Troubleshooting : Multi-channel Audio Files
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sub-system. There are two levels of warning with “PCI Bus too Slow” messages; </= 20%, which relates to a serious
but not necessarily critical situation and the </= 50% which would result in drop outs in audio playback or record-
ing or other unwanted artifacts and you want to make absolutely sure you will not get any of these showing dur-
ing playback or record. But if you were to get a warning when opening a project, creating or rebuilding a mixer or
when launching Pyramix this, while still a sign of possible timing issue in the PCI communication at this very
moment, would only bring minor inconvenience at a non critical instant and would, nonetheless, allow you to
work perfectly safely.
Historically, we have observed the PCI Bus too slow messages to occur with the following hardware combinations:
• In the design of older firmware for the Southbridge 686B of VIA based motherboards.
• On non-Intel motherboards using the Intel 84x chipsets (in particular the Intel 845 series supporting the
Pentium 4 processors). The reason for this is that the 84x series gives absolute priority to PCI writes over
PCI reads.
• On some Dual Xeon motherboards, using multiple PCI controllers with PCI-X slots.
PCI performance can be affected by a combination of different parameters and add-on cards such as specific com-
binations of Raid adapters, Graphics adapters, Dual processors and PCI-X slots.
Upgrading a component's BIOS/driver/firmware or even the operating system will often fix some early limitations
or conflicts with a particular PC component. As an example switching from Windows 2000 to Windows XP Pro
totally fixed the PCI latency problems on a Dell Inspiron 8000 and installing a “Signed” graphic card driver did the
same for an Asus Dual PIII workstation.
Audio Engine Drops Warning
This message informs users about possible CPU delays leading to potential audio errors in record or playback.
Mykerinos sends or requests audio data to or from the CPU in “frames” of 26ms. If one of these frames is not given
to, or taken from, the Mykerinos driver in time, this will result in a loss of audio data, and the
Audio Engine Drops
Warning
will be shown.
Playback Stalls Warning
Playback Stall messages are triggered by access delays impacting either the VS3, resulting in audio drops while
preserving the synchronization of the Tracks or the Mykerinos driver. In the latter case the stall may also endanger
the integrity of the synchronization between Tracks being recorded.
Record Stalls Warning
The Your Recording may be at risk warning indicates that the Destination Media Drive performance may be
insufficient. If so, we detect it and recommend that you change the destination media drive or optimize it.
MassCore Drops
Please see MassCore Overload Diagnosis and Cures on page 36
Multi-channel Audio Files
Wave, Broadcast Wave, AIFF or SDII multi-channel files are seen as mono files by the Pyramix Media Manager
unless their file names conform to Pyramix requirements.
Audio File Formats
Some audio file formats (like Pyramix native format, PMF and OMF) embed the Track/Channel number(s) in the file
itself. In this case, Pyramix recognizes the Track as mono, stereo or multi-channel without problem even if the dif-
ferent audio Tracks/Channels of these files are actually stored in separate files.
Some other formats (like Wave, Broadcast Wave Format, AIFF or MacIntosh SDII) do not keep this information in
the file itself but in the filename. Unless the correct naming convention is followed, Pyramix will see files in these
formats as individual mono, regardless of whether they are part of a stereo pair or multi-channel recording.
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