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Old 03-23-2018, 02:31 PM   #1
Fishguise87
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Default *Help* Static/clipping on midi chords

Greetings guys - looking for some help, and i don't know the name of the phenomenon i'm experiencing to be able to search the forum.

The problem - Static/clipping/scratch sound only momentarily, at the beginning of midi chords.

The Scenario - Using Two tracks - each with an instance of Kontakt. Each instance of kontakt is running 3 spitfire instrument patches. I have a 12 bar chord progression, each bar 1 whole note. on the downbeat, or start of each note. the scratch occurs.

The Setup - Gateway PC with windows 8.1 - running 16G ram, 1T hard drive. Using a Line 6 pod ux1 recording interface and it's ASIO driver/sound card. Interface is sending left and right 1/4 cables into Mackie Mr5 Monitors.

Extra Tidbits. I know... next to nothing about bit and sample rates and hertz and all the things. Where do i start looking for my problem? This only seems to happen when i have several virtual instruments running simultaneously. However, watching the performance meter in reaper while playing, as well as the cpu usage in kontakt player doesn't indicate any resources coming close to their limitations.
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Old 03-23-2018, 02:59 PM   #2
cfillion
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Can you share a short example of the noise in question?
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Old 03-23-2018, 03:35 PM   #3
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Quote:
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Can you share a short example of the noise in question?
I'd love to, what's the most effective way to go about that? maybe take a video and upload it to youtube and share that link?
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Old 03-23-2018, 04:03 PM   #4
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I was thinking of rendering the project (to have the exact noise waveform) but a video would probably help too. If the issue is not present in the rendered file you could also try using REAPER's File > Save live output to disk (but depending on the cause of the glitch it may or may not be able to capture it either).
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Old 03-23-2018, 04:04 PM   #5
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I tried rendering to mp3 and the culprit is not present.
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Old 03-23-2018, 04:14 PM   #6
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Did you render the mp3 offline, as opposed to realtime?

If it is only happening while trying to play in realtime, it is probably your CPU trying to keep up.
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Old 03-23-2018, 04:50 PM   #7
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That was my first thought. I pulled up performance meter, and pc task manager. Never goes past 20%. And i have some projects with waaaay more going on that don't do it. it seems to only happen when multiple instruments are striking a note at the same time. i.e. chord progressions.

https://youtu.be/LWqCzCycKco

Here is the youtube link.
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Old 03-23-2018, 04:58 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fishguise87 View Post
That was my first thought. I pulled up performance meter, and pc task manager. Never goes past 20%. And i have some projects with waaaay more going on that don't do it. it seems to only happen when multiple instruments are striking a note at the same time. i.e. chord progressions.

https://youtu.be/LWqCzCycKco

Here is the youtube link.
Performance meter might not show it.

Do you know what your audio buffer size is, and how to change it?

Double check that you aren't clipping your master output, but if the offline render isn't having the same problem then it is probably a resources issue.
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Old 03-23-2018, 07:28 PM   #9
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The asio driver is set to 512, and bit depth 32 bit.
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Old 03-23-2018, 07:53 PM   #10
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Try setting the buffer to 1024 samples and see if that stops the glitching.
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Old 03-23-2018, 08:15 PM   #11
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Well shoot-dang-shittin bubba. Fixed. How does the buffer affect that glitch and what tipped you off to look in that direction?
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Old 03-23-2018, 08:28 PM   #12
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So, the larger the buffer the more time your CPU has to process the audio and plugins. We can be sure that the glitchiness is due to your CPU struggling to process all those simultaneous notes when they start.

If you are writing your parts in the midi editor, or mixing your music, you can leave the buffer at 1024.

If you want to record parts by playing them on a midi controller, or record audio being monitored through REAPER, then you will need to lower the buffer so that you don't have a distracting amount of latency between hitting a note and hearing it through your monitors or headphones.

One way you can make it easier on your CPU is to freeze midi tracks, which renders them to audio. You can unfreeze tracks at any point and all the midi and fx are restored as they were before you froze the track. This can be found by right-clicking on a track header (you can select multiple tracks too).
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Old 03-23-2018, 08:33 PM   #13
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Great info. Thank you for taking the time to help me figure that out. So now that we've narrowed down that my CPU is struggling for that moment, but not showing a drag on resources in any monitoring that i've used. What is the next step for higher resource tolerance? Do i need to migrate my libraries to a SSD so they can be accessed more efficiently, or is it entirely tied to a less than stellar processor?
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Old 03-23-2018, 08:37 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fishguise87 View Post
Great info. Thank you for taking the time to help me figure that out. So now that we've narrowed down that my CPU is struggling for that moment, but not showing a drag on resources in any monitoring that i've used. What is the next step for higher resource tolerance? Do i need to migrate my libraries to a SSD so they can be accessed more efficiently, or is it entirely tied to a less than stellar processor?
I'm not a Kontakt expert, but there are some around these parts who should be able to help you.

It depends if the samples are all loading into RAM or if there is disc streaming happening. If they are streaming from the disc then getting them on a separate drive will improve performance.

If no-one picks up on this thread then maybe start a new one mentioning Kontakt and one of our resident Kontakt boffins should spot it and help you out

EDIT: if the samples are streaming from the disc, then it could be that and not your CPU struggling.
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Old 03-29-2018, 12:00 AM   #15
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Hi and welcome to the forums! Dont forget to check out the free video tutorials and download the free user guide from Reaper.fm if you didnt already.

To help anyone that might be able to help, could you post your computer`s spec, eg processor type and speed, amount of ram, etc.?
Also it would be worth downloading and running resplendence.com`s excellent latency checker to see if it spots anything that might be holding your machine up.
And o fcourse there is a great resource on the fousrite site, where they have a guide to setting up your computer under Win10, including a lot of tips designed to take the weight off your procdessor.
Most important: Make sure all power throttling is disabled. This is the most common source of problems people seem to get. So set your power plan to high performance as a starter.
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Old 03-30-2018, 01:05 PM   #16
Fishguise87
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Hello and Thank you!
Of Course, Here is the system

Gateway PC - windows 8.1
intel core i-5 3330 cpu 3ghz
64 bit OS
1 tb HDD
16G DD2 Ram
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