Repeating glitch with Scarlett 18i8 interface

[Cary B. Cornett]

On my first attempt to use SAC with my latest (refurb) laptop computer, I found trouble. There is a repeating glitch, a sort of "ticking" sound when I pass audio through it. With the engine active, but no sound going in, there is no sound coming out (no ticking noises). Going to maximum size and number of buffers does nothing to change it. I tried this, first with a microphone, and then with the tone from my cable tester. SAC shows basically zero load and no slipped buffers.

I tried a similar test running SawStudio instead of SAC, and input monitor thru SS is flawless, no glitch. I can record the tone, and the recording is clean. I did some session stuff a while back with the same computer and hardware setup, had no trouble at all.

I tested with SAW/SAC link, and was able to record the glitchy audio. I could see a shortened half cycle at a glitch point, as though I had cut out a bit and closed the gap.

I am running Windows 7 pro, updates are current, and I did all of the recommended tweaks when I first got the computer (A Toshiba Satellite, I forget the exact model number). I am running the latest versions of SAW and SAC for which I am licensed (have not yet done the last "paid" update on SAC).

[Butch Bos]

My Toshiba Satellite caused all kinds of problems with Win 7 using latency monitor showed it was not usable for live use. tried all new drivers and disabling many services and drivers with NO luck. Installed Win 10 and it is MUCH better now with ACPI battery disabled and WLAN disabled it now works with USB audio at low lattency
YMMV good luck

Butch

[Cary B. Cornett]

My Toshiba Satellite caused all kinds of problems with Win 7 using latency monitor showed it was not usable for live use. tried all new drivers and disabling many services and drivers with NO luck. Installed Win 10 and it is MUCH better now with ACPI battery disabled and WLAN disabled it now works with USB audio at low lattency
YMMV good luck

Butch

If that was the cause of my problem, wouldn't I have the exact same difficulty trying to monitor live thru SawStudio? Because when I tried that, it worked perfectly.

[Bob L]

No... the engine for SAC is quite different internally than SAWStudio.

Try setting the Real Time Priority option in the Options menu... also the Single CPU option... see if those help.

Make sure you are using ASIO drivers for SAC, not the MME.

Bob L

[Cary B. Cornett]

No... the engine for SAC is quite different internally than SAWStudio.

Try setting the Real Time Priority option in the Options menu... also the Single CPU option... see if those help.

Make sure you are using ASIO drivers for SAC, not the MME.

Bob L
Yes, I am using ASIO drivers. I tried Real Time Priority, and Single CPU, and also the High Priority option. As far as I could tell, none of these had any effect. Is there anything else to try that I haven't yet mentioned in this thread?

[Butch Bos]

Have you ran latency monitor on the Toshiba to see if it has problems
Mine had VERY BAD problems with Win 7

Butch

[Cary B. Cornett]

Have you ran latency monitor on the Toshiba to see if it has problems
Mine had VERY BAD problems with Win 7

Butch

I ran the test. No surprise, the Toshiba failed (Even though it has worked fine with SawStudio). Do I understand that the same machine upgraded to Windows 10 might pass the latency monitor test? Did you run the test after the upgrade? How exactly does that work?

[Butch Bos]

Not sure why but yes maybe the win 10 drivers are better I let windows find all the drivers when I upgraded to 10. I did a fresh install on a new hard drive.
I still need to disable ACPI and wifi for it to work

Butch

[Bob L]

Check the number of processes running in the task manager... make sure to show all processes... if that number is over 30 or 40... start to see if you can eliminate some that you can recognize as stuff not needed... there are online sites describing this stuff... perhaps one of those processes is actually causing the trouble.

Very hard to get the number as low as we did in XP...

Bob L

[Cary B. Cornett]

Time for a progress report on my problem. I upgraded my Toshiba Satellite to Win 10, and ran the latency test, which seemed better. At least, it took longer to display the "bad performance" message. But the video on my screen had what looked like noise, hundreds of little horizontal black line segments randomly distributed over the screen. The Intel HD 3000 graphics in my laptop have no drivers for Win 10. I consulted with a computer tech, and he tried to find a better solution, but in the end the only cure for the video problem was "back to Win 7" which I did. Now I need to look for other possible answers. I will definitely look at how many processes run, and how they can be trimmed. Oh, and when I tried to run a browser while running the latency check, the checker got VERY unhappy right away. Apparently a running browser (at least for Google Chrome) cannot peacefully coexist with any serious "real time" application.

[Bob L]

You can always try the Win 10 idea again and use any inexpensive video card to get around the video problem.

Bob L

[Cary B. Cornett]

You can always try the Win 10 idea again and use any inexpensive video card to get around the video problem.

Bob L
Sorry, but this is a laptop with onboard video (Intel HD 3000). I'm pretty sure there's no video card option for this unit.

[Enrico]

and this?
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24696/Intel-HD-Graphics-Driver-for-Windows-7-8-64-bit

some users with old machines have your same issue. someone solved installing on win10 those drivers (written for win 7/8). If your system accept the installer, you could try... windows could return the classic message: OPERATING SYSTEM NOT SUPPORTED, but you shoul try-

[Naturally Digital]

Time for a progress report on my problem. I upgraded my Toshiba Satellite to Win 10, and ran the latency test, which seemed better. At least, it took longer to display the "bad performance" message. But the video on my screen had what looked like noise, hundreds of little horizontal black line segments randomly distributed over the screen. The Intel HD 3000 graphics in my laptop have no drivers for Win 10. I consulted with a computer tech, and he tried to find a better solution, but in the end the only cure for the video problem was "back to Win 7" which I did. Now I need to look for other possible answers. I will definitely look at how many processes run, and how they can be trimmed. Oh, and when I tried to run a browser while running the latency check, the checker got VERY unhappy right away. Apparently a running browser (at least for Google Chrome) cannot peacefully coexist with any serious "real time" application.Cary, I think the only chance you have of making this machine work is to go through the bios and services and disable anything and everything network related (especially wireless) and disable any and all hardware and services that aren't essential for running the machine stand-alone for audio purposes - Assuming you can build this as a completely 'offline' machine that never needs to see the internet. Even then, some machines simply won't get there. Especially laptops.

[Cary B. Cornett]

Cary, I think the only chance you have of making this machine work is to go through the bios and services and disable anything and everything network related (especially wireless) and disable any and all hardware and services that aren't essential for running the machine stand-alone for audio purposes - Assuming you can build this as a completely 'offline' machine that never needs to see the internet. Even then, some machines simply won't get there. Especially laptops. I do sometimes use the machine on line. Is there a way of setting up one boot that has network services and another that does not?
Or can there be a one-click script of some kind to switch states? That would be very helpful.

[Naturally Digital]

I do sometimes use the machine on line. Is there a way of setting up one boot that has network services and another that does not?
Or can there be a one-click script of some kind to switch states? That would be very helpful.Yes, blackviper's site has some scripts that change your registry and hence the services. You can make custom ones using a utility on one of his pages.

Unfortunately that won't change your bios settings but maybe you can make a list and change those manually each time.

As you know, there's still no guarantee it'll work but if you can revert back, I think it's worth a try. Be sure to know how to retrace your steps or you may end up with a machine that won't connect to the internet or any network and you'll have to reinstall windows. Unless you're OK with that.