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I go in the task bar and trigger the "Breakaway", most do not know where to go like this:
http://www.claessonedwards.com/images/taskbar4.png
my only is thus = /]
http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=asaszs6.pngEasy. Resize it 🙂.
Right-click your taskbar and unlock it. Then you can resize the breakaway toolbar with the resizing edge that appears. After that, you can lock the taskbar again if you wish.
///Leif
Very nice. I just added it to the taskbar since opening it in its own window is now causing crackle, so I have been keeping it minimized.
But Microsoft just pushed a video driver update after I’d recently gone to get one, so I’m about to reboot again and see what happens.
Hey Carl, if the video driver is interfering with audio when using Breakaway, doesn’t it interfere even when you’re not using Breakaway? Without the Realtime Priority option in Breakaway, I would have thought that other applications would be at least as susceptible. What buffer size are you using in BA by the way?
Best regards,
///Leif[quote author=”Leif”]Hey Carl, if the video driver is interfering with audio when using Breakaway, doesn’t it interfere even when you’re not using Breakaway?[/quote]
To some extent there’s small pops and crackles that are infrequent, using scroll bars, some disk I0, a burst of network activity. These seem to be the application’s fault, as it’s only certain programs that are noisy.
But when using Breakaway lately there’s much more when opening the interface in a larger size. Making the input buffer large will eliminate the noise from the latency added by the graphics overhead. What sounds good when testing may require a larger input buffer size with the scope and meters displayed at maximum size. I found that I just have to keep going back and forth between the setup and the maximized graphics until I don’t hear any crackle.
The numbers on the buffers, that’s bytes or milliseconds? Here’s the settings that give me the best sound at such a point where making the buffers larger or adding more doesn’t provide any improvement:
Input KS Breakaway Pipeline 1 512 x 2 @ 48000 x 2
Output DS Rear (Realtek High Definition Audio) 1024 x 8 @ 48000 x 2
Audio Real time Priority and Adaptive SRC – checkedSome sources are 44100 and others are 48000 so I just set to 48000 all times. The input rate doesn’t seem to matter as much as getting the buffer sizes large enough to cover overhead times for most events on my computer.
And not to get too far off-topic, I can’t get the bars on the taskbar GUI, only the scopes. What am I doing wrong?
[quote author=”Carl”]
And not to get too far off-topic, I can’t get the bars on the taskbar GUI, only the scopes. What am I doing wrong?[/quote]You have to right-click on the taskbar and check meters.
Hi Carl!
The unit is samples. I’ve found 480 to be more stable than 512 under Vista, because 480 is evenly divisible by the sample rate (in your case 48000), so that there would be exactly 100 blocks per second. 960 should work too.
2 buffers per input seems low, I’ve never gotten 2 buffers stable on any of my systems. 3 should work better.
Input sampling rate matters only to decide where and when you want to do sample rate conversion. By setting 48000 in, 48000 out, Vista will have to do the sample rate conversion from 44100 to 48000 when you play music. To my ears, it doesn’t do it very well, but I suppose it’s acceptable for most uses. I personally usually use 44100 in and 48000 out, so that the operating system does not have to sample rate convert music (which I play 95% of the time). For the other 5%, when I watch movies or a TV show, Windows might have to convert it down to 44100 to get into the pipeline, but at least it’s much less often 🙂. The sample rate conversion inside Breakaway is completely inaudible to my ears, and spectrum analyzers seem to agree.
What video card do you have again, Carl?
I remember having problems like these years and years ago, but it’s been a long time now — I thought that manufacturers had their act together now that EVERYONE is using their PCs for "multimedia" purposes. I mean, pretty much anyone who browses the web may have audio going while they scroll a web page.
It could also be something silly like the on-board audio and your video card sharing an IRQ. If that’s the case, there may not be a whole lot the driver can do about it. You can check it out — Control panel, system, hardware, device manager, View Resources by type. Look at the IRQ’s, see what’s sharing with what.
Stuart is right about the meters — right-click the toolbar and choose what you want to see. 🙂
Best regards,
///LeifWow, there we go – and if I give Breakaway more space along the task bar I can get meters and scope.
Currently I’ve Internet radio coming in from Radio Paradise’s 192 kbps stream at 44100Hz stereo, and set Breakaway:
KS (Breakaway Pipeline 1) 441 x 4 @ 44100 x 2
DS Rear (Realtek High Definition Audio) 960 x 8 @ 48000 x 2
Audio Realtime Priority and Adaptive SRC checked.Running everything I can to make it break up but it’s sounding solid, even with the GUI open at maximum size (I don’t often run it this way).
Some applications output 48000 Hz, which I’ll either change settings for or if I don’t hear any difference, will not bother with.
Now I’ve lowered the output (the crackle was on the front end) to 480 x 4 @ 48000 x 2 and haven’t heard any crackle, still moving windows and scrolling on the applications that usually cause the noise.
Oddly enough, when I set the test mode to Pass through, it sounds bad at any combination of settings. I understand the test tone is to set the back end, so I’m assuming the pass through mode was to help set the front end, but isn’t useful at all – I have to just try different settings and listen to the results outside of the test setting window.
My graphics card is NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT, which as I mentioned just had a Vista update pushed to version 7.15.11.6371 dated 9/17/2007. This was a few days after manually updating from NVIDIA’s site to GeForce Release 178 Version: 178.24 WHQL Release Date: October 15, 2008.
Now I’m confused – should I use the later version of the driver from the manufacturer or use the version Microsoft thinks best for Vista? Recall that after the update the first time I had to remove Breakaway’s .ini file.
Since all is well at the moment, I will just continue testing it, and increase the output buffer size and number if I have any more problems. Thanks for the buffer setting suggestions and rescue when the video update caused Breakaway to stop working.
The sound card is on IRQ 16, and nothing else seems to be sharing the IRQ. I’ve checked it against the network card, the video card, the drives, and the telephone modem which is not being used.
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