Software help archive

A read-only archive of old serato.com help threads.

audio dropouts

Product
Scratch Live
Version
-
Hardware
Ortofon | Serato S-120
Computer
-
OS
Platform
-
Jitz 5:25 PM - 28 July, 2004
I'm running an ibook g4, 933, 768 ram. My problem is that I will get intermittent audio dropouts- not often, but even once is too much if I'm to take it on the road- it's like a record or cd thats skips! I have calibrated as best as possible, turned off auto fill, and MAXed out the usb buffer all the way to the right. Also, all other programs have been quit. The calibration circle is as round as possible as well.

What else can I do- I'm not getting a new computer- that's not an option.

I have a suggestion, why dont they make a function that turns off the waveform- if thats taxing cpu. I mean, I'm old school, I don't really even know why the wave is there in the 1st place? Otherwise I'm happy with it.
lancota 5:56 PM - 28 July, 2004
Yea, this audio dropout thing is startin to scare me. I had a 1/2 dropout the other night, at first I thought it was autofilling but I looked up and both waveforms were filled....

I have brand new ortofon carts, my cirlces are perfectly round and my usb buffer is at 12 (but I tried it all the way to the right the other day)....realllllly scary.
namron 6:20 PM - 28 July, 2004
when came the dropouts first time? after a few hours or everytime?

did u callibrate your system when the quartz was locked at the tts? i mean at +/- 0% ? thats very important...

if the dropouts only came after a few hours, how hot was your notebook at this time?
nik39 6:57 PM - 28 July, 2004
Quote:
did u callibrate your system when the quartz was locked at the tts? i mean at +/- 0% ? thats very important...


AFAIK thats wrong. It doesnt matter at which pitch your TTs are when you calibrate.
Jitz 7:23 PM - 28 July, 2004
Well, it happened about 45 mins in, I have yet to take it on the road for 4 hr sets- I can't until I know it is perfect. Actually, the main reason I got SSL was because I was sick of cd's skipping after a couple weeks usage (I'm not very delicate- I rinse tunes and toss cd's aside, then pack them at end of night). But I digress, I really think that for experienced DJ's, the sound element is most important- in terms of actual quality and no dropouts.

I think really, this is the most important issue to take SSL to next level. I work with alot of club jocks and I am trying to sell them on it. Is it just me or do others get the droputs (even once).
namron 7:52 PM - 28 July, 2004
Quote:
Quote:
did u callibrate your system when the quartz was locked at the tts? i mean at +/- 0% ? thats very important...


AFAIK thats wrong. It doesnt matter at which pitch your TTs are when you calibrate.


at my old notebook with the 1.1 version it was very important, cause if i calibrated my system without setting the pitch to quartz lock, sometimes the pitch of the track changes quickly while playing .. for example from -5% to +30% ...
Jitz 8:41 PM - 28 July, 2004
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
did u callibrate your system when the quartz was locked at the tts? i mean at +/- 0% ? thats very important...


AFAIK thats wrong. It doesnt matter at which pitch your TTs are when you calibrate.


at my old notebook with the 1.1 version it was very important, cause if i calibrated my system without setting the pitch to quartz lock, sometimes the pitch of the track changes quickly while playing .. for example from -5% to +30% ...


bit did it stutter or audio dropout on you? I don't have any pitch problems (other than what everyone esle gets).
yuri 8:45 PM - 28 July, 2004
I discovered an mp3 last night that stutters. VERY ODD

Also I have had minor glitches in audio when mapping another track or something
namron 8:54 PM - 28 July, 2004
no audio dropout, the track "just" change the pitch automatically several times from -5 to 30 and back and again ...
Lephunk 1:58 AM - 30 July, 2004
i've had drop outs and stutters when mapping on the other side... and the laptop used is quite powerful too so...
Jitz 3:36 AM - 30 July, 2004
any thoughts from the mods on this issue? i can handle the pitch not locking- it just means more work when spinning- at least I can do something bout that (i hear the fix is coming). but I feel helpless when I get the stuttering. if the cpu is being taxed, give me an option to shut the waveform. like I said before- I don't see it helping me to spin.

