I have been mixing chillout, electronica and trance on MM since v4 and made alot of great CDs. From that, I have suddenly booked THREE live engagements (art opening, corporate party, BIG event here in SF). So I bought a LOADED Dell duo-core laptop, 2G RAM, upgreded the onboard sound card to Soundblaster and have an External USB Soundblaster for output to the sound system... I am getting quick SKIPS in songs both on the internal card with my headphones and the external card to my sound system, even with NOTHING but FUSION running. I am sort of freaking out about this. Is it Fusion? Is the the sound cards? Drivers? Dell? Vista? HELP!

Is this happening with every song?

If not, I'd suggest that you need to do some work with the Song Slicer.

If it is, then I'd suggest that the drivers for your sound card may need attention - I had similar issues with Studio 6 & Studio 7 with my External USB Soundblaster 24 bit live card, the drivers just couldn't cope with MM, I downloaded ASIO4ALL and once installed and set up, it's killed any skips, pops & crackles!

Also check the settings within Fusion for the Audio Output, make sure that the slider for Output delay is not set fully at one end or the other, sometimes just a small movement either way resolves issues.

Let us know how you get on, if you have no success, your next port of call has to be MixMeister Tech Support!

Sorry about the multiple posts in multiple forums. I was duly raked over the coals. I am in panic mode because I am going to be using Fusion in a room full of people and hopefully am overreacting.

THanks Wildr, but this is not a song slicer issue. I am make it skip just by clicking randomly around songs cued up past where Fusion is outputing to the Main outout.

I wlil mess with the output delay once I everyone in the house is awake and I can turn on the system.

Jeff at MM says he has never heard of it and just wants me to diaable screensavers, virus software, opticaly mice, wireless connections and getting rid of my microwave oven. I did most of those, to no avail.

quote:

I was duly raked over the coals.

Sorry, didn't mean for it to be a 'telling off' more of a reinforcement of how effective the forums can be - my bad!

Ok, If it's defintiely not a song slicer issue then I suggest you look to your drivers - do you have a creative product?

If so, you may not be aware that they have a known issue with certain products - check their forums from the website HERE.

Seriously I'd consider installing ASIO4ALL, it's free and has an easy to use GUI, allowing you to tailor the latency, it also allows you to adjust all of the individual 'voices' within your soundcard to utilise the best one for your performance (I.E. the one that doesn't make the music skip!) Check it out Here.

Let us know how you get on!

jeffstersf,

I hope you got the answer that you were looking for. When I tried to reply to your PM, the system said that the thread was closed.

I don't think it's a Fusion problem, I think it's a Vista problem in that the drivers aren't mature yet. In time... maybe 6 months from now, the drivers will be mature as will Vista.

If you can, I would go back to Windows XP, sp2 and use the latest drivers for your sound card and test it.

I'm a mmp6 user and run this software on two Inspiron laptops, Windows XP, sp1. No problems. I guess what I am trying to say is that Windows XP, for the most part, is quite mature.

I'm just so surprised how fast everyone switched to Vista without waiting a half year or so for bugs to be fixed. I see people having problems with other DJ software using Vista too. [sigh]

Anyway, good luck!!

Hey thanks Edgy. My move to Vista coincicded with a whole new laptop. I've been using MM since V4 on a desktop running XP, but just got Vista with the new machine. I have 15 days to return it and if I cant get this solved, I am going to return it and get a (cheaper) equally high-end XP system. I REALLY appreciate your help and will let you know how it turns out.

I just tried changing my output delay in MM advanced options. So going to see if that helps. Ah, if it will only be so easy!

OK DJ_Edgy and Wilder, you both rock. Simply by sliding that output delay about 1/2 down towards "reliable output", it appears to have solved the problem, Tested by playing live to my system and then clicking like mad on the preview of cued songs...no skips or static.

Also, can I ask you guys how you would phyically cable the external sound card to the input of a big sound system? My SB external USB card has SPDIF output as well as 3 ports for: Woofer, Rear and Front. Right now I just have the Front cabled out as input to my receiver.

Again, my apologies for double posting. With my ramped up DJ career and reliance on Fusion you're probably going to be seeing alot of me on here.

quote:

Again, my apologies for double posting. With my ramped up DJ career and reliance on Fusion you're probably going to be seeing alot of me on here.

NP with the double post, done and dusted, we'll be glad to see more of you here!

I'm glad the slider tip helped, that has been the only issue I have had with Vista, and that was primarily due to the weakness of the onboard soundcard (Realtek HD).

