aknit44
Hi guys.
I just upgraded to version 2.1, and I like the fact that it now has full support for WDM sound drivers. However, like the previous version, I am still having problems when I disable Hardware Mix. I need this disabled so I can have better outpute to my sound card.
What happens is the song skips every other two minutes, and yet my system is quite powerful. These are my specs:
1.12GHz AMD Athlon Processor
786MB SD-RAM
3x40GB HDD
Creative Sound Blaster Live Value!
VIA Chipset
Windows 2000 Server SP2
The previous version exhibits skipping problems as when I disable Hardware Mix, which means I experience decreased output. I have tried raising the priority of Atomix to High, but this does little or nothing.
Is there anyone out there with a similar problem, on 2.1, who can give me some ideas. I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
I just upgraded to version 2.1, and I like the fact that it now has full support for WDM sound drivers. However, like the previous version, I am still having problems when I disable Hardware Mix. I need this disabled so I can have better outpute to my sound card.
What happens is the song skips every other two minutes, and yet my system is quite powerful. These are my specs:
1.12GHz AMD Athlon Processor
786MB SD-RAM
3x40GB HDD
Creative Sound Blaster Live Value!
VIA Chipset
Windows 2000 Server SP2
The previous version exhibits skipping problems as when I disable Hardware Mix, which means I experience decreased output. I have tried raising the priority of Atomix to High, but this does little or nothing.
Is there anyone out there with a similar problem, on 2.1, who can give me some ideas. I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
Posted Sun 28 Apr 02 @ 2:11 pm
Tommy_2Tall
Damn.. that's sounds like a sweet machine.. and yet it skips???
The Athlon, RAM and a very reliable chipset (not sure what chipset you have but Athlon+Via has proven to be a great combo)...
My first guess would be disk-reading problems or ....well that's about it.. I can't come to think of anything else..
You certainly have no problems with memory-swapping, loads of juicy RAM to use and soundcard that shouldn't cause any problems at all.....
But disk-reading-problems with three different disks.. that don't seem right.
It would be SO great if there was some easily used performance monitor to see disk-usage/disk-usage-requests etc to just rule that one out.. 'cause I don't really think that it should be a problem... Are they good(=fast/reliable) disks?
What have you got to handle the visualization of Atomix? Didn't see any graphics-card mentioned.
A few things you might want to try out:
*Try playing tunes from just one of the disks at a time for extended periods to see if one of them might be worse than the other two.. (the one with your system on will obviously have a slightly heavier loud but I manage to run Atomix on just one so it can't be that bad)
*If you have your disks formatted as FAT32-partitions try defragmenting them..
I have two NTFS-partitions and they are as red as roses when I analyse them in the defragment-tool but that's just how NTFS works(and it does work just fine for me)..
The FAT/FAT32 filesystem however might lose quite a bit in performance if the files aren't coherent.
* Try using very basic skins (for example Darkfun Basic; low on controls and very little visualisation) to see if it might be a matter of lagging visualization.
...I'm sure there are a lot of other things to try out as well.. monitoring an Atomix-session with a tool like PerformanceMonitor (an Windows NT-admin tool) would be great to see if it's the 'puter or the program that lies responsible...
With your setup however it would seem to be the proggie.. but you really shouldn't jump to conclusions as this is a really demanding application.. realtime mixing of compressed digital audio is a resource-demanding feat.
The Athlon, RAM and a very reliable chipset (not sure what chipset you have but Athlon+Via has proven to be a great combo)...
My first guess would be disk-reading problems or ....well that's about it.. I can't come to think of anything else..
You certainly have no problems with memory-swapping, loads of juicy RAM to use and soundcard that shouldn't cause any problems at all.....
But disk-reading-problems with three different disks.. that don't seem right.
It would be SO great if there was some easily used performance monitor to see disk-usage/disk-usage-requests etc to just rule that one out.. 'cause I don't really think that it should be a problem... Are they good(=fast/reliable) disks?
What have you got to handle the visualization of Atomix? Didn't see any graphics-card mentioned.
A few things you might want to try out:
*Try playing tunes from just one of the disks at a time for extended periods to see if one of them might be worse than the other two.. (the one with your system on will obviously have a slightly heavier loud but I manage to run Atomix on just one so it can't be that bad)
*If you have your disks formatted as FAT32-partitions try defragmenting them..
I have two NTFS-partitions and they are as red as roses when I analyse them in the defragment-tool but that's just how NTFS works(and it does work just fine for me)..
