EMU 1616 crackling effects

Hello
Bought an 1616 pcmcia four days ago.
Trying to use the effects in patchmix results in a tremendous amount of crakle, especially the reverbs.
I've tweaked my laptop, updated drivers, shut down every bit of soft- and hardware that I don't need, but nothing seems to help.
If I tries to use the DSP effect in cubase, it crackles even more.
I've seen other users with same problem, but haven't really seen any solutions ?
My computer configuration is:
[System Information]
Processor=Intel Pentium III (Clock Speed: 1.6 GHz)
Total RAM=1015 MByte
Operating System=Windows XP v5.1.2600
Display=Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family
Display 2=Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family
Multimedia=Realtek High Definition Audio (I've removed that now)
Multimedia 2=E-MU E-DSP Audio Processor (WDM)
Multimedia 3=Ljud-CODEC
Multimedia 4=Äldre ljuddrivrutiner
Multimedia 5=Mediekontrollenheter
Multimedia 6=Äldre videoinspelningsenheter
Multimedia 7=Video-CODEC
Multimedia 8=Microsoft Kernelsystemljudenhet
Multimedia 9=Microsoft Kernel-wave-ljudMixer
Multimedia 10=Drivrutin för Microsoft WINMM WDM-ljudkompatibilitet
CD / DVD Drive=HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4082N
Communication=Motorola SM56 Data Fax Modem
Help wanted !

Hi,
Glad to hear that a BIOS update solved the problems you were experiencing
(http://www.productionforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=7808)
ATB,
~Jen~

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EMU 1616 with Shure58S/58SE for skype calls?

Hello!
I've sent this question to Thomann.de support, but I didn't get anything useful in return..
Basically I want to buy this bundle - http://www.musicstore.de/en_EN/LVL/_SET_-Shure-SM58SE-inkl.-Stativ-Kabel/art-PAH109
And I have a bit older version of this card (1616 instead of 1616M):
http://www.musicstore.de/en_EN/LVL/EMU-1616m-PCIe-16-In-16-Out-FX/art-PCM0008873-000
Will this microphone work on skype, for voice calls?...
Usual PC microphones don't work with 1616 card (as they are not active microphones). My work involves skype calls and I can't call when 1616 is connected. At least not with usual PC microphone.
So I'm using integrated sound card for quite a while...
Will this mic work for this? Please advise.
Best wishes,
Aleks

You and I had the good sense to see tremendous value in the E-Mu 1616 MicroDock audio interface. Unfortunately, apparently few other people did, or maybe E-Mu would still be in business.
Where to start.
Until recently, I used a headset under Windows XP with no problem. Not even sure how I had Patchmix set up, but I knew NOTHING of ASIO outputs in those days, so might not even have had a Send inserted somewhere. I was able to use both a headset mic (see below), and/or a phantom-powered condenser with Skype audio-call sessions. I upgraded to Windows 7 in Jan 2013, and although I've used Skype rarely since then, my call record shows that I made a long call last summer, so it must have worked. In the fall, I updated what may have been a very old version of Audacity, and suddenly could no longer get 1616 sound into Audacity. I've since learned that Audacity doesn't support ASIO, and apparently there's no other way to interface them. (Using properly matched ASIO "send" inserts, I can still use my mics with Pro Tools.) I also use a product called Total Recorder, which I generally have set up to record from "software" (as opposed to a mic input), and used to regularly put me on one channel and the other person on the other channel.
Now I find that Skype doesn't hear the 1616. Total Recorder doesn't (although their earnest support dept has assured me it should, and should not depend on getting the sound via ASIO -- I have yet to check their report fully, but my first try was unsuccessful). And the Skype situation is a total mystery -- it says my microphone is working properly, but neither the Call Quality record/play test, nor the test call will hear it, whatever I have tried. (And I swear I've tried and triple checked everything, even removing other recently added audio software and reverting to a week-old Restore Point. (I dare not go back months, if that is even possible.)
Skype does "hear" a USB headset that I plugged in just for testing. Windows foudn and loaded drivers for it, and I made a successful test call. Although of course in comparison, the headset's audio sucked.
So, although I have no hands-on experience with the SM58 my short answer is: Yes, it should work with any professional dynamic or condenser mic. But in my case, it still does, but Skype suddenly does not work with it.
Supposedly "correct" configuartion for Skype.
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=87610
To use an ordinary telephone headset with the MicroDock, you need an amplifier of sort between them. (Which was news to me until a guy deep in Plantronics nicely explained -- apparently headphones use an electret approach?) With suitable mono/stereo adapters etc., an Andrea APS-100 Battery Box should do the trick. I got mine from eMicrophones, but a search may turn up other current sources. About $12 plus shipping. It uses a AAA battery, and fidelity is okay for phone use. I don't know if it would be the correct solution (or at all a solution) for a low-output (cheap tape recorder) dynamic mic. That probably would call for a conventional pre-amp of some kind, although the mic I just tried seems to give signal enough.
By the way, I tried your link to the 1616m and succeeded in putting into a cart, where it says they have it "in stock." Some nerve! Okay, a bit of thanks to Creative Inc. for not doing away with the E-MU site entirely, but how does anyone have the chutzpah to sell the thing when there is no support, no "official" driver (just a 2010 beta and 2009 documentation), nobody there, no active forms or email, and their forum is virtually dormant?

