I have had my serato scratch delivered today along with my laptop and in anticipation i have connected everything together as instructed by the manual.

The only problem is that i have been getting intermitent sound from my unit to the mixer and the when i do get sound there is a pause every now and again in the software so instead of playing the tracks all the way through there are about 20 1 second pauses throughout.


Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Brad

what is your buffer set to?
Try moving it to the highest setting and see if the problem goes away. If it does slowly move the buffer down until the problem returns and set it slightly higher than that. Also try applying the XP tweaks in the tips and tricks section. You're laptop should be plenty powerful enough so if this doesn't solve it you may need to get yourself an external PSU www.maplin.co.uk
this one is ideal.

What service pack are you on?

My buffer is set to system managed and the computer is set to background services along with all the other windows XP tweaks.

But i still get this delay in the track, it looks like it is trying to process the next part of the track it is playing. When the sound cuts out it is generally when i change the volume of the software player.

Thanks for the help upto now
Brad

Service pack 2

What kind of tracks are you using?

I am using the sample tracks that came with the serato unit!

Does this also happen in internal mode or is it just in absolute mode?

It happens in all the modes on the unit the only difference is that the space between the pauses are greater on internal mode.

CPU issue, probably.

You got MSN, man? I got some spare time on my hands so maybe I could help you out...

just tried logging into messenger but it said service temporarily unavailable, what do you think could be the main cause.

Got a wifi card? Tried to disable it?

The main cause of why you can't get on MSN or why you're getting this? It definitely sounds like your CPU might be running a little bit high for your computer (or RAM). Set the USB buffer to 20, then lower it gradually to see discover at what point it causes the audio to dropout. Also have the task manager open to watch your CPU...

LOL. Don't think he would get on MSN at all then ;)

Just kidding, my man...

nobspangle wasn't referring to your Virtual Memory. Rather, he meant the buffer size for SSL (USB audio buffer size, page 14 of your manual). What is this buffer set to? Try setting it to the highest level (20) and see if your problem persists. If no problems follow, slowly decrease the setting to acheive optimum performance.

Let us know if this works for you... and WELCOME to the forum! :-)

Do it Rev style in other words ;)

Any progess Brad?

Sorted the delays but the sound still cuts out some of the time when i change tracks or adjust the volume, how much control is lost at buffer size 20.

Thanks for all the help need to get some rest will get back at it tomorrow when i've got more time.

Brad

That's 7 plus 20 which gives you a total latency of 27 ms. You say adjust volume? Do you mean the gain? I strongly recommend that you don't use this live. Don't think it's intended to be used that way. The graphics kind of lag when I drag a track on to one of the decks, but I don't get any audio dropouts.

Are you using an external usb hard drive or have any applications in the back ground running or both?

I'm using neither the music is on the internal hard drive the laptop is running from the mains and the top 3 process are the svchost, serato scratch, and explorer.exe

Brad

Could you check your CPU? What does it say?

Brad, what about the WiFi card?

If svchost is pulling the most CPU, I'd say you have a shedload of services running... Or a worm.

Do you have an antivirus?

I have my WiFi card on all the time, but I don't get any issues. Guess it depends on the card.

Josh what does SVCHOST do i found it in my task manager but what does it run? or do? i do not have not done the XP disable tweaks is this in one of them.

it's normal to have, if it's pulling lots of CPU it's not...

it runs the windows services SVC=service ;-)

oh ok thats what i thought. mine is rtuning like 2944k which is alot lower then 99 percent of the other services. i don't have issues with slow running pc should i worry about disabling the services? i have a 2.5 ghz 640 ram 5400 rpm HD? i mean is it worth it if i have a new system?

if it's not broke... :D

Don't worry about the amount of RAM it's using, the svchost processes on my main PC (not my scratch one) total 35MB but they mostly use 0% CPU

But wouldn't you get a better result with more RAM than less?

not really... unless you're critically low on ram. modern OSes will swap the processes you're not using to th hard drive (the page file) and give priority to those that are actually using cpu.

As long as you have enough RAM you're OK, if you don't have enough all that swapping will slow you down, and gives me a headache.

Here's the latest been having a play with it today and i can get the pauses to stop when i am only using one of the decks but when i start using the other deck thats when i get more delays again as though resources are not being distributed correctly.

I have made a few more setting changes since last night too the laptop had no wifi card but just a standard network which i have disabled, and all the unecessary microsoft services have been disabled.

As i run the program and look into the task manager to check usage i can't seem to see too much cpu usage when the delays are happening, and the memory used is not that large in comparison to what is available. Personally i am starting to think that there may be a fault in my unit but i have a new amp and speakers arriving tomorrow so i can test it fully all together then.

