1 (edited by Oetzi1977 2021-01-17 12:07:46)

Topic: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Hi, I've recently purchased a Babyface Pro FS coming from a scarlett focusrite 1st gen.

My hardware:
Motherboard gigabyte ga-z97x-ud5h
Cpu intel core i7 4970k 4ghz quad core
Ram ddr3 1600 crucial ballistix
Graphic geforce gt740

I got two different windows 10 installations on separate ssd, one optimized for working environment (using nvidia graphic card) and the other one optimized for audio (graphic card disabled due to dpc latency issues always involving nvidia drivers) using the intel integrated card.

I'm always on 24bit 96Khz, 96 buffer, as I was with the Focusrite (which I ran with 64 buffer), and I spent a lot of money due to the rock-solid RME drivers that... Give me more pops and crackles than the focusrite. How is it possible?

I have disabled EVERY single cpu throttling in BIOS, C states, P states, speed step and turbo boost.

Every optimization in the system power manager has been done (disabled every power saving on USB and CPU).

I mainly use Guitar oriented plugins like Archetype Cory Wong or Plini, or TH-U standalone and plugins under ableton or reaper.

I can't really figure how is it possible...

The last warnings in latencyMon are about wdf01000.sys, after solving the nvidia issues disabling the video card using the integrated one instead.

Sometimes even usbport.sys is reported from LatencyMon, but without turning the green bar to red.

All my drivers seems to be updated from windows update.

2

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

These buffer sizes are not comparable. Measure the real round-trip latency and you will see. At 96 kHz I would expect at least 128 to be necessary (that equals 64 at 48 kHz), which is already very low for USB.

You also did not disclose which values you get in Latency Mon, nor if there are errors shown in the BF Pro Settings dialog.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Ok, I'll try with these settings and get the exact LatencyMon values as soon as possible,

I'm pretty sure that the error counter in the BF reports 0... But I found quite incredible the amount of audio pops and crackles I got from the audio streaming.

Another 2 questions:

Is it better to leave Turbo Boost on in BIOS or not?

Using the integrated GPU: it's better to leave the d2d setting flagged or not?

Many thanks for the answers and support.

4 (edited by ramses 2021-01-17 13:35:38)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

To your initial post and MC's reply:

You are using the lowest ASIO buffersize possible at double speed regardless of CPU / ASIO load on your system.

Double speed (88.2/96) alone causes much more stress to your system, because the double amount of data has to be processed by your system in time.
VSTi's are known to suck a quite nice amount of CPU and even more at double speed.

Because a driver allows you to select a very low ASIO buffer size at single, double or even quad speed does not mean, that your computer is able to process such a load at the lowest ASIO buffer sizes.
You should also know when working with a DAW, that DAW projects can be very different and cause very different workloads for your PC.

So you need to experiment a little what ASIO buffersize needs to be set for your current project.

Also do not forget, that your BBF Pro has more channels (24) compared to the Focusrite (4).
Also the cheaper cards have usually more safety buffers implemented in the driver which means, although you configured the same ASIO buffer size, the Focusrite driver might have much higher Input/Output latencies (resulting in a higher RTL) but by cause a more severe load on your CPU.

In other words, you compared a little bit apples with oranges.

If you play through VSTi my recommendation to you is to use an ASIO buffersize of
- around 128@44.1/48 kHz and
- around 256@88.2/96 kHz.

Higher ASIO buffersizes of 256@single speed and 512@double speed result in RTL around 13-14ms which is not impossible but is close at the edge to be playable comfortably.

Using higher ASIO buffersizes would give you the benefit, that your PC has more time to process audio and puts less stress on your CPU having to look much more often to process only a little amount of audio data...

And if double speed creates a too high workload on your machine when playing through VSTi, then try single speed (44.1/48 kHz).

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Additionaly you could make use of DAW features like freezing of tracks, as this saves CPU time / ASIO load.
Imagine you want record your playing through a VSTi (e.g. virtual amp) to your backing track.
If your backing tracks use VST or even other VSTi (for drums, bass), this all costs CPU time.
In this case freeze CPU intensive tracks. DAWs like Cubase have such a nice feature.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

6 (edited by Oetzi1977 2021-01-17 14:27:49)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Ok, thank you for the answer, but I'm not confusing apple with oranges...

Many sites reports that RME drivers are absolutely the best on the market for windows systems.

13 or 14ms are absolutely not what can be defined as "low latency" and I know that a reduced buffer means a higher workload for the cpu.

I was simply expecting - and I'm sure with right settings I can - to obtain better results than old focusrite with less crackle and pops.

So don't solve solve the problem like "you don't know what you are talking about" because it's not the right way.

I repeat:

Another 2 questions:

Is it better to leave Turbo Boost on in BIOS or not?

Using the integrated GPU: it's better to leave the d2d setting flagged or not?

Many thanks for the answers and support.

7 (edited by ramses 2021-01-17 15:30:51)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

> Ok, thank you for the answer, but I'm not confusing apple with oranges...

See below..

> Many sites reports that RME drivers are absolutely the best on the market for windows systems.
Yes sure, but also this has limits as not every problem can be solved on interface / driver level.
There are still enough things that can go wrong on the computer side, be it hardware or the way you use it.
Having the possibility to configure a very low ASIO buffer size does not automatically mean, that this is possible for every DAW project / in every situation.

Check the forum and you will find  statements from MC/RME that the amount of channels can make a difference.

Its also a fact that ASIO buffer sizes of different vendors can not be compared 1 by 1 by simply comparing the numbers.
I saw myself in a review, where RME has been  compared to Focusrite, Motu, that RME RTL were about half of Focusrite.
This means, RME driver work much more efficient and deliver to you and others exactly what they want:
high performance / lowest latency.
The other side of the medaille is, whether your settings are ok for the current DAW project according to the performance of your system and this depends on the actual HW and driver being used.

I simply tried to explain to you some technical things as a basement so that you can better understand the situation
and the rationale behind my other two proposals to you, to reduce load on your system by
a) using a higher ASIO buffersize and
b) to try whether decreasing the sample rate to single speed makes any different.