The FAT/FAT32 filesystem however might lose quite a bit in performance if the files aren't coherent.
* Try using very basic skins (for example Darkfun Basic; low on controls and very little visualisation) to see if it might be a matter of lagging visualization.
...I'm sure there are a lot of other things to try out as well.. monitoring an Atomix-session with a tool like PerformanceMonitor (an Windows NT-admin tool) would be great to see if it's the 'puter or the program that lies responsible...
With your setup however it would seem to be the proggie.. but you really shouldn't jump to conclusions as this is a really demanding application.. realtime mixing of compressed digital audio is a resource-demanding feat.
Posted Sun 28 Apr 02 @ 6:35 pm
aknit44
Hi Tommy_2Tall
Thanks for the important and helpful information. Actually, like I said, I have three 40GB high performance hard drives. One of the is a Maxtor 4K040H2 and the other two are Samsung SV4002H. All three are IDE hard drives, setup with Chipset/driver based DMA support, and 80-pin cable. So I get 33Mbps on the Maxtor, and 100Mbps on the Samsugs.
My other drive is an Acer DVP1648A DVD-ROM drive. You wanted to know about my graphics card; it's an nVidia Ge-Force 2 MX400 with 64MB of DDR RAM.
My Windows 2000 Server setup is running an NTFS-based file system, which I defragment every Monday. I split the music across all three disks, just for resilience and space monitoring.
I had a skipping problem on Atomix 2.0, when I run it in Software mix mode. Switching to Hardware mix took the skipping out. So it may not be a disk read error. One of the support guys at Atomix said that the Software Mix skipping was because version 2.0 had support for only VXD drivers, and that version 2.1 would support WDM drivers, which is what I use on my sound card.
My Atomix skin is called Black. It more or less emulates the original Atomix skin from the older versions. So, it's pretty easy on the graphics card.
I really can't seem to understand why the skipping is present, even after specking my machine up. Could it be in the software?
All help appreciated. Thanks.
Thanks for the important and helpful information. Actually, like I said, I have three 40GB high performance hard drives. One of the is a Maxtor 4K040H2 and the other two are Samsung SV4002H. All three are IDE hard drives, setup with Chipset/driver based DMA support, and 80-pin cable. So I get 33Mbps on the Maxtor, and 100Mbps on the Samsugs.
My other drive is an Acer DVP1648A DVD-ROM drive. You wanted to know about my graphics card; it's an nVidia Ge-Force 2 MX400 with 64MB of DDR RAM.
My Windows 2000 Server setup is running an NTFS-based file system, which I defragment every Monday. I split the music across all three disks, just for resilience and space monitoring.
I had a skipping problem on Atomix 2.0, when I run it in Software mix mode. Switching to Hardware mix took the skipping out. So it may not be a disk read error. One of the support guys at Atomix said that the Software Mix skipping was because version 2.0 had support for only VXD drivers, and that version 2.1 would support WDM drivers, which is what I use on my sound card.
My Atomix skin is called Black. It more or less emulates the original Atomix skin from the older versions. So, it's pretty easy on the graphics card.
I really can't seem to understand why the skipping is present, even after specking my machine up. Could it be in the software?
All help appreciated. Thanks.
Posted Sun 28 Apr 02 @ 9:24 pm
I have posted about this problem ever since 2.1 came out. Every time, people shot me down claiming it was a problem with MY system (I actually have the problem on two seperate systems!!). Just because Atomix doesn't skip with YOUR computer doesn't mean this is not a serious problem.
Why can't the team acknowledge this bug for what it is - A BUG!!??
Please, fix this problem so your DJs can continue to use this software with some degree of quality and reliability. I now feel ripped off, even though the software is otherwise very good, and very cheap - it is totally, and undeniably WORTHLESS with the skipping!! Damn, get a clue!
Why can't the team acknowledge this bug for what it is - A BUG!!??
Please, fix this problem so your DJs can continue to use this software with some degree of quality and reliability. I now feel ripped off, even though the software is otherwise very good, and very cheap - it is totally, and undeniably WORTHLESS with the skipping!! Damn, get a clue!
Posted Mon 29 Apr 02 @ 4:50 am
aknit44
I also think this is a bug. On version 2.0, skipping was solved by reverting to Software Mix, but this considerably hurt the output levels, and of course, you lose all the other equalizer options. Of course, you would have to compensate for this by adding more master channel volume on your mixer and/or amp.
