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Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pages!

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mdyde

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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostFri Aug 21, 2015 4:57 am

Hello Organorak,

Sorry to hear that.

I would suggest:

- If you haven't already done so, first make absolutely sure you have the latest version of the PC motherboard's BIOS installed. (Check on its manufacturer's website.) That's very important.

- Also make sure you have the latest firmware installed for your all of your hardware devices, where applicable, especially the audio/MIDI MIDI interface(s) and graphics cards. (Again check on their manufacturers' websites.)

- Make sure you have the latest drivers installed for your audio/MIDI interface(s). (Again check on their manufacturers' websites.)

- Make sure that no other applications, including Windows itself (via its 'Hardware and sound | Sound | Playback/Recording' control panel tabs), are set to use your main audio interface for audio output, so as to to try to make sure that no other software (including Windows) can be contending for access to the audio interface.

If that doesn't fix it:

- Does the problem still occur with no other software at all running, apart from Hauptwerk and Acrobat Reader? (Make sure you exit *everything* else, including things that might be running in the background in your Windows System Tray -- even virus scanners.)

- What audio interface are you using?

- Are you using direct ASIO output from Hauptwerk to your audio interface, or using VST? Or even (also) DirectSound?

- Try temporarily removing/detaching all hardware from the PC that isn't absolutely necessary for it to function and produce audio, including one of your two graphics cards, all monitors apart from the main one, all USB devices (except for the mouse and computer keyboard, and main audio/MIDI interface, if relevant), all touch-screen connections, all FireWire devices (except for main audio/MIDI interface, if relevant). Detach all network leads. Disable all wireless networking and Bluetooth. Even detach any additional MIDI interfaces or USB-MIDI devices, and detach the Hauptwerk USB key. Still making sure that no other software at all is running (even in the System Tray), launch just Acrobat Reader, and also Hauptwerk in evaluation mode (keep any missing MIDI device settings off-line). Can you then still reproduce the problem?
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.
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mumblecake

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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostMon Aug 24, 2015 6:11 am

Hi,

in addition, could you also try to disable windows Aero (right click on Desktop --> Personalize --> chose one of the basic/high contrast themes at the bottom). Aero uses the 3D acceleration of your graphics card and might thus have an impact.

BR Mathis
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Organorak

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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostTue Aug 25, 2015 3:25 pm

Thanks, I'll give those options some testing over the coming days. I think my motherboard and all my drivers are up to date but will double check. I am using two Geforce 210 graphics cards, an i7 six core processor, 24GB RAM and an M-audio 1010 soundcard. Not quite sure what you mean Martin by not allowing any other software to use my main audio interface, since it is my only audio interface (the motherboard does have 3.5mm jacks for the Microsoft hidef sound, but for some reason it's buggy and doesn't work properly so I disabled it in BIOS. However, I don't use Windows sounds at all, and the only sounds other than Hauptwerk that I play on my PC are audio files or Youtube clips, which I direct through the front speaker pair of my four speaker Hauptwerk surround setup.
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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostWed Aug 26, 2015 2:52 am

Try the following:

go to Start | Control Panel | Hardware and Sound | Sound

is your sound card selected as the default audio out? If yes you can try to select one of the HDMI connectors and make that the default. This way it is made sure that windows will not try to play system sounds on your HW audio interface (you might have to mute your screen if the sounds start playing on it's speakers).
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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostWed Aug 26, 2015 4:57 pm

Just as a quick aside; recently (last week!) I did the bios etc settings that Avid recommend for Pro-Tools for my system. This included setting Hyper-threading OFF. (Also, turning off a lot of power management features..)
The result of this (mainly hyper-threading) is that the HW processor activity mon now barely registers, even on the lowest latency settings (Previously hovered around 1/3 place with third lowest delay, un-usable with lowest, unless wispits turned off and even then glitchy, occasionally).
I can now get 7.5k polyphony with 6.5ms delay without having to re-set wispits etc.
RESULT!!!!!!!!!!
It seems that cores double-jobbing can hit some tasks quite hard, while windows tries to allocate priority (and uses more cycles to do this....) for what it thinks matters.
Worth a try for others.
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mmayse

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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostThu Aug 27, 2015 10:24 am

If I may offer my two cents. I kept getting random ticks and clicks at various times (maxing out the processor). I couldn't figure out what was going on. On a lark, I removed the anti-virus program, and like magic, the ticks are gone. Assuming you have a dedicated HW system, there is no (or very little) reason to connect it to a network except occasionally for updates and the like. Disconnect it from your network, uninstall the anti-virus, and turn off auto updating. See how it goes.
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mumblecake

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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostFri Aug 28, 2015 2:30 am

I'm personally not that "brave" ;)

The least one should do though is to put exceptions in the virus scanner to omit the HW folders (Instruments) ... but I'm pretty sure I've seen that before in the manual/faqs
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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostFri Aug 28, 2015 8:33 am

Having a virus scanner omit HW folders will not prevent it from doing other tasks while HW is running which can still cause glitches even though HW itself isn't being scanned.
Rob Enns
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TheOrganDoc

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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostFri Aug 28, 2015 11:02 am

