Minimax crackles

[Yogimeister]

Hi,

Tried using the minimax the other day .... Programmed a nice riff using the "pinging lead" preset ....
The problem is that there are sporadic little clicks and snaps that occur

they are half-random not in fixed positions - but usually happen on the beginning/end of notes (not always the same notes ... Meaning i can play a bar of the loop 4 seperate times and the crackles will not sound in the same places all 4 times ...)

I tried upping the attacks and decays ... I upped the voice count to 7 in case it was a "choking" issue and also tried different ULLI settings ... (My CPU usage was very low as this was an almost empty project ... And my DSP jar was around 75% ...)
Non of these actions diminished the crackle issue ....

Its maybe as if the osc reading does not "snap to crossover" and thus some notes start with a click because the osc waveform starts/jumps abruptly at the beginning of the new note ... But thats just a guess ....



Can anyone please help ?? (Its really bumming me out as minimax seems to be one of the better "classy" synths - but its not so nice wo use with the clicks ....
Has anyone experienced this issue ?

(P.S. it doesnt seem to happen with any of the other dozens of synths i tried .... )


(I can upload an example of the clicks if that helps ...)

Thanks

[tlaskows]

I also sometimes get cracks with Minimax. When I change the patch, they seem to disappear. Weird...

-Tom

[garyb]

doesn't do that here. maybe the patch has something overloading? maybe in the fx? maybe the mixer?

the oscillator is not sample based. there's no "snap to" or zero crossings involved.

there is no cpu usage involved.

[tlaskows]

Well, it's not happening right now. I'm not sure what could have caused it. The more notes at the same time I played, the more crackling it caused.

I checked the mixer and the levels were fine. I even tried lowering the input volume.

-Tom

[Yogimeister]

Thanks for the replies ...


The part playing is a monophonic part ... I had way more than enough jar juice to up the voices to 7 (and my CPU was not overloaded ..) - and i also played with the track/minimax volume ....

... But nothing changed in regards to the "amount" or levels of crackeling ...

The crackles seem to happen at the beginning of notes (i also played with the attack /rel times ...


Strange indeed ...

I'll try to revisit the old problem/patch in a new project (i havent been using the minimax much because of this issue) ....
(If necessary - i will up a patch and midi/audio clips ... )


My main objective here was to understand if this is a "common" minimax thing or is it "system specific" ....

[tlaskows]

If you post the MIDI file of the clip, I can try it on my system. Are you using PCI cards or Xite?

-Tom

[garyb]

dsp load would not affect crackles in any way.

[Yogimeister]

P.S.

I also tried it under the different ULLI settings ...

(I have ScopePCI ...)


I will try to dig up the project - or try using it again (i also remember having problems with the blue synth ... But it might be different .... I was trying to program a very short decay bass (running psy bass) and the attack timbre would radically and randomly change (so some note attacks were very sharp (and crackly) and some were less attacky (as if the oscs were not retriggering and affecting the attack because of the low frequencies .... Thats my guess anyway ....)



All that being said - i have recently re-started using some of the scope synths and am really falling in love with them ... .

[Music Manic]

I find the main cause of crackles is the graphic redraw. Everything runs smooth and as soon as
I change from the Scope environment to the DAW it happens .
I don't know why it happens seeing that there are no conflicts but it could be with how long the drivers hold onto the info being fed.

[Yogimeister]

Yeah ... I got that too .... (However, this was not the case in the minimax scenario above

Especially (and strangely) - whenever my Sylenth vsti panel is open in cubase - i get "overload crackles" and "grinds" (on many "channels" - not just the scope devices ...) when flipping over to scope (especially when the VU meters are on (even if the cubase is totally hidden behind the scope windows (in both new and classic scope modes ....)
(Its kindof the opposite of what you described

Also sometimes happens when my cpu is loaded and having scope device panels on my 2nd screen .... (When i move them all to the main screen the video "load" decreases ...)


My graphic card and comp are very old (i think it is an old matrox dual-head ...) so i am not too excited about trying to update drivers and such ....
Hopefully when i build my new pc (very soon i hope) things will be better ....

[fra77x]

So why don't you change the name of the thread to "my daw crackles"?

[Yogimeister]

Because as i wrote above - this is not the issue of a "daw crackle" - we all can get those ...


Update - i was using the Paradox synth today - and with the "RndBass" patch i got the same "pops" (better?) at the beginning of some notes (most noticeable if you place running 16ths and let it play).

Changing voices/dsp load/attack-release did nothing to change it ...


Do you guys have that synth/patch ?

[Music Manic]

Sorry to jump on the thread but what is a good PCIE graphic card for IntelDP35DP?

Thanks

[Yogimeister]

Please dont hijack this thread ... Its about wcope synth issues ... Not cpu/video overloads .. And not general (or very specific) computer build questions ...


Thanx


(And yeah fra77x, thats why i didnt name it that ..

[vascomusic]

If you are using a Matrox Dualhead (G400/G450/G550), you should definitely disable PCI Busmaster, even if you are using an AGP card.
These old cards respond way to slow with releasing interrupts on bus mastering so the system is waiting constantly for video processes.
Consequence is that audio buffers sometimes cannot be fed on scheduled times.
This causes audio buffer underruns, which results in crackles.
Some applications' interfaces, e.g. Waves and Arturia VST plugins, make the crackles even worse when they are displayed (I guess it depends on the programming language/libraries/visual tools the developers used)
Therefore your DSP card(s) should have priority above the video adapter.
'Disable PCI Busmaster' setting can be found in display properties (advanced) -> in the Options tab. The default MS Windows driver for these Matrox cards do not offer (an easy way) to disable it, you need the drivers supplied by Matrox.

[Yogimeister]

Thanx for the detailed reply vesco ...
(however, i am not sure that this is the problem im describing ... Because i dont think it will happen if scope and cubase are minimized ... But i do suffer from video crackles as well ...)

It shows a RADEON X550 - and ATI driver (and no masterbus options , though i do have hardware acceleration turned up to full ....)


Ill refrain from updating drivers as i am a bit afraid of what might happen to the house of cards that is my current DAW ....



In any case , these clicks are patch/synth specific - so its a whole other issue

[vascomusic]

Which OS are you using?

[Yogimeister]

XP

[vascomusic]

Okay, Nonetheless, your DAW should be as driver-latency free as possible.

Check the DPC Latency checker
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_chec ... background

Make sure driver latency is below 1000 microseconds (yellow)
Below 500 microseconds (green) is preferable.
If there are high latency spikes (red), try to disable some devices in the Windows Device Manager to figure out which driver is causing the high latency.
Disabling any high latency driver might reduce the crackles.

[garyb]

the Minimax is not affected by the computer in this way. the computer is not involved in the production of sound by the Minimax.