With the release of version 2.1, I thought the support for WDM drivers would solve the problem, but still didn't. I still got skipping in Hardware Mix mode, and strangely, in Software mode as well. At one point, for the last four months, I had to revert to version 2.0. I have tweaked and upgraded my machine, as indicated in previous posts, yet the problem continues to persist. I am beginning to feel, like other Atomix DJs out there, that this is a bug that needs to be checked out. I would eagerly await AtomixMP3 version 2.11.
Thanks to you all for all your input!
With the release of version 2.1, I thought the support for WDM drivers would solve the problem, but still didn't. I still got skipping in Hardware Mix mode, and strangely, in Software mode as well. At one point, for the last four months, I had to revert to version 2.0. I have tweaked and upgraded my machine, as indicated in previous posts, yet the problem continues to persist. I am beginning to feel, like other Atomix DJs out there, that this is a bug that needs to be checked out. I would eagerly await AtomixMP3 version 2.11.
Thanks to you all for all your input!
Posted Mon 29 Apr 02 @ 8:32 am
Tommy_2Tall
I'm probably one of those that shot the anon' down saying I had no problems, I confess..
but now that I know that it skips with a high-end system like that.. it doesn't make any sence at all.. I have a slower CPU and probably slower harddrives than that and I don't get any noticeable skipping at all..
The only audible problems I have is that nasty sound when the pitch is changing and the FAME-algorithm quite don't cope with that change and gives a sort of deformed sound for a split second.. not really skipping in my case, just slightly altered and misstuned sound probably due to desync when decompressing audio that's being read at a changing rate.
but now that I know that it skips with a high-end system like that.. it doesn't make any sence at all.. I have a slower CPU and probably slower harddrives than that and I don't get any noticeable skipping at all..
The only audible problems I have is that nasty sound when the pitch is changing and the FAME-algorithm quite don't cope with that change and gives a sort of deformed sound for a split second.. not really skipping in my case, just slightly altered and misstuned sound probably due to desync when decompressing audio that's being read at a changing rate.
Posted Mon 29 Apr 02 @ 8:57 am
Grimm
I must confess myself. I've only experienced the skipping problem once (just yesterday infact) where the song(s) would skip about .3 secs at regular intervals. It annoyed the hell out of me and I've been wondering why it happened. Its never happened before and the only thing I can think of is that my computer needed a reboot. I haven't played with it since then but I'll check it out again. I hope this isn't a reacuring problem for me.
Grimm
Grimm
Posted Tue 30 Apr 02 @ 3:07 pm
Djduane
I've had the same problem ever since I began using v2.1 with Windows 2000 and I have a pretty good system.......P4 1.7ghz...512MB RAM.... 7200RPM 100ATA IDE drives....Creative Live value sound and Nvidia Geforce2 MX400 video card. I've tried defragging, monitoring RAM, monitoring performance, eliminating all other TSRs but it still skips occasionally. I tried loading it on my girlfriends new AMD 1.4ghz machine with Windows XP and it worked fine! Is this a problem that occurs more with Win2K perhaps?
Posted Sat 04 May 02 @ 1:49 am
canadadan
i was running atomix 2.0 and 2.1 fine on my laptop (pentium celeron with 128 mb of ram), without any skipping. On my Pentium 1 Ghz with 256 ram, it skips. So if u find out what could be the prob, let me know ;)
dan
dan
Posted Sat 04 May 02 @ 7:28 am
aknit44
Mmm, I wonder, all of you who are experiencing this problem with 2.1, are you all running Windows 2000, or are there some members that are getting the same problem on other Windows platforms..?
Posted Sun 05 May 02 @ 1:36 pm
Grimm
Ahhh! I just realized most of you said your using W2K. SB Live! cards dont work too well with W2K. Its a known problem that the Live cards try to hog the whole PCI bus to itself when its being accessed, and thats a no-no in W2K (and NT). So you get pauses and glitches in the sound. And since Creative doesn't seem to come out with any updates at all, your pretty much s-o-l.
I tried upgraded my SB Live VXD based drivers to the WDM drivers and that is the only time I've experienced the skips. My computer also refused to work about 2 days later and since then I've done a fresh install of Windoze. ;)
Not sure what you can do cept dual boot to a non NT based Windows version. I wouldn't suggest WinME since its also based off of NT. Unless you have one of the newer Live! 5.1 or Audigy cards. I believe both of those models have WDM drivers for ME available. The older Live! cards (4-channel only) are still stuck with the VXD drivers, but the hacked WDM may work under ME fine.
