Maschine *still* Glitchy & Laggy w Traktor Audio 2

Ok, I'm getting a little frustrated here.

I've set up my Maschine via my laptop. I couldn't get ASIO4ALL working well enough with the internal sound card. Glitchy sounds, distortion, delay. I'm sure this problem sounds familiar enough.

So I thought to myself I would spring for the Traktor Audio 2. Get an external audio interface, made by NI themselves. Cheap, and would finally get me going on producing, instead of troubleshooting.

Apparently I was wrong.

The audio interface works, but Maschine is still glitchy, distorted and slow. I've tried increasing/decreasing the buffer from 256 all the way to 1024. I've tried that using ASIO as well as DirectSound. None of it solves the problem.

I don't have the best laptop in the world, but it's not junk either.

I just don't know what to do @ this point. I just want to produce some tunes, but I'm always banging my head against the wall trying to get the sound to work properly in the first place.

If you guys could help me out, you'd really make my day, if not my year at this point. Here are my system specs. If you need more info, let me know.

Maschine 1.7.2 (32bit)
Traktor Audio 2

Operating System
MS Windows XP Professional 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo P9700 @ 2.80GHz
Penryn 45nm Technology
RAM
4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 398MHz (6-6-6-18)
Motherboard
Dell Inc. 0X564R (Microprocessor)
Audio
IDT High Definition Audio CODEC

 

Hi,


I'll give it a shot and will try to help you.


I'll start with some info and then i'll give tips for troubleshooting.


Maschine is a hungry beast. Especially since it isn't multi core, so, it will put all the load on only one core while the other one gets a sun tan...
or whatever it is a processor does when it's idle.
Can happen really quick if you host vst's in maschine or use FX or included instruments ( the instruments are not samples , they are like synths and need more cpu )

Pc laptops , they are a potential bag of horrors.
Although, if you can run other software like ableton or traktor smoothly with lots of things going on, it probably isn't related to the laptop.

If it is your laptop,
the possible culprits are :

1. bad usb or firewire controllers inside your laptop. Also, try connecting your audio interface on another port and never on a usbhub if possible.

2. Crappy wifi drivers , turn wifi off, if possible.

3. Aggressive powermanagement that throttles your cpu and introduces latency
( google for solutions )

4. Anything that can introduce latency : antivirus, background programs, etc...
Turn that **** off ( antivirus ) and kill background programs with the task manager if necessary. But be sure to turn your antivirus on when you stop doing music and go surf on the net. Some background programs are necessary to access certain functions of your laptop ( special keys for example , so the rule is : google it before you kill it )

Latency spikes will introduce glitches and sounddrops. Google for DPC latency and when you find and run that software after download and install, check for the red spikes in the DPC graph.
A big spike basically means your processor is busy with something else for too long and he can not process the audio in time, so you get dropouts and sometimes distortion.

High DPC latency is a big no-no when you work with audio. This is a major problem with a lot of PC laptops. They are not optimised for realtime audio.

Maybe even bad graphic drivers could be the culprit if they introduce latency.
It's not always easy to find the source.

So, be sure to use the latest drivers, especially for the audio interface. Go download them if you haven't already. Those that you get with the install cd are most of the time already outdated. Do the same for other drivers and keep trying between everything you install ( you my need to reboot for changes to take effect ).

other solutions for the desperate :

- Buy a mac, haha , i'm kidding

( i prefer pc, more bang for the buck, but mac laptops are a safe bet for audio work... no wonder almost every musician or dj goes on stage with an apple, you can avoid lots of trouble with them )

- Buy a pc laptop optimised for audio like the ones from raincomputers or other manufacturers specialised in audio pc's

It's like buying a mac, but it's a pc and well...
it just works !


Hope that will help you, it sure took me a long time to write.


Cheers

 

@lucaluca

Unfortunately for some of us buying a Mac won't solve the problem(s) Well, at least in my case. Eight years ago I was introduced to Mac workwise (as a designer) and obviously I fell in love with the fruit. As a fanatic bedroom dj I started spinning the 1200's 17 years ago. Well enough with the nostalgia

I bought the Audio8dj with tsp 1.xx Everything went like a sharm. Untill tsp 2.xx I got audio glitches, cpu's hanging and what so evers since. Buying the Maschine made thing even worse as expected. (but I just wanted the Maschine for obvious reasons)

And all of the above happened on an early 2009 MBP with Leopard installed. Fortunately the Mac died so I had a reason to buy me an I7 with 8Gb, Lion, etcetera.

Guess what, same story allover again. I can't use the Maschine with TSP in live settings due too constant glitches, CPU hangs and audio pops. TSP 2.1.2. as standalone isn't reliable either. I tried everything (well within my opinion) and still facing the same problems.

I really considering using my old 1200's for my next gig or degrading to TSP 1.xx....unless someone or some company (no names required) comes up with a real sollution!

So maybe It's a thought trying out your setup (especially hardware) before you order/purchase it!

 

@OP - it really sounds like you may be having DPC latency issues. Check out the PC tweak guide in the knowledge base
@studio5301 - not sure what your problem is, as I've got the same setup but with 4GB Ram, running with no issues