[Paul[_13_]]

I decided to test the digital recording waters very cheaply at first,
and
got Yamaha's AudioGram6, which comes with CuBase AI4.

Actually, the 16-bit sound quality is pretty damn good! Just
be careful not to clip. And this actually does many things that
i will want. But I'm sure the DigiDesign 003 will REALLY kick ass.

At any rate, there is a type of digital "skipping" that
happens
pretty often, which really makes the song unbearable to listen to.
I have to close the program and re-boot to get rid of it, although
sometimes
it goes away by itself. It shouldn't be my computer speed, as i have
Pentium 4 with 3GHz, and 2 Gigs of RAM. I'm only using about 5 tracks
to test this software out.

Does ProTools skip this badly, ever?

[Laurence Payne[_2_]]

On Tue, 5 May 2009 01:26:57 -0700 (PDT), Paul
wrote:

I decided to test the digital recording waters very cheaply at first,
and
got Yamaha's AudioGram6, which comes with CuBase AI4.

Actually, the 16-bit sound quality is pretty damn good! Just
be careful not to clip. And this actually does many things that
i will want. But I'm sure the DigiDesign 003 will REALLY kick ass.

At any rate, there is a type of digital "skipping" that
happens
pretty often, which really makes the song unbearable to listen to.
I have to close the program and re-boot to get rid of it, although
sometimes
it goes away by itself. It shouldn't be my computer speed, as i have
Pentium 4 with 3GHz, and 2 Gigs of RAM. I'm only using about 5 tracks
to test this software out.

Does ProTools skip this badly, ever?


The Yamaha has some useful mixing facilities, but its actual
computer/audio interface is pretty basic, as is revealed by it's USB
1.1 compatibility.

This said, it ought to get a stream of audio in and out of your
computer just as efficiently as you would from the computer's onboard
Line In and Line Out. Whatever is getting in its way is, I'm afraid,
quite likely to also get in the way of an 003. Your choice of DAW
software will make little difference.

Tell us about the computer, and what you have running on it. (Hint -
the answer to the second question should be "nothing except Cubase
while I'm recording.) Is it a laptop? They can work OK as a DAW, but
have their own problems.

Do look hard at the alternatives to ProTools and the 003. You don't
HAVE to be locked into a restricted choice of hardware.

[Paul[_13_]]

On May 5, 3:08*am, Laurence Payne wrote:
On Tue, 5 May 2009 01:26:57 -0700 (PDT), Paul
wrote:



I decided to test the digital recording waters very cheaply at first,
and
got Yamaha's AudioGram6, which comes with CuBase AI4.

* * *Actually, the 16-bit sound quality is pretty damn good! * Just
be careful not to clip. *And this actually does many things that
i will want. *But I'm sure the DigiDesign 003 will REALLY kick ass.

* * * At any rate, there is a type of digital "skipping" that
happens
pretty often, which really makes the song unbearable to listen to.
I have to close the program and re-boot to get rid of it, although
sometimes
it goes away by itself. *It shouldn't be my computer speed, as i have
Pentium 4 with 3GHz, and 2 Gigs of RAM. *I'm only using about 5 tracks
to test this software out.

* * * Does ProTools skip this badly, ever?

The Yamaha has some useful mixing facilities, but its actual
computer/audio interface is pretty basic, as is revealed by it's USB
1.1 compatibility.

This said, it ought to get a stream of audio in and out of your
computer just as efficiently as you would from the computer's onboard
Line In and Line Out. * Whatever is getting in its way is, I'm afraid,
quite likely to also get in the way of an 003. *Your choice of DAW
software will make little difference.

Tell us about the computer, and what you have running on it. (Hint -
the answer to the second question should be "nothing except Cubase
while I'm recording.) *Is it a laptop? *They can work OK as a DAW, but
have their own problems.


Yes, I'm aware that one should use a separate computer
for email, etc.....but it's not like i'm surfing the web at the same
time.

Maybe i need to turn off my Anti-virus software?

It's not a laptop. Compaq d530.

What's wrong with using laptops as a DAW? I was planning
on getting one for mobile recording.....
Do look hard at the alternatives to ProTools and the 003. *You don't
HAVE to be locked into a restricted choice of hardware.

[Mike Rivers]

Paul wrote:

Maybe i need to turn off my Anti-virus software?

Definitely. That's #1 or close to it on any "tweaking your computer for
audio applications" list.

What's wrong with using laptops as a DAW? I was planning
on getting one for mobile recording.....

Mostly the lack of flexibility and expandability. You're limited to
audio I/O hardware
that connects via an external port. USB works reliably though there's a
fairly small
number of USB2 audio devices as of yet, which limits your I/O count.
Firewire offers
plenty of I/O channels but can be cranky about working reliably. If it
doesn't like the
Firewire port on your computer, your only option is a CardBus or
ExpressCard
adapter, and which of those you can use depends on what the computer is
equipped
with. And you may have to try more than one before you find one that's
compatible
with your audio hardware.