Whether you like it or not, these are simple troubleshooting steps that you need to perform anyway
to check whats possible with your machine or to even find a working solution.

> Is it better to leave Turbo Boost on in BIOS or not?

It depends on your system, what the result of this is.
If you get a higher stable clock (usually 100-200 MHz more CPU clock) then this is fine.
If you get a changing clock rate for the CPU by this, then you should disable it.
Could also be the case that it increases heat, so that CPU will become throttled.

On my system I can keep Turbo on, as it insults into a 200 MHz stable clock rate.

Sorry, your other question I can't answer.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

thank you, but I'm still not convinced about the solution.

Saying that the RME drivers gives you "the best latency" compared to other soundcards it's ok, but on an optimized system (And I assure that this system IS optimized for Audio Recording) like mine should work WITHOUT audio dropout.

A technical help should be to check every single detailed voice, specifying which parameter to check.

Saying: "It' the best on the market but we can't know if you are skilled enough to make it work, then it's your problem" I repeat it's not the right way to convince anyone to purchase (or not to send back) RME products.

I'm not saying that you MUST solve my problem... but keeping it this way doesn't help me to find a starting point to check.

Where did you start to optimize your system? Which are the settings you are using at the moment? Which are the most important things to check as a starting point to avoid Latency Issues?

which are the TotalMix FX best settings to avoid cpu load?

These can be useful answers.

Thanks a lot to everyone who wants to ask.

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

It sounds like there is something else going on here. I have two pc’s one is an old i7 960 at 3.2ghz. It’s about 12 years old. I can run at 64k buffers all day long with no pops or cracks. This is with a nvidea 1030 graphics. My new pc is a i9 9900 and i can go down to the minimum 48k buffers no problem. Both computers take really a big project before I start getting problems. This pc also has the 1030 graphics. A DPD checker shows no problems on either of my machines. I am using hyper threading on both and both use turbo boost. I do have onboard audio disabled in bios and wi fi (I always used wired) My m/b is an ASUs rog strix z390 e gaming on the new machine with 32gig of memory. I bought the pc from a company who sell as an audio pc so have tested components although I did some customising myself and got a m.2 drive.

Silly question but have you changed the power plan? I use Cubase which has its own power plan. My i9 sticks at about 4.7gig while this in used.

Your pc is easily powerful enough so there must be a bottleneck somewhere or something causing the problem. I am also using a Babyface Pro FS.

Babyface Pro Fs, Behringer ADA8200, win 10/11 PCs, Cubase/Wavelab, Adam A7X monitors.

10 (edited by ramses 2021-01-17 17:49:07)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

If you think I'm not competent enough and wouldn't give you good recommendations, then I'm afraid I can't help you.

But I can tell you that I am an IT professional and in the business since about 30 years. Many years ago (~8-10) I had also problems, since then I dedicated much time in optimizing systems for audio. Long stroy short, sometimes you win, sometimes you loose with a mainboard and its drivers.

The best experience up to now I made with my current system, that I am running now since 6 years, it performes very nicely and I spend a lot of time to optimize it for being a very silent Audio, Office and Gaming PC.
The performance pattern speaks for itself:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … cks-de-en/
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … mponenten/

I am not the type of guy claiming, I know everything, but with me you have at least somebody who tries to give you some good tips and recommendations and to give you my view based on my experience why - most likely - "it is like it is".

And I also learned a lot here in this forum because RME is very open in technical conversations and gives good tips based on their experience plus the experience of a few gents here who did also do a lot of troubleshooting in this area.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

@ramses: no I never told you are not competent enough, it's a matter of approaching the answers in a useful way to try to solve problems.

@mkok: I mainly use plugins as standalone or Ableton or Reaper. What is a Power Plan? I think I'm quite unexperienced about it

12 (edited by ramses 2021-01-17 18:14:29)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

See my additions in post #10.

> it's a matter of approaching the answers in a useful way to try to solve problems.

I'm afraid you lack the necessary technical background to judge this or to make such statements.
You are also not able to recognize that I actually just wanted to kindly explain a few performance correlations to you.
But they possibly did not fit into your expectation that here "apparently RME has failed with its great drivers and would have to improve here."

You seem to retreat to the point of view that the same project ran under Focusrite and therefore should work with RME.

Any attempts on my part to convey to you that it is not exactly the same, I consider a failure. You seem to only hear (or listen to) what you want to hear.

Otherwise I can't explain why you didn't try already some proposals like e.g. using a slightly higher ASIO buffer size.
It would at least be very interesting and important whether this makes already a difference.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

ramses wrote:

See my additions in post #10.

> it's a matter of approaching the answers in a useful way to try to solve problems.

I'm afraid you lack the necessary technical background to judge this or to make such statements.
You are also not able to recognize that I actually just wanted to kindly explain a few performance correlations to you.
But they possibly did not fit into your expectation that here "apparently RME has failed with its great drivers and would have to improve here."

You seem to retreat to the point of view that the same project ran under Focusrite and therefore should work with RME.

Any attempts on my part to convey to you that it is not exactly the same, I consider a failure. You seem to only hear (or listen to) what you want to hear.

Otherwise I can't explain why you didn't try already some proposals like e.g. using a slightly higher ASIO buffer size.
It would at least be very interesting and important whether this makes already a difference.

No, you didn't. And now we can can stop it there. You are the best and I'm the worst if it makes you happy. But let's stop acting as children an go further.

@mkok: you mean 64 at 96Khz? The minimum value I can set at 96Khz is 96 samples. Which values are you using with BF Pro FS on the older PC? Thanks!

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Sorry yes on the older pc I was running 44.1 as I am on the new one. The older pc has a old m-audio fw audio interface I had spare and my son uses it for SD3.

PCs have power settings and it’s usually set to balanced. This means that the cpu will throttle back and then have to throttle back up again. It also puts drives to sleep and other things. Just type power settings and you may have to click show all settings to show all. Choose the highest setting and then go into it and change things like disk sleep time to never. There are a few YouTube videos if you search on this. Have you tried with the nvidia enabled by the way on your other boot drive?

