Music playback issues with 3538i

-zerodb · Sep 6, 2005, 05:57 AM

OK, this is a bit strange but I can't imagine it being anything but a KX issue.

I discovered KX in my efforts to build a car-based PC entertainment system, and it's been phenomenal in allowing me to handle all my crossover and equalization needs onboard my Audigy2 ZS and output direct to individual amplifiers for each channel. Great!

But, no matter what software I use for my multimedia playback, I've got two consistent problems.

1) Upon resuming from hibernate, the software will pickup playback in the middle of the track, but there will be no sound output until I either skip tracks or restart the track. Not a huge deal unless I'm 45 minutes into a 2-hour live set and now I have to find my place again before I get on the road. I'm thinking maybe there's a way to force XP or another program to "beep" a sound of some sort on resume that will wake up the sound card without this difficulty, but I'd like to figure out why it's having this problem in the first place.

2) MUCH MORE TROUBLESOME: at some point in playback, sometimes after one or two tracks, but usually after the 10th-15th track, it simply stops playing. This never seems to happen mid-track, only when the software is switching from one file to another. Again the software indicates that playback is carrying on as usual, but there's no output. This can't be remedied by anything but a full reboot. Skipping tracks has no effect. On RARE occasions rather than silence I get a high-pitched feedback-like whine, and if I attempt to skip tracks the "feedback" increases in intensity. Volume controls / mute don't make it stop. This further makes me think it's a DSP glitch of some sort.

The only DSP filters I'm using at the moment (trying to keep it as simple as possible until I track these issues down) are volume controls, 4th-order xover, and mono mix (for my subwoofer output).

I've done a full reinstall of Windows and KX and still have these issues, so I'm anxious to see if anyone has any suggestions. I have always had problem #1 (resume from hibernate silence) but problem #2 only appeared when I switched up to 3538i and started using the 4th-order xover plugin, which sounds FAR better than the old frequency splitter to my ears - so I'd like to avoid backtracking!

Any suggestions will be very much appreciated as this is all happening in my car that I drive to work every day and I've been having to reboot it at least once a day in mid-drive!

lzola · Sep 6, 2005, 05:43 PM

I have the hibernate-suspend problem too. The driver hasn't got full suspend support i think. It lost the acceleration channel during hibernation or suspend and if you use the player(winamp) in software acceleration mode it will only get a new one with restart. with hardware acceleration(winamp preferencies--output--directsound) you don't have to restart. By pressing the pause button(or seeking) the player get a neew channel from the soundcard and the music come back. With a multimedia keybaoard it's not a big deal.

bye

ZoLA

-zerodb · Sep 6, 2005, 09:23 PM

Yeah, unfortunately even pause/play doesn't seem to open up the channel for me, I need the software to totally load the file again. Doesn't make sense, but it's liveable.

Tril · Sep 6, 2005, 09:46 PM

The 4th order crossover plugin code is in the SDK of 3538i. That makes it possible to recompile the plugin for older versions of the plugins if it does not use any fancy code that can only be found in 3538. That means that you can reinstall an older version of the drivers and still use the plugin if you want. If you decide to do that and you can't recompile the plugin yourself, ask me and I'll try for you.

I have no idea how to solve your problems. I never make my system hibernate so I never encountered that problem. You could try one or two other music players to see if the same thing happens. They may be coded in a different way that avoids the problem, but I doubt it.

-zerodb · Sep 7, 2005, 08:30 AM

I wouldn't even know where to START to recompile the plugin... I tried looking into the intro guides to DSP plugins but it's a little beyond me.

I think I'll switch back to running an older version with the old freq. splitter plugin and see if THAT solves my issues and if so, then I'll pursue recompling the filters. Probably a wasted effort if that's not the real problem.

I think the hibernate/resume issue is just something I'm going to have to live with; the only easy fix I can think of would be to have something throw a sound out upon resume just to "wake up" the sound card, but I haven't seen anything that will do that just yet.

Thanks for the input.

