Seeking suggestions with VE Pro build 4657 and Audio glitches/stuttering

[Mahlon]

 I'm getting periodic audio glitches/crackling/stuttering on a (new i7) slave machine, and was hoping to get some suggestions on where to start to find the culprit.

My setup is:

Computer DAW:

• Windows 7
• MOTU 2408 mk3
• Sonar 8.3
• VE Pro 4675
• Core 2 Quad e6600
• Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L motherboard
• 8 gigs RAM
• D-Link Gigabit Switch
• 500 Antec PSU

Computer Slave 01:

• XP64
• VE Pro 4675 hosting Kontakt 3,5
• Core 2 Duo e6600
• Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R motherboard
• 1 160 gig Samsung drive (Operating System and Programs/Data)
• 1 250 gig Hitatchi drive (Samples -- LASS)
• 8 gigs DDR2 800
• 450 Watt Ultra PSU

Computer Slave 02: (new build)

• XP64
• VE Pro 4675 hosting Vienna Instruments and Kontakt 3.5
• Core i7 920
• Asus Rampage Gene II (LAN chipset is Realtek 8111C) motherboard
• 1 250 gig WD drive (Operating System and Program/Data)
• 1 500 gig WD drive (Samples -- Sam Brass, Truestrike, Symphobia)
• 1 750 gig WD drive Caviar Black (Samples -- VSL Brass and VSL Woodwinds and Harps)
• 12 gigs DDR3 1333 (running at 1066)
• 550 Watt Antec PSU

The DAW is only hosting the sequencer, so no samples loaded there. On slave 02, I'm hosting some instance of Kontakt 3.5 inside of VE Pro as well as a VSL intrument. I'm getting glitches and crackles every 30 to 45 seconds or so (but it is random, not precise). I'm only loading about 300 megs worth of samples and CPU usage on slave 02 is about 10%.

This is not happening on slave 01 (so far) with similar load and CPU usage. Slave 01 seems to be running smoothly with VE Pro hosting Kontakt 3.5 and LASS.

The MOTU is set to ASIO 512 samples and has the latest drivers. I set the latency much higher to 1024 and 2048 but would still get the glitching and stuttering from Slave 02. Likewise, the behavior is the same at 256 samples -- in other words, it's no worse at 256 samples. I've also set the priority for VE Pro to 'normal' as was suggested by Karel in another thread.

Again, this stuttering is only every 30 to 40 seconds or so for a short burst of about 1 sec. I'm also occasionally getting hanging notes when this happens.

Now, a little about my experience on the new i7 build. I give this just as background in case it has any bearing. The memory is running at 1066. I had to bump up the memory controller voltage to 1.35 and dram voltage to 1.65 so that XP would recognize all 12 gigs RAM. Otherwise it only recognized 8 gigs. I ran memtest86+, many instances for many days, and all the memory tested fine. I ran Prime95 for 2 nights and everything passed. Like wise, all hard drives pass fine with HDtune. The only weird glitch I ran into was when I tried to copy large files (like 2 gigs or more large sample files) from one drive to another. The computer would freeze and I would have to shut down with the power button. After testing the RAM in different slots, I found that one of the modules did not quite like the A1 slot. After moving this out of A1 and re-arranging the RAM, I no longer had the freezes when copying large files. Memtest and Prime95 still returning no errors.

Back to the problem at hand. Can anyone give me some suggestions where to start tracking down this glitching audio? I suppose my questions and thoughts are:

1. Could there still be some hardware conflict with RAM, the memory controller, and/or the Southbridge? I believe the memory controller is on the processor in i7. Could this introduce to the scenario the problem of a faulty processor?
2. Could this be a network problem? I remember Christian saying once that D-Link was not the most desireable switch. But I'm getting ok performace with it on Salve 02.
3. Could it be the network (onboard) of the Rampage motherboard. I doubt this as the build of this board is supposed to be excellent.
4. I am running a program called Input Director on all three computers. This is a KM software solution for controlling the 3 computers via one keyboard/mouse and it does work through the network. Could that be a problem?
5. Would these glitches happen because of a faulty hard drive (though they seem to have checked out ok)

Sorry for being overly thorough and thanks for reading this far! I wanted to set down as many details as possible so I can come to a solution as quickly as possible. I only have few more days before I can return the motherboard, memory, and/or processor.

Thanks for your help!

Mahlon

[DG]

1. Check the DPC on all machines
2. Temporarily disable the onboard network

Does the DPC go down? If so, then you have the normal problem of cr*p onboard network. Stick a dedicated card in each machine, and this should help.

DG

[Mahlon]

 Thanks DG.

I forgot to mention that I did, in fact, check the latency with dpc Latency Checker and all seemed fine. Below about 200us or so? Never spiking.

I haven't checked to see if they drop further when the network is disable though. But I will.

I'm not discounting that cr*p onboard network. I bought a couple of network cards today at lunch and will give it a go.

So do these symptoms sound like network issues to you? Rather than ASIO or some hardware memory path problem

Mahlon

[DG]

I've just remembered something else. There is a known incompatibility between Gigabyte boards and MOTU hardware. Many. many people are having problems. Try a different brand of soundcard and see if it solves your problem. If it does, you will then have to make a choice between changing your MOTU hardware or changing the motherboard.

DG

[mmueller]

Onboard network ports (some cheap realtek/marvel chip) - this my experience - do not perform as good as a dedicated "pro" ethernet cards. I would suggest to get 3 new ethernet cards from intel (e.g. http://www.alternate.de/html/product/Netzwerk_PCI/Intel%28R%29/PRO-1000_GT_Desktop_Adapter/49072/?tn=HARDWARE&l1=Netzwerk&l2=Netzwerkkarten&l3=PCI) and deactivate the onboard lan. This is only a small investment, probably 60 to 70 euro for 3 cards and I am sure you will see a real difference (20-30%+). When your switch supports jumboframes you can really reach 100Mb/s. I guess then your glitches will be gone.

[Mahlon]

DG,

Are you talking about the dpc latency which was such a problem with gigabyte's P35 boards, or something else? I haven't heard anything in connection with MOTU hardware, but I would like to if it helps me solve this issue. I guess it would be the motherboard that would have to go as the MOTU hardware is around $900 US. Actually, I have a spare Asus P5b that I could test -- just lots of work... but I've got to get it working.....

mmueller, thanks for you suggestion. I will try that as a first step.

Mahlon

[DG]

@Mahlon said:

DG,

Are you talking about the dpc latency which was such a problem with gigabyte's P35 boards, or something else? I haven't heard anything in connection with MOTU hardware, but I would like to if it helps me solve this issue. I guess it would be the motherboard that would have to go as the MOTU hardware is around $900 US. Actually, I have a spare Asus P5b that I could test -- just lots of work... but I've got to get it working.....

mmueller, thanks for you suggestion. I will try that as a first step.

Mahlon

 

 No, it's not to do with the DPC, it's actually the MOTU can cause audio glitches. Test the network cards first, as that is more likely to be the problem, IMO. However, I seem to remember seeing a fair number of posts on the Cubase forum about the MOTU problem, so that might be worth investigating, if nothing else works. The quickest way to test the MOTU issue is just to install another soundcard. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, as we're not testing the number of features/outputs etc. as long as it's good quality. Maybe you or someone you know has a decent RME card floating about?

DG

[Mahlon]

 I do wish I had an RME....

 I can test with a little Event firewire interface. But like you say, first test will be with NICs.

Mahlon