A bit wierd....

I have an hp laptop with intel celeron (1.6 I think) 512mb of ram and an emu 1616. I run cubase sx.
does anyone know why i can run 5 softsynths and a couple of tracks of audio with virtually no glitches, but the moment i opened a new project and imported a stereo wav it was dropping out and glitching all over the place. i tried rebooting etc but nothing.
can any one help?

phattmatt wrote:
I have an hp laptop with intel celeron (1.6 I think) 512mb of ram and an emu 1616. I run cubase sx.
does anyone know why i can run 5 softsynths and a couple of tracks of audio with virtually no glitches, but the moment i opened a new project and imported a stereo wav it was dropping out and glitching all over the place. i tried rebooting etc but nothing.
can any one help?
Check 1st, if you have output latency set less than input latency ? --> Devices->Device Setup->VST Multitrack->VST Engine Expert settings:
- disable the "Lower Latency"
- set Audio priority to "Very High"
Also,
- is your projects bit-depth/samplerate set equal w/ the ones used in audio file you imported?
- do you see any IRQ / recource sharing w/ CardBus controller?
- have you tweaked your laptop for DAW use?
jutapa
Message Edited by jutapa on 05-15-2006 12:00 AM

EMU 0202 USB ASIO more and more crackle until complete drop out after approx. 5 mins

Hi!
The subject already pretty much wraps up my issue. I have an EMU USB 0202 which I am using in ASIO mode. Indepedently of the software that is used to playback something (e.g. Fruity Loops, Ableton Live, or Virtual DJ), I get crackles in the sound after approx 5 minutes (give or take a minute). If I leave things running like this, the sound quality degrades more and more for approx another minute, up to complete silence.
Interesting fact: This can be fixed, by simply having the software "close/release" the device. E.g. by switching to Direct Sound and back to ASIO. Pretty much everyting, that causes the software to reinitialize the ASIO driver, will fix this - for the next 5 minutes.
I have probably already tried whatever piece of advice I could find. I have checked my system settings, incl. the stuff that one of the moderators listed here in the board (http://forums.creative.com/t5/Profes...USB-and-0202-U...).
I have used the DPL Latency checker tool. I don't see any sparks here. The only thing I noticed is, that as sound degrades, the latency slowly rises. But we are talking of "peaks" of 500µs when the sound starts to degrade.
I also used this PCI Latency Checker tool, but everything is set to either 0 or 64 - from what I've read, PCI latency could only be a problem if I were to see values like e.g. 128 or even max of 255.
I don't see any load peaks on the system either - neither disk activity or anything. Though the DAWs and the VSTs can cause some pretty heavy system load, the system is pretty much idle when playing songs back with VirtualDJ. And still as said before, after a few minutes things go from good, to bad, to worse, to silence. Searching though the net, it seems like everybody else is having some kind of general USB audio problem, where they have instant/permant crackling. I have not yet found anybody else with such a gradual decrease. The only person so far which also reports a similar issue is this:
http://forums.creative.com/t5/Profes...;jsessionid=6A...
But seems like he also did only get the standard "try this" - text block answer. As I said, I already tried all these.
So, what else can I do? This is really frustrating....
Any suggestions?
EDIT: It's too obvious (too me at least) that I forgot to mention: This happens independently of the buffer settings. I can go with 6ms or 50ms... problem is still the same. Also the "timing" of the problem is not affected by this.

Places you need to look are are your IDE bus and PCI bus.
Verify that the chipset drivers are up to date.
Also verify that your USB host is not sharing with any devices like WIFI or SATA controllers.
Have you sent a support ticket to E-MU support? You may want to for an issue like this.
http://www.emu.com/support/askus/ema...asp?CRSStatus=

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Try this:
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1212M Crackling/Popping - FIXED

I wanted to report some exciting news. After my previous post breaking down the crackling problen in detail I got to thinking (yes, I know, dangerous). I began wondering "what if something that the driver (or DSP) is doing is causing the delay that makes the pointers cross over in the buffer?" I've always used my 1212M as a straight I/O device meaning I don't use any hardware-based effects or processing. I simply have one strip for input and one strip for ouput. I thought that was the simplest configuration PatchMix could have.
To verify that assumption I found a signal flow diagram online and looked it over. I realized that there is an even simpler path available. Instead of having a channel strip for output with nothing on it and using a Monitor line to connect that strip to the analog output, I could remove the Monitor (or Mix) line and add a Send to the strip that would go straight to the analog output. This eliminates the Patchmix final mix and also the meters and maybe some other processing from the signal path. So I tried that even simpler configuration and the crackling problem has GONE AWAY! I've now been running over 24 hours with nary a crackle or pop.
This really isn't a "fix" because the card *should* be able to use the standard pathway. It's more of a workaround but it's a workaround that I'm perfectly happy with since it gives me what I really wanted, clean I/O at 24 bit / 96Khz. There is definitely still a consistent hardware based problem in some 1212M cards and I believe it could be addressed by further driver changes from EMU but in the meantime I'm finally a happy camper. Hopefully this tip will help some other user that's having the same problem as I was.

