Sound problems

Got maschine today. Installed it and no matter how much I play around with the audio preferences I can't manage to get any sound out, at best a distorted/damaged sound is being heard.

I'm using Acer 8980G laptop. Any suggestions?

 

asio4all.com

d/l the asio4all drivers and select those in your preferences.

 

Sweet. Thanks for that. Sorted out the latency issue.

However, long story short: not all of the 5.1 Surround speakers can be heard on my 8930G. As a result the sound is very weak. The laptops soundcard is Realtek I believe.

Any idea on how I can get the full use of my laptop's speakers?

 

Have a look at the options in the asio4all control panel

 

I've fiddled around with soundcard options in control panel and preferences in maschine several times. Not sure what to do next

 

Maschine & ASIO4all are not 5.1 but stereo (2.1).

Problem is/are asio4all & maschine are stereo so you will need to switch between the options in your soundcard to get 5.1 for your movies and etc.

 

The laptop usually takes the sound and plays it through all speakers. I've also tried switching to stereo and still the same problem :|

 

so the laptop is routed to your surround system? what input are you using on your system (Aux)?

 

No surround system. It's an Acer 8930G. It has a 5.1 setting on the laptop it self. Everything else plays properly other than Maschine. I've set it to stereo and tried it with headphones too, still the same problem.

 

What is the problem with headphones?

 

Your questions and information are confusing. You are asking how to get all the 5.1 surround speakers to be heard, but that you don't actually have a 5.1 system, and also ask how to make full use of your laptop speakers.

First, do you know a 5.1 system is? If not, it means 5 speakers (left, center, right, surround left, and surround right) and 1 subwoofer. So unless you actually have a system like this connected to your laptop, you need to completely avoid/disregard this setting. Even still, the only way to get true surround sound (which Maschine does not support) would be digitally through USB, optical/adat, or through 6 different idividual analog outputs. And I doubt your laptop has those last two. But this is a whole other subject.

So, stick to the stereo setting. If Maschine is not playing loud enough it's possible that your music just isn't loud. Maybe you just need to look into limiting and maximizing?

Don't mean to come across like a dick BTW!

It would really help if you just posted a quick youtube vid explaining your exact problem!

 

The sound is weak. Unlike sound from other music programs or mp3/YouTube etc being played.

The inbuilt laptop speakers have all you mentioned; left, right, rear, front and subwoofer. I repeat: inbuilt, NOT an external 5.1 system. Inbuilt.

No it's not the volume. The sound is weak. (Unless I need something extra to make maschine sound normal? Which I doubt).

Also everything else (other pro music program's, mp3, YouTube, etc) plays normally, ie all speakers being used, as opposed to only the rear one in case of maschine. Make sense?

No probs, thanks for your reply

 

Hmmm. You might want to go back to your WDM drivers again then. Maybe the bitrate selected in Maschine doesn't match the bitrate selected in your Windows settings.

Not sure how well asio4all is setup for surround sound to be honest. Not sure how rewarding using Maschine with laptop speakers would be either, but getting headphones loud enough is a must.

 

Gotcha, then it has to be a matter of ASIO4ALL not supporting 6 channels of audio. Try this, open up Maschine and make sure it's set to the ASIO4ALL driver. Then in your bottom right of the taskbar, click the little ASIO4ALL icon to bring up it's preferences. Press the little wrench on the bottom right of the window to unlock the settings. Click the little plus sign that pops up at the top left next to the "Realtek..." and see if it let's you activate the other speakers. If not, then it's just likely ASIO4ALL doesn't support more than 2 channels! Theoretically, if ASIO4ALL is letting you select the same exact sound driver as every other application is using, then it should play back audio through all the speakers just the same.

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Check this thread I found. May be of some use to you: http://mtippach.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=working&action=display&thread=2050

 

WMD drivers being Realteck right? The drivers supplied with my laptop?
They're both set to 48000.

To hear it normally over the laptop is enough for me.

The list shows:
- Realtek HD Audio output
- Realtek HD line input
- Realtek HD Audio Mic input
- Realtek HDA SPDIF Out
- Realtek HD Audio Sterio Input

I agree, no reason why it shouldn't play properly. It's only Maschine that tends to have a problem with my system.

