FXpansion BFD Supplemental - Manual (Page 23)


PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS
• I’m not hearing any sound!
Chances are that you have not yet loaded a Kit. Also, many sequencers (such as Logic)
require you to record-enable a MIDI track, or enable live MIDI input in order to get MIDI
input to it.
• There is a noticeable delay between pressing a key on my MIDI keyboard and
hearing the sound.
This is a symptom of latency, something which all CPU-based processing suffers from.
Latency can be reduced by adjusting your soundcard’s buffer size settings or, if it is not
capable of running at low latencies, by using a better soundcard with well-written drivers.
Latency also depends upon the speed of your computer processor: even if your
soundcard supports very low latencies (for example RME cards are capable of going
down to 1.5ms, lower than the latency of many hardware synths) it takes a heavy amount
of processing power in order to actually achieve this.
BFD itself will
not add any latency. The only latency you hear will be as a result of your
soundcard’s buffer size, and any latency involved in getting MIDI into the computer in
order to trigger BFD.
• I’m getting clicks and pops!
First of all, please verify if you are only getting this behaviour with BFD. Clicks and pops
are usually a result of interruptions to the computer, caused by conflicting IRQs and
substandard motherboards (such as those with a VIA chipset).
These symptoms are also very common when using very low latencies on a computer
which cannot handle them. Often, you may not get clicks and pops when working on
small projects; however, the symptoms can manifest themselves when using many tracks
and plugins, or some resource-hungry plugins. BFD makes big demands on the disk
subsystem (that is, the hard drive and the controller and routing on the motherboard used
to deliver the data to the operating system).
Try increasing the latency (i.e. the size of the buffers) on your soundcard, and increas-
ing buffer-size settings within your host. Also, try looking at the various cache and buffer
settings in the Options panel.
It is also possible that you have insufficient RAM to run BFD at full quality. Please see the
item below on making BFD use less memory.
If you cannot fix the problem, please contact our support channels for further assistance.
• I’m getting dropped notes, loss of sync, or drop-outs.
If you are getting such symptoms, it is likely that your hard disk cannot deliver data fast
enough for BFD! Because of BFD’s disk-streamed multiple microphone technology,
playing back just one drum sound is the equivalent of 11 mono audio tracks!
You should always make sure that the drive or partition on which the BFD audio data
resides is defragmented. As long as you defragment the drive before installing the plugin,
BFD supplemental manual Chapter 5: Troubleshooting