Major problems with Microstudio - solved!

[DJLiveMike]

Please be patient..here is my situation.

First, hardware. I use a MediaFORM standalone CD duplicator with (1) Plextor 12/20Plex reader and (2) Yamaha 4416 writers. I use this specifically because it can handle CD+G's and because with a simple SCSI connection it transforms from a standalone duplicator to peripheral drives on my computer. The CD-ROM drive in the computer itself is just a simple ATAPI and not useful in Karaoke situations, so its nice to be able to reroute the drives on the duplicator through the computer.

Second, software. For creating, customizing, remastering and recording, I use a product called Dart Pro98, from DARTECH, Inc. This software does anything and everything I can think of when it comes to audio tracks, however it is worthless for Karaoke. That is why I searched long and hard before finding MTU. I purchased Karaoke Home Producer, Microstudio, and Vogone in the hopes that I could create, customize, and record Karaoke CD's.

Third, the problem. I downloaded all the software, following the instructions explicitly. I decided to try the Microstudio first and I tried to play a CD+G in the Plextor drive. The audio came on for about 1-2 seconds and the words never popped up and just like that, my whole system locked up. I couldn't even CTRL-ALT-DEL to end the task. I had to shut the system down manually. I decided to try again, only this time using the Yamaha drive...same result. Within two seconds of the audio starting the whole system locked up. The same thing happened when I tried to play back a karaoke song I created in Karaoke Home Producer. I was able to import the lyrics, import the music and sync the two together, but as soon as I tried to play it, LOCKUP! The only bright spots thus far are that Vogone seems to work and within Microstudio, the customization process works. It seems my big problem is the ability to play CDG files, either from the hard drive or from disc.

Any explainations?

[admin]

Yep. Do a search in our Forums for ASPI and read all the posts. It sounds like Microstudio is not able to communicate with your CDR drive, and that means the ASPI driver - the software interface - is the problem.

You definitely are not the normal computer setup Microstudio is designed to run on. You need a good "diagnostician" to trouble shoot your problems, if you cannot. We will answer questions you post, but any custom needs go beyond the scope of standard support.

[DJLiveMike]

I've been reading posts about ASPI for 2 days now. I understand what the problem there would be, however, why would part of Microstudio work if the ASPI driver is out of date? Like I said, I was able to make a customized Karaoke CDG using microstudio, but unable to play it once it was created. So microstudio did recognize both my read drive and my write drive. Also, today I downloaded the most recent update to Dart Pro98, including many drivers, but the MTU software still didn't work. How do I find out information about my ASPI device driver? I know it's not Adaptec, because I don't have any adaptec software on my computer. Is my ASPI device driver part of the Dart Pro98? I really wish I could talk to someone about this!!

[admin]

First, I am not aware of a user of either of these 2 programs ever reporting a crash as you do. The problem appears to be unique to your system hardware/software/installation.

You should read the posts in these Forums about video lagging audio and the like. I expect your video card may have less than 8MB RAM, which is a current requirement. We have a new version of Microstudio and Karaoke Home Producer to be released by the end of this week if al goes well. The play code has been totally rewritten from ground up, and may solve your problem if it is just video RAM.

Does Play lock your system on EVERY song you play, or only some? Pick a song that does not have the video fade out or in (multiple pallette changes that can cause our player problems on certain computers). The "graphically simpler" the song the better it is for testing to see if this might be the problem.

It is clear that you are able to read and write with the CDR drives. The problem is the ability to play, with Microstudio or Karaoke Home Producer. Run DXDIAG on your computer (elsewhere in the forum is an explanation of how to do this, including saving the data) and save the data to the hard drive. Name the file yourfirst-lastname-dxdiag.txt so we know who it is from and what it is.

Email the file to support@mtu.com. Bryan is down with the Flu at the moment, and we are on Holiday which is why I'm not recommending you call our office. In the body of your email describe everything you can or copy/paste the HTML address for this Thread #152 (you can see it on your Browser's address line when you have this Thread open). Add any new data you find, such as results of the test I mentionn above.

I think the new releases might be the cheapest answer, if you can wait until they are released. However, if there is something else causing the problem, we can put this time to good use diagnosing it.

[DJLiveMike]

Boosted the RAM by 64 MB. Updated the video card and all video and graphics drivers.

Everything is working as it should!!

Thanks.