AMD Duron and high end sound cards

[manser]

Has anyone ever experienced problems with Duron chips and high end sound cards?

I'm getting desperate to lay down some tracks but I keep getting this wierd sputtering sound. The first take is usually O.K but even if undo the take and record a new one (same settings) I get the sputtering on playback. I don't hear it in the cans while recording, only on playback. I've tried every tweak I know in cakewalk but it just won't go away. I don't see any clipping happening anywhere. I tried running out from the delta 44 to both a home stereo and my pa system as a monitor, both with headphones and speakers, and running inputs both through my mixer and direct inject to the delta, but it's the same problem.

I'm running a AMD Duron 600, 500m ram, cakewalk pro 9 and Delta 44. My manual says that my main board will take up to a Athlon 1000hz chip. Do you think this will do the job?

Please help me. There's nothing more frustrating than a studio that don't work right.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

[TeleCarlos]

Warning: I am not an expert.

Your problem seems a familiar one.

What motherboard do you have?
Via chipset in it right....Get another one!
Something that says nForce or Sis in it.

What OS? Did you do the tweaks for it?

Did it help?

No. Then someone with actual knowledge read your post.

(I have a Delta66 and used to have an Asusk7v myself, still have the Delta, its in a box somewhere).

[Josan]

I run a Duron but not cakewalk. I have always had an infinite number of problems with cakewalk and so called stutter. If you can run a simple test, try samplitude or Vegas
demos (depending on your need for midi) Do you get the same results? The engineering on these two programs far exceed cakewalk and make best use of the cpu. ALso make abslolutely sure the dma is working on your hard drive, here is the number one problem on playback and recording. There are numerous posts regarding this tweak but be absolutely sure.

[Pretty Pretty Cyanide]

Duron's are the Via's of AMD. Both Duron and Celeron flavors run their L2 Cache at half a normal processor rate, which is great and cheap for regular office applications, but have noticable draws on intensive operations like video\music\photo applications.

There might be fixes. And depending on the setup might suffice. But processors like the Tulatins and the Northwoods have shown how important the L2 cache is when recording and mixing.

This is probably why your Cakewalk stutters. Cakewalk is the most resource intensive of the Big 3. And bites into your RAM and Virtual Memory quicker than Cubase or Logic.

Get the Athlon 1000mhz chip. Non Duron and make sure the L2 Cache is at least 256 or 512 and your set.

Or you can get another mobo and processor. Mobo's are usually less expensive than Processors.

[manser]

Well, I took a friends advice and stole my kid's Pentium 2 in a Compaq system. I swapped the hard drive and RAM and installed the Delta in the P2 and guess what? Problem solved! I conclude that Duron is not suited for high end audio stuff. Now if I can get a P3 into this thing . . . hmmmm. . . Sigh, theres no end to this is there?

[knowdoubt]

Sorry, but that is the wrong conclusion. The Duron had nothing to do with your problem. The problem was likely in your MOBO/chipset combination (as TeleCarlos suggested) or some other system tweak. A 600 Mhz Duron is quite capable of handling a simple average DAW project. Thousands of people use them successfully for DAW.

Doesn't matter though as you would likely need a new MOBO anyway, which you now have with the P2 system. Check with Compaq to see if there's a bios upgrade to allow it to take a P3.

[Lee David]

Yep, my Duron 1000 DAW runs absolutely first class with VST. It's not the fault of the Duron (and I run an XP1700 on my other machine, so I'm not biased towards Durons!)

[Pretty Pretty Cyanide]

You're right, I forgot about fruity loops.

THere is no way a Pentium fit into your AMD mobo? are you sure you didn't change the whole motherboard? maybe just don't want to admit it online ja :P?

[kerin]

i use my computer mainly music.
i have a 700 duron and an audigy digital entertainment ( audigy gamer )
i have not encounter any isue on bad sound reproduction.
however i do have short lags in music while running lots of other operations and programs at the same time.
in your case, maybe hardware incompatibility is the dominant factor. i doubt the your Duron processor is giving the problem. ever tought that it may be your motherboard?

