High frequency distortion

annihilator.1 · Post by **annihilator.1** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:50 pm

Hi

I recently purchased & installed live 5.2 & have a problem with a distortion or aliasing kind of sound when i apply a filter to a track,compressorII also clicks & pops & envelope automation is zipping which kind of makes live unusable.

I have tried all buffer settings from 2ms to 100ms with the same results,this happens with samples read from hdd or ram.
I have also noticed that some samples & certain vst's(crystal)produce clicks at note on & some vst's constantly crackle (usualy synthedit made vst's)

Here are links to two examples to compare,neither sample is distorted in its original state.
<edit>Please Only Dowload Examples if you might be able to help,they r limited to 100 downloads,Thankyou</edit>

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?a ... 9465732B1D

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?a ... 1F7F65AEED

I have also tried live 5.03 demo with same result,the clicks at note on also happen in cubaseLE with crystal vst but i don't get the aliasing type sound!

To my mind it sounds like a sample rate mismatch but soundcard settings are same as software,so...
Could somebody listen & give advice as to the cause.

Asus a8v deluxe
1 hdd,512mb
Emu1820m
USB,NIC,onboard audio etc disabled,no virus software etc.
WinXP optimized(could i have disabled a wrong service?)

Lee

annihilator.1 · Post by **annihilator.1** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:06 pm

Hi

A additional thought..

I swear this was not happening with the live 4 lite & live 5.03 demo i was using for a few months before i had saved for the upgrade,i have not installed any software since live 5.2 however there have been some windows updates that installed by themselves (sneaky).

Could WGA? be the cause?
If i roll back would i need to reactivate live?

Am i talking to myself again?

Lee

Mike Goodwin · Post by **Mike Goodwin** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:58 pm

I took a listen on a very crappy pair of speakers yesterday but today I am listening on my KRK's and I hear what your talking about. This is rely wack. When I play them back in sound forge I still hear that odd aliasing type distortion and one click at the begining of each loop restart. That is to be expected as the loop is not crossfaded or marked right. The odd thing is that when I play the loop back in live with no warp features turned on I get clicks and pops through the hole file. I dont get it. I dont know if that has anything to do with this motherboard but I tell you that I am getting rid of it as soon as I can. I dont think live likes it for some unknown reason. It will not work with my fancy shmancy video card when the video card works fine with live on my other setup. I just have a very bad feeling about it now. I went with it because I had to in order to use my UAD card. I think my days of using DSP cards are coming to an end. THEY ARE A PAIN IN THE ASS.

annihilator.1 · Post by **annihilator.1** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:11 pm

Hi

thanks man,I've always suspected the MB but had heard only good things about it for DAW!

Did you try the filter example as well as listening to the sample?

Hey you dont have an Emu sound card do you?
i saw another user on the emu forum with probs & same MB!

Also i found that the onboard audio became re-enabled once & never found out why,i definitely disabled it in bios! i'll check again.

One more thing...Ahhhhhhh

Lee

Mike Goodwin · Post by **Mike Goodwin** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:28 am

This motherboard is well respected in the audio world and for the most part it works fine. Just not with ableton it seems. I am not ready to point the finger totaly at the motherboard yet. I will not do that till I replace it. We will see. Now it looks like I am going to have to try and find a buyer for a very hight quality AGP video card just so I can upgrade. This computer is becoming VERY expensive.

annihilator.1 · Post by **annihilator.1** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 11:59 am

i just been googling for a8v & ableton live & it seems there are quite a few people with different probs related to the MB & audio.

<edit>
While searching google i read a post which told of a V2 of this motherboard that did not suffer from PCI saturation unlike V1, maybe this is our problem.
My manual states a date of april 2004 but not the revision of the MB.
</edit>
<edit2>
A quote from a google cached digital daily review,

"With the K8T800 Pro chipset, the situation is different - the developers promise to impose a fixed restriction on the AGP and PCI buses. As a result, the VIA product has overcome one more flaw as compared to the nForce3 250\Ultra chipset. However, whether the feature is implemented to the full depends much on the motherboard manufacturers. In particular, the Asus A8V board of revision 1.xx does not support AGP\PCI fixation which appeared in revision 2.0."

