback to audio (the ASIO Multimedia Setup window is only relevant to users of regular Windows Multimedia compatible audio cards). Proceed as follows: 1. Exit Cubase and launch the ASIO Multimedia Setup window by selecting it from the Cubase VST item on the Start menu. 2. Set Sync Reference to "Sample Position". "Sample Position" is the preferred choice if your card supports it. In this mode the number of samples played are reported from the card to Cubase VST. This number is then used for synchronizing MIDI playback. When you select this option, Cubase VST 3.5 will check whether your particular card and driver supports it. If not, a warning is issued and the "DMA Blocks" option is selected instead. 3. If your card does not support "Sample Position" and "DMA Blocks" is selected, please click the "Detect Buffer Size" button. This button automatically detects the correct buffer size for cards where "DMA Blocks" has to be used as a sync method. For more information on this subject, please read the section: "The ASIO Multime-dia Setup Window" in the online manual (Getting Into the Details). Note: Several audio cards report an error message when you run the ASIO-buffer size detection. When you make a second try, the buffer size will be dis-played without any error messages. Audio General audio problems Q: What do I do when I experience audio dropouts? If audio tracks sometimes turn silent during recording or playback, you are experiencing audio dropouts. Related information on this subject is also found in the sections: "Why am I experiencing audio crackling/clicks", and "How do the different audio cards perform?". Here's a list of things to check if you experience audio dropouts: * Decrease the number of colors for the display. This allows your computer to spend more of its processing time on audio (and MIDI). 16-, 24- or 32-bit true color display settings can severely hamper realtime audio performance on some computer configurations. * Turn off the Microsoft Office/Word FastFind option. FastFind should not be enabled since its activities can interrupt all audio processing in the system. * Do not use any scheduled background tasks in the Windows Plus package. Functions that operate in the "background" use up valuable processor time needed for processing audio. * Turn off your screen saver. It is not recommended to use a screen saver while running Cubase VST 3.5. Screen savers with a lot of animation are especially unsuitable since they use up a lot of processing time. * Turn off the "Auto-Notification" option for the CD-ROM drive. This option is located in the CD-ROM drive properties page in the Device Manager (System control panel). If this is turned on, the insertion of a CD-ROM can inter-rupt the audio processing. * If no audio playback/recording is possible whatsoever, choose "Reset Devices" from the Options menu. If the audio drop-out occurred because of computer "overload" (i.e. another task took too much processing time away from the audio output), choosing "Reset Devices" from the Options menu may reactivate audio playback. If you are using a poorly written Windows Multimedia audio driver, it might even be necessary to re-start Windows completely in order to cure this problem. If this is the case you should try to get a newer audio card driver from the manufacturer. When using the ASIO Multimedia driver: There is an additional possible solution to the problem of audio dropouts when using the ASIO Multimedia driver: * Increase the number of buffers and/or the buffer size for the audio card in the ASIO Multimedia Setup window. When Cubase VST receives or sends out audio data to the card, it passes via a buffer, a temporary storage area. The purpose of this buffer is to ensure that audio data is calculated properly before it is time for the actual playback/recording. Having many and large buffers ensures that audio playback will occur without dropouts, since the risk of running out of "storage space" is decreased. If you use the DMA Block type of Sync Reference, you should not adjust the Block sizes yourself! Instead use Detect Buffer Size (see: "Why are MIDI and audio tracks not properly synchronized in a system with a Windows Multimedia compatible audio card?"). However, you can adjust the number of buffers in order to improve audio performance. To increase the number of buffers and/or the buffer size for the audio card in the ASIO Multimedia Setup, proceed as follows: 1. Launch the ASIO Multimedia Setup window by clicking on the ASIO Control Panel button in the Audio System Setup window (Audio menu). 2. In the Output Ports and Input Ports boxes, increase the number of Audio Buffers and/or the Buffer Size (Samples) by double clicking on the value you want to change and then typing the new desired value. Normally, the Input and Output sections should be set to the same value. 