Final Solution To Audio Drop Outs Crackles Etc Using Traktor S4

@ djnissen

what do you mean turn the most interdrivers and devices?

 

no no.. sorry about my spealing. i turned my internet devices off and it worked

 

Hey guys,

First time poster, long time customer.

Thought I would share some of my findings with the NI community since I too have had many issues with the S4 but now have managed to make it work flawlessly and perfectly.

In order to do this I took the advice of many people on various forums and have disabled as many services and devices as possible that are for all intents and purposes, unneccessary. As it turns out, the only device I needed to disable was my wireless device.

However, even after disabling the wireless, I was experiencing more than usual amount of cpu usage and it was not until I reverted to the ORIGINAL drivers that the S4 shipped with, that I now have minimal cpu usage.

Using the latest software with the original driver, I have been able to solve my problems with the S4.

I hope this helps some people until a new driver is released!

Ed

 

Nissen did you get yours to work, i am having the same problem

 

Hi,

I'm running S4 on an XP Pro sp3 laptop (Toshiba, C2D 2.0, 3gb DDR2) with all updates applied (1.0.1 and driver 2.9.4)

Everything seemed to be ok on first use then suddenly the track playing froze and the audio completely dropped. This lasted approx 1 second then the track started playing again. It then did the same a few minutes later. Without adjusting the settings I found that when a freeze occurred if I wiggled the volume slider for that channel then it un-froze straight away almost as if the input from the slider was enough to get it going again sooner than if I just left it to start playing again.

Has anyone experienced this? Any suggestions? I have done a couple of the optimization steps - switched power settings to never shut anything down, checked the graphics are just using the onboard Intel chip, and made sure the network card is switched off (switch on the front of the laptop) and apart from this random freeze, the audio has been clear with no crackles/pops. However this freeze is a total party killer and seeing as I am a pro I need the unit to work flawlessly.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Should also mention that I tested the software alone by disconnecting the controller and re-directing the audio to the onboard hi-def output so it came out of the laptop's speakers. I left the software playing mp3s with cruise control on so it played song after song, and after initial crackles had been removed (easily resolved by upping the latency slightly) the software has not frozen once and the audio has been clear for 3hrs.

 

Ticket#2011030110000855

waiting for the s4 beta driver

push it through Karlos

 

i calibrated everything swapped usb again & disabled wifi etc!

15 mins into my set the light comes on as if i was scratching and stoped my mix
this happened while i turned the fx dry wet to dry!
ticket no: 2011022010001731

I hope native instruments plan on refunding the 900 i paid for this bug ridden machine!
---
i think the problem is with the hardware.

the calibration of pitch faders sorted the erratic jumping about the place.

but while using the volume fader for deck a & again the fx bank 1 dry/wet the song freezes like i'm scratching.

my conclusion is if you put 2 much pressure (which is actually very little really) the deck thinks your scratching!

no drivers can fix that i'd say! help..

 

Hi Guys,

I just wanted to give you an update on my situation. I received the beta drivers last week and set the usb buffer to 2ms. This change and along with the recommended tweaks reduced my audio drop out to once every 1 hour. But I have yet to play around with the audio preference numbers so Im hopeful that it will remove the problems completely.

 

After trying everything, including the beta driver with settings as recommended by NI support, locking down the computer, disabling EVERY service that wasn't 100% necessary, disabling hardware that wasn't necessary, disabling internet and just about everything but the bare bones and still having troubles, I've given up and had to buy an Audio DJ 8. It's a bit of a shame that the way to solve a problem which is NI's fault is to give NI more money, but the drop outs and problems have just been too frustrating and severely inhibited use of the S4.

 

These xxeditedxx sent me a link that does not work:angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

 

Ed did this solve the issue of the dropout and crackling and skipping?

 

Easy on the cussing please.

What link? To the Beta Drivers?

 

hi, new user here,

i have a problem,

just baught a s4, and a new acer laptop that was well within the spec, as noted. all working fine but i get audio drop randomly (music stuttering for a second) , now id understand if it was while i was doing eratic things with the controller, but this is happening mid song, while im no-where near the mixer.......is this a soundcard problem? (i dont think it is) (cpu <50% all the time) its completly random. can anyone help?

as i shut it down last night the laptop said i needed to install 43 windows 7 updates, which i have done. (maybe that was the problem)

some one has also suggested re-calibrating the jog wheels, which ill do tonight.

has anyone got any idea what this is? HELP!

 

I have the same problem with my Dell XPS15.
This issue seems not to be caused by Traktor or the drivers but some kind of background process that is periodically activated and then consuming a certain amount of system performance. This might cause the USB audio dropouts.

I keep on searching the related process or application but I still could not identify it yet... :S

 

ive given my laptop to the nerds at work and he seems to think that its a problem regarding anti virus, and other silly little things and all the crap that a new laptop comes with. he has just got rid of all the crap off it (mcaffe, etc) and i will try again tonight,

i also did not update to version 1.0.1 until this morning, i am now upto date, maybe this is the problem,

will post on here in the morniing my findings.

 

I also did a complete cleanup, deleted everything and re-installed Windows 7 from scratch on my Dell XPS.
When I use my Traktor S4 I deactivate antivirus, ACPI Battery and WIFI and switch Win7 to high performance mode (in german it's "Höchstleistung", don't know the english expression for that).

But: Still periodical freezes.
Please post if you have fixed this issue on your machine!

Christian

 

I'm not trying to change the subject here as far as hardware is concerned, but I thought you guys should know that owners of the NI Kontrol 1 Audio Interface are experiencing the same exact issue of second long audio dropouts on occasion. As I read these posts, I couldn't help but wonder if the same interface is built into the S4.

 

mine is now fine,

complete cleanup, no antivirus, uninstall (and undirect uninstall) got the lad in work to wipe everything off like other hidden things acer put on a new laptop and it now works perfect! even under eratic conditions!

problem solved for me!