Babyface Pro Fs, Behringer ADA8200, win 10/11 PCs, Cubase/Wavelab, Adam A7X monitors.

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

mkok wrote:

Sorry yes on the older pc I was running 44.1 as I am on the new one. The older pc has a old m-audio fw audio interface I had spare and my son uses it for SD3.

PCs have power settings and it’s usually set to balanced. This means that the cpu will throttle back and then have to throttle back up again. It also puts drives to sleep and other things. Just type power settings and you may have to click show all settings to show all. Choose the highest setting and then go into it and change things like disk sleep time to never. There are a few YouTube videos if you search on this. Have you tried with the nvidia enabled by the way on your other boot drive?

Ok! Yes I've done this kind of optimization long time ago ;-)

Everything is set to max performance, and even into BIOS I've disabled any Throttling like C-states or P-states or SpeedStep etc., so I can be quite sure the issues doesn't come from there...

16 (edited by mkok 2021-01-17 20:59:02)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

What about wi fi? I’ve heard this causes problems if you have onboard. I haven’t disabled any of the things you have on either pc. Have you tried running with the video card? The onboard usually shares some of the ram. Just trying to think what else it could be.

Also just to check. Do you get the same problem if you try 44.1 or 48 sample rate at 64k buffers or even 48k. I suspect you will but just interesting to know. Do you have a test project you can use. I have a Cubase one steinberg created which I just keep adding plugins until it falls over.

Babyface Pro Fs, Behringer ADA8200, win 10/11 PCs, Cubase/Wavelab, Adam A7X monitors.

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

No Wifi on this one.

About video card: I've heard many issues due to Nvidia Drivers and I have experienced directly. Before I got LatencyMon always giving red results related to NvidiaGfx, now it's better.

At the moment I'm testing Reaper using Neural DSP Plini with rev and Delay Engaged, which loads CPU a lot.

I'm at 96Khz - 128 Buffer - latency reported 2ms.

I've found that Ableton suffers of abnormal cpu spikes at the same values that makes some plugins unusable, but there's a big difference with Reaper so:

- Ableton has bugs that I can't understand
- Reaper is not running at the same quality as Ableton (but I can't hear any difference)

I found that sometimes, with Amplitube in standalone mode, the cracks and pops are related to the mouse pointer or windows movements, but this happened even with GFX enabled.

I'm using - at the moment - Microsoft chipset drivers (Gigabyte doesn't have windows 10 chipset drivers on website for Z97x).

Still can't understand if there's a way to obtain updated and best drivers for this chipset...

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Oetzi1977 wrote:
ramses wrote:

See my additions in post #10.

> it's a matter of approaching the answers in a useful way to try to solve problems.

I'm afraid you lack the necessary technical background to judge this or to make such statements.
You are also not able to recognize that I actually just wanted to kindly explain a few performance correlations to you.
But they possibly did not fit into your expectation that here "apparently RME has failed with its great drivers and would have to improve here."

You seem to retreat to the point of view that the same project ran under Focusrite and therefore should work with RME.

Any attempts on my part to convey to you that it is not exactly the same, I consider a failure. You seem to only hear (or listen to) what you want to hear.

Otherwise I can't explain why you didn't try already some proposals like e.g. using a slightly higher ASIO buffer size.
It would at least be very interesting and important whether this makes already a difference.

No, you didn't. And now we can can stop it there. You are the best and I'm the worst if it makes you happy. But let's stop acting as children an go further.

Hello!

I cannot see why you got offended. Perhaps, you got "lost in translation" and misjudged the situation..
You could have replied to Ramses in a different manner, something along the lines of "I wouldn't like to increase the buffer, because it increases latency, do you have any other suggestions in mind?" or something.
I wouldn't have commented on that, but I didn't like how the discussion turned out from your side.

Anyway,

As MC and Ramses have kindly mentioned, actual RTL is what really matters!

Here's a link: http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2018/0 … tency.html

to get a better idea of what they mean.

Now, regarding your question, you should be aware that even if one single CPU core reaches 100 per cent, then audio stuttering happens, i.e pops and crackles.

Also, keep in mind that the BF Pro FS uses internal DSP for EQs, but the Effects use the CPU for processing.

Another thing is to try switching USB Ports, and see if that makes a difference. Preferably, you should try one that comes directly from your Mobo's Chipset(back of PC).

If you have many Usb devices connected, unplug them all and leave only the BF Pro connected. Check if the crackles stop.

About the NVidia card, have you tried this? https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverr … 7971/en-us
I don't have an NVidia card, so I don't know if this will work or if your card is supported.

Any i-Loks? These are messing with Usb controllers!

Also, if you have any Gigabyte Central MoBo-Features App, uninstall it, and check if the crackles stop.

Another thing is that the Plini Plug-in might not be optimized for 96K operation, and that might explain the high CPU load.

If you look here: https://support.neuraldsp.com/help/other-issues
the suggested Sample Rate is 44.1kHz.

Another test would be to perform your tests offline, because however well-optimized a system can be, when there are constant background apps like program updates etc running, CPU stability goes off the rails. And that is critical in audio applications, especially in such low latencies.

Also, set Windows optimization to "Background Tasks", if you haven't allready.

RME Gear: Digiface USB, HDSP 9632

19 (edited by ramses 2021-01-18 08:13:41)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Thanks MetalHeadKeys for jumping in.

He missed completely the point that the objective is not to be better then the other person, but simply to be / stay open to things and to find a viable solution.

Nobody forced him to always play at 13ms. I simply wanted to tell him what RTL still allows you to play guitar. I am also guitarist and know, that it is still possible to play though an AMP simulation when the RTL is 13ms.

This gives you the possibility to use / try different ASIO buffer sizes as RME drivers have a very low RTL, see also the Excel snapshot below.
44.1/48 kHz: 32 - 256
88.2/96:  64 - 512
By using slighly higher ASIO buffersizes you reduce the stress on the system (CPU / ASIO load) and you can maybe compensate the additional performance demands if your interface has a higher amount of channels at double speed.