Markran,
Thank you for the information. I will make sure that it gets routed to the correct people.
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Edit to tape audio promlem - sounds like "chorus" effect

I have tried to Edit to Tape an HDV Sequence, down converted to SD, to a Digibeta deck.
When I monitor (headphone out of digibeta deck) while recording it sounds normal. When I rewind and check tape it sounds like the audio is "doubled up", almost like a very short chorus effect is on the audio. as well as this I can hear what sounds like tape crackle now and again.
However - when I do a straight crash record from the timeline - the audio plays back fine, no crackle.
So thinking it was an edit to tape settings problem i clicked on the audio button in the edit to tape window and notice audio was set to ALL ON. I changed this to A1 and A2 on, thinking that my extra audio tracks (which I had disabled, these where the original audio, not the OMF exported stereo mix) were somehow going down the SDI anyway...
No luck - did the edit to tape again and still sounded the same.
My heart rate has returned to normal now as the network kindly will accept the crash record with non standard timecode - but I of course still want to find out the problem so this doesn't happen again next week....
The Sequence was HDV 1080i, via a Decklink HD Extreme Capture Card, set to down convert to anamorphic 16:9. Sony Digibeta DVW-A500P deck.
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for the benefit of anyone who searches for forum for a similar problem - it appears to have been a sync issue. changing "out ref" to "input video" appears to have fixed it.

Logic Pro 9 - Recorded audio just silly with crackling, clicking noise

PLEASE!!! Read my entire post before commenting. I don't mean to sound rude but I've posted this in several other forums and it's obvious they hadn't read/understood my issue based on the comments they left, ie., suggesting everything I've already tried, saying to contact tech support and even asking what comp and DAW I'm using... I've been dealing with this issue for ~8 months
SPECS
I use 2 daisy-chained Firepods connected to a Mac Pro Quad-core running 10.6.5 and Logic Pro 9.1.3.
I get the results described below whether I'm trying to record at 24 or 16 bit and at either 44.1K or 48K.
Generally I record 12 tracks simultaneously AND I always use the same inputs for each instrument; ie., Vocals = track 11, guitar = track 2, bass = track 1, etc...*
PROBLEM
Although this is a sporadic issue it happens to occur WAY more than it doesn't; ie., very rarely do I get a recording session without the anomaly.
The issue is that after I have recorded a session and listen back to the recorded material there are random crackles, pops, clicks throughout. When I audition tracks individually, some may have no crackling and some will have crackling at different points in time and of varying intensity. Every session is different as well, no two sessions are the same. One day I may have a perfect vocal track and a guitar track that is just silly with the crackling. The next day the guitar track may be fine but now the vocal track is all messed up with crackling. Another confounding point is that the crackling does not occur during periods of silence.
I will add that each Firepod appears to function properly (with no issue) all by it's lonesome - but that doesn't help me, I need 12 inputs minimum!
Things I've Tried
1. All new FW cables
2. Disconnecting the FW cable that goes from the Firepod to the Mac. Turn on the Mac. Turn on both Firepods, master first. Connect the FW cable that goes from the Firepod to the Mac. Launch Logic.
3. Disconnecting the FW cable that goes from the Firepod to the Mac. Turn on the Mac. Launch Logic. Turn on both Firepods, master first. Connect the FW cable that goes from the Firepod to the Mac.
4. Tried every conceivable configuration of Audio Midi Setup.
5. Tried several other FW and USB audio interfaces, obtaining perfect results.
6. Been working with Apple tech support (both hardware and Logic support).
7. I've checked that both Firepods have the same firmware version.
8. Installed a fresh SATA HD with clean installs of both OS10.6.5 and Logic Pro 9.1.3 with fresh custom templates and no 3rd party plugins or loops.
9. Lots of praying, swearing and fits of anger.
Final Comments
First, I think that the chassis FW connectors on the firepods are absolute garbage (read, cheap, cheap, cheap) and are inferior to anything else I have encountered during my troubleshooting process.
Last, I will go ballistic if I hear one more Presonus rep say anything to the effect of, "Huh! Never heard of anyone else experiencing the symptoms you're describing..." Yes, I have spoken adnauseum with Presonus tech support with zero results.
Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

Hi Pancenter! I'll try to be brief. LOL
I had 4 perfect multi-track sessions and then the gremlin woke up and and cast his spell... Frustrating... The biggest difference I enjoyed using your suggestion was that when I launched Logic, loaded my template, enabled my tracks and hit record, the session started without a hitch. Prior to your suggestion, I would have to futz around with Logic audio prefs, AMS settings, turning the Firepods off/on, quitting/restarting Logic and/or shutting down/restarting my Mac Pro just to get the session to show my enabled tracks had activity. I would not know if the session would have the noise artifacts until playback. I should add that I never had this problem with my PPC G5 nor did I for the first 10 months of use with this Mac Pro. Also, with the help of Apple tech support we had eliminated Logic, 10.6.5 and the Mac Pro (except the FW800 bus) as probable causes. Again each Firepod and Logic work flawlessly when I use one unit not daisy-chained. So, I think there is no problem with the individual units, and, as I said, both units worked fine chained with my PPC Mac Pro.
So, I called Presonus. Again... And I get yet another tech who tells me something different; every time I speak with Presonus I get different suggestions. This guy asked what kind of cable I was using to connect the Firepods to the Mac Pro and I said I'm using a *firewire 9-pin to 6-pin cable*. So has asks well, is it *bilingual*? He said that would def fix my problem. I told him it is advertized as bilingual and that had not fixed the problem; he had no answer for that. Then, I broached the option of adding a firewire 400 card to my Mac Pro. He said I guess you could try that; get one with a TI chipset. That's where I'm at now, deciding which one to get and whether I will need to provide auxiliary power to the card's on-board molex plug.
Any ideas?
Oh, thanks for responding

Pops and crackles when using EAX in F.E.A.R.