3. Exit the ASIO Multimedia Setup window and check whether dropouts still occur. Repeat the above steps until you are satisfied with the result. Only experimentation can tell what is right for your particular card. Increasing the number of buffers and the buffer size will also increase the latency (the time between the moment Cubase VST sends out the data and when it actually arrives on the output). Q: Why does recording stop unpredictably? If recording stops for no apparent reason, please try disabling the following while recording audio (see above for a detailed explanation on how to perform these operations): * Screen Saver. * Network. * CD-ROM Autorun. * The power management (energy saving) functions in the Windows control panel and in the BIOS. Q: Why am I experiencing audio crackling/clicks? There may be several different reasons for this: * Graphic cards Graphic card drivers (e.g for Matrox cards) can block the PCI bus when screen up-dates occur. Some graphic card manufacturers have discovered that they can increase the card's performance by designing drivers that send commands over the PCI bus without checking whether the card is ready to receive them or not (ignoring the queue check of the graphic card). If the card is not ready, the PCI bus is blocked until the card can receive the commands. As a result no other activities can occur in the computer, which in turn may cause crackling/clicks (as well as temporary drop-outs and channel swapping). Indication of this kind of problem: a) Crackling is more intense when the Arrangement window is updated after the song position pointer reaches the right side of the window (in Follow Song mode). b) Crackling occurs when any of the Transport, Monitor or Master windows are displayed. If they are not displayed no crackling occurs. c) Crackling happens more often when 16-, 24- or 32-bit color display modes are used. In order to solve this problem, you can either simply turn off the PCI performance enhancements in the graphic card driver, get a new and better driver (if available) or change the settings in the driver so that it doesn't send commands to the card until it is ready to receive them. Here are recommendations for some common graphic card drivers (please contact the manufacturer if your graphic card driver is not mentioned below). - ET6000 VGA driver If you are using an ET 6000 VGA driver you should get the latest driver from Tseng labs. - DV95112 (new driver for Hercules Dynamite 128 card) For the Hercules Dynamite 128 card, there is a new driver called DV95112 (Version 1.12). If you want this driver to hold commands until the card is ready, please do the following: 1. In the system.ini file, under the heading [Hercules], find the line that reads "Optimization=0" 2. Set this to "Optimization=1". 3. Save the system.ini file and restart. - Matrox Millennium If you are using the Matrox Millennium, please do the following in order to stop the driver from blocking the PCI bus: 1. In the system.ini file, add the following lines: [mga.drv], PCI Chipset=1. 2. Disable the "Use Power GDI acceleration" feature in the Advanced Matrox setup (Control Panel->Display Properties->MGA Settings->Advanced->Performance). - Matrox Mystique Owners of Matrox Mystique, please do the following in order to make the driver hold commands until the card is ready to receive them: 1. Go to Screen Properties (right click in main window.) 2. Go to Setting Tab and click on the PowerDesk button. 3. Uncheck "Use Bus Mastering". 4. Uncheck "Use Automatic PCI Bus retries". 5. On computers equipped with a Pentium Pro processor, uncheck "Use Write-Combining", if possible. 6. Click OK. - S3 drivers The staff at S3 have reported that "all" S3 drivers (downloaded from www.s3.com) for all of their VGA cards can be fixed by adding a line in the system.ini file: 1. Find the [display] section in the system.ini file. 2. After [display] add the line "bus-throttle=1" (or "BusThrottle=1"). 3. Save the system.ini file and restart. * PCI bus settings Incorrect PCI bus settings in the BIOS can create crackling (especially the "PCI Latency" parameter). Changing PCI settings is a very delicate matter. Consult your computer dealer for assistance. In addition, on computers equipped with a Pentium Pro processor the "Write Combining" feature can result in audio problems with DMA based sound cards (like SoundBlaster) and Windows Sound System compatible cards (like TerraTec Maestro). If you can, try turning this feature off for increased audio performance. However, not all BIOS setups allow access to this PCI bus setting. * High Speed SCSI cards High performance SCSI cards like Adaptec AHA-2940UW or other Ultra-Wide SCSI host adapters can block the PCI bus because of the high data rate, which may cause crackling/clicks. This usually occurs with bus master audio