I have 2.1 GHZ processor and 2GB ram with a 320 GB sata drive. When running sibelius and VDL 2.5 and doing a playback of a score I am using about 25% CPU power and 750 MB of RAM. However, my playback is intermittently ";hic ups";. To clarify it plays a few bars and during the 1st run through it may miss a couple 16th notes in a bar 13 but on the next playback it might miss garble an 8th note in bar 4. It's not consistently one bar just sporadic. Any ideas?

Uninstalled Midi Yoke and used maple instead. That was the difference- all is well.

[quote author=giggler link=topic=2636.msg14065#msg14065 date=1218025273]
Ji,,
Where's the buffer setting you were talking about? Also, I am using Sib 4.�� My sound card doesn't support ASIO drivers even though it is a Sound Blaster and relatively new. After much reading I think that is my problem. I am going to buy a new sound card with ASIO compatibility and see if that works. I used to have an external Sound Blaster NZ but the power transformer blew up twice. It used ASIO and I never had this problem. Thanks,
I'll let you know!
[/quote]

You may want to consider going with a pro audio card rather then a consumer model.  M-Audio, Edirol, etc. make great internal and external audio interfaces that are designed for music technology.  I personally have used the M-Audio mobile pre and have been very happy with its stability.

[quote author=giggler link=topic=2636.msg14065#msg14065 date=1218025273]My sound card doesn't support ASIO drivers
[/quote]

That was my initial thought. I'm surprised that an Audigy card doesn't have at least ASIO 1.0 support. I would think all the newer cards would have it. Good luck with the new card, hopefully it will sort out your issues.

Edit: I did a quick search and found a universal ASIO ";driver"; that may help you out. Let us know if you have any luck. [u]http://tippach.business.t-online.de/asio4all/index.html[/u]

Ji,,
Where's the buffer setting you were talking about? Also, I am using Sib 4.  My sound card doesn't support ASIO drivers even though it is a Sound Blaster and relatively new. After much reading I think that is my problem. I am going to buy a new sound card with ASIO compatibility and see if that works. I used to have an external Sound Blaster NZ but the power transformer blew up twice. It used ASIO and I never had this problem. Thanks,
I'll let you know!

[quote author=Jim Casella link=topic=2636.msg14053#msg14053 date=1217896599]

Regarding your soundcard, what the interface type is set to (in the Audio Options of Sibelius 5). Soundblasters may give you the choice of Direct Sound, MME, or ASIO
[/quote]

This is the money shot. Be sure to check this out and report back!

I tried the extreme settings to see what affected it the most and there was no change. The only noticeable change was when I changed the output latency to the max; then I had some real bad distortion. My drive is 7200 RPM. I think it is my mother board and how it relates to my sound card. I used the built in sound card and it was worse. It got better when I added the PCI sound blaster card but, it still ";hic ups";. 

Actually, if you're using VDL 2.5 (which uses Kontakt Player 2), you [i]are[/i] using DFD. KP2 now uses DFD all the time and you can't turn it off as you could with VDL2 (which used an earlier flavor of KP). How much memory is allocated to DFD can be adjusted via the KP2 ";options."; Adjusting these settings can often have a profound affect on hiccups. This may take some trial and error, so try various settings. Leaning left or right doesn't really have one benefit over the other, and it simply dependent on your specific machine. DFD performance hiccups may also be more likely if your drive spins at less than 7200RPM. Not sure if this is the case with your drive. Capacity doesn't really matter here unless the drive is crammed full.

Regarding your soundcard, what the interface type is set to (in the Audio Options of Sibelius 5). Soundblasters may give you the choice of Direct Sound, MME, or ASIO, and your buffer settings here will also make a big difference with possible skips. Try setting your buffer around 2048 and see how that performs.

I am not using DFD since I've got 2GB RAM. My sound card is an Audigy LS Sound Blaster by Creative running with the latest driver. I've tried using light versions too. They all do the same thing.

What's your sound card? And have you installed the proper drivers for it?

[quote author=giggler link=topic=2636.msg14039#msg14039 date=1217850064]
I am only using battery- I tried using the lite versions and it does the same thing. I've got more than enough processor speed and RAM to handle what I am doing that's why I think it's related to settings. It only happens to 3 or 4 bars (out of 80) during playback and it's random.��
[/quote]

Are you utilizing DFD?

I am only using battery- I tried using the lite versions and it does the same thing. I've got more than enough processor speed and RAM to handle what I am doing that's why I think it's related to settings. It only happens to 3 or 4 bars (out of 80) during playback and it's random. 

[quote author=giggler link=topic=2636.msg14029#msg14029 date=1217768919]
I have 2.1 GHZ processor and 2GB ram with a 320 GB sata drive. When running sibelius and VDL 2.5 and doing a playback of a score I am using about 25% CPU power and 750 MB of RAM. However, my playback is intermittently ";hic ups";. To clarify it plays a few bars and during the 1st run through it may miss a couple 16th notes in a bar 13 but on the next playback it might miss garble an 8th note in bar 4. It's not consistently one bar just sporadic. Any ideas?
[/quote]

How many instruments are in your score?  Remember that ringing instruments will weigh more on your system (vibes, cymbals, etc..) Also try using the lite instruments as much as possible.