Here is my system:
Windows 7 64-bit
intel i7 930
ASUS P6T:SE Mobo
2x Nvidia GTX 470 SLI
12GB DDR2 RAM
1TB 7200 RPM HDD
Creative X-Fi Titanium and the latest non-beta drivers
-I also have the Windows PID patch and the SLI patch
I recently discovered Alchemy and how it would enable EAX effects (though I'm still not exactly sure if EAX is responsible for the 3D positioning or if it's just some fancy processing to make sound effects sound cooler).
That said, I noticed that after enabling Alchemy and EAX effects, F.E.A.R. started to make popping and crackling noises. But, these noises wouldn't start immediately. It would take a couple minutes before I started hearing them, and it would get progressively worse and worse. Eventually, the game itself would start stuttering and it became impossible to play because of the choppiness.
I have never really experienced this with another game, and only noticed this behavior after enabling EAX effects. I have played F.E.A.R. before with no problems, granted, this was without EAX effects enabled.
Furthermore, I have no idea what needs to be enabled. In the F.E.A.R. sound menu, I have these options:
Hardware Mixing
EAX 2.0
Advanced EAX HD
I can turn any combination of those on or off, and I'm not really sure which ones I should have on and off. Turning on Hardware Mixing and Advanced EAX HD seems to have the best results, but then the sound starts jacking up after playing for a few minutes and eventually, the actual gameplay itself will start becoming choppy, making it impossible to continue playing. It even becomes hard to navigate the menus because the cursor is affected by the choppiness as well.
And the popping and crackling even continues after I exit the game, even in Windows, but to a lesser extent. And it seems to quit completely after a few minutes. Very strange.
Also, I tried disabling SLI and it did not seem to make a difference.
What is going on here? I just want to play this game with 5.1 surround sound and, preferably, EAX, because I do like the way it sounds. It's just that I can't play with EAX because it starts jacking up after awhile.
Edit: It seems that turning on "Hardware Mixing" enables discrete 5.1 channels. Without Hardware Mixing on, I only get stereo output from F.E.A.R. Is this correct behavior? I'm testing further to see if the popping and crackling occurs when Hardware Mixing is enabled (but not any of the EAX settings). I'll report back when I know.
Edit #2: After several minutes of playing with only Hardware Mixing enabled (and no EAX), no popping or crackling occurred. I will continue to test different combinations.
Edit #3: After more testing, it seems that I can use Hardware Mixing (which enables discrete 5.1 channels) and Advanced EAX HD together, which sounds absolutely fantastic. I believe that the problem is caused when I enable EAX 2.0 -- even if I immediately disable it, it seems like it actually starts causing a problem. So what I did was completely restart the game (and my computer) and ONLY enable Hardware Mixing and Advanced EAX HD making sure not to touch EAX 2.0 at all, leaving it disabled.
I've been playing for about an hour with no pops or crackles at all, let's hope it stays that way!
tl;dr - Turning on EAX 2.0 and Advanced EAX HD at the same time can cause undesirable results even if you turn off EAX 2.0. Restart the game (and perhaps your computer) to make sure that when you start the game, EAX 2.0 is completely disabled and ONLY enable HW Mixing and Advanced EAX HD.
Edit #4: Sadly, I am still noticing some intermittent popping, but after playing for awhile it never gets extremely bad. It is much less severe than earlier. Not sure where to go from here.