And it is absolutely no problem to play through a virtual amp with RTLs below 10ms. This still is possible with an RME product at the following ASIO buffersizes and it does not have to be the lowest one:
44.1/48 kHz: 32 - 128
88.2/96:  64 - 256

The usual RTL of different RME products that I owned you can see here:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/index.php/Attachment/2343-UFX-UFX-RayDAT-Latencies-v2-jpg/

At least I would expect from this thread that he tries whether a higher ASIO buffer size and single speed (44.1) changes something and maybe fixes the issue. This would at least give some ideas whether its possible or not.

I tried already to explain that his new interface has more channels and that the PC has to transfer a higher audio bandwith, expecially as he uses double speed (96 kHz).

What he also did not seem to understand is, that "RTL-wise" most likely nothing would change in comparison to the Focusrite, when using slightly higher ASIO buffersizes with the RME. The Focusrite driver most likely forced him to use the lowest ASIO buffersize to stay under 10ms RTL. With the RME driver I expect that he has the flexibility to use
44.1/48 kHz: 32 - 128
88.2/96:  64 - 256
AND to stay below 10ms RTL.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

20 (edited by ramses 2021-01-18 08:47:11)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

A little more research on this topic, I found something on the reaper forum from 2016 (not too long ago)
https://forum.cockos.com/archive/index. … 74445.html

Typical RTL with Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 with ASIO driver:
@ 44.1 kHz
- buffer 64: 596 Rep. RTL/523.8 Meas. RTL/11.876 ms
- buffer 128: 916 Rep. RTL/803.5 Meas. RTL/18.220 ms
- buffer 256: 1556 Rep. RTL/1183.9 Meas. RTL/26.845 ms
- buffer 512: 2836 Rep. RTL/1949.8 Meas. RTL/44.212 ms

So with Focusrite you need an ASIO buffersize of 64 at single speed to achieve an RTL of 11.8ms.
I assume newer drivers might also support 32 samples of ASIO buffer size at single speed
(this would be 64 ASIO buffers at double speed, your settings)
which is needed with Focusrite drivers to come under 10ms RTL.

With RME this is different. Lets simply compare the values at single speed, because I do not have the numbers for double speed at hand.
With RME you can safely use a buffersize of 128 to get much better results of around 7-8 ms, which is definitively under 10ms and perfect for playing guitar.

Conclusion:
For double speed you need to double the buffer (because you use double bandwidth of data).
Which means with RME you can very easily use an ASIO buffersize of 256 and still stay under 10ms RTL.
The RME drivers are better, have lower latency, which gives you the possibility to use higher buffersizes, when needed,
e.g. in your case where your machine seems to get too much stress with 24 channels at double speed and such low ASIO buffers.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Also, keep in mind that the BF Pro FS uses internal DSP for EQs, but the Effects use the CPU for processing.

Are you talking about TotalMixFx Effects? Does it makes sense to "mute" them or it's useless?

Another thing is to try switching USB Ports, and see if that makes a difference. Preferably, you should try one that comes directly from your Mobo's Chipset(back of PC).

Done before ;-)

If you have many Usb devices connected, unplug them all and leave only the BF Pro connected. Check if the crackles stop.

Done before ;-)

About the NVidia card, have you tried this? https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverr … 7971/en-us
I don't have an NVidia card, so I don't know if this will work or if your card is supported.

No studio drivers for my gt740 unfortunately

Any i-Loks? These are messing with Usb controllers!

No usb i-loks

Also, if you have any Gigabyte Central MoBo-Features App, uninstall it, and check if the crackles stop.

Never installed anything like this ;-)

Also, set Windows optimization to "Background Tasks", if you haven't allready.

Done many many time before big_smile

I've downloaded RTL Utility from Oblique Audio, should I perform the test putting a cable from the hedphone out straight back into instrument input, right? Or it can be dangerous for the audio card?

@ramses: sorry for the misunderstanding, it was probably my fault. The key to right comprehension of the problem is the "double speed": "Which means with RME you can very easily use an ASIO buffersize of 256 and still stay under 10ms RTL." I was not focused on this aspect and this is my mistake.

22 (edited by ramses 2021-01-18 17:56:47)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

No problem, it's a difficult topic if you are new to it and thank you that we could get together again wink

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

ramses wrote:

No problem, it's a difficult topic if you are new to it and thank you that we could get together again wink

smile

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

I must admit I’ve run out of ideas. If you get this sorted please post what it was.

Babyface Pro Fs, Behringer ADA8200, win 10/11 PCs, Cubase/Wavelab, Adam A7X monitors.

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Basically: as ramses suggest, due to the superior quality of RME drivers should be ok to run at 48Khz.

With this setting at minimum buffer I've experienced no droputs,

96khz 256 samples seems pretty stable, just some minor dropout.

But if I understood it's useless to stress the system with "double speed" setting.

My biggest mistake was to make a comparison with focusrite setting without considering RTL

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

You could make a last experiment with 96 kHz and ASIO buffersize of 512... What RTL is this with your ASIO driver ?

This results for my interface with MADIface driver in: 5,5ms/6,1ms Input/Output latency = RTL of 11.6ms
This might still be less latency compared to your Focusrite. And as I said 13,5 ms RTL was still sufficient for me to play in.

On the other hand you will have less issues with single speed (44.1/48 kHz)
as every VST - that you might add later - brings more system load with it at double speed compared to single speed. And at single speed its easier to run with 64 or 128 samples ASIO buffersize to be definitively under 10ms RTL which feels a little bit nicer.

You can try to improve things a little by trying other / additional fine tuning.
I would definitively deactive Windows Core Parking, this you can do easiest by using Bitsums tool parkcontrol.
https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/

Using LatencyMon you can see whether your system becomes more or less agile by tuning (BIOS or Windows)
or by using different drivers or disabling certain background processes.

