STS stutters

Adi Soffer · Post by **Adi Soffer** » Wed Jun 12, 2002 11:38 pm

Could someone help me out here?
I sometimed use STS300 to practice my piano skills (at night, everybody's sleeping...),using prosonus Grand Piano samples. (256M). The sound sometimes gets stuck, stutters or otherwise isn't fluent.
Of course the same happens in more elaborate setups but this setup made it claer that I'm missing some basic thing.
Please help.

Thanks

mr swim · Post by **mr swim** » Fri Jun 28, 2002 5:05 am

I'm afraid I can't tell you any answers. I don't and never have got the sort of stutters you describe. However, I do seem to be getting high pitched clicks all of a sudden. This has always happened with my sts4000 which is why I haven't actually used the wretched thing yet. Now it happens with my 3000 as well. I get little clicks in the right or left channel, which seem in some sense to follow the midi input to the offending track. This only happens when using the master outs for that track. It is very strange, and I thought it similar enough to keep in this thread. Can anyone help ?

lexfx · Post by **lexfx** » Fri Jun 28, 2002 5:31 am

"The sound sometimes gets stuck, stutters or otherwise isn't fluent."

I get the same thing (also with sts 3000), but i've always assumed that its due to my system not being quite up to scratch (e.g. PCI graphics card (!), 256 MB RAM, cracked software etc ), which i cant afford to sort out at the moment.

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 6:53 am

I get the same as you Mr Swim. It's never stuttered though

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 4:03 pm

1. Don't send MIDI clock...
2. Thin out your midi data stream (check it with the Creamware Midi Monitor)
3. Up the number of voices: globally
4. Up the number of voices: per program
5. Make sure your loop points are set well...
6. Upgrade to SFP 3.1a or higher
7. All the usual windows tweaks/drivers etc
8. Make sure your Master/Slave settings are correct.
9. Monitor CPU usage to be sure you don't exceed 100% causing clicks
10. limit the number of Creamware reverbs/delays if your STS clicks.

Hope that list helps... may your STS remain click free!

mr swim · Post by **mr swim** » Sun Jul 21, 2002 5:14 am

Well Sub,

Firstly, this clicking thing is new - it never used to happen with 2.5, or (if I remember correctly, 3.0) As for the 3.1a I'm a bit pissed off. With only 56k internet I decided it was best to buy the disc. So they sent me 3.1, then released 3.1a a few days later. Bastards.

I get clicks even with a very basic project. Say I just load up some drums. I leave the program-voices on 32, and the sts3000 on 16. Even if I only actually use 2 or 3 voices, I get clicks, and this with no loops to worry about. No chance of my cpu getting full. Also, what is strange is that if I disconnect the main stereo out channels and just connect to the mixer with the individual outs, no clicks. The other strange thing is that if I leave the connection on the main stereo outs, even if I don't actually send anything through them, I still get clicks, and they are still either in the right or left channel. While I am only sending the actual audio signal in mono. STRANGE. The main out seem to be picking up interference from the drums. I don't understand.

kimgr · Post by **kimgr** » Sun Jul 21, 2002 6:47 am

On 2002-07-21 06:14, mr swim wrote:
As for the 3.1a I'm a bit pissed off. With only 56k internet I decided it was best to buy the disc. So they sent me 3.1, then released 3.1a a few days later. Bastards.

Erhh, 3.1 was never released on CD, only 3.1a
Unfortunatly it says 3.1 on the 3.1a CD. Go figure...

Kim.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Sun Jul 21, 2002 12:28 pm

Can you send me a small midi file, and the STS program in question (complete with samples)?

I tracked down clicks in an AMD system to not having the newest versions of the AMD AGP and IDE drivers installed... Chipset/IDE/AGP drivers are the first thing I'd check. And I'd be happy to test your program send it (no bigger than 2 megs please) to seth at innerverse dot com. If you can do it today (Sunday) I can post something today... I'll be in the studio.

mr swim · Post by **mr swim** » Wed Jul 24, 2002 6:27 am

Sorry Sub no can do - as you know my internet is screwed at home and I can't really upload on this work machine. However, some of the clicks were (I eat my hat) to do with the number of voices. This is strange though. If I only have a single mono sample playing, I should surely only need 1 voice to play it with. As it is I need at least 14 ! Something is wrong !

I'll let you know in this thread if I discover any other strange clicks though . . .

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Wed Jul 24, 2002 11:38 am

One voice is needed for each sample until the decay phase of the amplitude envelope is completely finished. This means you could be playing a hihat with a long decay and it could take 1 voice for 5 seconds or more depending on your envelope settings! And then each new voice comes along and wants another... if your voices are set to only 1, even for a "mono" part like the hihat in this example, you WILL get clicks. The solution is to raise the voices for that program(or global), or shorten the decay phase of the envelope. Give it a try... edit: Of course if you set that program to mono because you want the next hihat hit to cutoff the previous, that's different. You may get clicks in that case since it abruptly cuts off the envelope of the previous voice.

[ This Message was edited by: subhuman on 2002-07-24 12:39 ]

Rogurt · Post by **Rogurt** » Tue Aug 06, 2002 12:35 pm

Hi! similar problem (sent already to CW support)

I am using STS3000 or 2000 with some programs (drum single samples) loaded. I set their main output vol to 0 and set the alternative outputs to - let´s say output 1-4 (and Midi 1-4). Now I programm beats in Cubase on each Midi Chanel 1-4 a single sound. When listenig to drum channels in SFP (channel in solo) you hear loud glitches and some kind of sound modulation. Muting the other drum tracks in Cubase solves the problem (until unmuted again).
It seems like there is a crosstalk between different programs in STS! I tried Phase compensation (just in case!). No use...

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue Aug 06, 2002 2:57 pm

Well someone fixed their problems with the STS.

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... &forum=1&0

If you would like to send me a (small! less than 3meg please) MIDI file and STS/akai program w/ samples demonstrating the problem I will try it. But any studdering/clicking seems to NOT be a bug, but a Windows configuration setting in all cases I have been reading about so far.

Again - I get NO clicks running 10+ channels of different drum sounds under WinXP, i850 chipset (ASUS board) w/ PC800 RDRAM...

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue Aug 06, 2002 2:58 pm

Make SURE you are using SFP 3.1a under 2K/Xp if you are having problems UPGRADE to this version... old versions of STS under 3.0x did have a crosstalk bug that has been fixed for serveral months under SFP 3.1a.

Rogurt · Post by **Rogurt** » Wed Aug 07, 2002 6:50 am

under 3.0x did have a crosstalk bug that has been fixed for serveral months under SFP 3.1a.

Doesn´t look like...
Win2000, SFP 3.1a, no old dev. priviously installed

Rogurt · Post by **Rogurt** » Wed Aug 07, 2002 7:12 am

If you STS Users would trigger the same sound everytime (same vel, same filter, no mod) do they sound the same? I know they should but they don´t do in my case!

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Wed Aug 07, 2002 11:14 am

Yes, the do sound the same w/ each retrigger under STS5k, SPF3.1a here. Perhaps you have velocity mapped to amplitude or filter? Perhaps you have a multisample program, where different velocities on the same key trigger different samples?

Rogurt · Post by **Rogurt** » Thu Aug 08, 2002 8:27 am

nope - I know my fellas...
It seems just like crosstalk on mixerchannels