DC-Art Tips and Tricks
Updated (11/30/2006)

Please Note:
This section has been superseeded by our User discussion forums, there are many more tips and tricks posted there. We are keeping this page around, but the discussion area is a much better source of the latest information.

Here you can find tips and tricks, bug workarounds, and hints for using DC-Art, Millennium and Live. If you have a useful tip, please send it us and we will be sure to include it here.

Harware issues

In general DCart, DC5, Millennium, and Live should work with whatever hardware you have providing it meet the minimum requirements. Getting the latest drivers, especially for your sound and video cards should fix most of the problems that you encounter. We occassionally run accross some hardware that we do have problems and changing the card fixes the problem. Interestingly enough, the video card is often the culprit as often as the sound card. Decreasing your video acceleration may solve some problems. Video cards, in an effort to extract the maximum preformance, often hog resources that cause problems when trying to do previewing in DCart. Since DC5 and Live5/Forensics use DirectX to communicate with the sound card, updating to the latest version of DirectX may also solve some problems.

Macros for DCart32

These macros were created by Bernie Cosell for use with DCart32. Since DCart32 does not have the Batch processing capability, Bernie decided to write his own. They automate almost all of the restoration process using an external Windows macro tool. Bernie has let us post them here for other users to try. You will need to get the macro utility describe in the readme.  Many thanks to Bernie for his hard work.
Download DCart32 Macros
Please note that these tools are not supported by Diamond Cut Productions.

Tips and tricks

1. You can remove clicks and pops manually from either the source or destination file.
   When you use manually interpolate function (the I key) or any of the editing functions such as cut, copy, paste, or mute you can perform these operations on either the source or destination file.
   
2. I upgraded from DCart32 to Millennium and now I hear stuttering in Preview mode.
   Millennium does take slightly more CPU processing power to do the equivalent processing as DCart32, but only 2-5% more. So if you were on the edge with DCart32, Millennium may push you over into stuttering previews. There are some thing to do that can help reduce this overhead. First turn off the VU meters and the Cursor Position boxes, these take up some CPU power. Next increase the Preview Buffers a little bit.  Also close the Spectrum analyzer or XY display if you have them running. These all take CPU time away from doing audio processing.
   
3. Will processing a 24 bit file take longer than a 16bit file?
   No: If the two files are recorded at the same sample rate then there will be very little difference in the amount of time required to process the file through a filter. Since Live and Millennium convert the audio data into high resolution internally, the extra bits do not add to the processing time. The only additional time will be in the reading and writing the larger files, which will be insignificant on most computers.
   
4. Sometimes when I open an MP3 file, I get weird noises in the file or the program crashes.
   Starting with version 4.69 of Millennium
   
5. I can't see the whole waveform?
   Set the Display Length Limit in the Preferences menu to a larger number of Megabytes. As shipped, DC-Art defaults to a 3MB display length limit. This means that after reading 3MB of the wavefile, it then displays a straight line. This greatly speeds up opening new files, at the expense of not seeing the entire wavfile at once. To change this behavior, use the Edit-Preferences dialog box to increase the Display Length Limit.
   
6. Order is important!
   When restoring a recording, it is important to run the impulse noise filter before any filter that reduces the bandwidth of the recording. We recommend running of the impulse filter as the first step in the any restoration that contains impulse noise. If you need to apply any equalization to correct for RIAA or NAB curves, you may want to do it first.
   
7. Vinyl mode works for 78's too.
   When de-clicking a 78, give Vinyl mode a try. It will sometimes do a good job of small clicks on quiet passages on a newer 78 records. HQ mode does a very good job on 78 as well.
   
8. Generate a simulated stereo file from a mono file.
   Start with a mono file that has been de-noised, and convert it to stereo using the File Conversion filters.
   Use the Make Destination the Source command to get a new source file.
   Run the Reverb effect with a Small or Medium hall, the decay set to a low number, and the early reflections level near zero.
   
9. Always get rid of clicks and pops before removing hiss.
   Run the Impulse noise filter as the firsts step in restoring a recording.
   Any ticks or pops left will most likely fool the hiss filters and sneak through onto the final recording.
   
10. Prevent live preview stuttering
    If you have a Pentium 133MHz or faster computer, almost all of DC-Arts filters should run in real time.(The stereo continuous nose filter is the slowest). This means that during preview mode, there should not be any stopping or stuttering.
    If you still get stuttering try setting the number of Preview Buffers higher. The Preview Buffers setting is located in the Edit->Preferences menu.
    Make sure that you are not running any other programs. Other programs can use CPU cycles even if they are seemingly idle.
    
11. Tips for a very noisy Vinyl recording
    For a very clicky Vinyl recording try running the impulse noise filter twice. Once with the Tracking control set at 0, and the Threshold adjusted to get the biggest clicks. Then for the second pass, set the Threshold back to 1, and adjust the Tracking to get the smaller clicks. This tip also works without changing the Tracking or Threshold controls. Just run the filter with the same setting twice.
    
12. Get the Latest.
    Check our support area for the latest patch releases of your program. We do respond to customers requests to fix bugs and provide patch release fixes at no charge.

Setup and system Problems

1. Dropouts during recording or Playback.

If you are experiencing dropouts or glitches during recording here are few things to try:

1. Make sure that you are using the latest drivers for your sound card. They can usually be obtained from the manufacture, or the Microsoft web site.
2. Make sure that the screen saver and all power management functions will not kick in during recording or playback. By default the screen saver has a 1 minute timeout, so after 1 minute of no keyboard or mouse activity, the screen save will kick in. The flurry of disk activity that happens when the screen save starts will put a glitch on the recording or playback.
3. Turn off all power saving features, or set their timers to longer than the longest musical selection you want to record or play.
4. Make sure there is nothing in the Start Up group. Look in the Windows95 Start->Programs->Startup group and remove any programs that may run during your recording session. A notorious culprit is Microsoft;s Fast Find feature. It periodically searches the hard disk. It is installed with all Microsoft Office products.
5. If you are getting desperate, try disabling virtual memory in Windows95 control panel. This should not be attempted by novice users because it can seriously effect yours PC's performance.  Here is the procedure:
   • Right click on "My Computer" on your desktop and select "Properties".
   • Select the "Performance" tab and select "Virtual Memory". Check "Let me specify my own. . ."
   • Enter the same value for both Minimum & Maximum, A good values is 1.5 times your system RAM, so for a 32MB system enter 48MB.
   • You may want to try changing the "Typical role of this computer" to a   "Mobile or Docking System" rather than "Desktop Computer" this helps to reduce disk activity.

2. Cannot record.

If you press the record button and the recording level meters do not move check the following items:

1. Make sure that your music source (CD, tape player, DAT) is connected to the correct input on your sound card. This is most likely the LINE or AUX input.
2. Go to the control panel, and click on the the Multimedia Icon. Make sure that the correct audio card is selected as the recording device and that the recording level is not at zero.
3. Most sound cards put a volume control on the task bar. Click on the volume control icon to bring up the level control screen. Select the recording controls (usually a menu item) Make sure that the input is enabled. Sometimes the LINE or AUX inputs are disabled by default.