Originally Posted by Thalyn
Well, I found my copy of FEAR and loaded it up. Patched it to 1.08 (which meant re-downloading the patch, since the one I got before was the US version - mine game is apparently the UK one, which actually has a patch half the size) and fired it up.
Just for curiosity I didn't install ALchemy straight away. As I suspected, none of the advanced sound mode options were enabled, which means they've just got an overly complicated menu. It could have just as easily been one option called "Audio Processing" with "Hardware", "EAX 2.0" and "EAX Advanced HD" as the available options - no need for a "Software" setting since it would be disabled without any of those, and the others could be en-/dis-abled based on your hardware capabilities. Oh well - chalk that one up to poor menu design.
When I did install ALchemy, however, I just used the default settings - 4 buffers at 25 duration - and turned on all three options in-game. I played through until the first checkpoint in the 3rd "level" (after the third loading screen w/briefing) and didn't notice anything unwanted with the sound. It appears that I'm using ALchemy 1.43.21, going by the installation files properties, but in all honesty I'm just using what came with the latest Recon3D drivers.
The nearest equivalent I can find for the X-Fi Titanium is a beta 1.43.06, but I might be able to find a way to upload the Recon3D one somewhere if you want to see if it works and fixes the problem. Alternatively, they can be extracted from the driver suite for the Recon3D easy enough. I use 7-Zip to do it, but other archive programs can probably do it as well. Look in the Audio\extras\Audio\ALchemy directory.
It's a shame the protagonist in FEAR keeps wigging out. It's actually a pretty darned good shooter when it's not trying to warp your brain - but at least there's no baby crying like when Max Payne goes nuts.
I just noticed that I get popping, crackling, and eventually game-freezing in Left 4 Dead 2, as well.
I used Alchemy to enable EAX for Left 4 Dead to (I read in the FAQ on Creative's Alchemy page that you could enable it for source engine games), and while playing, I starting hearing pops and stuff just like as in F.E.A.R. Eventually, the game started lagging as well (like in F.E.A.R.), and I had to quit out. It even persisted in windows for a bit as I would notice it when changing the volume and hearing the little "ding" with a pop or crackle in it. I restarted my computer.
I wonder if perhaps the problem isn't Alchemy, but if my sound card is overheating? But that seems a bit far-fetched. I do have two gpus which produce a lot of heat, but both of them stay within safe temperatures (though they do get close at times). In fact, one of them is even water-cooled, and it stays very cool.
It just seems especially strange that, although diminished, the pops and crackles continue even when I quit to my desktop. I don't hear them unless a sound is playing, though. And even then, it is quite diminished from they way it was during the game.
Also, how do I check my version of Alchemy? Could I not use the software update to get the latest version?
Edit: I just tried the software update. It said that my version of Alchemy is 1.41.02, and that I have the latest version installed.
Do different versions of Alchemy exist for different Creative cards? For example, perhaps 1.41.02 IS the most recent version for my x-fi titanium, but not for your recon3D.. Or can I use any version of Alchemy? Maybe getting the most recent version would fix my problems.
Edit #2: I found version 1.43.06 of Alchemy. I went to the x-fi titanium's page on Creative's site and clicked on "beta application", and it was there. Downloading/installing now and testing.
Edit #3: Version 1.43.06 of Alchemy does not seem to work. I do not get any EAX effects in F.E.A.R. at all, no matter which combination of options are enabled.
Also, as a side note, does "EAX Effects" need to be enabled in the audio control panel? I've tried it both ways, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Snap crackle pop issue....fixed - audigy 2 plat/