[almound]

All of this is good advice as far as I can see. The concensus of DAW builders seems to be to avoid VIA chipsets. You're safe with an Intel-based chipset. (The Duron chip isn't a problem.) The nForce2 chipset is Intel-based and is used with Durons and AMD. A good board for that is the ASUS A7N8X. You can get that board at $135 bucks all day long.

Supposedly one can get by using a VIA chipset, just to be fair. The advice given by Midiman (a reputable maker of hi-fidelity audio soundcards) is as follows:


"Many users of Athlon based systems have complained of audio stutter in use with Delta series sound cards. The following is instructions from M-Audio to correct this problem.

Step 1 : Enable USB in your motherboard's system BIOS.

Step 2 : Download and install the latest drivers that corresponds with your system board from the VIA site:
<A HREF="http://www.via.com.tw/drivers/index.htm"" TARGET=_blank>http://www.via.com.tw/drivers/index.htm"</A>


But I think that for the hassle, it might just be better to go with an Intel-based board. You can use your Duron in it.

[Pretty Pretty Cyanide]

Originally posted by almound:
All of this is good advice as far as I can see. The concensus of DAW builders seems to be to avoid VIA chipsets. You're safe with an Intel-based chipset. (The Duron chip isn't a problem.) The nForce2 chipset is Intel-based and is used with Durons and AMD. A good board for that is the ASUS A7N8X. You can get that board at $135 bucks all day long.

Supposedly one can get by using a VIA chipset, just to be fair. The advice given by Midiman (a reputable maker of hi-fidelity audio soundcards) is as follows:


"Many users of Athlon based systems have complained of audio stutter in use with Delta series sound cards. The following is instructions from M-Audio to correct this problem.

Step 1 : Enable USB in your motherboard's system BIOS.

Step 2 : Download and install the latest drivers that corresponds with your system board from the VIA site:
<A HREF="http://www.via.com.tw/drivers/index.htm"" TARGET=_blank>http://www.via.com.tw/drivers/index.htm"</A>


But I think that for the hassle, it might just be better to go with an Intel-based board. You can use your Duron in it.

nVidia is not an intel based chipset. SNAP out of it!

In the other post you left out the fact the chipsets involved with your 2step solution is Via. You just put Intet. At least this post clears where you are coming from.

[Pretty Pretty Cyanide]

Originally posted by manser:
Well, I took a friends advice and stole my kid's Pentium 2 in a Compaq system. I swapped the hard drive and RAM and installed the Delta in the P2 and guess what? Problem solved! I conclude that Duron is not suited for high end audio stuff. Now if I can get a P3 into this thing . . . hmmmm. . . Sigh, theres no end to this is there?

What type of mobo? Why don't you locate your mobo online and download the pdf file and see what your mobo is capable of. (compaq loves to go PDF for their mobos, I configured 50 of those straight in a month at one time)

[almound]

Ah, well, I guess I presumed too much. I was basing my description as "Intel-based" on this passage in a good description of chipset architecture put out by Tom's Hardware Website:

"If you were hoping for a chipset for the Pentium 4 - sorry! nForce2, just like the nForce, is only for AMD Athlon XPs. It can only be speculated as to exactly why NVIDIA took this stance, but indirectly, NVIDIA also offers a technically similar chip for the Pentium III. The Xbox contains such a variant of the nForce technology. Because of this, rumors have it that NVIDIA might soon introduce an appropriate chipset for the Pentium 4. "
http://www17.tomshardware.com/mainboard/20020716/nforce2-02.html

And technically, you are correct. Although the nForce2 and Intel chipset are "technically similar," I guess it is misleading to take the shortcut and say that nForce2 is Intel-based. Rather than be long-winded, I got lazy.

Happily, the bottom line is that nForce2 works well with DAW!


Originally posted by Pretty Pretty Cyanide:
nVidia is not an intel based chipset. SNAP out of it!

In the other post you left out the fact the chipsets involved with your 2step solution is Via. You just put Intet. At least this post clears where you are coming from.