Then there's the fairly small screen. Sure, you can use an external
monitor, and
you'll almost certainly want to use an external mouse. And you'll
probably want to
use an external disk drive. So it's growing.


--
If you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring and reach
me he
double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo -- I'm really Mike Rivers
)

[Paul[_13_]]

On May 5, 12:31*pm, Mike Rivers wrote:
Paul wrote:
* * * *Maybe i need to turn off my Anti-virus software?

Definitely. That's #1 or close to it on any "tweaking your computer for
audio applications" list.

* * * *What's wrong with using laptops as a DAW? *I was planning
on getting one for mobile recording.....

Mostly the lack of flexibility and expandability. You're limited to
audio I/O hardware
that connects via an external port. USB works reliably though there's a
fairly small
number of USB2 audio devices as of yet, which limits your I/O count.
Firewire offers
plenty of I/O channels but can be cranky about working reliably. If it
doesn't like the
Firewire port on your computer, your only option is a CardBus or
ExpressCard
adapter, and which of those you can use depends on what the computer is
equipped
with. And you may have to try more than one before you find one that's
compatible
with your audio hardware.

Then there's the fairly small screen. Sure, you can use an external
monitor, and
you'll almost certainly want to use an external mouse. And you'll
probably want to
use an external disk drive. So it's growing.


Ok, thanks for the info. Looks like it might not
be as portable as i would have hoped.

The other thing is that the laptops i saw at OfficeDepot
didn't have 1394 Firewire ports on them. I would think
i should get one with the port built-in, if i went the Protools
route.

[Geoff]

Mike Rivers wrote:
Paul wrote:

At any rate, there is a type of digital "skipping" that
happens
pretty often, which really makes the song unbearable to listen to.
I have to close the program and re-boot to get rid of it, although
sometimes
it goes away by itself.

This isn't a Yamaha or Cubase problem, it's a computer problem, and
most digital audio beginners have to work through it. There are
several "tweaks" to optimize your computer for audio. You'll find a
lot of them on the 'Net, though
many are out of date as operating systems change and computers become
more powerful, but there are a few basics that seem to still work.

One is to get your computer un-networked.

I have a 'medium spec' PC that is networked, un-tweaked, AVed, and
interneted, and suffers none of these problems.

I'm sure there is something about the setup that is a limiting factor. May
be the USB1.1 interface , or many other things. Moving to a 'closed shop'
audio subsystem is not likely to fix the problem.

Maybe try a Cubase forum, giving them ALL the relevant specs; computer type,
interface type, OS, SP level, other installed hardware and software, IRQ
allocation, etc. But better 'there' as opposed to here.

geoff

[yrret]

For myself whenever I've experienced 'skipping' its been an issue with the
hard drive. It was more so with the computers of a few years ago then
today. If you have a laptop its possible it came with a 5400 hard drive to
help save battery power.

This article covers most system advice I've ever heard:
http://www.audioforums.com/windows-xp-optimization.php

Its been a few years since I've had any need to touch my virtual mem
settings or disable write caching. May not be relevent anymore.

"Paul" wrote in message
...
I decided to test the digital recording waters very cheaply at first,
and
got Yamaha's AudioGram6, which comes with CuBase AI4.

Actually, the 16-bit sound quality is pretty damn good! Just
be careful not to clip. And this actually does many things that
i will want. But I'm sure the DigiDesign 003 will REALLY kick ass.

At any rate, there is a type of digital "skipping" that
happens
pretty often, which really makes the song unbearable to listen to.
I have to close the program and re-boot to get rid of it, although
sometimes
it goes away by itself. It shouldn't be my computer speed, as i have
Pentium 4 with 3GHz, and 2 Gigs of RAM. I'm only using about 5 tracks
to test this software out.

Does ProTools skip this badly, ever?

[Mike Rivers]

Paul wrote:

The other thing is that the laptops i saw at OfficeDepot
didn't have 1394 Firewire ports on them. I would think
i should get one with the port built-in, if i went the Protools
route.

That can be convenient if it works, but useless if it doesn't. If you
get one
without a Firewire port, that means you can try different plug-in cards
until you find one that does work. But the problem (if I didn't say it
before)
is that a new laptop with only an ExpressCard slot will not give you as
many choices as one with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot.

If you really want ProTools and really want a laptop, it's probably best
to stick with a Mac. And now, not all Macs have Firewire, so you need
to get one of the higher level ones, which isn't a bad idea, but more
expensive than an Office Depot Windows computer (which will almost
certainly have Vista installed - another possible bugaboo).



--
If you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring and reach
me he
double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo -- I'm really Mike Rivers
)