It IS a sound issue. Well actually it's a sound card issue. Your card has a bug that eats up at least 30% of your PCI bus Bandwidth. First read this to understand what is happening. Then disable your midi entirely.

That should help you out vastly.

How do you disable MIDI? I have an Audigy and have noticed slight lag every now and then when new sounds are played, not as severe as what he's describing but some.

I had exactly the same question... "how do I disable MIDI?" I went to Control Panel/Audio/Hardware then found midi and diabled it...problem is that it seems disabling midi makes the whole card disabled. Any way around that?

P.S. I tried to play the game with the SB Audigy totally disabled, but the laggy stuff was still there. I used FRAPS and my FPS looks like it stays above 30 at all times. Mostly it's @85 but sometimes goes as low as 37 or so. However, when the jitters happen, the framerate drops a bit, but to my eyes the game stops for a split second.

Same issue here, selecting "Do not use MIDI on this Device" completely disabled my Audigy. I take it we're supposed to do this another way.

Hmmm same problem here but it's not isolated to soundblaster audigy.I removed mine a went with AC'97 onboard and still got that occasional lag.My specs:2400+/MSI KT3 Ultra2/512MB pc2100(crucial)/ATI 9700 PRO/Audigy Gamer/yamaha crw-f1/wd 800jb 80gb/win2kpro sp3 /apm mode (ACPI is crap)

post your specs

Used FRAPS to monitor my FPS and it is a solid 100 except when dogfighting in a busy area(ie.around Fort Bush)then it drops to about 90.Funny thing is I've seen it happen at 100 FPS as well as 90.Strange...

I still would like to know how to disable only the midi on my Audigy if anyone knows how to do it. At least I might get some improvement....until MS releases a patch addressing this problem... yeah right!

Fingers Crossed

Unfortunately, I have found out that Audigy cards have the midi and wavout tied to the same driver. This means that if you disable the midi, the entire cards turns off.

The Live/Audigy problem has become so vast that there is now an alternate set of drivers out there for the cards.

Try kX project if you really desperate. They've developed an alternate set of drivers that may help you out.

Only thing is that I can't say they'll work.

But I would try them out on my system.

If you're desperate enough to be a guinea pig, give the alternate drivers a try.

Thanks Nog! Problem is that I do pro (well semi-pro, I am using a SB after all) recording into Nuendo and Wavelab etc. I fear that getting alt. drivers will make my other programs unhappy. But, if all else fails I'll give er a try...

I am having the same exact problem. I just upgraded to a Ti 4200 the other day and I started noticing this problem. I defragged. Updated my sound drivers (which actually resolved a problem of the beginnings of conversations getting cut off). And I have now gone back to the 40.71 Detonator drivers and I still have the problem. I will try the MIDI solution tonight.

USUALLY (not always) it seems to be related to someone about to say something. But I have also seen it happen just as something shows on the screen (like just before a station is visible or just before the enemy comes into view) or is added to the HUD list. But it's possible this is also timed with a sound event. I also get it just before any spaceship explodes, but this is probably timed with the "Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!" that is played.

I am running an Asylum Ti 4200 64MB. Not sure if it's the specific brand, or if it's just a problem with the Ti 4200's. At least I'm not alone. I was wondering if I should take the card back, but if others have the same problem...

I hear ya man. It's really aggravating. I thought I had a problem with my system, but it seems that we have exactly the same problem. Teeny tiny, yet horribly annoying lag. I hope this can be fixed with a patch. I fear it's the game itself only because it happens with exactly the same frequency when I have the graphics setting at lowest and the sound off. That setup pretty much excludes some sort of performance issue specific to my setup. I do exceed the recommended specs by a good deal after all...

Hope this can get orked out. I haven't played the game in a week now because of the problem.

Last night I disabled the option for the Comm Window. It still seems to have some issues, but it might be better. For instance, I didn't get the lag when a ship blows up. I still get it when you first arrive at a waypoint and the enemy ships show up, but while fighting, it appeared somewhat better.

Yes. I sure hope there is a patch for this. It's quite annoying. I'm glad I completed the SP campaign before I got the new card.

I'll keep trying to fiddle with options and stuff. See if I can get an improvement.