Recurring crackling sounds with Hauptwerk

Hello,

Are there any recent developments to this problem ?
It is recurring with my Audiophile 2496 soundcard, without any apparent reason. I contacted the support service of M-Audio, but the only reply was an automatic reply stating they "received" my complaint. M-Audio clearly does not know what a service call or case is, and probably does not have a code of conduct for user support even with registered soundcards.

I mostly use the Marcussen organ by A. Hoogendijk, with only 6 stops engaged. The same problem occurs with other (lighter) virtual organs.

The DMA buffer is set to 384, Hauptwerk to 6 blocks. I get a lot more crackles now than before: every 5 seconds. Often a note starts, crackle, and then the note comes back. It most probably is not a pc performance problem. The AMD 2800 has 1.5 Gigabyte, and is tuned according to the performance tips in orgelbits.de and other tips prescribed on other sites.
Virus scanner is off, and no other application is active.

I am starting to suspect this soundcard is not too suitable for Hauptwerk. Are there any users currently facing this problem, or who have solved thi problem in one way or another ?

Regards,
Nico

[mdyde]

Hello Nico,

Since I reverted to the older version of the driver (5. ... .27), DMA size 384 samples and Hauptwerk buffer of 6 blocks, I haven't noticed any crackles. Are you certain that it is not due to a damaged lead or poor connection? Another thought: perhaps try it in a different PCI slot. That might help if electrical interference from the CPU or another chip is the problem.

I'm also using the 'M Audio Delta AP 1/2' output rather than the 'Multichannel' one, and ensured that all Windows sounds are disabled and that the card is not set as the default Windows output or recording device (Control Panel | Sounds and Audio Devices | Audio). Not sure if that makes a difference.

That said, I do sometimes get general electrical crackles (regardless of whether Hauptwerk is running), but I've always put that down to some connection or shielding fault somewhere in the labyrinth of wiring going into my mixing desk. Or perhaps the time when my roof leaked a few pints of water into the desk's circuitry - some of the channels have been quite unreliable and prone to random crackling since then.

I don't know if any of that helps.

Martin.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for reply. I will try what you suggested.

Until now I had not done the following:
>I'm also using the 'M Audio Delta AP 1/2' output rather than the >'Multichannel' one, and ensured that all Windows sounds are disabled and >that the card is not set as the default Windows output or recording device >(Control Panel | Sounds and Audio Devices | Audio). Not sure if that makes >a difference.

Thanks
Nico

Dear all,

I had the same problem with that slight crackling while playing. I am using a M-Audio Delta 1010 Soundcard (just bought) and thought it had to be up to date. After reading these sites I just loaded down the latest driver for the soundcard. It´s version 5x36. And now I am sitting here in front of my keyboard and enjoy that wonderful sound without any crackling or other disturbing noises.... :D

I had similar problems on a Soundblaster Live card. It worked fine under Windows 2000 but I got the crackles when booting up onto XP on the same machine. These crackles were also present when listening to any WAV file or watching a DVD.

I tried driver updates, changing configurations but to no avail. Only solution was to replace with a more recent sound card (I went for Audigy 2).


Martin

I had similar problems on a Soundblaster Live card. It worked fine under Windows 2000 but I got the crackles when booting up onto XP on the same machine. These crackles were also present when listening to any WAV file or watching a DVD.

I tried driver updates, changing configurations but to no avail. Only solution was to replace with a more recent sound card (I went for Audigy 2).


Martin

Of course you chose the allegro variant, which I would have chosen too in your place if I had the money. But for those who don't have the money, a small hint that I found useful for my Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96: Turn down the volume of your sound card to about 50%, even with direct wave playing (for example from Hauptwerk). For some strange yet to be evaluated reason I can hear crackles when playing sounds near -0.0 dB.

Christian.

Hi Christian,

I use the same sound card: Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96. Can you tell me your settings in the Control Panel of the 6fire to get lowest latency? I am very interested in the following values (my current values in brackets):

- Samplerate (44,1 kHz)
- DMA Puffergroesse (5 msec)
- ASIO buffer size (128 samples/buffer)

and then your block settings in Hauptwerk (6).

Uwe

Hi Christian,

I use the same sound card: Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96. Can you tell me your settings in the Control Panel of the 6fire to get lowest latency? I am very interested in the following values (my current values in brackets):

- Samplerate (44,1 kHz)
- DMA Puffergroesse (5 msec)
- ASIO buffer size (128 samples/buffer)

and then your block settings in Hauptwerk (6).

Uwe

Dear Uwe,

I can get the ASIO buffer size down to 64 (although I don't know if it will affect Direct Sound Output of Hauptwerk). DMA works with 1 msec, and the sample rate is selected automatically.

I have the DMA size set to 10 msec anyway, because this way I'm sure when recording stuff (I have a SAT reciever connected to Video-In and use the PC as digital VCR) no break ups will occur when the system is otherwise loaded (HDD I/O for example).

I hope this helps,

Christian.

I forgot the block settings: Usually 15, but 6 works also. But sometimes break ups will occur randomly. Maybe my network card or something else interferes.

Christian.