Hammond B-3x no sound or garbled

[Joe_Southern]

I've had the B-3x and it's worked fine. I'm not sure what's happened but first it would sound garbled, static like, break apart like, in the VST mode - using Cakewalk. And now the stand alone won't produce sound.

I'm using a Presonus StudioLive 24 AI and the presonus ASIO. It recognized all my outputs. I can do another stand alone product with the exact same settings and I get sound just fine. I've used all of this for quite some time. I've had the B-3x for maybe a year.

Same inside cakewalk, I can use other vsts including IK items and they are fine. But, the B-3x is garbled.

On the stand alone B-3X, it will show there is output on the speaker monitor at the top of the B-3x app as the keys are pressed either via midi or using the mouse.

I've reinstalled the module and did the factory reset inside the module to no avail. The only possible thing I can think of is that we had a power outage and I think I had a cakewalk project loaded that may have had this as a soft synth. I don't recall it clearly because, I'm old, and I haven't noticed any other issues with any equipment or software. That's why I reinstalled it, but no help.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Joe_Southern]

As an update - after many tests, it seems that the B-3x won't work at 96K - only at 48K (or presumably less).

I went to an older project that I'd started at 96K whereas normally I now do projects at 48K. Sure enough, a brand new project at 48K worked, a brand new project at 96K doesn't (it's garbled). I'm not sure why that would be.

[DarkStar]

First of all, I'm glad that you tracked down the problem you were running into.

I guess that, at 96 KHz, the B-3X physical modeller has to do at least twice as much work as it would at 48 KHz. it would be interesting to compare the CPU loads at each sample rate. Also (and this is my pet theory) can you let us (me) the CPU load at each rate, with the GUI open and with it closed?

Finally, please report this problem and your findings to Technical Support for investigation and fixing.

[Joe_Southern]

DarkStar - thanks for your suggestion.

Here is what I get with Cakewalk, using the meter in their program.

Clearly, looking at these, it's taking a lot of processing - too much at 96K. I had read where some people were experiencing high CPU use but it seemed like there was an update that fixed it. And, as an old timer's memory comes back - I think I've only used it on 48K projects until I went to this older project at 96K.

I had noticed as I was tracking this down, that my Presonus native ASIO interface, at 64 buffers, it acted up on the 48K new project. I had to increase the buffers to 128 I think was the minimum it would work - I settled on 256. Going higher didn't add or subtract anything. On the 96K I tried all available buffer settings with the max at 2048 buffers and there was no noticeable change - certainly not like the 48K.

Numbers below are approximate as the meter in the DAW just gives real time numbers.

96K with B-3x screen open -

Overall App - 16-18% ; Engine Load 70-110% ; Late Buffers 7500-8500 (cumulative I think)

With B-3x screen closed

Overall App - 12-15% ; Engine Load 70-110% ; Late Buffers 10,000

With B-3x turned off in DAW

Overall App - .2 - 1% ; Engine Load 2% ; Late Buffers 0

48K with B-3x open -

Overall App - 23% ; Engine Load 37% ; Late Buffers 1

With B-3x closed

Overall App - 5-9% ; Engine Load 31% ; Late Buffers 1

With B-3x turned off in DAW

Overall App - 2-6% ; Engine Load 6% ; Late Buffers 0