Dragging/Skipping Occurring Causing Stuttering or Complete Silence

Wildstyles 11:31 PM - 9 May, 2007

I'm using Serato 1.7.1 and will be DJing a friend's wedding this Saturday. I've had problems with the 'needle' on the virtual record (the black bar) jerking across the record or just disappearing completely. When this occurs the sound either drags or just cuts out completely for a few seconds. And the waveform either jerks or disappears. At a club gig on Saturday the crowd were not impressed and I switched back to final. However I just can't do a full vinyl set this Saturday.

It can happen in abs and rel modes (not sure about int). And I have calibrated multiple times and everything appears nigh on perfect. There appears to be no USB dropout either (full grey bar until it starts dragging/skipping).

Is the problem a crappy laptop? Spec is in my profile but while it sounds okay, it does generally seem to run a bit slow. I have tried a number of the suggestions in the 'Help' forum such as defrag and shutting down background apps but it's not made a significant difference. Any advice much appreciated before I call the Geek Squad....

Zach S 4:03 PM - 10 May, 2007

What are the specs of your computer?
Look in the bottom right of the setup screen to make sure you are in fact using 1.7.1.
A bit about calibration:

After calibration, the number in the upper right corner of the scope view in the setup screen should say 0.0 while the needle is on the record and the turntable is stopped.
If that number is fluctuating than you need to manually move the threshold slider to the right until that number is stable at 0.0.
If you've moved the slider all the way to -24 and its still fluctuating than you have a grounding problem somewhere in the chain.

Also.. make sure you are not using a usb hub/splitter.

Let us know how you get along.

Wildstyles 5:47 PM - 10 May, 2007

My computer's specs are
Dell Inspiron 9100 Notebook,
Pentium 4 w/ HT Technology 3.2GHz,
Windows XP with SP2,
Internal NIC/Modem/Sound,
512MB DDR SDRAM, 400MHz (2 DIMMs)
60 GB EIDE Hard Drive (7200 RPM)

I'm just using one of four USB ports on the back of the laptop. I'm not sure what other USB options I have aside from that.

I don't believe there's any fluctuation in the 0.0 number but will double check tonight.

Wildstyles 4:15 AM - 11 May, 2007

So I just checked and I am using version 1.7.1. Also the number in the upper right corner does not fluctuate from 0.0 (-0.0) after calibration. So I guess that's good!

Let me know what you think and thanks in advance for the help.

Zach S 6:31 PM - 11 May, 2007

Ok.. did you recalibrate as well?
Try boosting your maximum screen updates to 60 and your audio cache to 45.
What is your usb audio buffer?

Wildstyles 7:12 PM - 11 May, 2007

Yes I recalibrated as well and I have slid the audio buffer back and forth but to no consistent avail. Last night I called up a tech support company to help me remove background programs that may have been running and slowing down SL. They did a pretty good job of speeding it up (removing all elements of my junky antivirus being a major factor) but SL still jumps and drags on occassion, especially when cueing at the beginning of the track or needle dropping. It seems to need time to 'catch up'. I just wish it/my computer behaved consistently.

Zach S 10:41 PM - 11 May, 2007

Quote:

They did a pretty good job of speeding it up (removing all elements of my junky antivirus being a major factor) but SL still jumps and drags on occassion, especially when cueing at the beginning of the track or needle dropping.

When you calibrate does the number in the upper right corner of the scope view in the setup screen say 0.0 while the needle is on the record and the turntable is stopped?
What is your threshold set at?
Put your usb audio buffer to 5 for now.

Wildstyles 6:18 PM - 15 May, 2007

Yes the number says 0.0 in the upper right hand corner as I mentioned earlier. The threshold pans out somewhere between 48 and 60. Even with the audio buffer set to 5 I experienced the problem at a gig on Saturday, not every song but if I'm frequently changing tracks, scratching and cueing, especially at the beginning of a track. Each time it happens or threatens to happen, I have to switch to regular vinyl and then restart my laptop mid-set.

Zach S 7:04 PM - 15 May, 2007

Ok.. backing up.. does this happen in INT mode?

Wildstyles 8:07 PM - 15 May, 2007

Yes but less so. It's more frequent in the other two modes.

Zach S 5:22 PM - 16 May, 2007

If it happens in internal mode than we can take the TT out of the equation as being part of the problem.
So that leaves me to believe it might have to do with Ram.
Do you have any other Ram eating processes running while running Scratch LIVE?

I would go through and do the XP tweeks --> scratchlive.net .

Shaun W 5:56 PM - 16 May, 2007

Does adjusting the USB audio buffer setting have any affect?

How about increasing the audio cache?

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Dragging/Skipping Occurring Causing Stuttering or Complete Silence

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