Sound Studio Pro II Frequently Asked Questions
Last update: 2 April 2002
Most up to date version of this document is available at
http://www.evolution.co.uk/FAQs/
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MOST COMMON QUESTIONS:
Q. What does FAQ stand for?!
A. FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions.
MOST RECENT ADDITIONS:
. VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology. VST was developed by Steinberg in order to allow software synthesisers to be accessible via MIDI sequencers. VST allows you to create a full virtual studio in your PC!
Q. There is a large delay when I play a VST instrument.
A. This can be reduced by adjusting the size of your audio drivers. This is done in the ‘Audio System Settings’ window, from the ‘Audio’ menu. By default, Sound Studio II is set to use the MME drivers. If you have ASIO drivers available, you should select the ASIO driver of your soundcard for reduced latency. To do this, select ‘active’ in the ASIO section of the ‘Audio System Settings’ Menu. If you do not have ASIO drivers available, or if any incompatibility between the software and your particular ASIO driver (please report this to us!) is apparent, you can still use your MME drivers. Reduce the size and number of buffer.
Q. Crackling occurs when I play a VST instrument.
A. The audio buffers are too small. Go into the ‘Audio System Settings’ window from the ‘Audio’ menu and increase the size of the buffers you are using.
Q. I have a Sound Blaster Audigy Card. The audio will not work properly. How can I rectify this?
A. The software is not compatible with the Sound Blaster Audigy's ASIO driver. Wherever possible, you should use another available ASIO driver. If you do not have any ASIO drivers available, de-activate the ASIO driver in the Audio System Settings.
Q. How do you alter the size of the buffers if you are using ASIO drivers?
A. TO edit the size of your ASIO buffers, click on ‘properties’ in the ASIO section of the ‘Audio System Settings’ menu. This is accessible from the ‘Audio’ menu.
Q. I have downloaded a free VST instrument from the internet, but how do I use it with Sound Studio II?
A. You need to copy the VST Instrument’s .dll file into the VSTPlugins folder of the
Sound Studio II directory.
. I have placed the .dll files of a VST effect into the VSTPlugins directory of Sound Studio II. How do I use it in the software?
. VST effects can be applied to any audio tracks or VST instruments you have. To access a VST effect, open up the audio mixer, and select the ‘full mix’ button. Then, chose ‘VST from the effects list.
Q. The software keeps freezing up. How can I prevent this?
A. This is most likely because you are over-driving your Computer's CPU. Increase the size of the Audio buffers you are using in the audio system settings. You may find you will need to reduce the number of VST plugins or audio tracks you are using.
Q. My Audio tracks seem to lag behind my MIDI tracks. How can I improve this?
A. Increase the buffer size of the Audio drivers you are using. This is done in the Audio system settings.
Q. Why do the dates on my wave files change?
A. When you load a song file which uses audio, Sound Studio II opens each audio
file in read-write mode. This is for reasons of speed when editing waves and using
destructive audio effects. Even though you may only load a song and close it again,
the file dates of each of the wave files used in your song will be updated as a
consequence of this mode of working. This is perfectly normal and your wave files
will not be changed in any other way.
If you do not want your wave files to be changed at all, set the read-only attribute in
MS-DOS or Windows Explorer. The program will then open the wave files in
read-only mode.
Q. It takes ages for a MIDI file to load on my machine. Is there a way to
speed this up?
A. Extracting patterns can take a while on some machines particularly if the MIDI
file contains a lot of data. To speed up loading, go to options-preferences and
switch off the options 'Remove Gaps' and 'Find repeats and create Child
Patterns'
Q. Why do the melody and chord tracks keep reappearing?
A. The chord and melody tracks must be present for the Virtual Keyboard (VK-61)
to work correctly; they are the link between the VK-61 and the sequencer. To delete
them, switch the VK-61 off first. Switching the VK-61 back on will re-instate the 2 tracks.
Q. Why does the help file not load under Windows NT?
A. This is a limitation of the way in which the program launches the help file. To view
the help file, run the help file separately by double-clicking on SSPHELP.HLP in Windows
Explorer to view.
Q. Why do my lyrics shrink in size when I change the lyric font?
A. The program has an auto-size feature for dealing with lyrics. This means that if you
set the lyric font size to bigger than the program is able to display on screen, it will
resize your lyrics to the maximum displayable size (to within 4 points - font size).
Q. I have recorded a melody track from the Virtual Keyboard. How do I change the
instrument that it plays back on?
A. Sound Studio II records a program change at the beginning of a Melody track recording
- it remembers which instrument was used to do the recording. You can see this if you
select the melody pattern that you have recorded and open the List editor. Make sure
that the ‘Program’ button is down and you should see that the top entry in the list is a
program change. Either change the value of the program change to the instrument
number you want to use or delete this program change. You will then be able to
change the instrument from the keyboard buttons or the track window in the normal
way.
Q. How do I save new or modified drum kits.
A. To save a modified drum kit,
1. Select ‘Save As...’ from the File Menu.
2. Click on the Drum Kit Radio button.
3. Type in the new name e.g. NEWKIT.DRM (The extension will be added
automatically if you don't type it).
4. Click on OK.
The new kit is now saved.
The name of the drum kit in use is saved in DEFAULT.DEF,
so your kit will automatically be available next time you run
Sound Studio II.
Q. I have my soundcard installed, but I cannot hear anything when
playing a demo song in Sound Studio II. What should I do?
A. Most of Evolution's technical support calls are soundcard related
rather than software related. If you have a soundcard problem, before
ringing your soundcard manufacturers' support lines spend some time reading
the following checklist to make sure you have tried every possible solution
to your problem.
Go to the "Options" menu in Sound Studio II. Go to the
"Devices..." section. If no driver names appear in the Input / Output columns,
you need to re-install your soundcard. The driver names in the devices screen
allow you to to tell Sound Studio II which sounds you want the program to
play. The input drivers will determine which MIDI IN port you are going to
use. For normal usage, you would need only one input selected. For a
soundblaster card, the input driver would be called something like "SB16
MIDI IN". Other cards would have driver names such as "ESS MIDI IN " or
Tahiti MIDI IN". Older soundcards would rely on using the MIDI driver that
comes with Windows. This driver is called the "MPU401". If you have the
Roland MPU401 driver showing, then you should be able to select that for
input and output.
The output driver column allows you to choose which sounds you are going to
hear when playing your songs. Most soundcards will have an option such as
"FM synth" or "OPL3 MIDI Synth". Click on these driver names to play the
sounds of your soundcard. Most modern cards will have additional sounds.
These driver names would be similar to "SBAWE32 MIDI Synth". Click on the
driver name of your choice.
Rule of Thumb: If you have numerous output drivers enabled (highlited in
blue) and cannot hear any output, deselect all but one of them and try again.
Repeat this process until you hear some sounds. Avoid using the MIDI mapper
as an output.
Q. I have plugged my keyboard into the soundcard and can hear demo
songs OK when I play them. I can even hear sounds when playing from the
on-screen keyboard but I cannot hear anything when playing from the external
keyboard. What am I doing wrong?
A. This probably means that your soundcard has not been installed
properly. Please follow the checklist below:
1. Are the MIDI cables properly set up? MIDI OUT from the keyboard to
the IN of your Soundcard?
2. Is the keyboard switched on?
...
DariuszFareham