Hi Matt,
Make sure your system is optimized for audio. Depending on your computer hardware you system will need some sort of tweaking to get best performance.
http://www.tweakhound.com/windows7/tweaking/index.html

We would need to know more about your system to recommend anything more.
Thanks Chris

Do you see the same phenomenon with other media players?
What does "latency" refer to in this case? Not sure about the stutter (what exactly is it like?), but the -94 dB thing seems as if the player were somehow keeping the output open (and applying some dither or Windows doing sample rate conversion) for a while and then muting it. Do you see the -94 in the second row of Totalmix? If yes, this would support my theory... If you say it happens with ASIO, does it refer to ASIO applications like Cubase or e.g the ASIO plugin in Foobar?
I would tend to agree that it is not a performance issue, though, even if Quadcore per se does not automatically spell good audio suitability...

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Thanks for the replies. The "latency" I am refering to in this case is that the sound continues to play after i have paused something for a second or two. The "stutter" comes straight after the "latency" and sounds like the volume oscillating between current volume and mute before settling at mute. The -94dB issue occurrs in VLC, Foobar which uses an ASIO plugin and Flash player so it seems to be everything? I havent tested it in cubase as I plan on keeping an XP partition for mixing and Win 7 for audiophile purposes. I have never had these problems in XP with Foobar and VLC running the same settings.

My setup consists of the ASIO and WDM channel pairs playing into two unused digital outs which are then internally looped back through totalmix and taken by Console modular Studio which puts them through DRC and Filters creating a 2.1 sound output on three analog out channels. Again I have used the setup working perfectly in XP for years but the problem exists even if I bypass all the VSTS and set the ASIO or WDM drivers to play directly to an analog out channel (simplest trial setup). This is for when I use it as a Media PC which I mostly am.

I have the 9632 card with AO4S analog expansion in a Quadcore machine with DDR 3 ram and a 5870 tri display card.

I don't know if it's at all related but on opening and closing any kind of video I also get brief black horizonal lines on my monitors which again I don't have in XP. All drivers are installed.

Thanks alot.

Yeah the card is an AMD/ATI card and yeah, I'm using the latest drivers for everything.
Foobar and VLC aren't running at the same time but it wouldn't matter if they were, i am able to layer ASIO and WDM fine in XP.
It's not really surround sound, just a stereo pair crossed over with a third sub channel all via vsts.
Just to add to the list, Totalmix keeps loosing it's settings working with the Audiorelay midi program although I know that was actually designed for Vista so maybe bugs are to be expected.

Attached is a screenshot of total mix a few seconds after pausing a track and no other sound playing. The sub channel also has the problem, it just isnt showing up due to attenuation and hf filtering for the amp. Here Foobar is playing into the SPDIF which is looped back and processed, outputted to the three analog outs.

Thanks for the support hope it's sorted soon.

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Thanks for the reply, I've been busy - sadly the problems haven't gone. Yeah, console is running as an effects host for all my sound exactly as it was in XP. I have tried VLC and Foobar using the primary sound driver (ie WDM) and the problems still persist.

What is really concerning to me is that I just downloaded a track of "digital silence" and playing it results in the -94dB meaning I have a vastly reduced SNR output at all times so it is absolutely detrimental that this is sorted, the hiss is very apparent when playing soft solo tracks at a moderate to high volume which I haven't tried until now.

Has anyone else reported this problem, this cannot be right, even if i did want any music software under win 7 I simply cannot now due to the nature of solo'ing and the affect on mixing from the hiss as I mentioned.

If it helps simply forget about console and all the extras for now as the problem is clearly at a low level with some sort of configuration.

Thanks

Yeah I do, it's exactly the same with everything. I just checked the IRQ but it on it's own channel as it should be, however when I went to conflicts / sharing it shows this:

Memory Address 0xF8100000-0xF810FFFF    RME HDSP 9632
Memory Address 0xF8100000-0xF810FFFF    Intel(R) 82801 PCI Bridge - 244E

Could this be something? Also this is what is shown under "sound devices"  (all from ms system information)

Name    RME HDSP 9632
Manufacturer    RME
Status    OK
PNP Device ID    PCI\VEN_10EE&DEV_3FC5&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_9A\4&30D54F48&0&00F0
Memory Address    0xF8100000-0xF810FFFF
IRQ Channel    IRQ 20
Driver    c:\windows\system32\drivers\hdsp.sys (3.2.6.0, 68.00 KB (69,632 bytes), 03/08/2011 14:46)
   
Name    USB Audio Device
Manufacturer    (Generic USB Audio)
Status    OK
PNP Device ID    USB\VID_045E&PID_00F7&MI_01\6&401EDF5&0&0001
Driver    c:\windows\system32\drivers\usbaudio.sys (6.1.7601.17514, 78.88 KB (80,768 bytes), 20/11/2010 21:29)
   
Name    AMD High Definition Audio Device
Manufacturer    Advanced Micro Devices
Status    OK
PNP Device ID    HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_1002&DEV_AA01&SUBSYS_00AA0100&REV_1002\5&74E4073&0&0001
Driver    c:\windows\system32\drivers\atihdw73.sys (7.12.0.7702, 207.02 KB (211,984 bytes), 06/06/2011 23:06)

I don't have a usb audio device apart from a webcam that isnt installed and the AMD audio driver was installed with the graphics drivers.

Thanks

No such problems here with foobar2000 1.1.8 on WinXP SP3 (HDSP 9632 with driver 3.26) ...

bump, please, I really need help sorting this...

Thanks, I tried this before though, just tried it again and am averaging at around 100us with no peaks even when instigating the problem. I though I had it sorted when I went to check this the first time before finding it was ok as it does "sound" like this sort of issue.

Please could the mods/admin continue their great support.

Matt

Hi matt,
I still need to know exactly what computer model this is or specifics on the Computer hardware.

What is the USB Audio Device listed in Post #13?

I would confirm that the 2 Media player programs and Windows media Player play back fine on their own individually without Console running. I would also reset your Total Mix routing back to factory defaults. This will remove any extra routing you have done.
Hold down the CTRL Key while clicking on Preset 1 in the Total Mix screen.
This will will make all the routing 1:1 so it will be like the Total Mix is not active.
Check each player this way.
You need to narrow down where the incompatibility is happening. There are allot of variables in your setup that can go wrong.

Thanks Chris