For measuring .. LatencyMon v7 has now the nice feature to display highest AND now also average values.
This is very helpful to see, how your CPU cores are blocked by other processes or low level routines.
The highest values are the worst case, the average values support this by visualizing the average load.
The smaller those values are, the more agile your CPU can react to interrupt routines and process a workload
(trying to summarize in easy words).

Set LatencyMon to measure Interrupt to DPC and user process latency:
Options -> General:
[x] Retrieve reported DPC and ISR information from the operating system
(x) interrupt to user process latency

Then you can see in the TAB "stats" information above both
Average and Highest measured times for
- interrupt to process latency
- interrupt to DPC latency

You should run this tool as Administrator and no other programs should run, as this tool also simulates a typical DAW load.
So it needs to additional workload otherwise values can not be compared to each other.

One example from my system:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  0:01:00  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name:                                        SUPERMICRO
OS version:                                           Windows 10, 10.0, version 2009, build: 19042 (x64)
Hardware:                                             Super Server, Supermicro
CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1650 v4 @ 3.60GHz
Logical processors:                                   12
Processor groups:                                     1
RAM:                                                  32641 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   360 MHz

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   124,90
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   2,477983

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       122,90
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       0,735809


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              124,2350
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0,017424
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0,020114

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   62268
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs):               0
ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              324,276667
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       ndis.sys - NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification), Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0,028932
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         Wdf01000.sys - Kernelmodustreiber-Frameworklaufzeit, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0,061605

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   188105
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs):              2
DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.


Process with highest pagefault count:                 none

Total number of hard pagefaults                       0
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          0
Number of processes hit:                              0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       1,040459
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                124,2350
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,142416
CPU 0 ISR count:                                      52331
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                324,276667
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,433711
CPU 0 DPC count:                                      186218
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,167320
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 1 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 1 DPC count:                                      0
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,201338
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 2 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs):                53,844167
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,002505
CPU 2 DPC count:                                      603
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,179485
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 3 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs):                76,098333
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000138
CPU 3 DPC count:                                      8
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,181959
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 4 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs):                44,640
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,001196
CPU 4 DPC count:                                      246
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,165045
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 5 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 5 DPC count:                                      0
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,186671
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 6 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs):                52,76250
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,002014
CPU 6 DPC count:                                      422
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,176174
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 7 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs):                61,400833
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000079
CPU 7 DPC count:                                      3
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 8 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,184868
CPU 8 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 8 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 8 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 8 DPC highest execution time (µs):                27,293333
CPU 8 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000362
CPU 8 DPC count:                                      62
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 9 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,174275
CPU 9 ISR highest execution time (µs):                1,120
CPU 9 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,000028
CPU 9 ISR count:                                      109
CPU 9 DPC highest execution time (µs):                5,331667
CPU 9 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000007
CPU 9 DPC count:                                      3
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 10 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,210319
CPU 10 ISR highest execution time (µs):                2,526667
CPU 10 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,002567
CPU 10 ISR count:                                      9828
CPU 10 DPC highest execution time (µs):                218,121667
CPU 10 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,003254
CPU 10 DPC count:                                      500
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 11 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,178424
CPU 11 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 11 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 11 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 11 DPC highest execution time (µs):                323,78250
CPU 11 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000863
CPU 11 DPC count:                                      42
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

It can also be helpful to use O&O Win10 Shutup to enhance privacy and stop running not needed services:
https://www.oo-software.com/de/shutup10

You need to run it as Administrator and as user.
If your user should have admin credentials (sadly the default from security perspective)
then you can run both at once.
I disable nearly everything including Cortana, etc ...

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Aaah, very nice to see the rest of the conversation!! smile

Oetzi1977 wrote:

Are you talking about TotalMixFx Effects? Does it makes sense to "mute" them or it's useless?

Yes, I 'm talking about the effects in TotalMixFx! I don't know, for sure, if it makes sense to mute them, because this is an RME Driver, so I 'd guess that if you don't use effects, the driver doesn't put any stress on the CPU. But you can check!

I've downloaded RTL Utility from Oblique Audio, should I perform the test putting a cable from the hedphone out straight back into instrument input, right? Or it can be dangerous for the audio card?

I 'm not sure about that, I don't think it's dangerous(apart from feedback loop), because impedance-wise there is no mismatch.
Phones Output Impendance is 10 Ohm
Instrument Input is 1 MOhm
But, please, wait for verification from someone else, as I 've never tried anything similar!!


Also, to add a bit on the main subject(because Ramses covered everything), I forgot to mention that good sounding guitar plug-ins use Oversampling, internally!

Some have a setting for the users to set that, others don't!
So, imagine a plug-in having x8 or x16 Oversampling, and multiply that by 96K!
Add the lowest buffer setting to the equation............> CPU goes nuts!! smile smile

RME Gear: Digiface USB, HDSP 9632

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Thank you for the support guys,

Here are the result with ramses' settings at 96Khz 256 samples

__________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts. 
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  0:04:47  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name:                                        DESKTOP
OS version:                                           Windows 10, 10.0, version 2009, build: 19042 (x64)
Hardware:                                             Z97X-UD5H, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Logical processors:                                   8
Processor groups:                                     1
RAM:                                                  16145 MB total


__________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   40 MHz

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel 
Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from 
the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the 
signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   268,90
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   2,004115

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       73,60
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       0,622956


__________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED ISRs
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt 
signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              6,113250
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       Wdf01000.sys - Runtime framework driver modalità kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0,000439
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   Wdf01000.sys - Runtime framework driver modalità kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0,000505

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   53271
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs):               0
ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


__________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU 
while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              272,04450
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       tcpip.sys - Driver TCP/IP, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0,004670
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         Wdf01000.sys - Runtime framework driver modalità kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0,011437

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   157932
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs):              1
DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


__________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS

Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory 
mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is 
interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio 
stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 svchost.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       1060
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          258
Number of processes hit:                              20


