Hi all,
Some of you who have been kind enough to follow the ‘failing sound card’ thread will have some idea what’s coming.
Basically, if I record a new audio track, say a vocal track, it also records all of the backing tracks already in the song. If I solo the new track, the effect stops, but then I can’t record a vocal track without being able to hear the backing. There are two other things I’ve noticed that may have some bearing on this; at least, they both began at the same time as this did, which was some three or four weeks ago now. Firstly, when recording the new audio track, as Cubase ‘paints in’ the track being recorded ( which, if you don’t supply any audio input, only consists of the re-recorded backing tracks ), there’s a noticeable visual delay before the waveform appears in the new track. Secondly ( since I’ve now ruled out both the Tascam interface and the USB lead that connects it to the computer ), as this seemed to me like it might be a settings issue, I checked the only place I could think of, which was the settings for the ASIO duplex driver; it’s showing a latency figure of just over 300ms, which, although I’m not 100% sure what it should be, does seem inordinately high. As a matter of interest, I’ve checked to make sure that the relevant drivers are up-to-date, which, if I’m to believe what the computer tells me, they are.
I’m using Cubase 5.1r2 with Windows 7 Ultimate. Any suggestions as to where to go next with this would be very much appreciated.
Yikes! 300ms is huge. Try running Latency Monitor and see what it says.
You’ve obviously got some connections crossed up because what you say is happening isn’t SOP. BTW, are you using the Tascam drivers or just generic driver?
Hi,
I have been following your threads but to be honest I have lost track by now. Would you be so kind as to give an overview of your current setup?
Computer, Grapic Card, RAM, OS, Driver, Audiointerface, 3rd Party software etc
When was the last fresh install of your system (Win7 and Cubase)?
Is your system online? Antivirus programs etc?
I know that you would rather repair than setting up everything again from scratch but maybe this is something that might be necessary. I believe your son gave you a hand back then, right? Maybe he could help you once again? I am sure you know your setup much better by now, so maybe it won’t take that long. Sometimes that’s the fastest way if not the only way. While you are at it you could buy some RAM to have at least 32GB instead of 8 or 16? Shouldn’t cost more than a couple of pounds if you buy some used RAM which will do just fine.
Yes, make sure you are using the proper driver for the interface.
US-122MKII | Bus-powered USB 2.0 audio interface | TASCAM | International Website
I don’t think you need to be told this, but … you are running Windows 7 with a crap ass interface (my first interface was the Tascam US-144 MKII - getting rid of it was the best decision I ever made).
Anyway … get with the times and update your system.
I don’t mean to sound harsh. However, sometimes reality hurts.
‘Got some connections crossed up’ sounds like it would be exactly right, and if it were not for the fact that none of the physical wiring has been touched or changed since the studio was built, that’s what I’d be inclined to suspect. As it is, I can only assume / guess that some of the virtual wiring has got crossed, although even then, I’m at a loss to understand why the problem sometimes manifests itself straight away and sometimes not until after a delay. As regards the drivers, I was pretty sure they were all up to date and the correct ones, but just to be absolutely sure I’ve downloaded the relevant software from the link provided below. It doesn’t appear to have made any difference at all.
The tech specs are: the Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 installation is 64-bit; the motherboard is an ASUSTek Sabertooth 55i ( LGA 1156 ); the CPU is an IntelCore i7 870 @ 2.93GHz; the RAM is 8.00Gb dual-channel DDRS @ 939MHz. If it matters, as far as I can determine, the computer was built in February 2011. The interface is a Tascam US122 mk.II; the original one has now been replaced with an identical but new model. I’m not sure specifically what third-party software you were thinking of … there are a ( fairly large ) number of plug-ins, all of which have been there since the word go; listing them all would be a lengthy business. For what it’s worth, they’ve never caused any problems prior to this. Both Windows 7 and Cubase were installed when my son built the computer in 2011; as far as I can recall, the installation of Windows is now as it was then, having never been reinstalled to the best of my memory. I think Cubase has probably been updated a couple of times since the first build; I don’t think 5.1r2 was the original version, but even that I can’t be 100% sure of. Any updates that have been done would have been at least ten years ago, probably longer.