My first post, Hope the title doesn't mislead/anger anyone, but i truly believe these solutions
are uni'versal and can be applied with just about everyone.
My card is almost 5 years old now or so... I've seen the frustration on this board about this
nasty issue.... i felt SO bad for some of you guys that i just had to sign up and share my
knowledge (or lack of!) for the multiple, possible 'fixes' to this. its not entirely CREATIVE's
fault and there is ways to fix it, you just need a bit of Patience and the willingness to learn
a bit more about your hardware if you arent too savy with tweaking it. this might of all been
said before, but i really hope this helps some of you.
Lets get the blahblahblah's outta the way just to be safe, shall we? Obviously, make sure your
card isn't sharing an IRQ with a cd/dvd device, or any kind of hardware that transfers a lot of
data constantly or uses a lot of power like a hard-dri've, maybe even certain gpu's. In my case,
my bottom PCI-slot (3/3) only shares an irq with a USB port and as corny as it sounds it did
improve the issue (i disabled that USB, but that isn't necessary its overkill/fail-safe
precaution, probably doesn't even help at all, paranoia setting). download Si-Software Sandra to
see exactly what belongs to where and what irq is being shared with what. Also before i forget,
clean out your dri'ves with bleach/acid/napalm with a program such as Drivercleaner, just to be
safe, right?
If you have anything on your Motherboard that's VIA/raid related, its imperati've you upgrade the
drivers for it, it could very well be your single solution, for example the latest via_hyperion
pro_v5a.zip did it for me and my particular setup just recently after a small hardware upgrade.
this fixed the MAJORITY of the pops in several different machines with these motherboards as well
i might add. Also make sure the Cable is newer than 2 years old, dirty worn cables can
cripple/weird out any piece of hardware, that goes for HD's, CD roms, ...anything that uses
IDE/serial cables etc. lots of people toss their dvd/cd roms out thinking they've used its
life-span, when a brand new ide cable is all it really needed. but... this VIA/raid driver
problem seems to be a pretty common fix in my experiences.
Gamers who suffer from "sudden" or "random" pops here and there while gaming......... with time
will notice this occurs usually when the HD is seeking a lot of info and is under a decent amount
of stress, OBLIVION is a good example of the HD being as important as ram/cpu/gpu IMO. that's
why....... "it seems to do it more (pops/cracks) with certain games than others". ACOUSTIC
MANAGEMENT is Often to blame for this in My opinion, and some maxtor dri'ves come with this
enabled from the factory (why, why why?!! ...die die die!!!). Imagine setting the In-game HD
cache setting Tweak for obilivion enabled to , + Acoustic managementenabled....it turns
preformance into a bloody mess, and will (possibly, most likely?) crack annoyingly often whenever
a new area is being loaded and sufficient data is being called, not to mention make a less
experienced gamer think his machine is completely screwed for no reason. Acousitc Mangemtn
enabled on a hard-dri've can be suicidal for certain games and will almost guarantee preformance
issues, cracks, burns, bruises, broken bones, stab wounds.....and most likely the lovely POPS...
the nasty loud firecracker ones...it can be so bad to the point where many of us will not even
play anymore out of frustration, especially for you audiophiles... leaving us angry and desperate
for a fix. Acoustic management CRIPPLES performance and destroys seek-time, that i AM sure of,
so fix it anyway for your own good, unless you don't care for performance. Please, get rid of
this nasty, possibly/commonly built in feature that turns a 7200rpm dri've into a 5400rpm (ouch),
make SURE this is disabled for you maxtor/seagate HD owners who play games or just want better
performance period. You'll have to google those instructions, I wouldnt dare say more.
On a separate machine, "tad in" and "cd audio" had to be muted to stop a lot of it, as well as EAX
effects (i know you love eax, but its worth the sacrifice) slider turned DOWN to 0% even when disabled.
this may not be necessary for everyone, but a lot of us suffer from those soft "echoey crackles"
and its a quick fix. im sure you've all read this "solution" 5 billion times, but it doesnt hurt
to put it out there. that, or dxdiag or control panel audio properties the slider to Standard acceleration, better to lose eax IMO.
there is no support or guarantee with this patch, and it supposedly doesn't support/work properly
with XP Servicepack 2, however this worked on my dads machine and a friends' as well. GOOGLE
"down vlatency", (not "download" vlatency) and click on the "georgebreese.com" link and try his
vlatency_v020_beta2.exe. this simply overrides some BIOS settings that many of us cant access
easily or at all, and boosts IDE latency and on a lot of different PC setups and gives more
juice to the PCI bus by editing how much the CPU will control the pci bus for, or something like
that. point is, its a redbull for your PC's pci related bandwidth/juice management and it cant
hurt to try (lets hope not j/k).
i don't recommend messing with IRQ assignments in bios or pci latency utilities unless you really
know what you're doing and consider yourself a power user, just a personal opinion, 32 is fine
and a lot of people end up regretting messing with these settings.
there is also the "turbo off" setting (think there's a "patch" for that registry setting too),
but i seriously doubt it will resolve a users problem who suffers Heavily from this syndrome, but
i guess you could try it.
Last but not least, another "ghetto" fix that could improve your issue is killing your CMSS
feature. i have no idea why that setting always acts up (at least for my machine it does) and
causes rice crispies to go off.
Its 2am on a Friday, I've been writing for a while, and i really don't know if i was clear enough
with what i said, but no way im going back to read/correct cause ill be here forever. if you've all tried this before with no luck, sorry. i'm just trying to help if
i can, and if 2 single words out of this post can even spark an idea to help fix somebodies rig, its worth it, right?
Remember to never trust anyone with anything (especially advice) or put your hopes and dreams
into a randomer's advice (such as mine!), keep in mind I'm just an average guy with no
qualifications or credentials that could be wrong about EVERY single thing i just said, i could
be completely out of my mind for all we know, listening to me could very well make your PC
explode and set your house on fire....be warned!! haha that's my surgeon generals warning for ya. GOOD NIGHT and good luck!

Here's the link to the download:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/audioupdate2007001.html
Mac Pro 3.0 Mac OS X (10.4.10) 4GB RAM

