Static + Clicks in Tutorial FLP Project

    I opened the Tutorial.FLP in FL Studio and everything is aligned, no latency, but there is static / clicking on playback.



    This is what it sounds like: I captured the playback from Access's project in this file.


    http://www59.zippyshare.com/v/4625636/file.html
    http://www.sendspace.com/file/6fynly



    If you listen carefully, you'll hear little "pops" every now and then, seemingly random, the sound is a bit dirty and has static.




    Does anyone have any tips?




    FYI, my soundcard setting is: M-Audio Delta ASIO, 512.




    If I increase the ASIO buffer size any further, the system immediately crashes (blue screen of death, followed by a reboot). So I can't increase past 512. But this M-Audio ASIO-512 setting is the lesser of all evils. Any other setting, such as Line-1/2 Output with varying buffer sizes (128-8192) is even worse, you can't even hear any sound at all, it's all distorted.




    I'm really frustrated and would appreciate any help :( If even Virus's own project won't work, then what will?


    I'm using FL 10. thanks

    Is this with live mode on or off?
    Did you check your USB setup for on-board devices - ones that you cannot plug out because they are hard wired on the motherboard?
    I think that if you use the audio or S/PDIF out through your soundcard it will solve both your crackle and timing issues, since FL studio has problems compensating delay for the Virus plugin anyway.

    There are 2 cables at work here: One is the breakout cable that should be supplied with your sound card. This cable takes the female D9 cnnector (it is shaped like a capital D and has 9 holes in it), and breaks it out into female MIDI in/out connectors (of type din-5), and female S/PDIF in/out connectors (of type RCA). The other is a male RCA to male RCA which you should get hold of yourself (I bet you have one, analog video/audio cables work fine for this). You should connect the RCA to RCA between the Virus' S/PDIF out and the breakout cable's S/PDIF in. You should also configure how to synch to the sample rate (who is the master clock).

    So I did everything like you said, I got my MIDI Breakout cable from M-Audio and hooked it up to the RCA cable which goes into the Virus' SPDIF jacks.




    However, something's wrong: there's no sound when I switch the Virus' patch in the Common tab to Out1 L+R (see below). Nothing is playing.




    1) MIDI end successfully connected to my M-Audio soundcard:




    [Blockierte Grafik: http://i48.tinypic.com/dxz3wl.jpg]




    2) The RCA's I/O go into the RCA cable. Red=O, White=I. (Yellow is not used)




    [Blockierte Grafik: http://i45.tinypic.com/2qxtksy.jpg]



    3) The RCA connects to the Virus' SPDIF I/O:




    [Blockierte Grafik: http://i47.tinypic.com/1564wep.jpg]




    4) On the Virus plugin screen, for Patch # 1, changed from USB to Out1 L+R:




    [Blockierte Grafik: http://i49.tinypic.com/2lk37dw.jpg]




    No sound.




    I also tried going into my project preferences changing FL's settings to use "S/PDIF M-Audio Delta Audiophile" as my global Input/Output, still no sound.




    EDIT: I also tried hooking up the Virus S/PDIF-O to Breakout RCA-I, just one-half of the double RCA cable used (White). There is just one cable, White, and it goes from S/PDIF-O on the Virus into the S/PDIF-I on the breakout cable. But that didn't work either, still no sound on Out1 L+R. (The red half is unused.)

    OK, I'm guessing you have already created a strip that is fed by the ASIO channels "Delta-AP S/PDIF L" and "Delta-AP S/PDIF R", and that you have set that strip to be armed and monitored. In your sound card control panel, go to the hardware settings page and change the master clock to S/PDIF In, and see that the status is "locked". Also make sure that the sample rate of the Virus agrees with the sample rate of the DAW.

    No, I haven't created any L/R strip - what is it? All I did was connect the MIDI from the soundcard to the Virus' RCA output for S/PDIF, using 2 cables like you said.


    By the way, there's no L/R, I only saw I/O. The pictures are on the previous page.

