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VST "warmup" problem

i'm using cubase...and on a couple of my tracks, when using a VST like imposcar for example, when the track hits the recorded section, the VST will put out some sort of flat sound for 2-15 seconds and then the intended sound will kick in. it's like the VST has to "warm up" before it is ready to produce the desired effect. i've tried putting a note beforehand with the volume at 0, but even when it hits that note, it has the same distorted sound....this doesn't happen with every VST setting that i use...

i could always fix this by recording the track and then converting it to audio and cutting it up, but i'd rather not have to do that every time i run into this problem.

it seems like it could be a CPU issue, but my CPU meter looks fine...

Cubase, yikes. I tried to work with it but it would always do stuff like that to me so I switched to Ableton. How much RAM do you have? I had to upgrade to 2 GB of RAM for my setup. Sorry that I don't know any more than that. Peace, Agent Starchild

I've used Cubase for a long time and I've never experienced that problem, so it's probably something wrong with your setting or something, I have no idea really.

I have that happen all the time with fruity loops. I'm a little shocked that cubase has that issue too. What I do is, I freeze any tracks where that is happening. Let the VSTi warm up a bit, then freeze it. That's pretty quick and easy, and you don't have to record and chop.

A lot of producers never realize their VSTi's are doing this. Sometimes I miss it to. I'll render my tracks, then give them a good listen on my studio headphones, and I'll hear a VSTi "squawking". A lot of times it's very subtle. It's usually a lead or bass that will do it.

yep, it only happens with leads and basslines. i've never had to freeze tracks before, but a quick websearch taught me how. i'll give it a shot...

thank you zodiac !

What is your PC spec and what soound card are you using. I think it's the jump in processing power to trigger the VST. what soundcard are you using? (as it could be driver/setting issue)

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Originally posted by lucas ss yep, it only happens with leads and basslines. i've never had to freeze tracks before, but a quick websearch taught me how. i'll give it a shot... thank you zodiac !

Just remember that everytime you freeze a track, it goes on your hardrive as an audio file. I noticed that my freeze cache is 30 gigs right now. Once you mix a song down and are happy with it, you can delete the corresponding freeze file. I really need to start deleting some of those older freeze files.

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Originally posted by DJ RANN What is your PC spec and what soound card are you using. I think it's the jump in processing power to trigger the VST. what soundcard are you using? (as it could be driver/setting issue)

I have researched this, but I couldn't find any solution. All I found was that it's not an uncommon problem, across many platforms. I'm using a soundblaster live card with an athlon 64 3800, 1 gig of RAM. I've tried different settings and ASIO drivers, no luck. Maybe it's the SB card, but like I said, by now I should have heard something about that. So far I've found no one who used to have this problem, but was able to fix it.

lol i was wondering this phenomenon for a while too. i use v-station in fl studio. i usually play the instruments solo for a few beats to warm up and then i do my recordings. not too much hassle.

yes, the freezing of the track and VST worked!...and it really cuts down on CPU usage as well. great tip, i'm surprised i hadn't figured out that function by now...

it does seem to take out a bit of the desired randomness of some settings, but all i needed to do was freeze the first section of the bassline so it comes in nice, and the rest could be on another track, unfrozen.

when i unfreeze the tracks, the default option is to delete all freeze files....as long as i'm not working on lots of tracks that all need freezing at the same time, it should be okay

Zodiac 9, your problem is the SB card. You are never going to get the performance (even programs like Fl) you need to make various VST's work. They are multimedia cards, not audio and are not suitable for "pro" apllications. You will not have freeze tracks (unless you;re using an absolute shitload of tarcks) with your computers spec and a decent soundcard.

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Originally posted by lucas ss yes, the freezing of the track and VST worked!...and it really cuts down on CPU usage as well. great tip, i'm surprised i hadn't figured out that function by now...

I sometimes freeze just to keep the CPU usage down. That's the reason I started using freeze, but then figured out it can also tame those squawking VSTi's.

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Originally posted by lucas ss it does seem to take out a bit of the desired randomness of some settings, but all i needed to do was freeze the first section of the bassline so it comes in nice, and the rest could be on another track, unfrozen.

I've tried that, but when the unfrozen track comes in, it squawks too, even if it's the middle of the song. Glad it works for you though.

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Originally posted by DJ RANN Zodiac 9, your problem is the SB card. You are never going to get the performance (even programs like Fl) you need to make various VST's work. They are multimedia cards, not audio and are not suitable for "pro" apllications. You will not have freeze tracks (unless you;re using an absolute shitload of tarcks) with your computers spec and a decent soundcard.

You're the first one I ever heard say this, I've researched this many times. I've contacted support as well, I recall they said something about soundcards, but they seemed afraid to single out SB. I've considered before that the SB could be the issue. Do you know this from experience? Did you use an SB at one time for production? Well anyway, I'm sure a pro audio card could help me in other ways too. I've shopped for pro cards before, just wasn't sure if I was ready for one. Guess I'll start shopping around for one. Any suggestions?

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Originally posted by zodiac9 You're the first one I ever heard say this, I've researched this many times. I've contacted support as well, I recall they said something about soundcards, but they seemed afraid to single out SB. I've considered before that the SB could be the issue. Do you know this from experience? Did you use an SB at one time for production? Well anyway, I'm sure a pro audio card could help me in other ways too. I've shopped for pro cards before, just wasn't sure if I was ready for one. Guess I'll start shopping around for one. Any suggestions?

I'm actually surprised that no-one has told you this before about SB cards. There are many threads on TA discussing soundcard problems and SB's are to blame for many performance issues.

I know this from experience. I worked for several years in the service dept of the largest audio retailer in Europe, dealing with several thousand soundcard enquiries (for every brand you could think of). I've probably installed over a thousand soundcards.

The calls from SB users became a running joke and in the end we stopped giving anyone help that had one. Someone would call up and go "I've got problem X (x=latency, cpu drain, instability, incompatibility etc.)" and the first question would be "what soundcard do you have". If the response was anything from CL or an SB we would politely find a way to tell them to get a audio specific soundcard and terminate the call. People just couldn't understand that you need to buy a decent (even �50) audio specific soundcard to make the several hundred (if not thousand) pounds worth of computer DAW work properly.

SB's are fine for just starting out but need to be dumped the moment you begin to use pro audio applications.

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Originally posted by DJ RANN I'm actually surprised that no-one has told you this before about SB cards. There are many threads on TA discussing soundcard problems and SB's are to blame for many performance issues. I know this from experience. I worked for several years in the service dept of the largest audio retailer in Europe, dealing with several thousand soundcard enquiries (for every brand you could think of). I've probably installed over a thousand soundcards. The calls from SB users became a running joke and in the end we stopped giving anyone help that had one. Someone would call up and go "I've got problem X (x=latency, cpu drain, instability, incompatibility etc.)" and the first question would be "what soundcard do you have". If the response was anything from CL or an SB we would politely find a way to tell them to get a audio specific soundcard and terminate the call. People just couldn't understand that you need to buy a decent (even �50) audio specific soundcard to make the several hundred (if not thousand) pounds worth of computer DAW work properly. SB's are fine for just starting out but need to be dumped the moment you begin to use pro audio applications.

Well at least I know now, better late than never. Thanks much.

lucas ss and azndragon0613, what soundcard do you use? Just curious. I'm going to upgrade my sound card very soon. I'll report back and tell you how it goes.

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