1212M Crackling/Popping - New Drivers

I'm kind of cranky about this problem. Read on because I actually know exactly what the problem is (at least for most of us and only Creative/EMU can fix it).
Background
I have a 1212M with the 0404 I/O card. It's a V1 that have had for five or six years. The quality of the sound is great, the features are great and the price is great. There's just one problem. From the day I got the board all those years ago I've had the crackling/popping problem that many, many other users also have.
The problem is not my motherboard, BIOS, other hardware, Windows or other applications. Over the years this EMU board has been in many different systems, many different configurations and the evolution from WinXP, Vista and now to Win7. The crackling problem has always been exactly the same. The problem is the board itself, not the system and not the configuration and I can prove it (read on).
Another thing that frustrates me is all the time that so many users have spent trying to troubleshoot this issue that is completely wasted since, for some of us, the problem is in the EMU hardware/drivers. That's not to say that there aren't some other crackling problems that are related to the system speed, interfering hardware or interfering software. There are actually two different problems that both have the same crackling symptom which makes all this quite confusing. I'll call them "System Related" and "EMU Hardware/Driver Related". If you're having the crackling symptom you should figure out which type of problem you have before spending hours troubleshooting, reinstalling, etc, etc, etc. Here's how:
If your crackling problem:
- Doesn't happen on startup. Your audio is fine and the problem only develops after a while. On my system it's between 60 and 90 minutes and resetting the card.
- Starts with a few minor crackle/pops per second and gradually gets progressively worse over several minutes with nothing else changing in the system (ie not running new software or changing anything).
- After a while (can be a long while) the crackling can actually go away again and you have clean audio. Then the crackling returns. Once again with no changes in system load in between.
- You can make the crackling go away instantly and every time by simply resetting the clock on the card. There are several ways to do this. In Patchmix go to the System tab under Session Settings and switch the clock between internal/external (whatever you have it on, go to the other and back again). Another way is the change the ASIO Buffer Latency milliseconds in your host software's ASIO control panel.
If those four things are all true for you then you have the "EMU Hardware/Driver Related" type of crackling problem. Do not waste any time with all the well-meaning but misguided troubleshooting ideas posted on this and other forums. None of it will help.
If these four things aren't true on your system then by all means you should try all the troubleshooting steps because it's likely that you can resolve your crackling problem.
Here is what is happening with the "EMU Hardware/Driver Related" type of crackling problem. First, let me say that I know what the root of the problem is because I used to work for a company that developed high-end professional video/audio software for Windows PCs. We encountered this exact same problem when some our users started reporting it. It wasn't solely with Creative or EMU hardware because the problem can actually happen on a variety of PC audio cards where the hardware is slightly out of spec or malfunctioning and the software driver is not capable of correcting the problem.
Our most senior software engineers banged their heads against this problem for quite a while until they determined what was going wrong in our customer's PC audio hardware. The issue is that the clock on the card is drifting slightly which means it is going a little faster or slower than the current sample rate. That's why the problem only manifests after a while. It's also why the crackling goes away when you reset the clock. The fundamental issue is that the audio data coming from your PC is being written into a buffer. The data is written by the PC driver and read from the buffer by the card and then sent to the card's output. You can think of the buffer as a big circle of memory. There's a write pointer that writes one value of data and then increments one step and "180 degrees" opposite in the circle of memory is a read pointer that reads one value of data and then increments one step.
These two pointers never move at exactly the same speed. They are constantly slowing down or speeding up a little bit but over time on average they end up advancing at about the same rate. The problem is that when the clock on the card is drifting, the read pointer and write pointer will eventually cross over. That's why the this kind of crackling problem manifests only after a while because, depending on the drifting, it takes a while for the pointers to cross. It's also why the crackling is subtle at first and then gets progressively worse over time. Right when the pointers are overlapping the timing is still close. As one pointer starts to "lap" the other point more and more the crackling artifact gets progressively worse. That's also why the problem usually goes away again if you wait long enough. The pointers can actually get back in phase again for a short while! That's how I know exactly what the current problem is the 1212M board because it manifests with these precise characteristics. The old problem my former companies user's had even sounded exactly the same as the crackling my EMU 1212M has.
Once we understood the problem, in our next version we modified our software to use a larger buffer. This eliminated the problem for some of our customers whose hardware clock was only very slightly out spec. However, for other customers the problem remained, although by increasing the buffer size it made it take longer for the pointers to reach each other and the crackling to begin. This is the what I suspect EMU has done with the new Win7 beta drivers. With the new drivers my crackling takes longer to appear. In these forums we see reports from some long-time sufferers of the problem that the new driver fixed their problem and from others we hear that they are still having the problem.
Since we still had unhappy users of our video/audio application software, we kept working on the issue and eventually came up with a fix that solved the problem for all users and all audio hardware. It was hard to implement but this is what EMU/Creative needs to have their driver engineers do to actually fix the problem (short of replacing an enormous amount of hardware).
The problem can be solved in the driver (yes, my old company actually embedded our own low level generic driver in our application software). Since EMU/Creative is making their driver themselves they can just implement this fix there. The secret is for the driver to actually keep track of where the write and read pointers are and each time they get too close to each other it stretches or shrinks the next packet of data by averaging the audio samples in that packet to the exact size needed to put the pointers 180 degrees apart again. It then resets the pointers as it writes that new data. The data shrink or stretch prevents a single pop or click from happening when the pointers are reset to their correct positions. Frankly, this was hard to implement but it worked perfectly. We actually hired a consultant to figure this audio problem out who was a former Microsoft engineer who wrote the WDM kernal mode drivers.
EMU SUPPORT please let your product manager know that this is what is going on and that he should ask your contract driver engineers to implement this type of solution. Yes, it will cost more in development time (and hence $$$), but it will fix the issue once and for all and not just for this card. You can re-use the code in other drivers.
If you need specific help, I'll even connect you with the engineers that did it for a more detailed explanation (we sold our company years ago and the team has split up but I'm still in contact with most of them).

Markran,
Thank you for the information. I will make sure that it gets routed to the correct people.
Casey