__________________________________________________________________________________________________
 PER CPU DATA
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,705514
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                6,113250
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,011595
CPU 0 ISR count:                                      53271
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                117,656250
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,213440
CPU 0 DPC count:                                      136688
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,090914
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 1 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                26,290
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,001068
CPU 1 DPC count:                                      358
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,176977
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 2 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs):                152,2970
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,020629
CPU 2 DPC count:                                      8443
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,108278
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 3 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs):                17,8130
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000656
CPU 3 DPC count:                                      342
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,132110
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 4 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs):                272,04450
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,009468
CPU 4 DPC count:                                      5099
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,104526
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 5 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs):                15,2170
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,005563
CPU 5 DPC count:                                      2510
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,169617
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 6 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs):                14,6970
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,009594
CPU 6 DPC count:                                      3857
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,119205
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 7 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs):                18,429250
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,002260
CPU 7 DPC count:                                      636
_________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS

Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory
mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is
interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio
stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops.
Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 svchost.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       1060
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          258
Number of processes hit:                              20

Babyface Pro FS, MSI GS66, Studio One

31 (edited by Oetzi1977 2021-01-19 14:26:15)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Ok, another mistake sorry... I was sure that even on this installation my Virtual memory was set to off but NOW it is,

Here are the result of ramses' suggested test:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts. 
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  0:05:00  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name:                                        DESKTOP
OS version:                                           Windows 10, 10.0, version 2009, build: 19042 (x64)
Hardware:                                             Z97X-UD5H, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Logical processors:                                   8
Processor groups:                                     1
RAM:                                                  16145 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   40 MHz

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   253,30
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   1,992506

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       252,0
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       0,616397


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              5,8670
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       USBPORT.SYS - Driver porta USB 1.1 & 2.0, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0,000389
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   Wdf01000.sys - Runtime framework driver modalità kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0,000449

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   50554
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs):               0
ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              250,306250
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       ntoskrnl.exe - NT Kernel & System, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0,004390
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         Wdf01000.sys - Runtime framework driver modalità kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0,008699

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   134846
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs):              1
DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 svchost.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       241
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          85
Number of processes hit:                              15


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,688205
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                5,8670
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,010779
CPU 0 ISR count:                                      50554
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                250,306250
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,189606
CPU 0 DPC count:                                      123673
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,105361
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 1 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                11,85450
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,001882
CPU 1 DPC count:                                      1290
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,165759
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 2 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs):                40,160
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,004509
CPU 2 DPC count:                                      2790
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,149123
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 3 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs):                12,437750
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000468
CPU 3 DPC count:                                      350
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,147891
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 4 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs):                25,976750
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,005764
CPU 4 DPC count:                                      3929
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,145006
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 5 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs):                15,1930
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,001219
CPU 5 DPC count:                                      542
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,191414
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 6 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs):                12,499250
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,004024
CPU 6 DPC count:                                      1867
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,159508
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 7 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs):                14,657750
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,001356
CPU 7 DPC count:                                      406
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

32 (edited by ramses 2021-01-19 15:30:20)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Ok, not sure whether 96kHz makes a big difference on this synthetic generated DAW load.
But I set it also to 96kHz and ASIO buffersize of 128 and ran it for 5 minutes to make numbers most comparable to your settings. The systhem should be IDLE, no applications running, all application windows closed, no mouse movement.
CPU frequency is not being correctly measured, here constant 3,8 GHz.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts. 
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  0:05:00  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name:                                        SUPERMICRO
OS version:                                           Windows 10, 10.0, version 2009, build: 19042 (x64)
Hardware:                                             Super Server, Supermicro
CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1650 v4 @ 3.60GHz
Logical processors:                                   12
Processor groups:                                     1
RAM:                                                  32641 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   360 MHz

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):  162,50
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):     2,51950

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):        160,40
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):           0,813720


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):             240,523333
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:      dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0,048801
Driver with highest ISR total time:                          dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                                  0,051256

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   274062
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                        0
ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs):                      0
ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs):                    0
ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs):                    0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                         0
 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              214,251667
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       ndis.sys - NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification), Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):           0,026616
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:           Wdf01000.sys - Kernelmodustreiber-Frameworklaufzeit, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                                     0,058559

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                        942036
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                   0
DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs):               0
DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs):               0
DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs):               0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                    0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 [b]dropbox.exe[/b]

Total number of hard pagefaults                       6
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:    3
Number of processes hit:                                   3


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       6,163233
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                240,523333
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   1,834076
CPU 0 ISR count:                                      235009
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                214,251667
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   2,060452
CPU 0 DPC count:                                      933563
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,894923
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 1 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                1,70
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000004
CPU 1 DPC count:                                      3
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,979016
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 2 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs):                193,405833
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,011971
CPU 2 DPC count:                                      1817
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,966883
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 3 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs):                70,150
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000493
CPU 3 DPC count:                                      116
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,893035
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 4 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs):                40,3750
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,003509
CPU 4 DPC count:                                      880
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,833066
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 5 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs):                56,739167
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000107
CPU 5 DPC count:                                      18
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,933131
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 6 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs):                67,0450
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,002635
CPU 6 DPC count:                                      699
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,892234
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 7 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs):                34,116667
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000099
CPU 7 DPC count:                                      15
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 8 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,872333
CPU 8 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 8 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 8 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 8 DPC highest execution time (µs):                68,094167
CPU 8 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,001592
CPU 8 DPC count:                                      330
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 9 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,857448
CPU 9 ISR highest execution time (µs):                1,440833
CPU 9 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,000212
CPU 9 ISR count:                                      855
CPU 9 DPC highest execution time (µs):                33,62750
CPU 9 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000374
CPU 9 DPC count:                                      59
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 10 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       1,004121
CPU 10 ISR highest execution time (µs):                3,580
CPU 10 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,012087
CPU 10 ISR count:                                      38198
CPU 10 DPC highest execution time (µs):                73,070
CPU 10 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,011232
CPU 10 DPC count:                                      1711
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 11 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       1,040699
CPU 11 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 11 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 11 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 11 DPC highest execution time (µs):                70,74250
CPU 11 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,016957
CPU 11 DPC count:                                      2825
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Still a lot of hard pagefaults, and many different processes, would you check which processes are affected under "Processes".

