Csound5, ASIO4ALL and an Old Computer

[Art Hunkins]

I've been using ASIO4ALL successfully with realtime Csound5 (http://www.csounds.com) on a fairly recent computer.

The problem is with an old machine - AMD-K6 variety (296MB RAM) - with builtin Crystal WDM audio. Using all the tricks (max buffer size, 4 Kernal buffers, disabling input, no resample), I still get lots of dropouts and crackles.

What further may be done to rescue audio output?

Latency is *not* a problem here; I'd lengthen the buffer size and add more Kernal buffers if they were available. Unfortunately, Csound5 (still in beta) offers no option to ASIO, and so lower audio rates are also unavailable.

We're really grateful for ASIO4ALL, as without it, Csounders without multi-channel cards could not use Csound5.

Thanks much.

Art Hunkins
[e-mail]

[Art Hunkins reprise]

Hey, I didn't mean to scare everybody off by talking about Csound5. Let's forget about Csound5 and talk about any audio application - that is, any audio application that does not handle ASIO settings internally.

Let's say that this application works fine with ASIO4ALL on a relatively new system, but on an AMD-K6 vintage machine you get breakup - despite doing everything you know to avoid that (see list in previous message).

Again, assuming latency is *not* an issue, is there any further ASIO4ALL adjustment I can make to get uninterrupted sound?

Alternately, could ASIO4ALL be altered in such a way as to accomodate such slower computers? (If so, I volunteer as a tester.)

Art Hunkins
[e-mail]