Delay before a song plays on Vista

[bob]

On Windows Vista, there may be a significant delay between when you hit the "play" button and when the song actually starts playing. This could be due to Windows performing various checks on your computer's hardware. To fix this, try telling Windows not to perform these checks:

Right-click on your computer's sound icon (in your system tray), and select "Playback Devices" from the popup menu.

Select the appropriate device from the list of playback devices (often, "Speakers"), and click "Properties".

Click on the "Enhancements" tab.

Check the "Disable all enhancements" box (which might instead be called "Disable all sound effects").

Click "OK".

[George Simmons]

Go figure... I have a laptop with Vista and have had no issues with this. I have a desktop with XP and have ALWAYS had that time lag between pushing the button and when play actually commences.

[Cray Augsburg]

I'll second that. My Vista laptop zips right along with a press of PLAY. My XP desktop sits there for what sometimes seems an eternity.

Ah well . . .

Cray

[Brandon Kibler]

Thanks for posting this, Bob. I have this problem with my laptop with Vista.

[JSteiger]

Thanks Bob. I also have a laptop with Vista. The problem I experience is that my program will be running and the sound will suddenly stop. The lights keep flashing to the music, but no music. Will this fix this problem as well?





Jerry> OKC

[travis p]

while my desktop is not vista its windows 7 it runs fine

[Greg Young]

George Simmons wrote:

Go figure... I have a laptop with Vista and have had no issues with this. I have a desktop with XP and have ALWAYS had that time lag between pushing the button and when play actually commences.

I run XP, and get a lag at times, but it does not always occur.

It seems to run in streaks. I have never been able to define anything consistent - size of the sequence, background activities, etc.

Other programs are closed out of the task bar when I sequence, to make sure as many of the pc resources as possible are available are for LOR.

Not a big issue, just something I have noticed.

Interestingly I don't get a lag on my Vista laptop either. Sounds like George and I may be running similar equipment! (Dell dual core desktop, HP laptop perhaps?)

Greg

[jem5136]

I have a problem with lag time, but I get about 1/5th of a second where the animation stops playing but the music still plays. I am running Windows 7 and I know it isn't my computer because on LOR 2.8, it worked perfect, but when I upgraded to 2.9, thats when I started having problems. Does anyone know how to fix this? It does it even if I have an empty sequence.

[taybrynn]

I haven't seen this on VIsta or Windows 7, knock on wood.

[LarryDrumAZ]

bob wrote:

On Windows Vista, there may be a significant delay between when you hit the "play" button and when the song actually starts playing.  This could be due to Windows performing various checks on your computer's hardware.  To fix this, try telling Windows not to perform these checks:

Right-click on your computer's sound icon (in your system tray), and select "Playback Devices" from the popup menu.

Select the appropriate device from the list of playback devices (often, "Speakers"), and click "Properties".

Click on the "Enhancements" tab.

Check the "Disable all enhancements" box (which might instead be called "Disable all sound effects").

Click "OK".

I have had this issue for 2 seasons. I have done the "Disable Enhancements" trick, no change. Spoke with Microsoft, they said the Enhancements have no impact on the lag, that WMP is loading all it's codecs and that causes the delay.

[Guest guest]

I have ALWAYS had a LAG in the music when I play a sequence. Everything is up to date, using Windows XP Home Edition. I have this LAG on several systems, the only one it didn't lag on was a laptop with Windows XP Home Edition that didn't have a lot of music and video codecs installed on it.

But those that I use for video, photgraphy and music editing and creation, the LAG is there. And the lag DOES come from all the assorted codecs that are being loaded before WMP will play the music in a sequence, but this LAG also occurs if I just load the MP3 directly in WMP as well. Now if LOR could have the sofware use different MP3 players, like say Sonique, IrfanView or any 3rd party MP3 player, this problem could possibly be eliminated. In Sonique(music player) and IrfanView(graphics editing/music player) and both are free programs, neither of these ever have a LAG when I load an MP3 to play them.

Just seems to be inherrent with Microsoft products as they are the only ones I get any type of LAG time with, not only LAGS on MP3's, but videos as well.

[cgiambruno]

Great information

[David Rise]

I've noticed this after I've been sequencing for a bit. It gets worse the longer I keep going.

I really don't think about it much. I use it as a cue to get up, and go do something else. At that time, I shut down the program, and reboot. It clears the cache, memory, and gives me a fresh start when I decide to come back to it.

[double000]

I have windows XP I've noticed this too, after I've been sequencing for a bit. It gets worse the longer I keep going.

[dkoehler42]

I've seen it too on Windows XP. I don't remember it happening on last year's version(2.4?).

[evan.a]

i found that a lot of members don't like to read. any mp3 that is not ran thru audacity has a lot of problem. most mp3 are at 192 bpm. that is not stable for any sequence. Running the mp3 thru audacity will help make it at a 128 bpm. so you can slow down, stop or restart a song at any time in the sequence.

[Greg Young]

evan.a wrote:

i found that a lot of members don't like to read. any mp3 that is not ran thru audacity has a lot of problem. most mp3 are at 192 bpm. that is not stable for any sequence. Running the mp3 thru audacity will help make it at a 128 bpm. so you can slow down, stop or restart a song at any time in the sequence.

You don't need Audacity. Any CBR recorded mp3 will work. A wav also will work fine.

I use mp3s with a rate of 320, as I can hear the difference in quality over FM between that rate and one recorded at 128, but I am a bit picky. Most wouldn't be able to notice any significant change.

While the best fidelity of course would be to use wavs, 320 gives very good quality and uses much less storage space than wav.

The issue here, the delay mentioned doesn't relate to the VBR vs CBR bit. The thread started off talking about a delay from the time you hit play in the sequencer, until the sequence (with its music plays).

As mentioned above, it's a good reminder to always be sure what ever program you are using to create mp3s uses CBR, not VBR.

Greg