Total number of hard pagefaults                       241
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          85
Number of processes hit:                              15

Babyface Pro FS, MSI GS66, Studio One

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

@ramses: so I should try 96khz 128buffer

And let it run for 5 minutes?

35 (edited by ramses 2021-01-19 17:07:13)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

No not necessary. I explained already in post #32 why I posted the logs of another run. I wanted the make the numbers between us more compareable by using the same parameters: 5 min test time and 96 kHz and ASIO buffersize of 128.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Ok I'll try as soon as possible wink

What about hard pagefaults? Should I reach "0"?

37 (edited by ramses 2021-01-19 18:17:25)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Windows optimises the memory from time to time and stores data that is not used so often in the virtual memory (pagefile). If it does need to be accessed, there is a hard page fault when reading the data from the pagefile. If this happens only once in a while and remains within the limits, then it is not a big deal.

For example, if it happens too often due to too little main memory, it has two undesirable effects.
1. it can slow down applications that access virtual memory
2. it has a negative impact on the overall performance of your system, because the increased disk I/O activity increases the system load.
In extreme cases it can lead to
a) many competing programmes simply have too little main memory and that the system is constantly busy with pages or swapping (*) and the programmes hinder each other.
b) programmes have to be stopped in execution because the data could not yet be read from disk ("I/O Wait").

(*) The former is the swapping of individual memory pages to virtual memory, the latter is the swapping of entire processes.

Fortunately, SSDs are now many times faster than hard disks, but still slower than main memory.

I would not worry too much if there are no real problems.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

I ran the test on mine for about 30 mins and it had 24 hard page faults. None related to audio. I have 32Gig memory and probably use around 10Gig max

Babyface Pro Fs, Behringer ADA8200, win 10/11 PCs, Cubase/Wavelab, Adam A7X monitors.

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

BTW .. as we talk about DRAM usage.
What I would generally suggest is to deactivate Windows Quickstart.
A fresh initialized system is better and has a smaller memory  footprint.

Fresh initialized my system uses around 4GB.
With Quick boot enabled it can be 6+ GB.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

40 (edited by Oetzi1977 2021-01-19 19:24:58)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Quickstart already disabled wink

Here are the results 5min aprox. 96Khz 128 buffer size

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  0:05:56  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name:                                        DESKTOP
OS version:                                           Windows 10, 10.0, version 2009, build: 19042 (x64)
Hardware:                                             Z97X-UD5H, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Logical processors:                                   8
Processor groups:                                     1
RAM:                                                  16145 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   40 MHz

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   43,90
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   1,972178

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       42,60
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       0,604472


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              5,8130
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       USBPORT.SYS - Driver porta USB 1.1 & 2.0, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0,000421
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   Wdf01000.sys - Runtime framework driver modalità kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0,000480

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   61781
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs):               0
ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              56,472250
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       Wdf01000.sys - Runtime framework driver modalità kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0,004663
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         Wdf01000.sys - Runtime framework driver modalità kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0,009169

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   163659
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 svchost.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       198
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          82
Number of processes hit:                              8


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,827826
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                5,8130
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,013682
CPU 0 ISR count:                                      61781
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                56,472250
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,237158
CPU 0 DPC count:                                      150409
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,123069
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 1 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                11,47550
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,001784
CPU 1 DPC count:                                      1359
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,191837
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 2 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs):                12,913250
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,006294
CPU 2 DPC count:                                      4163
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,162562
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 3 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs):                11,54750
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000505
CPU 3 DPC count:                                      281
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,180235
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 4 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs):                19,820750
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,007770
CPU 4 DPC count:                                      4457
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,149606
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 5 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs):                14,8870
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000489
CPU 5 DPC count:                                      201
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,235618
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 6 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs):                24,867750
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,007039
CPU 6 DPC count:                                      2715
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,156076
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 7 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs):                15,759250
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,000272
CPU 7 DPC count:                                      74
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Looks good.
And what were your results with DAW projects @96 kHz and ASIO buffersize of 512 ?
Energy Profile set to high performance !
Eventually also disabling Windows CPU core parking .... as suggested.
What RTL ? Feasible for playing guitar ? Audio drops ?

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

42 (edited by Oetzi1977 2021-01-20 18:47:22)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Hi Ramses,

I've attached the result of a test done with Oblique Audio App.

My Energy Profile is set to High Performance (I have disabled any energy saving on usb devices).

Still'haven't tried with Core Parking Disabled.

You told that you're a guitar player too, is it right? Can you hear any difference between 48Khz and 96Khz? Is there any concrete advantage in higher res when using Amp Sims from your point of view and experience?

I know it's a very very old and boring debate... wink

https://ibb.co/VtpbwVm

43 (edited by ramses 2021-01-20 19:04:38)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

> Still'haven't tried with Core Parking Disabled.

The special cubase energy profile enables this as well, but then you have an advantage for all of your apps.

> You told that you're a guitar player too, is it right? Can you hear any difference between 48Khz and 96Khz?

Never tried, but I am very confident that 44.1 is fully sufficient. With 24bit its even better than CD quality dynamic wise.
Some people claim, 96kHz might give an advantage when working with certain VST/VSTi .. well try on your own.

I personally would use double speed only for very high quality Jazz or Classic recordings where everything is on a very high neveau, the musicians, the room, the mics, etc ...

One sound example: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/index.ph … orrow-mp3/ me: guitar on the right side.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

One sound example: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/index.ph … orrow-mp3/ me: guitar on the right side.

Very nice playing!

45 (edited by ramses 2021-01-20 19:30:05)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Many thanks wink And all at more or less bedroom level wink

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Is it true that core parking disable lets your cpu temp raising significantly? I was a little bit scared 'cos I'm on stock intel cpu fan which is known to have very poor cooling performances.

What about rtl test? Did you find the values normal due to your experience?

