Mg Modular in Cakewalk Project 5 - crackles

[iain]

Hi,

I've posted about this in the Project 5 forums too, but since it involves specifically the Mg Modular V, I thought it was also worth asking here.

I am using the latest versions of P5 and also the Mg Modular V. My sound card is an M-Audio FireWire Solo.

If I use the M-audio asio drivers, I experience crackles when playing the Mg Modular - even with single note polyphony and low cpu levels in the P5 cpu monitor. Typically this happens when notes are released.

This does not happen with ANY other vsts.

The crackling ONLY happens when the Mg GUI is open (regardless of whether or not it is displayed or minimized, and regardless of whether it is being adjusted with the mouse).

The crackling ONLY happens with the M-Audio FW Solo drivers - not with ASIO4ALL or WDM.

With the M-Audio drivers, the crackling is diminished if you set a VERY large buffer such as 1024 samples+

None of this happens when running the Mg Modular outside of Project5 (e.g. as standalone or in Live 5), but all the same, none of this happens to other VSTs either.

Thanks for any ideas.

(edited to include new info)

[Vincent T]

Hello,
the crackles are maybe introduced (I experienced that a couple of time) by the (dirty) power supply of your PC through the FW cable and the bad filtering of it into your interface. Actually the problem is strongest with the MMV because of the heavy graphic interface, but should happen each time you graphical card is strongly sollicited (try for example to close and open windows, you should hear something).
Is your card powered via the FW cable? if so, try to use an external power supply..

[iain]

Hi Vincent

Thank you for the suggestion.

The card is indeed powered by the FireWire cable. I have tried using the external PSU but the problem still happens. I don't know whether the card is still drawing power from the FW cable: it may not switch power sources unless connected to a 4-pin FW socket. Either way I'm afraid that's not a solution.

The curious thing is that this is happening ONLY when using the MMV with the GUI open in Project5 - not as a standalone.

For example if I load the preset "WB_Pads_03", hold down a note and adjust the filter 1 cutoff knob, there will be bad crackles unless the buffer size is set to 1024 samples or more - far greater than I need for any other VST or indeed for the MMV outside of Project5.

[Vincent T]

...strange....

[iain]

Hello again,
I thought it might be helpful to other users to post the email I've recently written to Arturia about this:

Update: I have now discovered that the DirectX version (2.1, I think) of the MMV runs without sound problems in Project5. So I have rolled back from 2.2. Why on earth did you drop DirectX support without any announcement? :-( I could have saved hours of troubleshooting had I been able to use the DXi originally!

Incidentally, I was able to run the VST without problems in FL Studio as a VST/DX/Rewire plugin in Project5, but the MMV's menu bar is greyed out in FL Studio, so although I had sound, it was still no use.

I hope this info helps with updates, and please reinstate the DirectX version if no VST fix is forthcoming.

[dalekay]

Hello again,
I thought it might be helpful to other users to post the email I've recently written to Arturia about this:

Update: I have now discovered that the DirectX version (2.1, I think) of the MMV runs without sound problems in Project5. So I have rolled back from 2.2. Why on earth did you drop DirectX support without any announcement? :-( I could have saved hours of troubleshooting had I been able to use the DXi originally!

Incidentally, I was able to run the VST without problems in FL Studio as a VST/DX/Rewire plugin in Project5, but the MMV's menu bar is greyed out in FL Studio, so although I had sound, it was still no use.

I hope this info helps with updates, and please reinstate the DirectX version if no VST fix is forthcoming.

Just one other thing I noticed with my systems on the crackle/pop corn problem, also with other softsynths too, it was working memory .. that is memory that is free when you have your DAW software like Sonar up... stand alone, no problem ... Project 5 .. many problems ... my solution, was to use task manager, review what I needed to have loaded and unload/end task those items not needed. Once I went over a threshhold .. and that changes too pending on how complex the patch is, the crackle/pop corn problem gone...

dale

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[iain]

Thanks dalekay but it is literally as simple as the vst version always and inevitably causing the crackles in Project5. Even if I load ONLY the MMV vst, I get the crackling (and I have 2gb ram!).

If I switch to the dx version, there's no crackling.

Thanks for your suggestion though.  

[dalekay]

Thanks dalekay but it is literally as simple as the vst version always and inevitably causing the crackles in Project5. Even if I load ONLY the MMV vst, I get the crackling (and I have 2gb ram!).

If I switch to the dx version, there's no crackling.

Thanks for your suggestion though.  

Yep ...
remember, having lots of ram is one thing, it's the amount available that counts... check your task manager to see what is available when you have things loaded and then using the dx version ...
Vapor was the first softsynth that pointed out to me the working ram problem.

dale