    No, in this S/PDIF setup the the track holding the VC plugin is used for sending MIDI data out to the Virus, but you will not be using its audio returns from USB, since you have the crackling+delay issue. Instead, you need to create a new track, that will accept the audio return from S/PDIF, by setting the input for the new track to be Delta-AP S/PDIF L + Delta-AP S/PDIF R, connecting Virus' S/PDIF out to your soundcard's S/PDIF in, and arming the new track so you can monitor it. Don't forget to make sure you set up the S/PDIF master clock correctly as I mentioned before.

    Here's my update:


    1) In the M-Audio SoundCard control panel, turned on the External - SPDIF option + Locked:


    [Blockierte Grafik: http://i45.tinypic.com/sq5h85.jpg]


    2) Created a new track (a 'Sampler') and pointed it to a new FX Channel with the Input = Delta-AP S/PDIF L + Delta-AP S/PDIF R (see below; in my example, it is FX Channel # 7). But do I use this track to draw actual notes? If so, which of the Virus parts will it correspond to? I've tried editing a melody in that track and there's no sound.


    [Blockierte Grafik: http://i48.tinypic.com/rbzgvb.jpg]


    3) Also, could you confirm the following: There is a single cable going from the Virus' S/PDIF-Out into the breakout cable's IN. It is a single cable, not a double Left+Right (white/red). Thus, I am only using the White cable connector to connect the breakout cable to the Virus. (I do not need to connect the Breakout cable's I + O to the Virus SPDIF I + O using a double cable.)


    Thanks again!

    Zitat von eugenebalt

    1) In the M-Audio SoundCard control panel, turned on the External - SPDIF option + Locked:

    That's great, that means that the soundcard picks up the Virus' signal, one less thing to worry about.

    Zitat von eugenebalt

    2) Created a new track (a 'Sampler') and pointed it to a new FX Channel with the Input = Delta-AP S/PDIF L + Delta-AP S/PDIF R (see below; in my example, it is FX Channel # 7). But do I use this track to draw actual notes? If so, which of the Virus parts will it correspond to? I've tried editing a melody in that track and there's no sound.

    The track that is "connected" to the S/PDIF input is for monitoring audio only. There is no need to put any audio or MIDI data in it. You should arm it so that it puts the VIrus audio into the mix constantly. You should put the MIDI data in up to 16 MIDI tracks (up to four in case of the Snow), which send their data to a VC track, just like you did before. The S/PDIF input channel is just added to the "template" you used until now, as a replacement to the Audio out of the VC track. Once you get everything working you may want to use it for bouncing audio, but we'll get to that later.

    Zitat von eugenebalt

    3) Also, could you confirm the following: There is a single cable going from the Virus' S/PDIF-Out into the breakout cable's IN. It is a single cable, not a double Left+Right (white/red). Thus, I am only using the White cable connector to connect the breakout cable to the Virus. (I do not need to connect the Breakout cable's I + O to the Virus SPDIF I + O using a double cable.)

    Let's leave it like this in order to make things simpler until we can make the inputs work. We'll see later how you send the Virus audio in case you want to use a vocoder/atomizer/input patch.

    Zitat von eugenebalt

    Thanks again!

    You're welcome.

    Hi Bob,


    First, the good news: I hear sound, and the SPDIF connection is working! I've verified that the armed FX Channel with the SPDIF L/R Input is receiving signal, and I do hear the sound. So I believe the SPDIF link is established.


    Here's the current issue: the sound is still not aligned, and there's still a delay. Upon placing a Virus sound track aligned with a 4/4 kick, the Virus still lags as it did previously, by approx. a second or slightly less. What should I check next? Thanks

    A second? This is strange. Are you sure that all the parts of VC are set to play through out1 and not USB out? I've exprerienced S/PDIF delays but they were never more than 100ms and usually due to A/D and D/A conversions, but this is all digital.
    Try to listen directly to the headphones out of the Virus while your project is playing - Does it play at the same time or earlier? If at the same time then you have something in your DAW that is sending MIDI too late to the VC.