Running Windows 7(32) on MBA - sound crackling, stuttering

I did a search on this and found some posts from other users (see below)but no solution. I have upgraded the driver to 6.0.1.6235, I have installed the recent update of Bootcamp (3.2.2646), but the issue remains. Sounds playing in different applications are effected, though it seems to be more frequent when playing locally stored content (buffering??)
When running in MacOS 10.6, the sound works perfectly. Have anyone managed to solve this? Or, perhaps someone NOT having this issue could get in touch, so I could try to replicate your settings/drivers.
Ola
Old posts:
Running Windows 7 RTM on MBA - sound crackling, stuttering
Posted on: Oct 16, 2009 12:17 AM, by user: AllanMAX -- Relevance: 100%
Hi,
I have a 09 MacBook Air with 128GB SSD and 2GB RAM.
Now, I have installed Windows 7 RTM Build 7600 on my MBA and it always suffer sound crackling, shuttering when playing music ...) but with all of them problem is still not resolved. It stutters, scratches, sounds metallic, etc.
Does anyone have the same issue on the new MacBook Air? Or how I can get this resolved
Re: Running Windows 7 RTM on MBA - sound crackling, stuttering
Posted on: Mar 6, 2010 2:08 PM, by user: ExcelonGT -- Relevance: 47%
, Win 7 x64 RTM since August 09.
Just this week, I reinstalled Windows 7 x64 fully legit ... NEVER had this stuttering problem until now. I was running Bootcamp 2 under Windows 7 before ...I don't think this is a hardware issue and here is why:
I have a Rev A MBA (1.8ghz ....0.1.5936
I really think this issue is caused by the Realtek Driver and/or Bootcamp 3.0/3.1
Re: Running Windows 7 RTM on MBA - sound crackling, stuttering
Posted on: Nov 22, 2009 10:04 PM, by user: DarniederProductions -- Relevance: 43%
I had the same problems but now I’m running win 7 on boot camp instead of parallels and I have no sound at all. The head phone jack has a ominous red light emanating out of it as well! HELP!!!!
Re: Running Windows 7 RTM on MBA - sound crackling, stuttering
Posted on: Feb 1, 2010 7:38 PM, by user: godudi -- Relevance: 38%
I have the same problem, and also tried several drivers from Realtek Website.
Also updated bootcamp to 3.1 but problem still exists!!
At the beginning i thought it might be HW related problem, but sound works flawlessly on MAC OS.
Any advice?
David

I don't think this is a hardware issue and here is why:
I have a Rev A MBA (1.8ghz, 64gbSSD) purchased in Feb 2008. Ive run OSX 10.5 Leopard for a year, and Win7 x64 Beta since Feb 09, Win 7 x64 RTM since August 09.
Just this week, I reinstalled Windows 7 x64 fully legit version. I installed the OS as my only OS, and installed Bootcamp 3.0 and then 3.1.
Ive NEVER had this stuttering problem until now. I was running Bootcamp 2 under Windows 7 before and didnt have any problems with stuttering audio.
My current version of Realtek drivers is 6.0.1.5936
I really think this issue is caused by the Realtek Driver and/or Bootcamp 3.0/3.1

After encoding a sequence, music audio (Track 1) is fine, but speech audio (Track 2) is sped up and crackling.

Hello forumites,
So I've run into an odd problem I haven't experienced before. I exported my docu film last night. I have my music audio on A1 and speech audio on A2 in the timeline. When reviewing it, the music audio plays back fine, but the speech audio is playing back slightly fast (resulting in a bit of a chipmunk effect) and it's crackling (possibly because of the speed-up). The video appears to be in sync with this weird speed-up.
I'm using Windows 8.1 Pro and the latest version of Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Although this is happening on two different systems, here are my computer specs.
PC 1:
Custom built desktop
CPU: FX-8350 4 GHz
Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R.2
Memory: 16 GB DDR3
SSD: 256 GB Samsung 840 EVO (Primary)
HDD: 2 TB WD Red (Data)
GPU: 2x Radeon 6950 (CrossFireX mode)
PC 2:
ASUS G53S laptop
CPU: Core i7-2830QM 2 GHz
Memory: 6 GB DDR3
SSD: 120 GB Crucial M4 (Primary)
HDD: Seagate 500 GB (Data)
GPU: GeForce 460M
I did a bit of troubleshooting and thought that perhaps I nested sequences too many times. So, I did a few test renders from the ground up on each sequence where the nesting gets deeper. I got up to two nesting levels (where one sequence has a nested sequence which contains a nested sequence - Sequence-ception ) with all audio rendered normally.
However, the next nesting level resulted in the audio issue. So, I copied and pasted the timeline from the previous sequence to the current sequence, overwriting the nested timeline. Oddly enough, it still caused the problematic audio, which has me thinking that it's not related to nested sequences after all.
Keep in mind that playback inside Premiere works fine. I even created a new sequence from scratch into which to paste the timeline. Also, encoding using different codecs didn't make a difference. Of course, I also did the basic things and updated my video card drivers, restarted my computer, uninstalled/reinstalled Premiere Pro and Media Encoder, and tried encoding without GPU hardware acceleration.
Here are some 5-second DNxHD renders to get a grasp of what the results are.
Double Nested: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0xp50qbm48gjupd/Double%20Nested.mxf?dl=0 (Good audio)
Triple Nested: Dropbox - Triple Nested.mxf (Bad audio)
I should probably mention that I configured symbolic links to remap the Users folder to my data drive, as that has been known to cause some problems with Windows, but I made sure to link all the assets in my project using the actual file paths rather than the symlinks. Also, I've been rendering other projects prior to the previous patch with this setup and didn't experience any issues.
Has this happened to anybody else as well? I did some searching for this issue but I'm apparently the only one. I'm just hoping this is some weird bug introduced in the last patch.

That may be so, but why even have that feature if one can't even take full advantage of it? I'll be asking Adobe that if I don't get many suggestions or input here.
Thanks for responding, though!

EMU 1616 crackling effects

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