Sep 6, 2005, 05:57 AM	#1
-zerodb DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 13 Rep Power: 0	Music playback issues with 3538i OK, this is a bit strange but I can't imagine it being anything but a KX issue. I discovered KX in my efforts to build a car-based PC entertainment system, and it's been phenomenal in allowing me to handle all my crossover and equalization needs onboard my Audigy2 ZS and output direct to individual amplifiers for each channel. Great! But, no matter what software I use for my multimedia playback, I've got two consistent problems. 1) Upon resuming from hibernate, the software will pickup playback in the middle of the track, but there will be no sound output until I either skip tracks or restart the track. Not a huge deal unless I'm 45 minutes into a 2-hour live set and now I have to find my place again before I get on the road. I'm thinking maybe there's a way to force XP or another program to "beep" a sound of some sort on resume that will wake up the sound card without this difficulty, but I'd like to figure out why it's having this problem in the first place. 2) MUCH MORE TROUBLESOME: at some point in playback, sometimes after one or two tracks, but usually after the 10th-15th track, it simply stops playing. This never seems to happen mid-track, only when the software is switching from one file to another. Again the software indicates that playback is carrying on as usual, but there's no output. This can't be remedied by anything but a full reboot. Skipping tracks has no effect. On RARE occasions rather than silence I get a high-pitched feedback-like whine, and if I attempt to skip tracks the "feedback" increases in intensity. Volume controls / mute don't make it stop. This further makes me think it's a DSP glitch of some sort. The only DSP filters I'm using at the moment (trying to keep it as simple as possible until I track these issues down) are volume controls, 4th-order xover, and mono mix (for my subwoofer output). I've done a full reinstall of Windows and KX and still have these issues, so I'm anxious to see if anyone has any suggestions. I have always had problem #1 (resume from hibernate silence) but problem #2 only appeared when I switched up to 3538i and started using the 4th-order xover plugin, which sounds FAR better than the old frequency splitter to my ears - so I'd like to avoid backtracking! Any suggestions will be very much appreciated as this is all happening in my car that I drive to work every day and I've been having to reboot it at least once a day in mid-drive!

Sep 6, 2005, 05:43 PM	#2
lzola DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	I have the hibernate-suspend problem too. The driver hasn't got full suspend support i think. It lost the acceleration channel during hibernation or suspend and if you use the player(winamp) in software acceleration mode it will only get a new one with restart. with hardware acceleration(winamp preferencies--output--directsound) you don't have to restart. By pressing the pause button(or seeking) the player get a neew channel from the soundcard and the music come back. With a multimedia keybaoard it's not a big deal. bye ZoLA

Sep 6, 2005, 09:23 PM	Thread Starter #3
-zerodb DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 13 Rep Power: 0	Yeah, unfortunately even pause/play doesn't seem to open up the channel for me, I need the software to totally load the file again. Doesn't make sense, but it's liveable.

Sep 6, 2005, 09:46 PM	#4
Tril S-3D enthusiast Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 1,676 Rep Power: 64 System Specs	The 4th order crossover plugin code is in the SDK of 3538i. That makes it possible to recompile the plugin for older versions of the plugins if it does not use any fancy code that can only be found in 3538. That means that you can reinstall an older version of the drivers and still use the plugin if you want. If you decide to do that and you can't recompile the plugin yourself, ask me and I'll try for you. I have no idea how to solve your problems. I never make my system hibernate so I never encountered that problem. You could try one or two other music players to see if the same thing happens. They may be coded in a different way that avoids the problem, but I doubt it.

Sep 7, 2005, 08:30 AM	Thread Starter #5
-zerodb DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 13 Rep Power: 0	I wouldn't even know where to START to recompile the plugin... I tried looking into the intro guides to DSP plugins but it's a little beyond me. I think I'll switch back to running an older version with the old freq. splitter plugin and see if THAT solves my issues and if so, then I'll pursue recompling the filters. Probably a wasted effort if that's not the real problem. I think the hibernate/resume issue is just something I'm going to have to live with; the only easy fix I can think of would be to have something throw a sound out upon resume just to "wake up" the sound card, but I haven't seen anything that will do that just yet. Thanks for the input.