Grimm
I tried upgraded my SB Live VXD based drivers to the WDM drivers and that is the only time I've experienced the skips. My computer also refused to work about 2 days later and since then I've done a fresh install of Windoze. ;)
Not sure what you can do cept dual boot to a non NT based Windows version. I wouldn't suggest WinME since its also based off of NT. Unless you have one of the newer Live! 5.1 or Audigy cards. I believe both of those models have WDM drivers for ME available. The older Live! cards (4-channel only) are still stuck with the VXD drivers, but the hacked WDM may work under ME fine.
Grimm
Posted Mon 06 May 02 @ 6:19 am
aknit44
Mmm, that's strange, because the problem was not present in version 2.0, and yet I was till using Windows 2000 Server with an SB Live card using WDM drivers.
I contacted Atomix on this, and they said that earlier versions of Atomix that exhibited the problem was because Atomix was coded with VXD drivers in mind, and yet the sound card drivers are using WDM drivers. Atomix went on to assure that version 2.1 would support WDM drivers which should kill the problem. I guess they were wrong.
Is there nothing else we or Atomix can do?
I contacted Atomix on this, and they said that earlier versions of Atomix that exhibited the problem was because Atomix was coded with VXD drivers in mind, and yet the sound card drivers are using WDM drivers. Atomix went on to assure that version 2.1 would support WDM drivers which should kill the problem. I guess they were wrong.
Is there nothing else we or Atomix can do?
Posted Tue 07 May 02 @ 4:13 pm
89jetta
very strange, i too am using win2k, and sblive (first ed. of the card) what to do? when you say WMD, or VXD drivers what do you mean??
Posted Wed 08 May 02 @ 10:46 pm
dbogle420
I am having a similar problem too. I am running XP Pro, and never had any problems with the older versions. Now I find that with 2.1 if you try to nudge the preview track at all it also makes the playing track skip (this on top of all the above-mentioned problems). I am running a 1.3ghz cpu w/512mb RAM and an Audigy card. I would loveto see this problem resolved so I can get back to mixing!!!
Posted Sun 12 May 02 @ 11:16 pm
brb57
I had the same problems with Win2000, 1gig processor, 256 meg ram, 60gig hard drive and atomixmp3 2.1 and sound blaster 5.1 live. I used allthe new drivers from creative I installed and reinstalled , the program still skipped about once every 3 min or so. It was really getting anoying then I rembered my win2000 pro software was the first edition so I went to Microsoft.com and downloaded service pak 2 (it was about 100 meg for complete download) and burned it to a cd along with the new directx 8.1 also from Microsoft. After I installed service pak 2 and then directx 8.1 I haven't had any skipping at all in over 50 hours of live performance. Long story short - Don't just update sound card drivers. Also update OS,Directx,Video and any other hardware.
Posted Tue 02 Jul 02 @ 8:45 am
I am using a p3 1 gig toshiba notebook. I had the skipping as well, however it was not atomix as it would do it with winamp as well. After much research ( IT administrator) the operating system itself was too busy to service the software. You need to go in a shut down all extraneous running programs. Fairly easy to do with w2k, xp and me more of a pain in 98. For tracking purposes go and and start the system monitor. Whenever I had skipping the kernel would go to 100 percent useage. You have to shut everything down except atomix. Also the new operating systems will go out and look at your network card once and a while. IF the network in unplugged, it will go out and check to see if a cable gets plugged in. You could also be having cache problems. Those nice fast harddrive with nice fast cache cache almost the entire song (or at least half in memory) plus the cache on the machine which does another bunch. This all combined when the sond goes for a refresh, the drive may be doing something else. Just some things for you to look at.
My soundcard uses yamaha chipset with wdm drivers)
Any other questions email rwalker@norampac.com and I will build a machine and try to replicate the problem...
My soundcard uses yamaha chipset with wdm drivers)
Any other questions email rwalker@norampac.com and I will build a machine and try to replicate the problem...
Posted Thu 12 Sep 02 @ 9:03 pm
I'm another "lucky" one w/ the skipping problem...
I'm running 2.1.1 on a dell laptop p4 1.8GHz, 384M RAM, ATI radeon 7500 w/ 32M RAM, fresh XP Pro install + SP1, external USB soundcard ego-sys U24.