Thanks for the link. Maybe I didn't understand it properly but all it says is to download the latest version of your driver no?

Edit: just reinstalled Realtek. Maschine doesn't even recognise it lol.
Guys does Maschine have a special requirement I'm not aware of? I might buy another laptop (maybe Apple) what should I look out for?

For such a simple machine so much complexity to just make it work :/

 

Go into your control panel on the Windows start menu and choose sound. This should give you access to your soundcards output options. There may be a way to open your realtec panel and configure there as well. You want to force it to stereo.

Really though, Maschine is meant to be used with a professional audio soundcard. Asio4all is just a workaround solution.

 

On that link, they are telling you to download the driver from the actual manufacturer (in your case, Asus). You computer comes with a DVD that should have all the drivers on it, which come from Microsoft. You don't want to use the MS supplied driver. You want to go to Asus.com and see if you can get the sound driver directly from them.

As for Maschine, you don't want to select your Realtek driver within Maschine. You wan't to select ASIO as the driver and ASIO4ALL as the device. However, within the ASIO4ALL options, you want the Realtek HD Audio Output driver selected. So the ASIO4ALL driver is basically like a bridge between Maschine and the actual Realtek driver. Maschine is using the Realtek driver, but just through ASIO4ALL. So ASIO4ALL is what Maschine has to be set to. The same goes for most any other DAW you use without an interface (Reason, Pro Tools, etc).

 

I've done this, been messing around with the settings for days now. Seems I'm stuck.
None of my other pro gear have problems working with my laptop.

The Acer driver for audio is the what I had installed to begin with. I installed it again however, and still the same problem.

Any other suggestions other than having to buy a new laptop/computer so that maschine is able to work? Is there any other abnormalities about Maschine I should consider before purchasing a laptop/computer?

 

they tend to put pretty crappy audio cards into laptops, even nowadays, so it could be hard to diagnose the specific problem maschine has with your audio and asio4all or equivalent. You don't have to buy a new computer tho - it is much more common in music production to use an external soundcard, often called an audio interface. these range from $100 to $1000+ depending on what you require from the card.

ASIO4all attempts to convert your sound card's protocol into ASIO (best protocol for pro audio apps) in a way that your laptop understands. But, like most catch-all solutions, it isn't great and doesn't always work, and it was never made with your laptop in mind. If you get a professional audio interface with good drivers, they will be made with that interface hardware in mind - so your computer can bypass normal audio processing and just let the soundcard do it - reducing latency and increasing fidelity.


If it were me, i'd probably try to trouble shoot if it is definitely the inbuilt sound that is crapping out. there are lots of troubleshooting things you can do.

off the top of my head:
- do you have an anti-virus app installed? they can impede audio processing - try turning off
- do you have lots of crap installed on your cpu - do you have lots of stuff in the task manager running in the background - maybe there is some conflicting application
- check for malicious/unneeded apps in your msconfig startup list
- i notice my mac doesn't like it when i have maschine and certain other audio apps open, such as interwebs, sometimes itunes. is anything else trying to push audio?
- having apps like google chrome open with multiple tabs can cause dropouts
- are you running stoooopid windows services that you don't need?
(start > RMB + computer > manage > services and applications > services > check for services running that you don't use
for example, in the past i've had audio dropouts from remote access, windows media stuff, voip stuff)
- have you tried latest drivers on your audio card, or earlier drivers?
- does maschine work ok as vst as opposed to stand alone
- what about vsts inside maschine?
- are you able to record without dropouts?
- can you borrow or test an audio interface to make sure that fixes the problem?
- go to your windows volume mixer while you have different apps open (pro audio, maschine, itunes) and see what their levels are doing and if maschine is outputting less volume than it should
- are you in 32-bit maschine or 64-bit? are you running your os at 64-bit?

i'd also dig deep into the realtek audio drivers config panels. try to minimize any of the typical 'cool ZOMG features' it has like, turn off 5.1, turn off any 3d processing it does, any surround fx, any balancing/eqing, any voice control or normalizing. its like when you get a tv nowadays, they add all these litebriteTM and smellovision and voice boostinator features that degrade the quality and do horrors to performance. first thing you do is turn all that crap off!

 

Just buy an interface and a pair of decent monitors. Ditch that 5.1 ****. That's most likely causing your issues.