Hey folks. As the title states, I am experiencing audio dropouts/popping sounds about once per minute when using Gig Performer 4. It is somewhat subtle, so I didn’t think much of it at first, and thought it should be easy enough to resolve. I am incredibly excited about the idea of Gig Performer and have absolutely loved every other aspect of the platform, however if I am unable to resolve this I will have to return the product and go back to using Reaper.
I meticulously followed all of the instructions in “The Ultimate Guide to Optimize your Windows PC for the Stage”, as well as all of the suggestions and links posted in this thread on gearspace. Nothing has had any impact. The dropouts occur while playing my guitar with no plugins loaded at all, as well as with only one virtual instrument loaded for testing. I have tried every possible sample rate and buffer size combination. Uninstalling and disabling antivirus. I tried the built-in Realtek driver in Gig Performer, and that seems to be working without any dropouts (or at least significantly less). I also tried using ASIO4ALL instead of the Focusrite driver, and I did not notice dropouts, however the latency is at least 1 second long. I do not experience dropouts when using any number of plugins in Reaper.
I am using an ASUS TUF A15 laptop, with the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H. My audio interface is the Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 3rd Gen.
After several nights staying up way too late and many many hours of troubleshooting, I am completely at a loss. Any support or suggestions you can offer would be deeply appreciated. Many thanks in advance.
He said he used ASIO and got no dropouts so I guess he’s not in demo mode.
@nodrog When you say you played your guitar with no plugins, can you show us a screenshot of the wiring connections? Also, what sample rate and buffer size are you using?
Given that there are numerous GP customers playing guitar, it’s pretty clear that there’s something else going on that is causing this problem.
From what you describe, this issue only seems to happen with the Focusrite driver, is that the case?
Thanks for the welcome, Paul! I really appreciate all of your prompt responses.
@dhj, the wiring was just straight from the audio interface guitar in, into its stereo outs (monitored by headphones). I tried 44100, as well as 48000 sample rate, trying many different buffer sizes with each. It does seem to be the case that it is only happening with the Focusrite driver, although I didn’t experiment enough with Asio4all to know for sure there were no dropouts.
After reading your question about other devices running audio software @pianopaul, it gave me the idea to try disabling the Focusrite speakers as a windows playback device. There are also the settings “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device,” and “Give exclusive mode applications priority,” which I thought I had disabled earlier, but they were checked so I disabled them again. I just tried playing both my midi keyboard and guitar again in GP4 (48000 and 192 buffer), and did not notice any dropouts! So either that has greatly reduced them, or eliminated them! I wish I had posted to this forum sooner! Any idea what is going on here? Are there any other steps I should take to prevent this from happening?
Do you have a suggestion of particular software? Do I need this for GP4 to work well standalone, or just if I want to use my audio interface in multiple applications?
Yes a multi client Asio driver allows to use different audio software to use the same audio interface.
I am on Mac, therefore such issues do not exist at all.
Ah okay, yes it seems like there are very limited options on Windows if it is not built in to your device. For now I have no need to use multiple applications with my interface, just having GP4 working is all I need! I will try to route between GP4 and VCVRack, as well as Reaper for recording, but I am not sure if I will need a multi-client driver for that. I just got the interface last month, so I should have the latest driver. I just re-installed it though, just to be sure. Thanks!
That is exactly what we noted in the Troubleshooting section of our free guide for optimizing Windows for audio. This guide is also available online
Link: Exclusive Mode
Ah, I thought it was familiar! Somehow it reverted or I did not save it somehow. I went as far as to disable the device from that control panel entirely. It seems to be much more stable now, thankfully.
Yes, some of the settings Microsoft may revert after Windows updates or Feature updates. So you need to re-optimize your PC again.
Fortunately, we published a free guide that may help Windows users to have a stable and glitch-free platform for real-time audio. Check it out and feel free to share it
This is the same interface and sample rate/buffer that I’ve been using with Gig Performer for the last few years, with no problems (also a guitar player).
I’m on MacOS so I know it’s not a comparable situation to Windows when it comes to drivers. But I hope you get to a stable position with your setup.
Yes, thank you so much for providing that resource. I’ve found it very helpful. I’m not sure how many others have had the same issue as me, but it might be helpful to include some info about the symptoms, and the fact that the settings may revert.
Ah thank you yes! I have heard about this. The focusrite interface also has a “loopback” function that enables inputs from cpu audio, I will also explore that as an option when I get to that point in setting things up.