cards like the Korg 1212 I/O and Event Electronics' Darla/Gina by Echo. If you experience crackling/clicks while using a high performance SCSI card, try reducing the maximal transfer rate of the SCSI bus to 10 MB/s.The 10 MB/s setting is still enough for up to 32 simultaneous audio tracks. Please refer to the manual that came with the SCSI card for information on how to change this setting. In addition, if the computer contains a PCI bridge it might help to put the SCSI and audio card on separate PCI segments. For example; a computer with 6 slots might be implemented as two PCI segments with 3 slots each. If a board has got more than 5 PCI slots it will definitely have a PCI bridge. The board's manual should explain which slots are on the same segment. *External Word-Clock Sync External synchronization of audio differs from synchronizing MIDI. In order to achieve proper synchronization of digital audio signals it is vital that all devices re-main locked to a common sampling rate reference clock. One method of achieving this is through a digital reference signal called a word clock. Unfortunately, different types of digital audio devices (S/PDIF, AES-EBU or ADAT) are not synced to the same type of word clock. Some audio cards that are equipped with different types of digital inputs contain a sample rate converter and can therefore accept non-matching word clocks for the input and the internal processing. However, if no sample rate converter is involved, occasional clicks may occur. One example is the Korg 1212 I/O card, which will exhibit this problem when the S/PDIF and ADAT inputs are used simultaneously, but the source devices are not synced to a common word clock (for example a CD-Player and an ADAT). In addition, if a device connected to the digital output of an audio card does not sync to the digital audio clock from the card, the recordings made with that device may contain occasional clicks, even though the original recording doesn't. Q: Why are some audio recordings stuttering or not played back in their entirety? If you encounter audio stuttering, or if parts of audio recordings are "missing", please read the following: * Tempo changes If you have raised the tempo of a song, after recording audio, some audio events may be interrupted by a following event. This happens when the preceding event has not finished playing before the next one starts. Please change back to the original tempo. * Mono and stereo files Some audio files may be silent when you play a song recorded in Cubase 3.0x that contains mono and stereo files on the same channel. Please separate them by dragging them to individual channels. * Buffer size/number of buffers in the ASIO Multimedia Setup window Having too few and too small buffers may cause stuttering just as it may cause audio dropouts (see: "When using the ASIO Multimedia driver" in the section "What do I do when I experience audio dropouts"). * Another application is started If you launch another application while Cubase VST 3.5 is running, the audio playback may be temporarily affected. CPU or disk overload If you encounter audio stuttering, and the Performance window shows that either the CPU or the disk is overloaded, please decrease the number of audio tracks by muting some, or by performing a "mix-down". For information on how to perform this operation, please refer to the section: "Mix Down" in the online documentation (Getting Into the details). Audio card issues Q: What audio cards can I use? See: List of audio In/Out cards for Cubase VST Q: How do the different audio cards perform? * Multi-I/O audio cards Cubase VST's ASIO Multimedia driver will support multi I/O audio cards with either multiple stereo or multi-channel wave devices. The de-facto standard for synchronized start of wave devices on one card is supported as well. If the audio card driver supports this standard, sample accurate synchronization between multiple wave devices on one card is guaranteed. * ASIO drivers for Multi-I/O audio cards We are currently working together with several audio card manufacturers to create ASIO drivers for Cubase VST. These include - among others - Lexicon, Korg, Event Electronics/Echo, Sonorus and TerraTec. * ISA cards require CPU performance Multi-channel sound cards for the ISA bus require a lot of CPU performance. Simultaneous 8 channel I/O (4 inputs and 4 outputs) will use 30% to 50% of the available CPU performance. However, it is possible to perform a manual deactivation of the unused inputs and outputs in order to decrease the demand on CPU performance. Proceed as follows: 1. Open the Inputs window from the Audio menu. 2. Deactivate any unused Inputs by using the "Active" buttons in the list. 3. Close the Inputs window. 4. Open the Master window, from the Audio menu. If your card has more than one output, this will have one or more Bus sections, to the right. 