47 (edited by ramses 2021-01-21 12:34:57)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

> Is it true that core parking disable lets your cpu temp raising significantly?

What shall I say .. depends on case, cooling, etc. You could use the prime benchmark which puts a severe computing load on the CPUs (one of the highest possible) and then observe with HWMonitor the temperature of each of the cores.
From Intel specs you can see the temperature limit of each CPU.
For your CPU Tcase is 74°C, see https://ark.intel.com/content/www/de/de … -ghz.html, Tcase ("Enclosure Temperature") means the maximum temperature allowed for the Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS) in the processor.
IMHO each modern CPU should throttle anyway, if temperatures become too high. But this is no "solution" to think, the CPU manages it all .. Throttling means: lower CPU clock, lower performance -> audio drops.

By this you can validated your PC to be able to process an extremely high workload and find out whether disabling CPU core parking is feasible for your system or not.

You could also think about putting components into a bigger case (if you have only a small tower), then the case temperature can be lowered. Or take better
- Heat-conducting paste
- CPU cooler (good design, lot of heat pipes)
- silent but efficient blower in front of the cooler
- better / more efficient cooler for the case to get cool/fresh air into the case and to blow out hot air
- check that airflow does not become interrupted
- big case usually also prevents that things heat up all together, cooling with hot air is also not so efficient ...

BTW .. I am not 100% sure, whether CPU core parking will be automatically disabled automatically once a CPU load is so high, that all cores are needed. If you want to know then you can check also check this with tools like e.g. Microsoft Resource Monitor. The deactivated CPU cores are dimmed in the CPU graph (maybe there are also other tools to show this).

> What about rtl test? Did you find the values normal due to your experience?

RTL test ? LatencyMon is no RTL test, your RTL is fix (times depending on the efficiency of ASIO driver and the selected ASIO buffersize and the sample rate to a lower degree.
LatencyMon shows you whether the CPU resources are already much in use by bad drivers or settings.
The more the CPU is busy by driver and background process load and a certain interrrupt load, the less time it has for "processing audio in time".

Especially bad drivers are bad for a system. Windows is no realtime OS, where you could configure or guarantee certain devices a certain response time. Instead of this everything runs of certain "programming conversions".
Low level routines (drivers) run on the highest prio and can not be interrupted by the Windows process scheduler.
This ensures that computer I/O can finalize to be able to guarantee much higher data integrity (comparable with drinking something, doesn't make sense to stop in the middle of the swallowing process either). They run as long until the driver decides to give the CPU free for other tasks. Well written drivers do not block the CPU for too long.

And this is what LatencyMon can give you .. a list of drvivers and how long the max runtime of them was to get an indication, whether a certain driver causes issues.

Because if the Windows Task scheduler schedules an audio process to a cpu core that is currently blocked by low level routines for too long,  then audio can not be processed in time.

You can workaround this, by trying to incease ASIO buffer size (to reduce interrupt load and reduce the number of DPC calls and by this reduce interrupts/context switches) so that the system can work more efficient on audio.
Otherwise - with low ASIO buffersizes - you also generate more interrups and driver load on CPUs. as the audio driver needs to be called more often, to process I/O in smaller portions from the I/O ports.

At the end of the day LatencyMon simulates a DAW load and from the numbers it will tell you whether the system is agile enough to process a DAW load. If the DPC latencies (not the RTL over USB) inside of the system are too high, then LatencyMon yells ...

Another method to make your CPU work more efficiently is to change the Window Task scheduler settings to optimize for "background tasks". This Windows "description" of it is IMHO a "misnomer".

What it does it to make the time slices bigger how long the CPU is allowed to work on a task. By this the CPU is able to spend a little more time on each task to work more efficient on it as this reduces the number of context switches (which are quite "expensive") when a CPU has to change the context for jumping between the different processes / threads. See here a summary from me after doing a little research on this topic. https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … es-or-not/

Why I proposed to turn-off Windows core parking ? The sleeping CPU core is not available for processing your compute load.
And it takes time to put cores to sleep and to wake up until they are ready for operation.
If you select in cubase -> studio settings ->
[x] Moduls for optimized audio performance from Steinberg (translated from german)
then a Stainberg specific energy profile will be selected and cpu core parking will also be deactivated as long as you run the DAW. I proposed to change "High Performance" energy profile as well, so that you have such high performance also for other applications available, not only for the DAW. Or .. to have that performance even if your DAW does not have such a setting or .. if you forget to enable this in Cubase.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Put simply, core parking is not for cpu temperature but for power saving. A cpu doing nothing without or with cores parked will be roughly only a few degrees above room temperature. Under high load there will be no cores parked so temp will be the same with or without core parking enabled. It is that simple.

A cpu with it cores parked can drop in power consumption quit meaningfully in the order of 25w idle dropping to 3 w idle. In a data centre with 1000 or 10000's or even 100000's ofcpu's this is very meaningfull. For one daw not so much.

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
BFpro fs, 2X HDSP9652 ADI-8AE, 2X HDSP9632

49 (edited by ramses 2021-01-21 16:55:02)

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Thanks vinark, didn't have it in memory anymore.
As soon as system load becomes higher, the parked cores will all be woken up automatically.
Also CPU clock will be raised (shall that be lower by other power profile).

And yes, the point heat is maybe only interesting for Laptops that they cool down a little bit quicker and
maybe mainly to save energy if you run on battery.

The reason for
- choosing Power Profile "High Performance"
- disabling CPU core parking
is to avoid a certain lag,
- until parked system resources are ready for use after waking up from C6 (usually takes >250 microseconds, which is quite high)
- which also is generated by changing CPU clock

Therefore:
- using high performance power profile
- disabling CPU core parking
- using BIOS settings that disable energy saving and keep the clock stable
results in an agile system with lower DPC latencies where optimum performance is simply there and can immediately be used by processes without any wait time/ lag involved.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Babyface Pro FS pops and crackles

Exactly Ramses!

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
BFpro fs, 2X HDSP9652 ADI-8AE, 2X HDSP9632