I’ve tried all sorts of things with the bass.dll configuration settings - yet I never seem to be able to shake the problem of the stutter at the start of songs.
Have a listen to our web stream - RTM Web Feed - and there seems to be a stutter with the start of most songs/long jingles.
all tracks have Cue In, Fade Out and Cue Out set - and these are saved into MMD files. I’m running the latest version of mAirList on there. The system running the playout is in the studio - to which I have remote desktop access via Log Me In.
Any ideas?
(For anyone interested, the preview of our new website is at http://radio.taskermilward.co.uk/dev/website - comments greatly appreciated! [also, the content is mainly made up, and the graphics arent too hot yet, so you’ll have to imagine bits!])
in the german forum, there’s a thread with the same topic, i think…
it’s about the short stutter at the start of songs or files…
is this the right thing?
but they also don’t have any reason, yet
i have the same problem…
i also tried with different bass.dll settings, but the problem still exists…
but i don’t have this problem in PFL-Mode, there the songs are starting without any problem, but in the players and in the cartwall they are stuttering…
and if a song is paused, it also starts normally after that…
do you use this automatic cue function? because i do so.
it seems to be linked with the cueIN-points, but this is just a thougt of mine…
I’m now back from my one-week holiday and ready to take a closer look at this. Could everybody suffering from this problem please answer the following questions?
Does it happen in automation mode?
Does it happen in assist mode? If so, how do you start the players? (Hotkeys? Mouse buttons? Gameport?) Does it also happen when you use a different remote control mechanism?
Does it also happen in PFL?
Does it only happen with songs which have a Cue In marker set?
More questions might follow as I keep thinking about it.
By the way, the issue should not be related to the auto cue feature, as it only scans the files in the moment they are added to the playlist; thereafter, the cue markers are treated in exactly the same way as if they were set manually.
Does it happen in assist mode? If so, how do you start the players?
(Hotkeys? Mouse buttons? Gameport?) Does it also happen when you use a different remote control mechanism?
Yes - Mouse buttons. No alternative starting method here.
Does it also happen in PFL?
I don’t think so.
Does it only happen with songs which have a Cue In marker set?
All of my songs have a Cue In marker - so I am unsure.
Have you assigned a specific speaker pair to each player? Or are you using the “default” speaker setting on any player?
All players have the same sound card selected - and not ‘Default’
Does it happen in assist mode? If so, how do you start the players? (Hotkeys? Mouse buttons? Gameport?) Does it also happen when you use a different remote control mechanism?
YES. I use HOTKEYS.
Does it also happen in PFL?
Not that i have noticed
Does it only happen with songs which have a Cue In marker set?
Well i did try taking a cue in point off and it didnt seem to do it but then when i tried the track later on it did do it so it seems to still be a problem.
1. Does it happen in automation mode?
2. Does it happen in assist mode? If so, how do you start the players? (Hotkeys? Mouse buttons? Gameport?) Does it also happen when you use a different remote control mechanism?
3. Does it also happen in PFL?
4. Does it only happen with songs which have a Cue In marker set?
5. Have you assigned a specific speaker pair to each player? Or are you using the "default" speaker setting on any player?
1. Yes
2. Yes - Gameport and/or Hotkey
3. No
4. Yes, always - but sometimes with "fresh songs", too.
5. Happens with both, although my card is "pro" card, not a front/rear "SB clone".
Could it be something in the way the Player+Playlist interact ? Such as the timing calculations and re-sequencing of Players when an item is started ?
Yes, this is exactly what I suspect. There are many things that happen in the background when a player is started. Although BASS.DLL runs in its own thread, it might be “starving” in that moment. Too bad that I cannot reproduce it on my machine(s).
1. Does it happen in automation mode?
2. Does it happen in assist mode? If so, how do you start the players? (Hotkeys? Mouse buttons? Gameport?) Does it also happen when you use a different remote control mechanism?
3. Does it also happen in PFL?
4. Does it only happen with songs which have a Cue In marker set?
5. Have you assigned a specific speaker pair to each player? Or are you using the "default" speaker setting on any player?
1. Yes
2. Yes - Hotkeys
3. No
4. Yes
5. Happens with both, all players are selected on 1/2 (front)
It only happens with tracks who start on max volume (maybe at the other tracks you don’t hear it…).
It also happens in Auto during a Jingle with a StartNext point set 3s in - the song has a CueIn about 10s in. This jingle actually contains part of the song as its backing, and my cue-points were set so that the 2 overlap and sound rather slick.
Unfortunately, the start of “Dan Le Sac” goes d-d-d-d-d and then starts. It’s not the end of the World, but noticable ;(
Ok, perhaps I have found the problem. It looks like the channel buffer is not flushed properly before the item is started. I now initiate the flushing manually, and I don’t hear any stutter anymore. (By the way, the stutter can be easily reproduced by clicking one of the cue point +/- buttons in the PFL dialog, stop PFL and then start the item. At least here on my machine.)
I will upload v2.1.26 in a couple of minutes. Please see (or hear g) if the stutter is gone, or at least less often than before.
I’ve found generally that audio programs can stutter if the video card on the PC is a slow, ‘basic’ or ‘on-board’ one (because audio programs typically do quite time-intensive video updating: redrawing waveforms, updating time displays, redrawing item lists, etc.).
I run mAirList on a PC with quite a poor video card, and there is a noticeable delay of about 3s between a Player ejecting a track when it ends, and having the NEXT track loaded and ready. This does not actually cause a stutter, but in some cases, it might.
Could that a possible cause for those of you suffering the ‘stutters?’ Or do you have hardware-accelerated gamer-quality video cards in your PCs?
I hope this may be some help, anyway. Also (obviously?) I assume you have the latest versions of DirectX, video and audio card drivers, etc.
I’m still getting stuttering at times. Upon loading an MLP playlist with some specific CueIn + StartNext points, I can replicate this easily on both the studio machine and this PC upstairs.
As for the video card - the studio uses an NVidia Quadro4 NVS280 64MB AGP “dual head” whilst this PC uses a 64MB Radeon 7000 AGP. There has been lots of talk about keeping the soundcards away from the graphics board (due to PC noise), but I’ve never thought about it “hogging” the system like this.