5. Deactivate any unused Output buses by using the Active buttons. * Soundblaster 16/AWE-32 and AWE-64 The full duplex mode of the SoundBlaster series is supported. However, the known limitations apply. If recording is operated in 16-bit mode, playback is made with 8-bit quality. If playback is operated in 16-bit mode, recording can only be made with 8-bit quality. First, you need to set up the card: 1. Open the ASIO Multimedia Setup window by clicking on the ASIO Control Panel button in the Audio System Settings window (Audio menu). 2. From the Card Options menu, select "Start Input First". In order to record with 16-bit quality, proceed as follows: - 1. Open the Inputs window from the Audio menu in Cubase. - 2. Activate the Input of the card by clicking the corresponding "Active" button in the list. When you do this, recording will be with 16-bit quality and playback will be 8-bit. In order to play back with 16-bit quality, proceed as follows: - 1. Open the Inputs window from the Audio menu in Cubase. - 2. Deactivate the input of the card. In addition, on some computer setups the SoundBlaster does not work flawlessly in full duplex mode. Complete computer freezes have been reported. If this happens, the SoundBlaster should be operated in half duplex mode (see: "Why is my half-duplex audio card not working like it did?"). It has also been reported that on some motherboards, the SoundBlaster full duplex mode can be stabilized by increasing the "I/O recovery time" in the extended BIOS or Advanced Chipset setup. The AWE 64 is basically the same hardware as the AWE 32. AWE 64 creates the expanded sound possibilities by using CPU power of the host computer. This will decrease overall audio performance. Note: Wave synth/WG MIDI devices will turn off full duplex on the Sound-Blaster card. We suggest that you deactivate the WaveSynth/WG device in the Setup-MME device when recording audio (see: "Why do I get the message 'unable to obtain the output' of my audio card?"). Sometimes it will be necessary to deactivate the Creative Music Mapper too. Q: What are the recommended configurations for my audio card? The following list of recommendations will be updated regularly. Feel free to "play around" with the settings to find out which works best on your computer setup. Please check out our Web Site frequently to get additional information and the latest hints and tips. Creative Labs' SoundBlaster 16, AWE 32, AWE 64 or AWE 64 Gold - Sync Reference Sample Position: Output - Card Options Activated: Full Duplex, Start Input First Deactivated: Open all Devices before Start Audio Buffers: 5 Buffer Size: 5512 Digital Audio Labs' CardD+ and Digital Only Card - Sync Reference DMA Block: Output - Card Options Activated: Full Duplex, Start Input First Deactivated: Open all Devices before Start Audio Buffers: 5 Buffer Size: 4096 Event Electronics' Gina and Darla by Echo - Sync Reference Sample Position: Output - Card Options Activated: Full Duplex, Start Input First, Open all Devices before Start Deactivated: none Audio Buffers: 5 Buffer Size: 4096 Front Design Group WaveCenter - Sync Reference Sample Position: Output - Card Options Activated: Full Duplex, Start Input First, Open all Devices before Start Deactivated: none Audio Buffers: 5 Buffer Size: 4096 Note: We recommend that the multiple stereo wave device configuration is used with this card. Hohner Midia ARC-44 - Sync Reference Sample Position: Output - Card Options Activated: Full Duplex, Start Input First, Open all Devices before Start Deactivated: none Audio Buffers: 5 Buffer Size: 4096 RME Intelligent Audio Solutions' DIGI32 - Sync Reference Sample Position: Output - Card Options Activated: Full Duplex, Start Input First, Open all Devices before Start Deactivated: none Audio Buffers: 5 Buffer Size: 4096 Note: If no S/PDIF signal is applied to the input, or the sample rate of the incoming signal is different from Cubase VST's sample rate, the input will not be accessible and a warning will be displayed. TerraTec EWS64XL - Sync Reference DMA Block: Output Note: The Codec port must be used for Sync Reference. Please make sure that this port is at the top of the list in the Output Ports box in the ASIO Multimedia Setup window. If necessary, move this port upwards by selecting it and clicking on the "Move up" button, until it is at the top of the list. - Card Options Activated: Full Duplex, Start Input First, Open all Devices before Start Deactivated: none Audio Buffers: 5 Buffer Size: 5512 Q: Why do I get the message "Device could not be opened" for an audio input? * Full duplex operation Does your audio card support full duplex operation (recording while playing)? If not, you can enable either the input or the output of the device, but not both at the same time (see also: "Why is my half-duplex