I experienced the same behaviour that was described before: if you leave the program alone it'll work fine, but if you do something else like browsing the list or previewing a track it'll skip.
I am a programmer myself and I understand bugs are unavoidable but what I can't accept is the total lack of support we're experiencing. it looks like it's hard for this bug even to be acknowledged, and this is simply outrageous. this is not a shareware program in beta: it's a commercial program that's gone through a major revision and a patch and yet there are many users who basically can't use it. I'll reinstall win2k on this laptop and try again. if that doesn't work I"m off to traktor... I'm sorry, I like atomix better, I bought it when it was still v1.0 and I've always raved about it w/ everybody but I didn't spend all my cash on a new laptop to find myself unable to use it for its main purpose because a program won't perform its most basic function...
can we at least get a CLEAR answer from the developers? what configurations TRULY work? (and please don't paste the system requirements here, don't insult us) what soundcards? what OS?
thanks,
gd
I'm running 2.1.1 on a dell laptop p4 1.8GHz, 384M RAM, ATI radeon 7500 w/ 32M RAM, fresh XP Pro install + SP1, external USB soundcard ego-sys U24.
I experienced the same behaviour that was described before: if you leave the program alone it'll work fine, but if you do something else like browsing the list or previewing a track it'll skip.
I am a programmer myself and I understand bugs are unavoidable but what I can't accept is the total lack of support we're experiencing. it looks like it's hard for this bug even to be acknowledged, and this is simply outrageous. this is not a shareware program in beta: it's a commercial program that's gone through a major revision and a patch and yet there are many users who basically can't use it. I'll reinstall win2k on this laptop and try again. if that doesn't work I"m off to traktor... I'm sorry, I like atomix better, I bought it when it was still v1.0 and I've always raved about it w/ everybody but I didn't spend all my cash on a new laptop to find myself unable to use it for its main purpose because a program won't perform its most basic function...
can we at least get a CLEAR answer from the developers? what configurations TRULY work? (and please don't paste the system requirements here, don't insult us) what soundcards? what OS?
thanks,
gd
Posted Mon 21 Oct 02 @ 6:53 am
Phenryll
Many users have a problem with w2000/SB value-live (I have, too lol).
Posted Mon 21 Oct 02 @ 9:25 am
Well... this doesn't inspire me to buy a faster computer just yet. If people with these setups are experiencing skipping problems, then there's no point.
I'm sure I'm one of the few people who still use atomixmp3 on a 3 year old computer.
My configuration is:
- IBM Thinkpad P2-366Mhz, 192Mb RAM, and Win2k PRO
- SB Extigy Ext. 3D soundcard (I recommend it)
- Atomixmp3 v2.1.1
- Behringer VMX-200 External Mixer
I also have the Equlizers, scratch and the Time Stretch on atmoxmp3 disabled.
The only problems I'm having are that "excessive" nudging makes the song "jump/skip/freeze" and when adjusting sliders with the mouse the song visualization freezes. And of course the annoying sound when adjusting the pitch to high or low on certain songs. To resolve these problems as best I can, I only use keyboard-shortcuts and do the nudging songs in between beats.
This may not be much help to you guys who are experiencing more severe problems. But I just wanted to mention that atomixmp3 works well on computers even as "slow" as mine.
- Jim Nordic
I'm sure I'm one of the few people who still use atomixmp3 on a 3 year old computer.
My configuration is:
- IBM Thinkpad P2-366Mhz, 192Mb RAM, and Win2k PRO
- SB Extigy Ext. 3D soundcard (I recommend it)
- Atomixmp3 v2.1.1
- Behringer VMX-200 External Mixer
I also have the Equlizers, scratch and the Time Stretch on atmoxmp3 disabled.
The only problems I'm having are that "excessive" nudging makes the song "jump/skip/freeze" and when adjusting sliders with the mouse the song visualization freezes. And of course the annoying sound when adjusting the pitch to high or low on certain songs. To resolve these problems as best I can, I only use keyboard-shortcuts and do the nudging songs in between beats.
This may not be much help to you guys who are experiencing more severe problems. But I just wanted to mention that atomixmp3 works well on computers even as "slow" as mine.
- Jim Nordic
Posted Mon 21 Oct 02 @ 1:50 pm
Jim Nordic
I was logged out while typing...
- Jim Nordic
- Jim Nordic
Posted Mon 21 Oct 02 @ 1:52 pm
