DAW Lag

[Random111223]

I'm running FL studio and i'm getting lag even with lighter projects. I'm constantly getting underruns and that crackling sound.. I've turned the buffer lenght to max and i've enabled smart disable for all plugins. I also don't have any heavy programs running on the background, heaviest being Firefox. I have 4gb ram and a 2,6ghz dual-core cpu. 4gb Ram isn't much but shouldn't that be enough?

Anyone got any advice how to decrease overruns and the crackling sound? (beside than buying better hardware )

Here's my audio settings and processes if it helps:

[the4thImpulse]

I don't know much about the subject but I do believe that 2 gigs of ram is not enough anymore sadly. I have 4 gigs of ram and I can only run 3 instances of iZotope Ozone 5 in live 8 at a time before my computer can't handle it.

Are you running FL studio 10? and what vst's are you using?

[HatBrony]

I use a laptop with 4GB of RAM and get crackles until I switch to an ASIO driver. Try switching to an ASIO Driver or get a comp with more RAM.

[qJesse]

2gb is more than enough (I used to run on less than 1gb), you just need to use ASIO. It's a magic piece of software that solves your memory needs!

I, however, cannot use it, because this laptop has severe audio problems (both with software and hardware devices I try to plug in). :c All best of luck to you though, mate-y.

[Versilaryan]

Yeah. Download ASIO4ALL. It will work wonders on your audio quality and latency.

If you ever have problems with memory, look up how to bounce tracks on FL. 2GB RAM works, but it's definitely on the low side of things.

[Random111223]

Oops, i forgot that i actually have 4gb of ram..

I'll try downloading ASIO4ALL, thanks!

EDIT; Tried it out, with a quick glance it got rid of the underruns and the sound quality have seemed to improved alot (seriously holy shit this is good)! However, I noticed there's some weird "clicks" sometimes now, where the audio freezes for a brief time. Do you guys know why this is happening? I'm using the default settings with the audio buffer size maxed. My cpu load screen seems stable, so it's probably not a cpu problem.

[the4thImpulse]

Oops, i forgot that i actually have 4gb of ram..

I'll try downloading ASIO4ALL, thanks!

That should solve all your issues! You should be able to turn the buffer length a ton now too

[bartekko]

Doesn't ASIO4ALL come with FLStudio?

But yes, ASIO4ALL is awesome. Dedicated Asus drivers for my Sonar DX made clicks and crashed Ableton Live, but once I ditched them for ASIO4ALL, They work like charm.

Maxing out the buffer is not always a good idea. I never had it at more than 312 samples. If it doesn't work correctly at maximum buffer size, you might or might not have to buy better hardware. but maybe the answer is obviously easy and that's a trial version of a vst being gay

[Sugarholik]

Are you using an external soundcard?
I do and I occasionally get these clicks and pops. Turns out the powersource isn't grounded, so whenever someone opens a tellybox or something a massive 'click' occurs. If you get the click whenever you push play button, it can be a slow hard drive too.

Also drop the buffer length!

[Random111223]

Are you using an external soundcard?

Eeyup, Audigy's Soundblaster. It's probably crap though. I bought it years ago because my MB's integrated soundcard was broken.

If you get the click whenever you push play button

Nope, randomly throughout the song.

drop the buffer length!

I have to max it, or the crackling/underruns will make the audio horrible

Still looking for a fix to this :

However, I noticed there's some weird "clicks" sometimes now, where the audio freezes for a brief time. Do you guys know why this is happening? I'm using the default settings with the audio buffer size maxed. My cpu load screen seems stable, so it's probably not a cpu problem.

Oh and to add one thing, the freezing also freezes the program, so it won't skip over any sounds.

[Sugarholik]

hmmmm...
It's not the powersource if the entire program freezes too. Try disabling interpolation (might be processor consuming) and close that yarr harr-program (:P) and internet. If that won't help, you may need a new computer :/

[TheSunAndTheRainfall]

Another thing: click on the "keep on disc" option on the window that pops up every time you click a sample, and click the "bridged" option on the Fruity Wrapper (that little gear on the corner of the window) of every one of your VSTs (you may have to flip through a couple of tabs inside the Fruity Wrapper to find it). It will improve memory usage drastically. Also, inside the FL Studio folder there's an .exe with the name "FL Studio (extended memory)" or something like that. You may want to access FL Studio through that as well, 'cause programs are usually allocated a maximum of 2Gb of RAM, but if you use that you'll be able to take up up to four.


I've got a 2.3 GHz processor (although it's an i5, I dunno how that figures in the equation :U) and run it on 4Gb of RAM, and I can play all my songs in real time, even when I have about 10 instances of Massive running, along with 6 instances of Kontact, a ton of other VSTIs, loads of effects plugins, automation, etc.

[Random111223]

I got an idea.. what if i'll dump my samples to my secondary hard drive, would it help?

If i'm recording something on my computer, and make the output folder to my secondary hard drive, it reduces recording lag drastically, so i figured that this might be the same case?

Thanks for all the help btw.