audio card not working like it did?"). * Digital Input For some audio cards it is necessary to apply a signal to the digital input of the card whenever you want to use it. If no digital signal is connected, the input of the card will not be enabled, and a warning message is displayed. Also, you have to make sure that the Sample Frequency in the Audio System Settings matches the one of the incoming digital audio signal. Q: Why do I get the message "Device could not be opened" for an audio output? * Full duplex operation Does your audio card support full duplex operation (recording while playing)? If not, you can enable either the input or the output of the device, but not both at the same time. (see also: "Why is my half-duplex audio card not working like it did?"). * Software synthesizer Cubase VST 3.5 cannot play back MIDI via software synthesizers (like Roland's Virtual Sound Canvas, Seer's Reality or Creative Labs' WaveSynth) and play audio via the same audio card, simultaneously. You will need to deactivate the MIDI output ports for these software synthesizers. Proceed as follows: 1. Start the Setup MME program which comes with Cubase. 2. In the MME Outputs box, click on the name of the software synthesizer. 3. Deactivate the MIDI output port for the software synthesizer by clicking on the Set Inactive button to the right. * Sample editor Cubase VST 3.5 is not able to gain access to the audio card when a sample editor (like Sound Forge or Wavelab) plays back audio. Please stop playback in the sample editor before you switch to Cubase. Additional hardware information Q: Which computer types are compatible with Cubase VST 3.5 and how do they perform? * Supported CPU types The final release of Cubase VST 3.5 works with: - Intel: Pentium, Pentium MMX, Pentium Pro, Pentium II - AMD: K5, K6 - Cyrix/IBM: 6X86, 6X86MX When choosing a processor, please be aware that floating point operations are cru-cial for the audio performance of Cubase VST. In this respect Intel Pentium CPUs are more powerful than the current AMD and Cyrix/IBM CPUs. The complete computer configuration has a huge impact on the overall performance. A supposedly slower CPU can provide superior performance in an otherwise good configuration compared to a "bad" configuration with a fast CPU. Q: Which is the best type of hard disk controller card? The hard disk controller handles transfer of data from and to the hard disk. A controller card with less CPU intervention leaves more CPU power for audio processing. * PIO (programmed I/O) When a controller uses something called PIO (and sometimes FIFO) it means that the CPU itself performs the data transfer from and to the hard disk. This will decrease the time the CPU can spend on audio processing. * Busmaster A busmaster controller on the other hand, will perform the data transfer from and to the disk with very little CPU intervention. During the actual data transfer the CPU can still perform audio processing. Q: What type of hard disk should I use? * E-IDE E-IDE hard disks are cheap and offer a high capacity (up to 6 GB on 3.5 inch disks as of this writing). Generally, E-IDE hard disks do not offer the same level of performance as compatible SCSI disks. However, the performance of some SCSI and E-IDE drives are identical. Therefore SCSI disks are not always better/faster. E-IDE controllers usually use the CPU to perform the data transfer from/to disk (PIO or FIFO), which means that less CPU power is available for Cubase VST's audio processing. UltraDMA E-IDE controller cards (and some new motherboards) contain "busmaster" E-IDE controllers. These will relieve the CPU from transferring data, and allow it to spend more time on processing audio. E-IDE ISA controllers are not recommended. * SCSI SCSI hard disks are rather expensive but offer high speed and capacity (up to 9 GB on 3.5 inch disks as of this writing). The highest performance disks are currently only available with SCSI (Seagate Barracuda, Quantum Atlas II). Several SCSI disks can operate simultaneously and deliver a higher combined data throughput. SCSI Busmaster controllers (like the Adaptec AHA-2940) are recommended. SCSI PIO controllers (like Adaptec AHA-2920) can be used, but the number of audio channels and EQ/FX will be lower. SCSI ISA controllers (like Adaptec AHA-1520 or AHA-1542) are not recommended. Note: For the best possible performance setup, a SCSI busmaster controller and a high end SCSI hard disk are recommended. But even with E-IDE setups, impressive audio performance can be expected! --------------------------------------------------------- This is a zipped *.PDF file which contains a list of troubleshooting tips: (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 or later installed on your system.) [Image] [news] [products] [service] [online shop] [training] [about us] .