Troubleshooting Computer Audio Performance

The following is a compilation of suggestions for improving the audio performance of your computer. The following workarounds may have minimal, drastic, or no effect on your particular computer system. We encourage you to experiment to find which workaround(s) work best for your particular setup.

Computer Is Running With The Latest Operating Systems and Updates

It is best practice to run with the latest Operating Systems and updates. This will ensure that you are not experiencing any issue that has already been addressed in the current release of Operating System. This also holds true for Apple's Bootcamp systems.

Determine If The Issue Is Specific To One Application

If you are experiencing a problem in an application, it is always a good idea to test with another application. It is also important to try a variety of applications, test not only with processor hungry Digital Audio Workstations but also with a simple Media Player application. If the problem only occurs within the DAW than you may want to focus your troubleshooting within the application. If the problem occurs in all applications, then you may want to focus troubleshooting areas that affect the entire system.

Determine If The Issue Occurs On Multiple Sound Cards/Audio Interfaces

This will help determine if there is a problem with the hardware of the USBPre 2. Please keep in mind that when testing other devices you will want to make sure the devices are comparable. For instance, if you are experiencing issues when using the ASIO drivers, you should test with another ASIO compliant device with the same settings.

The USBPre 2 Is Running The Latest Firmware and ASIO Driver

Should you experience any problems that you believe are related to the USBPre 2 firmware or USBPre 2 ASIO driver, check to make sure that you are running the latest versions. This will ensure that you are not running into any issue that have already been addressed.

Meet The Application's Minimal Requirements

Most applications list the minimal system requirements needed to operate the application. Make certain that your computer system meets or exceeds those requirements. Unfortunately these requirements mostly only cover basic operation. Do not expect that you can run every process of an application because your system exceeds the basic minimal requirements.

Refer To The Application's Help Menu For Troubleshooting Tips

Most application's provide troubleshooting tips to improve the audio performance of the application. The suggested workarounds may suggest changes within the application, with the sound card or external audio interface, or with the computer's settings. All of the suggested workarounds should be taken into serious consideration.

Common Workarounds Within Applications

  • Reduce Sampling Rate.
  • Reduce Bit-Depth.
  • Reduce the amount of real-time processes such as processor hungry plugins.
  • Reduce track count by bouncing tracks to disk or creating sub-mixes.
  • Increase Audio Buffers. Please note that when using ASIO drivers the High-speed setting performs best when used in conjunction with fast computer systems.
  • Zoom out so that you can see the entire project, this will avoid redrawing and give you more CPU for audio.

Common Physical Workarounds

  • Avoid using USB hubs.
  • Connect to High-speed USB ports.
  • Use high-quality USB cables.
  • Disconnect all other external devices.
  • If running on a laptop try swapping power sources.

Common Computer Workarounds

  • Close any active application or task that is not needed.
  • Disable all other audio devices in the Device Manager.
  • Remove any old drivers that maybe conflicting with the current driver.
  • Defragment the hard drive.
  • Enable Direct Mode Access on the hard drive.
  • Disconnect the computer from all networks.
  • Disable wireless.
  • Disable Anti-Virus Software.
  • Disable Firewalls.
  • Disable Index Scheduling.
  • Disable Sleep Mode.
  • Disable Graphics Write Combining.
  • Disable Power Saving Mode (non-laptop models only)
  • Disable USB Selective Suspending
  • On Windows XP Apple Bootcamp systems disable KbdMgr.exe.

If you should still have problems, it may be time to think about upgrading your computer hardware. Increasing the speed of your hard drives and processors and boosting the amount of available RAM can drastically increase your computers audio performance.