SOMEONE PLS HELP - CANNOT CHANGE BUFFER SIZE - CAUSES VSTS TO CRASH

[Vaughann722]

Someone PLS Help - Cannot change mixing latency buffer size - I think this is causing Sonar X3 to crash when I load up some VSTs.... The area is greyed out and I cannot change it to a safer setting. PLS someone help and explain.

[Vaughann722]

Sorry but this is really bothering me; There are many VSTs I cannot load without Sonar X3 crashing - I'm pretty sure my mixing latency buffer size is too high. The area conerned on the UI is greyed out and I cannot switch back to safer range, I bought a new laptop for this program and now this happens. PLS someone help.

[Vaughann722]

since I had no response so far I'm trying a reinstall. :(

[Manu]

Hi Vaughann722
To change the buffer size you first have to go to the "Playback and Recording" menue. There you can switch the Driver Mode between Asio or MME(32bit) etc. After switching for example to MME then you can select the buffer size under Driver Settings, its not greyed out (if its MME). If you have an Asio device you should switch the driver mode under Playback and Recoding to ASIO. If you go back to the Driver Settings you can change the buffer size behind the button ASIO Panel.
I'll hope this can help. Good luck :-)

I forgot to say, if it's ASIO then the Input and the output device must be on the same device.

[Vaughann722]

I'll try that once I've finished reinstalling, Thanks.

[Vaughann722]

Ok did as youi said; But when I switch back to Asio drivers the buffer goes back to fast and the Arturia VSTs crash again... And I cannot change the buffer size to stop it. :( What do I have to do to get the buffer size back to in the middle on Asio drivers? EVEN after reinstalling the whole thing i cannot move the buffer size back into the safe middle on Asio drivers. The sliding tab for buffer size is frozen even after a full reinstall.... And after switching to MME then back ot asio. Though now when I tried running Matrix 12v VST the audio engine stopped - as opposed to the complete crash which was happening before. I think unless I can change the sliding mixing latency buffer setting then I will be stuck with instability,. crashes etc. There must be someone who knows the software like the back of their hand and can fix this. :-(

BTW my UR22 seems to only work on asio so changing the drivers won't help.

Resetting Config File did not work either! :(

Ar ethere any manual changes I can make to the config file that might help?

[pekbro]

From Steinberg aka Yamaha ! :

Optimizing Windows for DAWs

1. Please examine your system and make sure that all device drivers of the system are up to date. This involves the drivers of the audio hardware as well as the chipset drivers and the display card drivers. Also Windows should be up to date (Service Packs and updates/hot fixes). You should avoid using dedicated mouse and keyboard drivers, instead use the drivers provided by Windows! 

2. Systems with shared memory display setups are not advisable. They often can be found on mobile systems (laptops).  

3. Audio interface related settings:
•Onboard sound cards: If your mainboards provides an onboard sound card it should be configured to be the standard playback device in the Windows Sound and Audio Settings. Thus, the Windows system sound will be played back by the onboard device without affecting the audio signal of your audio interface or soundcard. However, if playback issues occur it can also be advisable to deactivate the onboard device in the BIOS of your system. Onboard soundcards cannot be recommended for the usage with our products since they do not allow working with low latencies due to missing ASIO drivers. Furthermore, some onboard sound chips are equipped with substandard AD/DA converters and only offer low signal quality (high noise level, non-linear frequency response, bad electrostatic shield).
•Latency/Buffer Setting: If you experience audio drop-outs or crackles take a look at the "ASIO" part of the VST Performance Window (Devices menu). It indicates how much resources are left to calculate the audio data and forward it to the audio driver in time. If the latency is very low (which is corresponding to a very small buffer size) time might be too short for proper signal processing. Depending on the system, the audio interface and the running project, it might make sense to increase the latency/buffer setting. Please refer to the manual of the corresponding audio interface for details. Updating the audio driver might also improve the overall system performance and allow using latencies which weren't usable before. Generally, internal audio cards using the PCI or PCIe bus are able to provide lower latencies than external USB or Firewire based audio interfaces.

4. Any energy saving option should be deactivated or set to "none". The system should be configured for continued operations. If this is not done, hard disks will throttle in speed or toggle off after a while and some processors will down clock and slow down. Because of this, our products could stop functioning correctly. For current Cubase and Nuendo releases, please see #10 which covers this part. 

5. Programs that are running in background can cause issues while working with our products or even already during installation. These programs are mostly configured to automatically start when Windows boots up, e.g. virus scanners, security software, firewalls, printer and media software. It is advisable to deactivate these programs and slim out your auto start. You can mostly configure this through the settings of the program itself or you must manually deactivate them through typing "msconfig" (without the "") via Start -> Run. 