Asus A8V Manual states "Revised Edition V2 April 2004" but i think this refers to the manual revision & not MB revision.
</edit2>

If you find a solution PM or reply,i have 1 or 2 things left to try so if i find a solution i'll PM or reply here.

Good Luck

Lee

annihilator.1 · Post by **annihilator.1** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 6:06 pm

Update for anyone who might be keeping a watch on this thread.

I just tried running at higher sample rates & the frequency of the distortion increases along with the sample rate up to 192k where it became almost imperceivable however it is still there & moving dials in live cause clicks still.

Lee

annihilator.1 · Post by **annihilator.1** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 3:41 pm

Update 2

I run the windows performance app (accessed thru Control panel / administrative tools / performance) & resizing this window makes CPU hit almost 100% so it looks as if PCI buss saturation is the most likely cause.

Lee

Mike Goodwin · Post by **Mike Goodwin** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 7:06 pm

annihilator.1 wrote:Update 2

I run the windows performance app (accessed thru Control panel / administrative tools / performance) & resizing this window makes CPU hit almost 100% so it looks as if PCI buss saturation is the most likely cause.

Lee

I feel that you are right on this one. I have sent my matrox AGP video card back to them to have it replaced with a PCIe versioin so I can upgrade to a new motherboard. I am SOOOO looking forward to getting this thing out of my case. It has been driving me crazy for almost two months. Now the question is what motherboard to buy? I am not sure if I should go to a ATI or a Nforce4 chipset. Either way I think I am going with the top of the line ASUS boards.

ASAP.

Thanks for your posts BTW. This has been a lonley fight over here.

annihilator.1 · Post by **annihilator.1** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 9:59 pm

update

i took the sample i posted above into cubase & applied a modulating filter to the channel & the sound was perfect,so i then used the same vst in live & that also was perfect so it would seem that it is something specific to live & live effects causing these probs i have,although i still have clicks when moving knobs of vst or live effects especially when moved quickly,sound jumps to new setting.

slowly going mad!

Mike Goodwin · Post by **Mike Goodwin** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 4:39 pm

annihilator.1 wrote:update

i took the sample i posted above into cubase & applied a modulating filter to the channel & the sound was perfect,so i then used the same vst in live & that also was perfect so it would seem that it is something specific to live & live effects causing these probs i have,although i still have clicks when moving knobs of vst or live effects especially when moved quickly,sound jumps to new setting.

slowly going mad!

What is your video card? Have you had any further progress?

annihilator.1 · Post by **annihilator.1** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 9:50 pm

Mike Goodwin wrote: What is your video card?

Hey Mike
My GFX is a Nvidia mx 4000,why do you ask?

Mike Goodwin wrote: Have you had any further progress?

Nothing positive but a couple of strange things i have found with live & windows in general.

I set up a modulating BP filter with cutoff @ minimum & triggered a random sample with the result being a large burst of audio,when the sample is stopped the filter still produces an audible & visible output even though there is no audio playing at all! & no input to the filter! The unexpected audio modulates as per the mod frequency,so changing that changes the frequency of the audio.
Here is the preset for Autofilter for you or for Ableton if they happen to read this post.(Warning!!!)turn down the master because the burst is extremely loud.
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?a ... 3B69AD878E

The second thing i've noticed is with windows & i first thought just live,that is the first click of the left mouse button is not recognised,ie when closing a window,i always thought that i missed! it seem not,sometimes return on the keyboard needs pressing 2 or 3 times to be recognised too.

Maybe i should contact ableton directly to see if they recognise any of these symptoms,i recently saw a post here about audio bursts so i shall investigate further.

So how you getting on man?i see the pics above,you still holding out or you got a new MB?
A new MB is kinda last resort for me as i can't really afford to get new MB & GFX anytime soon so i'd need AGP & PCI for my Emu soundcard

I was going to get live six too but i'll need to sort these probs first.

Oh i PM'd a user on this forum yesterday who was considering this MB a few months back to see how he was getting on & today saw some of his post on another forum complaining of GFX probs! Seems like this MB is a turkey.

Keep me posted on your situation.

Lee
(sorry for such a long post)