Please help me end this frustration

[jcolagross]

I want to get rid of latency and stop these pops and clicks.
I have a PC, (a fast i7 Digi Duc forum build) running XP.
My chain: audio into Apogee AD16X into DIGI002 (adat) and back out of the DIGI002 to Apogee Rosetta 200 (S/PDIF) for monitoring.
My options: Should I get a PCIe card, like the Lynx or RME and go directly AES from the Apogee AD16X to my computer? I would have to buy Windows 7, ProTools 9, and the pcie card. A little over $1000 for all.
Or, should I buy a M-Audio Profire 2626, which is only about $600, but I'm not sure about the quality.
I can't afford HD Native. If I was going to spend $3000, I'd buy a HD system.
My Apogee has the X-HD card, so all I'd have to have is a core PCie card to go HD, but they are bringing $3000-$4000 even used.
With my goals in mind is there another way I'm not considering? I would even consider selling the Apogee pieces and Digi002, which would all bring about $2800. Please help me.

[albee1952]

Hang on cowboy. Don't give up just yet. Let's break this down a bit and build it back up one step at a time. Start with just the 002 connected. Now make(or open) a session that is at 44.1K or 48K, and set your hardware buffer to 64 and test it. If everything is good(and latency is minimal) then let's continue. Next step would be to attach the AD16X to the lightpipe input on the 002. Now go to hardware setup and select Clock Source as Optical. On the AD16X, set it for 44.1K or 48K(whatever your session is set to). You cannot use the higher sample rates with the lightpipe input. Now test again. If all is good, now connect the SPDIF output of the 002 to the SPDIF input of the Rosetta. The Rosetta will need to be told to clock from incoming SPDIF, OR clock it via Wordclock with a wordclock cable from the AD16X(I don't own these devices so I'm not sure what connections you have available). The idea is that all 3 devices must be running from the same clock(which is likely why you have clicks and pops). Since the 002 has no wordclock connections, it is best to slave it to the optical feed from the AD16X. If the AD16X is the master for the 002, it must also be the master for the Rosetta.

BTW, in the hardware setup page, make sure that Optical=ADAT and RCA= SPDIF. I got my fingers crossed for ya

[jcolagross]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Hang on cowboy. Don't give up just yet. Let's break this down a bit and build it back up one step at a time. Start with just the 002 connected. Now make(or open) a session that is at 44.1K or 48K, and set your hardware buffer to 64 and test it. If everything is good(and latency is minimal) then let's continue. Next step would be to attach the AD16X to the lightpipe input on the 002. Now go to hardware setup and select Clock Source as Optical. On the AD16X, set it for 44.1K or 48K(whatever your session is set to). You cannot use the higher sample rates with the lightpipe input. Now test again. If all is good, now connect the SPDIF output of the 002 to the SPDIF input of the Rosetta. The Rosetta will need to be told to clock from incoming SPDIF, OR clock it via Wordclock with a wordclock cable from the AD16X(I don't own these devices so I'm not sure what connections you have available). The idea is that all 3 devices must be running from the same clock(which is likely why you have clicks and pops). Since the 002 has no wordclock connections, it is best to slave it to the optical feed from the AD16X. If the AD16X is the master for the 002, it must also be the master for the Rosetta.

BTW, in the hardware setup page, make sure that Optical=ADAT and RCA= SPDIF. I got my fingers crossed for ya

Thank you. I feel stupid not having tried that first. The AD16X and the Rosetta both have their own clock. I used to have the DIGI002 clocked to the Rosetta by SPDIF and it worked fine. I upgraded to 8.4 and purchased the AD16X about the same time and I've had these glitches. The AD16X should have the best clock (The Big Ben C777). I will try this tonight and report back. I see your user name here alot. Thanks for all you do.

[albee1952]

Don't thank me until it works!! In any case, be aware that as of 8.0.4(and in PT9) your clock source will revert to internal every time you boot the computer, so leave yourself a post-it note to reset the clock each time you open PT.

[jcolagross]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Don't thank me until it works!! In any case, be aware that as of 8.0.4(and in PT9) your clock source will revert to internal every time you boot the computer, so leave yourself a post-it note to reset the clock each time you open PT.