6. Disable Hyper-Threading if your CPU supports it (e.g. Intel i7) and you use older sequencer versions than Cubase 7 and Nuendo 6 (details). 

7. Disable advanced power-saving and dynamic performance options for your CPU. This usually needs to be done in the BIOS or UEFI of your computer and includes Enhanced Intel SpeedStep (EIST), AMD Cool 'n' Quiet, Intel Turbo Boost, and AMD Turbo CORE. 

8. Disable C-States in the BIOS/UEFI, if your computer's BIOS/UEFI gives you this option. C-States allow your CPU to sleep when idle, which may interfere with real-time applications such as audio. This option is often called "Disable CPU Idle State for Power Saving" in the BIOS/UEFI. 

9. "Disable CPU Energy Saving". In Cubase 5.5 and Nuendo 5 (or later) you can find this option in the main menu under Devices -> Device Setup... -> VST Audio System. This option is disabled by default. By enabling it, the currently active power scheme settings of Windows will be duplicated, settings which are relevant to improve the system performance will be modified in this copied power scheme and will be used as long as the application is running. Quitting the application reverts back to the last used power scheme in Windows. 

10. Using the DPC latency checker: This free tool of the company Thesycon analyses your DAW and checks for issues that interrupt audio streaming. Please refer to the manufacturer's website for further information on how to use it.

BTW: Stop reinstalling over and over, that rarely helps...

[Vaughann722]

installed driver fusion premium to take care of the drivers; Made sure all eco power optoins were off; dfisabling hyper threading requires me to access bios - don't know how to do that.,. will look into it... Have a UR22 not an onboard sound card; OK have updated the drivers now.... No change... Buffer Size toggle is stil frozen. Cannot move it from 'faster' to 'safer'.

[Vaughann722]

Thanks Pekbro; Though I'm a bit worried about the prospecct of overheating the CPU (esp with a high power laptop) or messing up BIOS..... What I would like most of all would be an official response from the manufacturers to my specific problem, and how specifically to solve it... Though I am trying some of your suggestions and hope they work!

[pekbro]

Originally posted by Vaughann722:

installed driver fusion premium to take care of the drivers; Made sure all eco power optoins were off; dfisabling hyper threading requires me to access bios - don't know how to do that.,. will look into it... Have a UR22 not an onboard sound card;

The hyper threading thing is only if you use an older version of cubase, dont worry
about that, sonar has no problem with it... The other BIOS stuff might help, but I
would only try that after exhausting everything else...

The power stuff can affect your USB system, because one of the things windows
will do to save power is shut off your USB, you need to make sure that is disabled.

Do what you can and seems reasonable, if it doesnt help... Then begin proper
support inquiries with Cakewalk...

-Cheers

BTW: you can't really have too many VST's against anything other than your
sanity and harddrive space...

Sonar doesnt care, unless your trying to load them into a project
all at once... All sonar does is make a nice list of them for you...

[Vaughann722]

I'm hoping someone from Cakewalk will respond here! :) Thanks for trying to help.

[pekbro]

No problem...

Try not to get discouraged by it, it will get worked out...
Unfortunately, sometimes that can take some time...

-Cheers

[Vaughann722]

Have send off a request to Cakewalk; hoping for a quick response...

[Aztec]

In ASIO Driver mode the Latency Buffer Slider is greyed out - this is normal.

The control is passed to the third party driver (in your case for the Steinberg UR-22). It can usually be activated via the ASIO Panel button (immediately below the slider). (Below that the current ASIO reported latencies are shown.

My Behringer ASIO Panel allows me to set:
ASIO resolution - I have 32 bit
System Performance - Normal
Application Priority - Normal

This combination equates to:
Output Latency: 1337 samples / 30ms
Input Latency: 300 samples / 6ms
= no discernable lag

You might have to knock your system performance equivalent back(?)

I seem to recall dropping mine back for some reason. I just set my system performance to 'rapid' and a quick test reveals no issue at:
Output Latency: 365 samples / 8ms
Input Latency: 172 samples / 3ms

{UPDATE] - This guy was experiencing similar - no real answers:
http://forum.arturia.com/index.php?topic=83154.0

[Vaughann722]

THanks for trying to help. Arturia Vox and Matrix 12 V are causing the audio engine to drop out still; ANd I havne't tested all the others yet. This was not a problem just a few days ago... You say my PC performance is too high? I need to know what specifically I have to do. I want to buy the Aurturia collection - but if half the VSTs drop out its bad value for money. :(

[Aztec]

As per page 8 of your UR22 manual I suggest you try increasing your buffer size. Keep a sample rate of 44.1 kHz. Set ASIO buffers to something like 1024. Test. Reduce to improve latency if it persists ... but not so low that potential dropouts start to occur.