ps. i like the time pass/remaining- keep that!;o)

ibook g4, 933, 768ram, 10.3.4
DJ C-Zer 5:06 AM - 30 July, 2004
I have not had a stutter happen to me luckily, but my last two live club gigs, I have had 1 audio drop out each for a good 5-10 secs. I would like to know why this is. I will have to play with it more to figure out what it is, but this was about 2 hours into my set. I'm a non stop beat matching dj, so I use SSL very heavily. I'd like to know who else has experience this and what their settings are if they have a system similar to me which I know a couple of people do.

I have an Averatec 3200 stock. 1.5mhz AMD Mobile, 256mb ram, 40gb hdd, no extras added. 12" screen at a 1024 x 768 max resolution.

I always use the same USB port. I have all the eye candy xp prof. stuff turned off. My USB Latency is set to about 5-6. I will try to increase it more, but would 1 audio drop out fix this. I thought the usb latency was for stutters. Let me know please! Next gig is this Saturday.
Lephunk 11:20 AM - 31 July, 2004
just got back from a gig... experienced one drop out... it paused for about 5 secs... i wasn't even doing anything, just browsing for the next track...
BassChamber 6:34 PM - 31 July, 2004
me too... i have some audio drop outs. mmm this is starting to scare me, because i use SSL mainly to mix house... serato, please help us!!
Lephunk 12:21 AM - 1 August, 2004
Quote:
just got back from a gig... experienced one drop out... it paused for about 5 secs... i wasn't even doing anything, just browsing for the next track...

one more thing... the graphics started stuttering right before the audio drop out...
Serato, Forum Moderator
Steve W 4:25 AM - 2 August, 2004
Lephunk and BassChamber, you need to be more specific than "i've had drop outs and stutters" and "i have some audio drop outs". If you are experiencing drop outs then the first thing to look at is your system configuration. Both Windows and Mac OS are susceptible to programs running in the background stealing resources, so this is where I would look first. See www.musicxp.net for some tips for tuning Windows XP.
diego vega 8:14 AM - 2 August, 2004
Is there a guide like that one but for OS X Panther?
Thanks!
Stuart Ramdeen 9:33 AM - 2 August, 2004
there is some good info here:

www.osxaudio.com

and a good article here:

community.sonikmatter.com

stu
diego vega 7:14 AM - 4 August, 2004
Thank you
lancota 9:21 PM - 4 August, 2004
I've narrowed my audio dropout problems to them happening around 1 hour 30 minutes from when the program was launched. Any thoughts? (I've disabled all I can, defragged, cleaned up...everything. This problem still plauges me.)
Serato
Josh 10:40 PM - 4 August, 2004
have you set your virtual memory to a static size? Often after a certain period windows will start changing the size of virtual memory fairly often, which results in horrible disk thrashing, just when you _don't_ need it.
nik39 11:07 PM - 4 August, 2004
How much memory does SSL use anyway?
Serato
Josh 11:11 PM - 4 August, 2004
That depends on the size of your library and what particular tasks you're doing, e.g. filling overviews. So it varies for each user, but this info is readily available in the task manager (ctrl+alt+del)...
lancota 11:51 PM - 4 August, 2004
well seeing as how I'm using a Mac, that doesn't really apply...but thanks for the suggestion :)
DJ Dynamight 1:43 PM - 5 August, 2004
Quote:
have you set your virtual memory to a static size? Often after a certain period windows will start changing the size of virtual memory fairly often, which results in horrible disk thrashing, just when you _don't_ need it.


so, a static virtual memory setting can potentially avoid system hiccups?
Serato
Josh 9:37 PM - 5 August, 2004
Along with plenty of RAM, it can do, yes.