Ever since you recommended that to me a while back, I have a piece of masking tape right on my Command 8 that tells me to do that. Last night I changed the clock to "Internal" in ProTools (DIGI002R clock) and lowered the buffer to 64. I played music into a pair of audio tracks and set PT to record. No problems, Then I changed the clock back to "ADAT" (AD16X) and there were no problems either. Wow, I thought, it's doing better at buffer 64. Awesome-shorter latency and more stability! Well, that didn't last long. After a few seconds, the music that was being recorded started sounding very digitized, like a cool digital distortion that I was turning up the gain on. Then it started sounding like the system was just about to shut down. A message box popped up that said "Remove RTAS plugins or raise CPU usage limit". I had no plugins open at all and the CPU usage was set to the recommended 85%. Any ideas?

[albee1952]

Time for a Sandra report.

[DonaldM]

WOn't know until we see the Sandra, but I'm wondering if he's having the same issue I did and just needs to change the number of processors from 8 to 4...assuming he has true quad core.

[mykhal c]

Originally Posted by DonaldM

WOn't know until we see the Sandra, but I'm wondering if he's having the same issue I did and just needs to change the number of processors from 8 to 4...assuming he has true quad core.

definitely less than 8...

[jcolagross]

This is a Sandra from a year ago, but it's the same computer. I haven't made any changes. Thanks for the help.
SiSoftware Sandra

Computer
Model : Gigabyte EX58-UD5

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
Speed : 2.83GHz
Cores per Processor : 4 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 2 Unit(s)
Type : Quad-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 4x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L2 On-board Cache : 4x 256kB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L3 On-board Cache : 8MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 16-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size, 8 threads sharing

Computer
Mainboard : Gigabyte EX58-UD5
BIOS : Award (Phoenix) F7 05/11/2009
Bus(es) : X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 3.25GB DIMM DDR3

Chipset
Model : Giga-Byte X58 I/O Hub
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.43GHz (4.86GHz)

Chipset
Model : Giga-Byte Core Desktop (Bloomfield) UnCore
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.43GHz (4.86GHz)
Total Memory : 6GB DIMM DDR3
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 540MHz (1GHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Corsair CM3X2G1600C8D 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24 5-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Corsair CM3X2G1600C8D 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24 5-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Corsair CM3X2G1600C8D 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24 5-34-10-5)

Video System
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4350 (PS3.0, VS3.0 600MHz, 256MB DDR3 2x400MHz, PCIe 2.00 x16)
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4350 (PS3.0, VS3.0 600MHz, 256MB DDR3 2x400MHz, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4350 ()

Storage Devices
WDC WD7501AALS-00J7B0 (750.2GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 32MB Cache) : 699GB (E:)
WDC WD6401AALS-00E8B0 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 32MB Cache) : 596GB (C:)
WDC WD7501AALS-00J7B0 (750.2GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 32MB Cache) : 699GB (D:)
USB Flash Memory 8GB (USB) : 7GB (H:)
PLEXTOR DVDR PX-880SA (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (F:)

Logical Storage Devices
SYSTEM (C:) : 596GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD6401AALS-00E8B0 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 32MB Cache)
SESSIONS (D:) : 699GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD7501AALS-00J7B0 (750.2GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 32MB Cache)
SAMPLES (E:) : 699GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD7501AALS-00J7B0 (750.2GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 32MB Cache)
Optical Drive (F:) : N/A @ PLEXTOR DVDR PX-880SA (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
Removable Drive (H:) : 7GB (FAT32) @ USB Flash Memory 8GB (USB)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Giga-Byte LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : ITE IT8720F
Audio Device : Giga-Byte HD Audio Controller
Audio Device : Hightech Information System RV730XT Audio device [Radeon HD 4670]
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte 4 port SATA IDE Controller
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte 2 port SATA IDE Controller
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte JMB36X PCIE-to-SATAII/IDE RAID Controller
USB Controller 1 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #4
USB Controller 2 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #5
USB Controller 3 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #6
USB Controller 4 : Giga-Byte USB EHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 5 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #1
USB Controller 6 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 7 : Giga-Byte USB UHCI Controller #3
USB Controller 8 : Giga-Byte USB EHCI Controller #1
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : Giga-Byte TSB43AB23 1394a-2000 OHCI PHY/link-layer Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel 801xx/63xx SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek RTL8168D(P)/8111D(P) PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC #2 - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Network Adapter : Realtek RTL8168D(P)/8111D(P) PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC - Packet Scheduler Miniport

Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 3)
Platform Compliance : x86

[albee1952]

My rig is almost identical. My mobo is a rev. 1 and I run F11 BIOS(not sure that makes a difference). I also run an nVidia graphics card( a $37 GeForce 7300LE 256 card). Avid is now recommending nVidia graphics(but there are still plenty of ATI users out there. One thing that made a huge difference on my rig was setting RAM timings manually(the AUTO setting made for really bad performance). Are your WD drives green, blue or black series?