Dropout Detection

edwar64896 · 05-15-2009, 04:17 AM

Is there a feature within Reaper that indicates on the timeline if and where a dropout has occurred during recording?

The context of the question is this... I have an HP laptop that is coming to the end of its lease. I use Sequoia 10.2 with this unit under XP SP. On the HP, I use a PC Express Firewire 400 interface with RME Fireface 800. Generally, I don't experience dropouts at all.

I have recently purchased a macbook pro which I bootcamp to Win XP SP2. However, using the same PC Express Firewire interface, I experience regular ASIO dropouts. I have checked the latency and every 20 seconds or so, there appears to be a spike. This corresponds to the frequency of the dropouts I am experiencing.

I am currently testing Reaper on MacOS, however I am not able to be sure whether the audio streaming from my device is 100% clean.

Is there an indication that will clearly tell me if dropouts are occurring during recording? If I can get a clean stream of at least 12 channels of 96kHz/24bit sampling I will probably ditch the bootcamp partition as the only reason I have it is to use it with Sequoia and currently, Sequoia/MBP/RME FF800 doesn't seem to be cutting the mustard for me. Might have to hang onto the HP laptop for a little longer...

cheers,

Mark

Bevosss · 05-15-2009, 04:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by edwar64896

The context of the question is this... I have an HP laptop that is coming to the end of its lease. I use Sequoia 10.2 with this unit under XP SP. On the HP, I use a PC Express Firewire 400 interface with RME Fireface 800. Generally, I don't experience dropouts at all.

I have recently purchased a macbook pro which I bootcamp to Win XP SP2. However, using the same PC Express Firewire interface, I experience regular ASIO dropouts. I have checked the latency and every 20 seconds or so, there appears to be a spike. This corresponds to the frequency of the dropouts I am experiencing.

Maybe the same Bootcamp problem mentioned here?

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=591

You also had to disable wireless networking and possibly the keyboard manager in the beta version I used...the wireless produced a consistent dropout once per minute, for a couple of split second glitches.

edwar64896 · 05-15-2009, 04:45 AM

Thanks mate - I had seen a similar post before and have my wireless and keyboard manager. I can't really fathom the statement that bootcamp and firewire doesn't work with RME hardware. Bootcamp is simply a boot manager that gets out of the way once the right boot partition is selected. Windows is running on the bare metal. If there _is_ an issue, it is more likely to be with the MBP hardware design. That aside, there are some good things in that RME forum post and I will read and inwardly digest in a little more detail to see if I can't get rid of those remaining dropouts.

thanks for the pointer...

BTW - are you aware of a dropout indicator in REAPER?

m

Fabian · 05-15-2009, 04:47 AM

Detect dropouts?
Easy. They hang around downtown doing nothing, just loitering...

(sorry, I thought that was so funny I couldn't resist it :-)

Earache · 05-15-2009, 09:17 AM

I believe the time display in the transport bar will flash red when dropouts are detected.

Justin · 05-15-2009, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Earache

I believe the time display in the transport bar will flash red when dropouts are detected.

That's actually a disk underrun indicator... as far as asio dropouts, there is no indicator.

darjama · 05-15-2009, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin

That's actually a disk underrun indicator... as far as asio dropouts, there is no indicator.

But if you're not looking at the screen at the moment it happens, you miss it, right?

edwar64896 · 05-16-2009, 06:26 AM

mmm. Sequoia has a nice feature where if an ASIO dropout is created, an "E" marker is automatically created in the timeline at the point where the dropout occurred. That way, I can go back and inspect the damage.

I do quite a lot of live work and generally spend as much time as I can getting a new rig stable before taking it out on the road. But, only occasionally, I get a dropout.

a feature such as this (automatically creating an error marker) would be very useful for me as it is not always possible to keep an eye on the screen - especially during a long concert.

cheers,

mark edwards