Personally unless you have an optical cable, and optical input on the big rig, I wouldn't worry with SPDIF I'd just use the standard sockets.

There is something to be said for using SPDIF (as it doesn't convert digital back to analogue) but you need to use the right type of leads to actually appreciate the benefit.....

Good Luck with your gigs, why not start another thread and let us know how they go for you, and how you get on with Fusion in a live environment, I'm sure many here would enjoy it!

All the best,

R.

jeffstersf-

Since you are performing live how about sliding that thing all the way over to reliable?

There is also a latency setting probably available in the SB driver that can be adjusted which is what I think Wildr was referring to.

You might take a look at optimizing Vista, so there aren't a bunch of processes kicking off whilst mixing.

You also need to switch the SB sound card to stereo output.

What Sound card are you using for preview?
The laptop built in?

You need to talk to the AV guys about taking the RCA / 1/8 TRS" into the sound system.

I would go an meet them ahead of time.
I would also go buy a smaller mixer, with
1/4" AND XLR outputs. and figure how to make it work.

You don't need a traditional DJ mixer for MM use.

Alesis/ Mackie / Yamaha's are cheap, good quality and the manual is easy to use.

I use Alesis, Numark, and Shure mixers. They are all flexible enough to walk in and start playing.

Definitely talk to who ever is providing AV.

and consider getting a better professional sound card if you are going to play out more often.

Hey thanks Voodoo, I will take all of that into consideration. I am meeting at the club this next week with the AV guy to check out the situation.

I actually have a $500 MBOX2 from Digidesign that I used with Reason under XP.... but it has no drivers for Vista, so I am stuck with the SB card for now. I love the sound from that MBOX2, so I am bummed until they get it working under Vista.

Again, I will check into all of that, your reply is most helpful.

quote:

Originally posted by jeffstersf:
Hey thanks Edgy. My move to Vista coincicded with a whole new laptop. I've been using MM since V4 on a desktop running XP, but just got Vista with the new machine. I have 15 days to return it and if I cant get this solved, I am going to return it and get a (cheaper) equally high-end XP system. ....

In anticipation of Vista being released, I made the decision in Nov./Dec. to get my lappy while XP was still the OS ... after seeing the numerous posts on Vista's need for attention, I'm happy w/ my decision ... life is too short Much respect to all of you who are wading in and putting in the time / effort to get it working properly w/ MM ...

had same issue sometimes even when i move the mouse too fast in vista ultimate and especially when clicking around it would skip, pulled the slider back and it runs just as well as it did in xp over a heavily looped and lots of volume andEQ markers

I have now played 4 live gigs, another scheduled tomorrrow, and no more problems. Just wish we had more external sound card options!

It's Vista, trust me on this one. I've been using and teaching Vista for quite some time. We need 2 or 3 service packs until it becomes a real operating system. Right now, Vista looks like Window's ME younger sibling.

I wrote MM_Aaron about some issues with Vista and Fusion, only to find out that it's NOT Fusion, as I had problems with MM Pro 6 not to mention Cubase and Live. The main problem is immature drivers. Microsoft released the DDK (Driver development kit) 2 weeks before they announced that they were going to offer Vista for sale to the public and computer manufacturers.

If you noticed, M-Audio only has a FEW drivers for Vista, and some of the earlier arrivals, their drivers are just horrible.

Heck, when Microsoft can't even get their own applications to work with Vista, how do they expect 3rd party companies to get their applications to play right. Microsoft has yet to fix the SQL Server bug with Vista, they recently fixed Visual Studio so you can install that on Vista, and you still can't run Office 2007 applications on Vista to communicate with SQL Server.

I'm playing every weekend, sometimes twice a week, and I'm using Windows XP SP2 with an external 10 X 10 Edirol USB device. I have no problems.

VISTA BE GONE and don't come back until you work!!!

One more thing (Columbo here...) If you're going to play professionally, get PROFESSIONAL sound gear. Stay away from that consumer stuff like Creative Labs etc.

well, thanks I guess. FYI, Granddaddy, I have played two of San Francisco's largest clubs recently using Fusion on Vista. Once I set that slider to reliable, all worked fine. Your crack about only being professional when I get "professional" equipment cut deep. Sure, I would love to use my $700 M-Audio MBOX external card. But the sounds guys at both large clubs were thrilled with the sound from my "amature" Creative card, which is my only option now. I bought this honkin notebook with Vista loaded, so options are few.