Home Computer Audio Asylum

Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

RE: different from the USB errors Fred is seeing

"As some can see, I have been trying to get Theyscon and Rigisystems license holders to prod them and explain what exactly these errors mean by way of their software."

I applaud your efforts, but I wouldn't count on success, given that the software is proprietary. (Some of the code may also be from Microsoft, also proprietary.)

Too bad the software isn't open source. In the absence of suitable documentation one is limited to conducting controlled experiments. I have done this for the Rigisystems and deduced that some of the counters incremented on buffer underruns. I did this by reducing the buffer sizes while deliberately increasing the latency of my O/S. This made it possible to cause the errors to occur on demand. My counters normally sit on 0. Like you I subscribe to using as small buffers as possible. I did not find memory utilization to be much of a problem in a 64 bit OS with 12 GB of RAM, but it was a real problem with the original 4 GB hardware configuration as shipped by Acer. There are various system processes that increase latency. These can be killed, or the system can be tweaked so that they run in the middle of the night while I am sleeping. My problem is that the 2nd generation core i5 processor is marginally fast enough to do much DSP, such as converting from PCM to DSD or performing room correction at DSD64 speed. If I try to do this DSP at high sampling rates then I have to cease all non-audio applications or else I hear glitches and see some of the USBPAL counters increment, e.g. the Streaming Error Counter and the ASIO error count. (I don't have a dedicated audio computer because I don't have a dedicated listening room.)

If a glitch is in the file it will be heard each time the file is played. Usually a glitch will also show up visually if an audio editor is applied to the file. I have encountered files that others have digitized that have glitches caused by buffer underruns in the analog to digital conversion process. I have also encountered files with glitches caused by data errors reading DAT masters and transferring these digitally to hard drive. Most file glitches can be fixed with suitable editing tools, such as iZotope RX, but this is a pain in the ass if there are many of them. I have seen glitches in some commercial downloads that I have purchased and in some cases been refunded or given a replacement file. In other cases by reporting problems I have been amply rewarded with multiple free downloads.




Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar


This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  McShane Design  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
  • RE: different from the USB errors Fred is seeing - Tony Lauck 07/9/1410:01:13 07/9/14 (0)

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.