Brad

Brad: it sounds like ssl is taxing your cpu too hard. how fast is your laptop and what buffer sizes are you using? you might want to try cranking the buffer slider to the right to get rid of dropouts.

What kind of processor are you using?

I've got a 2ghz processor and i'm using system managed page file along with the usb buffer size set to 20 when using both decks.

Here's the spec of the laptop i am using.

• 14.1" XGA • 15" XGA • 15" SXGA+ TFT LCD
• Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor - M uFC-PGA (Northwood)
· 512KB L2 Cache · Support 400MHz FSB
• 256MB 266MHz PC2100 DDR (Maximum: 1024MB)
• SIS650 Ultra-AGPII with 64MB shared VRAM from system RAM
• 40GB 2.5" 9.5mm Ultra DMA Hard Drive ATA-66
• Avance AC97 Audio
USB ports (3)
External CRT port (1)
Parallel (ECP & EPP) port (1)
PS/2 port (1)
Serial port (1)
DC-in (1)
Mini-IEEE 1394 (1)
S-Video Out (1)
RJ-45 LAN (1)
RJ-11 Modem (1)
Infrared (0)
Headphone (1)
Microphone in (1)

Built-in 56K MDC Modem with V.90 and V.92 compliant
Built-in 10 Base-T/ 100 Base-TX LAN module

Hope this answers any questions about hardware.

Ugh... that's nasty. Eliminate Window's need to resize your paging file by setting both the initial and maximum size to the same value.

Start -> (right-click) My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Performance Settings -> Advanced -> Virtual Memory (Change). Select the "Custom size" button and set your initial and maximum size to 192MB (I chose that value based on the specs you provided). Then click the "Set" button. A quick reboot and then.... your results?

The pagefile size should be at least 1.5x the amount of RAM in your system and generally if you are going to fix your pagefile you want it set to 3x up to a maximum of around 1.5GB for a single user system.
My PC is currently using 333MB of pagefile so 192 is way too low.

I won't argue with you on that.... well, yes I will... :-P

Your pagefile, in its simplest description, is an extension of your physical RAM. If Windows runs out of RAM while processing tasks at hand, it will use your pagefile as RAM until sufficient physical RAM is made available again. The default setting XP chooses for your pagefile is 1.5x, but this isn't necessarily the best setting. Unless you're into some RAM-heavy apps (CAD, video, etc), 256MB of physical RAM is more than enough to get the job done. IMHO, 1.5x for BradR's pagefile is overkill - and thus, a waste of space on his harddrive. That's why I suggested 192MB. Your best performance will always be acheived when your OS is using your physical RAM.

Either way, for SSL, choosing 192MB or more for his pagefile should be fine. The main thing was to keep Windows from resizing it all the time. $0.03 :-)

I've made all the relevant changes but i am still getting this delay in records whenever i load one into the opposite deck that is playing or when i try to do anything labour intensive.

Does anyone know whether there is an issue with the serato scratch in respect to that you may need the ac adaptor to power the unit aswell as the usb which may lack in power. Although it's the only thing on it when i play and when i plug my printer and scanner back in they both work fine together but there both ac powered.

Thanks for all the input guys
Brad

Forgot to ask why would i set the cpu focus for background services wouldn't it benefit the active program in the foreground if set the opposite way.

Thanks
Brad

On certain computers, SSL needs an external power supply to function properly (e.g. Powerbooks). You could try that and see if it makes a difference.

If this was how Windows used it's pagefile the world would be a much better place, unfortunatley it's not. Windows attempts to schedule data in terms of importance and swaps it into the page file when it won't be needing it.

Lets take the PC I'm currently using as an example. It has 512MB of physical RAM and the pagefile is set at 1GB. The current pagefile usage is 402MB even though there is 188MB of Physical memory free.

I agree that you should fix the minimum and maximum size of your pagefile to stop windows from resizing, however, If 192MB is sufficient then Windows would never resize the pagefile because it would always be larger than that at 1.5x the RAM.

My third and final point is this, a modern harddrive (and the one in question) is usually at least 40GB in size. I therefore don't think that using 768MB or even 1GB is really breaking the bank in terms of pagefile usage.


Back to the matter in hand, Brad, do you get the problem only with new tracks or does it happen with ones you've played before? If it's only new tracks, your solution is to load all your tracks before you want to play them in a mix. If it happens even on tracks you've played before then I can only suggest turning your buffer size up. On the background vs. foreground the jury is out. It's a tweak that works well on programs using ASIO drivers as they process in the background, however I'm not sure that it benefits SSL in the same way. It's difficult to test as my setup copes easily on either setting.

I've only just starting using the SSL and it's the demo tracks that came with it.

Brad

Can you please tell me which version of Scratch LIVE you're using?