My aplogies first as I am sure this situation has been addressed prior to this post, however with limited internet access and utter frustration I have posted this. The problem I am having is that spiking of the asio meter and the pops/clicks associated with it. The project I am working with consists of the following: 7 vocal tracks with waves RCL , tc native limiter, and waves d-esser on each track as inserts. I am using kontakt 4 with 5 instruments playing in 5 seperate midi tracks. no inserts on the kontakt instruments. My system is a pentium core 2 duo, 4 gig of ocz ram, 1 terabyte hd partitioned (200g and 800g which is another problem) and an M-audio Delta 44 sound card (driver updated). Windows xp. I am recording at 32 bit 88,200 hz. Buffer size set to 256 on the delta. I tried changing the buffer size, it did help but very marginal. Definetly something else going on here.As far as I could tell, no accelerater on the graphics card. Also, the partition drive…I know, 200 and 800 are stupid. I havent recorded much so im will ing to format and repartition if i really have to unless there is another way to repartition (partition majic??) I didnt know much about system setup when I had the system built but as I understand now, it is best to have 3 partitions, 1 for softaware and apps, 2 for samples and loops, 3 for recorded material. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post but I JUST WANNA F"N RECORD wuth no issues. Thanks in advance. If there are any gurus here who can help i am willing to call you long distance if it can help me get things solved quicker.
Three things jump out at me reading through that mess.
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Paragraphs are your friend. Don’t be afraid of them.
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You don’t want any partitions. You want separate hard drives.
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256 is spectacularly low buffer size for the system specs you listed. You probably need something closer to 2048. Maybe even higher.
Also, there is no need to record at that resolution. Lower it to 24 bits at 44.1 kHz. Have you tried using ASIO drivers?
Lol, I agree with the paragraphs.
What hard drive sizes do you recomend (i already have 1 that is a terabyte) and on what hard drive do you recomend putting what (os and apps/samples/recorded media)?
I will change my asio buffer size, again though I have done this previous and it did not do much. Thanks for the help so far.
Why not record at 32 bit 88,200 htz?? Also I am using the given m-audio asio driver for the delta 44
Oh, does it come with ASIO drivers? I couldn’t find any info on that in my cursory search online. That’s good then.
There isn’t really much need to record at such a high fidelity (32 bits at 88.2 kHz), because 1) it is much more taxing on your computer and 2) people cannot really hear a difference beyond 24-bit 44.1 kHz audio. Some audiophiles will claim they can, but the improvement in quality is SO minimal, it doesn’t justifiably offset the cost of your computer’s resources. Remember that audio CDs only have a bit depth of 16, so if you are recording at 32, it’s overkill really.
Yeah the delta came with drivers and m-audio offers updates on there site. As for the sample rate and bit depth. I havent done much testing with sample rates but i have with bit rate depth. The use of a higher bit depth such as 32 gives you more headroom, and I can say, i have noticed a diffrence with my final mix when comparing 16 to 32. I recommend recording at 32bit depth using effects and plug ins and comparing it to a 16 bit depth recording.
But 32-bit is still probably overkill. I don’t even record at 32 bits and I have the resources to do so. The standard right now is 24/44.1. If you want to free up some of your resources, this is one way to do it. Also, you want to keep your listeners in mind. They probably won’t be listening to your music at the same resolution (If they were, the file size would be almost unmanageable), so you want your music to sound good at lower resolutions too. Anyway, just my suggestion! 
Yes, but the load on the file system is much larger per track as well. Typically you won’t be able to tell the difference between 24 and 32 bit files. Most studios I know use 24 bit. Mostly because that’s pretty much the bit depth of the all of their equipment. Doesn’t do you any good to run your files at 32 bit if the resolution of your audio input in 24 bits (or in some cases 20bit). The 44 has a 36 bit internal mixer, but I believe it is 20 bits per channel. In other words, the summed output of the internal mixer is still going to be at the lowest bit depth. You should put a bit meter on your input to see what I mean.
Anyhow, a core 2 duo is a fairly low end cpu. The high bit rate with the large bit depth is taxing your system.
Yes, but the load on the file system is much larger per track as well. Typically you won’t be able to tell the difference between 24 and 32 bit files. Most studios I know use 24 bit. Mostly because that’s pretty much the bit depth of the all of their equipment. Doesn’t do you any good to run your files at 32 bit if the resolution of your audio input in 24 bits (or in some cases 20bit). The 44 has a 36 bit internal mixer, but I believe it is 20 bits per channel. In other words, the summed output of the internal mixer is still going to be at the lowest bit depth. You should put a bit meter on your input to see what I mean.
Anyhow, a core 2 duo is a fairly low end cpu. The high bit rate with the large bit depth is taxing your system.[/quote]
Really??? I used a pentium 3 2.6gig, 200 gig hd, 512mb rambus with the delta recording at at 32 bit depth on cubase vst 32 for 10 years no problem. And like 15 to 20 audio tracks, 5 to 10 or more midi tracks loaded with plug ins. I just find it hard to beleive this system would have a hard time coping. The delta also boasts 32 bit depth recording??
I had a smiliar problem with my setup, and it turned out that it was a setting on the ASUS motherboard (something like power saving mode cant remember exactly) that was casuing it.
I spoke to the tech support for my sound card at the time and they really helped me out
No, I think the DACs are 20 bit. The internal summing engine is 36bit. But even the 36bit summing engine may be a “marketing” statement. Hard to tell.