Have I missed anything? … if so please let me know.
As far as the possibility of my son helping me out now, there isn’t one, as he now lives about 300 miles away, and we’re not entirely on the same page anyway. With regard to the RAM situation, I take your and others’ point about increasing the amount of RAM, and although I’ve no reason to think that has anything to do with the present issue ( inasmuch as the system has worked fine with the existing RAM up to now ), I will certainly look into increasing it when this problem does eventually get solved.
Scab-Pickens: as mentioned above, I’ve used the link you provided to ensure that the current drivers are in fact the correct and most up-to-date ones. As you say, I know that Windows 7 is archaic by today’s standards; to be fair to the Tascam, it’s performed quite adequately until very recently, which is something in the region of fourteen years of almost daily use, which I guess is not too bad for any kind of technology nowadays. At any rate, for better or worse, the old one has now been replaced by an identical new one, so it pretty much is what it is; if the new one performs for another 14 years I’ll be happy enough, particularly since that gives it an evens chance of outliving me.
Finally, as regards starting again from scratch, it’s not that I don’t understand the logic of the argument, but to reiterate what I’ve said elsewhere:
I don’t even know whether the most up-to-date version of Windows would run on my system as it stands, i.e. without upgrading any ( which would most likely mean all ) of the hardware. My experience is that it’s frequently the case - especially when the system is as old as this one is - that when you replace one piece of internal hardware, you end up having to replace all of it, certainly where critical infrastructure like the motherboard and CPU are concerned. That alone would probably run me not far short of four figures - admittedly I’m guessing, I can’t claim to have done the homework, but I doubt I’m out by much. To then upgrade all of the software including Windows and Cubase adds whatever it adds to the cost; again, I don’t claim to know precisely, but certainly well into the hundreds. On top of that, I’ve no idea whether or not the plugins I currently use would operate with the new kit; if not - and I suspect not - it means replacing those too. Even assuming I win the lottery and invest in all of the above, then there’s the learning curve that goes with all of that; and I’m not ashamed to say that there are still some aspects of my existing version of Cubase that I’m not fully conversant with, never mind going from a complete standing start with a whole new version.
Likewise, I do not mean to be blunt, but you can trust me when I say I know only too well that reality hurts. If I didn’t, the fact that I’ve spent the majority of every day for the last month trying to sort out this, my e-mails, and my landline phones, has been a pretty salutory lesson in that particular axiom. I do understand the logic of ‘getting with the times’; I really do … but for the reasons stated - which seem to me to be valid enough - a complete rebuild on the scale we’re talking about is the last of the last of all last resorts.
It’s pretty clear to me now that whatever is causing this anomaly, it’s so off-the-wall that finding a fix is looking to be impossible. One diagnostic which I must confess hadn’t occurred to me ( although it does seem fairly obvious with hindsight ) was to download Audacity, which of course is free, and see if the problem seemed to manifest itself in that. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t; which is to say, several passes of recording a new audio track alongside other existing ones just produces the clean flat-line that you’d expect with no audio input supplied. This being the case, as much as I’m reluctant to go the whole hog and update literally everything from the ground up, it is looking as though a fresh install of Cubase is going to be unavoidable. I’ve therefore started a new thread asking advice on this subject.
As I already wrote in one of your other topics I think you are using Cubase VST 5.1r2. that version had an ASIO (Full) Duplex Driver included. It worked on DirectX and 300ms latency sounds about right for that driver.
Since you mentioned that you run Cubase without a dongle you must be using an illegal copy of Cubase (even if you were unaware of it) and therefore cannot ask for support on this forum.
Please show proof of a valid license or obtain one before asking for technical support.
I will also report this and you to the moderators, so that they can decide what to do.
Very charitable of you.
I can’t claim to have read every post on every topic in this forum, but I’ve never yet seen anyone being told they must produce proof of a valid license, and there are some - over a course of several years - who have admitted outright that they were using illegal versions of Cubase. I’ve made it crystal clear that even if it is the case that I’ve been unknowingly using an illegal version of Cubase hitherto, it is my wish and my intention to use only a completely legit version from here on in. I’m not sure what else you expect from me, but please don’t feel compelled to answer that question.