Hi,
I quess if all else fails, you could use a inexpensive second computer, for the Music Display ! :roll:

Organorak wrote:Oh dear, despite the software updates I just had another brief audio glitch after "turning" a pdf page! Much less frequent than before but still happening :(

Mel----TheOrganDoc----
Mel..............TheOrganDoc...............
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mumblecake

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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostTue Sep 01, 2015 3:14 am

telemanr wrote:Having a virus scanner omit HW folders will not prevent it from doing other tasks while HW is running which can still cause glitches even though HW itself isn't being scanned.
That is true, but it will reduce it. If the only two "active" applications that are running are HW and acrobat reader then none of the files called by HW would trigger a scan. As I said before as long as the computer is connected to the internet I would strongly discourage disabling the virus scanner. It might not be quite as lethal as attempting a space walk without a space suit, but it's getting close.

If it is permanently disconnected from the network, by all means: go for it.
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Organorak

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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostWed Sep 02, 2015 2:11 pm

Thanks for all the suggestions. As far as I can ascertain all software, drivers and motherboard are running the latest versions. I disabled hyperthreading (I have a six core i7 processor so doubt that hyperthreading adds much to its performance anyway). I only have one working sound interface (my M-audio 1010LT), which I currently use channels 1-4 for Hauptwerk and channels 1-2 (through the same front organ speakers) on the occasions that I listen to recordings of organ music rather than my own playing. I actually have an audio interface on the motherboard (Intel "HD sound") but a long time ago the software for this was buggy to the point that I just disabled it in BIOS.

I've only heard one minor pageturning glitch in a few hours of playing since updating to the latest Hauptwerk version and disabling hyperthreading. So the glitch still hasn't gone completely but is less obtrusive than before. Another thing I still need to try is to save some pdf music to jpg and rewrite my AKH macros to trigger page turns in image files rather than pdfs. Not that I want to go down that route long term, but it might be useful to know whether the glitch only occurs when switching focus from Hauptwerk to Acrobat or from Hauptwerk to other file types. Probably less hassle than dismantling my PC and seeing the effect of removing one of my two graphics cards!

I will report back once I have done some more testing. And as for a recent comment, well I did consider whether to have a separate PC for the centre screen when I first set Hauptwerk up, but that seemed an additional expense and hassle given that it was possible to switch using MIDI between Hauptwerk and Acrobat successfully at least most of the time.
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Organorak

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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostMon Feb 29, 2016 7:51 am

Thought I'd just drop another update. I have two video cards, each with a VGA (which supplies the music desk monitor) and an HDMI output (for the two touchscreens). Simply by swapping the VGA from the first video card to the second seems to have totally eliminated the audio glitches that occurred whenever I turned pages (the of process swapping from Hauptwerk being in focus to Acrobat being in focus caused trhe CPU monitor in Hauptwerk to briefly jump into the red). No idea why, but having the VGA in video card 1 means every time I clicked between HW and Acrobat (or for that matter any other pdf reader program) would cause the transient CPU spike, but having the VGA supplied from video card 2 doesn't cause glitches when changing focus between Hauptwerk and Acrobat. Any suggestions as to why one of my video cards but not the other is causing this to happen? Note that it only happens when switching between HW and any pdf reader, and not between HW and any other software that I've tried so far.

The only "negative" is that when I start up my PC the default monitor with the Windows startup screen is no longer my central monitor, but one of the touchscreens so the Windows logo boots up sideways on. It boots straight into the organ user where the screen orientation is correct so it is a minor grumble.
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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostMon Feb 29, 2016 8:49 am

Organorak wrote:Any suggestions as to why one of my video cards but not the other is causing this to happen?


I am not entirely clued up on all this modern stuff, but in days gone by different PC slots would be assigned to different "interrupts". If your board was in a slot that shared an interrupt with something else e.g. the sound card, then you could get a clash.

In simple terms, a computer "interrupt" is like a telephone. You are all working away in the office then you get a phone call. Other work stops while you answer it. However, in a PC the number of "phones" is limited. If the person who fixes video problems is assigned to the same phone as the person who fixes the sound problems then one has to wait for the other to finish. If they have a phone each then the problem goes away.
Richard
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mumblecake

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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostMon Feb 29, 2016 8:51 am

Is any of the video cards by any chance an on-board video card. Another user had similar issues which seemed to be linked to on-board graphics cards:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=14953

Best Regards

Mathis
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Organorak

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Re: Processor maxing out with audio glitches when turning pa

PostMon Feb 29, 2016 6:32 pm

Thanks - no, both graphics cards are the same model, a very basic nvidia that has dual screen (DVI and VGA). As I have three screens I needed two cards. Interesting theory re interruptions but no idea how that might be tested. The effect is quite stark though - with a pdf document open on the central screen (VGA from video card 1) and Hauptwerk open on one or other touchscreens, if I click the HW window then click the pdf to advance a page, the Hauptwerk CPU shoots up into the top of the red momentarily before dropping down to nothing again. If I move the pdf to the other touchscreen, or move the VGA out to the second video card, there's no effect on the CPU indicator and no glitches.

I have to use VGA for the pdf reader as I don't have a digital input on my central screen.
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