[Matt Dunphy]

In 2013, I upgraded to Vegas 12, got a new computer & a video card specifically to utilize GPU-assisted rendering.

In my experience, enabling the GPU actually resulted in slower render times. Whenever effects were being rendered, my CPU’s usage would drop from 100% to a fraction of that, presumably having the computer send all the work to the GPU. Maybe it’s helpful if you’ve got an older processor, but ultimately, I felt like I’d blown a couple hundred bucks on an unnecessary video upgrade. Live n’ learn.

[Matt Dunphy]

Last year I made the leap to Reaper for my audio work and haven’t looked back. The 4096 buffer wasn’t enough – I could not load old projects anymore, even on a killer new machine. On one hand, it’s too bad Sony couldn’t track down the issue, but on the other hand, I’m loving the features Reaper brings to the table, as well as the price tag. It’s like what Vegas would have been if it didn’t change focus to video.

[Matt Dunphy]

Michal,
I kind of ‘fixed’ it by bumping up my ASIO buffer to 4096 in the Firewire control panel. I don’t get all the glitchiness, usually, but I also don’t get the instant-on type response when I hit play in Vegas.

[Matt Dunphy]

I’m running 64-bit in both Vegas 12 and Vegas 10, although with Vegas 10 I had the option to download a 32-bit version, I’ve been running it in 64-bit for years.

Another reply in the thread brought up the Audio Device Type – they had both been set up to use the ASIO drivers for my ProjectMix IO, but prompted by the other post, I played around with them just to see.

Interestingly, ASIO fared the worst of the bunch! When I switched to Microsoft Sound Mapper, playback was almost smooth so long as I wasn’t moving my cursor, or no plugins were active on the screen. DirectSound wasn’t as smooth as MS Sound Mapper, but was better than ASIO.

I’ve also tried using my Line6 GuitarPort, but it has the same issue when I use it as the primary output (whether via ASIO or MS Sound Mapper, etc.)

It is interesting how they’re slightly different, but going back to Vegas 10, playback’s fine no matter which device I pick.

The difference between them in 12 is definitely interesting, but I’m not sure it’s the root cause. Thanks though, it’s a good direction to look in.

[Matt Dunphy]

Ah, I’d forgotten to mention that detail. I’ve got a ProjectMix IO by M-Audio, a GuitarPort, and the onboard sound, and I’d switched between them before and got similar responses. Still, I decided to go back, and I did notice that oddly enough, the ASIO driver for the ProjectMix introduces the most glitchiness, MS Sound Mapper the least, DirectSound somewhere in between.

I tried mucking around with the ASIO settings, but didn’t really have any notable effect. With the ASIO drivers selected, playback sounds like I’m running square-wave amplitude modulation across the track, until I move my mouse, and then the gapping’s exponentially worse. With Sound Mapper & DirectSound, playback’s not so bad (still the occasional glitch) but again, once I start moving the mouse, the skittering gets worse.

Definitely a good clue, thanks!

[Matt Dunphy]

I know it’s hard to see (and I’m not being snarky when I say that) but if you watch the first video, I’ve got my task manager open while I’m doing these things, to look for spikes in things like CPU usage, disk access, even memory spikes. My “huge processor” I mean an Dual-core, multithreaded i7-2600 @ 3.4ghz with 8mb L3 cache, 1mb l2 cache, and 256k l1 cache. The computer’s about six months old, to boot. Still, it’s good advice, but I’ve been through that and didn’t see anything in the resource monitor.

Although I don’t download nearly as much random software from the internet as I did a decade ago, I still routinely check my services and startup apps for anything odd, and remove it. In fact, the Win8 task manager is fantastic for spotting stuff like that (although I still bust out the Resource Monitor when it comes to the details)

I’ve tried running Vegas both with GPU-acceleration enabled and disabled, that doesn’t have an effect on the stuttering. Given that no other program I have exhibits this issue (including Vegas 10 and Reaper) I’m pretty sure the issue is isolated to Vegas 12.

I realize it’s difficult to debug. I’m mostly hoping that someone has had similar issues.

[Matt Dunphy]

[John Rofrano] “”Natively” on a Windows PC is NEVER something in a Mac QuickTime wrapper. Windows native format is AVI so Vegas is expecting the DVCPRO in an AVI wrapper. You’ll need to convert it from MOV to AVI if you want Vegas to use it.”

Another option seems to be Raylight Decoder, the trial for which works perfectly fine, albeit with some watermarks. I might fork out the $45 rather than run the tapes back to the shop that converted them.

“Ingest P2 media using Vegas Pro’s Device Explorer, and edit the DVCPRO 25/50/100 and AVC-Intra 50/100 MXF files natively.” Not “DVCPRO in an AVI wrapper natively.”

The idea that a file format is dependent on an operating system is pretty silly. Are you going to tell me I can’t edit AIFF files on my Windows machine? Because that was the common logic two decades ago too.

Anyway, thanks for at least replying. Sorry if I’m a little cranky, I probably shouldn’t be surprised that getting Betacam SP tapes converted is something of a journey.