• Registered: 2009-11-21
  • Posts: 14

Topic: Clicks on Sound Forge playback

Hello,

When using Sound Forge and playing back files I always get a small click/pop on play start. Sometimes it seems part of the audio is skipped too, especially at start of the file. It doesn't happen when playing with loop mode when the file starts over. And with Nuendo I never have any problems, only Sound Forge (version 9.0e) and when starting playback, no matter where in the timeline.

Also, this happens with both my quad core desktop and dual core laptop, both with Windows XP SP3. I also remember the same thing occurred with Multiface (1st edition) I have in my studio, when I used it with PCI-card, the same quad core desktop and Sound Forge.

The drivers and firmware are current. I've tried fooling around with different driver options in Sound Forge, even changed some buffer options but it doesn't help or maybe I just don't know the correct combination. 

This problem is a minor nuisance when playing back whole songs but when checking out small files like sound effects it is highly annoying as I can't really be sure whether the click is in the file or not. Skipping parts of audio makes it even worse.

Although I'm very pleased using Fireface UC with other programs, this seems a little odd because all the other USB interfaces I've tried during the years work ok with Sound Forge.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Stakula

  • From: Melbourne, Australia
  • Registered: 2007-05-16
  • Posts: 495

Re: Clicks on Sound Forge playback

I can sometimes get the same thing with SF9.0e - I'm using a FF400 on a quad-core.  But it can also do the same thing on the back-up M-Audio PCIe card.

Even more disconcerting, jumping around in a long file using a mouse clicks (especially at 96kHz) will occasionally produce a brief burst of digital noise - like playing back 'non-audio' data.   It is not in the RME drivers because it appears on the playback meters within SF.  Seems like disc I/O screws up - like using the wrong buffer.  Me and my DAW builder have not been able to track this down so far.

If it's any consolation, SF Pro 10 seems to play much more nicely (but I'm not going to ask Sony why as they might tell me that the ASIO drivers and HD I/O routines are the same as in SF9 .... ).

De gustibus - et sonus - non est disputandum
  • Registered: 2009-11-21
  • Posts: 14

Re: Clicks on Sound Forge playback

Hmm, I've been getting some reasonable upgrade offers for Sound Forge 10, maybe I'll try it out! Thanks for the help!

Stakula


panatrope wrote:

...If it's any consolation, SF Pro 10 seems to play much more nicely (but I'm not going to ask Sony why as they might tell me that the ASIO drivers and HD I/O routines are the same as in SF9 .... ).

  • Registered: 2009-11-21
  • Posts: 14

Re: Clicks on Sound Forge playback

Hey,

It seems Sound Forge 10 has indeed solved this problem! Not perfectly, though. Using ASIO drivers creates a weird effet - when stopping playback, SF seems to repeat some buffer creating a delayed pattern, like a last beat of the bar is repeated. Luckily, using MME drivers this doesn't happen at all and the clicks/pops are gone.

Be aware of the upgrade offer though - VAT gets added to the price in the last pages of transaction (EU VAT for me, living in Finland) and there's no special field to insert EU VAT number of your company to get rid of this extra cost. I kind of wonder where the EU VAT cost really goes when billed by US based company. I'm guessing to Sony's pocket. Consumer service form is full of annoying little questions like version numbers and such which are not related to purchase details at all. I won't even bother...

It seems after Sony purchased Sound Forge, the software has been getting buggier, updates are not that common, new versions cost more and add less interesting features - topped with cumbersome customer service. I just hope they won't ruin this once great software in the long run...

Well, the main thing is that I got the SF working, thanks for the tip!

Stakula

  • From: Melbourne, Australia
  • Registered: 2007-05-16
  • Posts: 495

Re: Clicks on Sound Forge playback

I have also had a problem with the Asio drivers on SF Audio Studio 9.0d on another i7 DAW which is used for broadcast purposes, and has a couple of HDSPe cards.  On entering record or playback, an exception occurs and the program quits.  Doesn't do it with WDM drivers (but this is not an acceptable solution).   SFAS9 is in constant use on my P4 Centrino laptop (with FF400) and I basically regard it as bulletproof (also used for broadcast purposes) in that environment.  Not so on the i7 obviously ...

SF should be no problem on multi processors as it was dual processor capable back like version 5.  But I think former SF resources have been progressively drained to support other projects like Vegas and ACID.  Also subject to creeping featurism  ... still haven't worked out whether event based editing is their response to WaveLab montage.

Otherwise, I don't think it is related to any issue within RME ASIO drivers

De gustibus - et sonus - non est disputandum
  • Registered: 2012-06-03
  • Posts: 1

Re: Clicks on Sound Forge playback

This is easy to fix in soundforge and I presume other Sony software.
You are for sure using the Windows Classic Waves driver in forge in order to support other sample rates as ASIO would play perfectly.

Go to the Audio settings for soundforge. In SF10 its Preferences/Audio.
Click on advanced tab and change the buffer size to around 1024.
This buffers the first 1024 bytes before playing and works perfectly - no pause, no clicks.

Allister