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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: MattD on September 24, 2004, 11:55:59 AM

Title: hard drive vibration causing buffer underruns?
Post by: MattD on September 24, 2004, 11:55:59 AM
I'm a laptop taper and the past two times I have taped Lotus, I had to set up somewhere near the subwoofers. Both times, the log file my recording program generated said I had buffer underruns almost every minute and thus dropped samples. The first time, I thought it might have been due to my drive not having a ton of free space, but I had 8 GB free last night, so that shouldn't have been it, plus this sounds feasible.

How can I prevent this in the future if I don't have a choice in setup location? I set up on a towel this time, but didn't expect it to do much (it's not like I can prevent the sound travelling through the air). I think the buffer is maxed out, so that's out as a solution. Thanks for the help!
Title: Re: hard drive vibration causing buffer underruns?
Post by: Craig T on September 24, 2004, 12:04:46 PM
maybe isolation/vibration control products made for home audio like turntables, etc?  might search AudioAsylum tweaks/diy for cheap solutions.
Title: Re: hard drive vibration causing buffer underruns?
Post by: jpschust on September 24, 2004, 12:26:39 PM
I'm a laptop taper and the past two times I have taped Lotus, I had to set up somewhere near the subwoofers. Both times, the log file my recording program generated said I had buffer underruns almost every minute and thus dropped samples. The first time, I thought it might have been due to my drive not having a ton of free space, but I had 8 GB free last night, so that shouldn't have been it, plus this sounds feasible.

How can I prevent this in the future if I don't have a choice in setup location? I set up on a towel this time, but didn't expect it to do much (it's not like I can prevent the sound travelling through the air). I think the buffer is maxed out, so that's out as a solution. Thanks for the help!

ive got an extra laptop bag (one of the thinner targus laptop bags with nice padding on the bottom) that you can have.  i think setting up inside of that should help the vibration.  i know it does on bumpier plane rides.
Title: Re: hard drive vibration causing buffer underruns?
Post by: John Kelly on September 25, 2004, 03:57:10 PM
Also you may want to avoid setting up next to subwoofers with a laptop.  You may be having problems with the magnets inside them, not the vibrations.
Title: Re: hard drive vibration causing buffer underruns?
Post by: sexymexi on September 25, 2004, 04:52:29 PM
yea, i've heard of issues with the HD's in the FR2 doing the same thing.  isolate it as much as possible i've seen good results by surrounding the FR2 with a bunch of foam surrounding it.  good luck.