Topic by NathanShirley

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  • NathanShirley
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Topic: Internal Sound Card Issues

I've run into a strange problem with a new sound card and wondered if any of you might have an idea what's going on:

This is an internal card with ASIO and I'm getting little pops/clicks in the sound (not when playing back a wav file or listening to music, just with ASIO/MIDI). Pianoteq reported that this was due to CPU spikes. I then set windows to run the CPU at 100% both minimum and maximum, and that made a big difference, but there were still quite a few pops. So I reduced my sample rate from 48kHz to 44 and increased my buffer from 256 to 320 (7.3 ms, which is decent, but I prefer less latency). This nearly eliminates the pops/clicks, but if I really push it hard I still might get one every now and then. Max polyphony is set at 48 because I really don't want to lower it, though I assume if I do I can eliminate the few pops/clicks left. Oh and I do have the latest driver for this sound card (Win 10 compatible).

There are a couple things that don't make sense to me here:

1) With Asio4All I never had these issues and could set performance much higher, even with an old Windows tablet that's much less powerful (also running Asio4All). My main computer is an i7 (3.4 Ghz base). So I'm sure there's something odd going on with this sound card.

2) Pianoteq shows CPU usage in the teens on average (fairly fast playing), and jumps to about 25% max. However task manager only shows CPU usage in the 5% range, maxing out around 9%. I've always noticed that difference though, so nothing new there.

I got this internal sound card because I read somewhere that PCIe cards had lower latency than USB devices (I've had slight latency issues with two different USB devices, not bad, but not as fast as Asio4All). Also I was tired of Asio4All taking over my audio devices and wanted an internal card so I wouldn't have to shutdown Pianoteq in order to use audio in another program. And I prefer less clutter of not having to bother with an external sound card on a daily basis.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

~ Nathan Shirley

https://www.NathanShirley.com

NathanShirley's Website

Reply by Platypus

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  • Registered: 05-02-2019
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Re: Internal Sound Card Issues

Have you made any adjustments in System Performance to whether CPU priority is for Programs or Background Services? Advice is often given to select Background Services on the basis that ASIO is run as a service. If you have done this, you could try setting it back to favor Programs, likewise if you have not changed the setting, you could try changing to prioritize Services. Whether making this adjustment actually has benefit or detriment depends on all the unpredictable interactions within a system. But observing if there is any difference in behavior can be a useful diagnostic, and occasionally solves such a problem.

What actual card is it? Sometimes a card that you'd expect to be good has poor drivers. Sometimes ASIO4ALL does a better job!

Do you still have the onboard audio enabled? You could also try disabling this in the UEFI/BIOS setup and see if that alters the behavior.

Last edited by Platypus (05-02-2019 11:25)

Reply by Luc Henrion

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  • Luc Henrion
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Re: Internal Sound Card Issues

Try this software (free), it's very informative.
https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
Something you could also try is to disable your WLAN when you use PTQ. Common issue with many DAW.
Check also your graphic card, it all might interfere...

Luc Henrion's Website

Reply by NathanShirley

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Re: Internal Sound Card Issues

Thanks very much to both of you.

I hadn't thought of trying it before, but setting CPU priority to background services actually seems to have completely fixed it. suppose it kind of makes sense, but it's crazy to me that it would have made such a difference... and Asio4All never needed it set that way. I do still need to keep CPU min./max. at 100% or else I have terrible pops/clicks, again strange that Asio4All never required that.

I had originally purchased a pretty good looking SoundBlaster, but it was terrible. Noise not just using ASIO, but nearly everything. That seemed to be an electrical shielding issue, or maybe a bad driver, or both (they claimed it was good for Win 10, but the driver was many years old). I do have a pretty decent graphics card. I sent that back and got a lower end ASUS  Xonar SE (same brand as my motherboard). They claimed good shielding, and it seems to use the latest ASIO (2.2) with a 2018 driver... newer than anything else I could find.

I'm surprised to find it can't run ASIO and audio in another application at the same time however... so I'm likely to just go back to Asio4All until I find something better. Is there a standard term for a sound card that supports audio in multiple applications at once (including ASIO)?

I wonder if anyone has experience with the latest internal sound card, by EVGA? I like that it has RCA outs.

~ Nathan Shirley

https://www.NathanShirley.com

NathanShirley's Website