Hi Dosada.

Can you please let me know your computer specs (make, model, CPU type and speed, RAM, hard drive, any other USB devices used).

This probably won't have anything to do with the firmware, that only fixes a Vista issue where it 'stole' one channel of audio when using as an external soundcard, so it has no bearing on ITCH playback, we don't recommend the firmware for other users, but it's not the end of the world.

Can you go over this article and make sure you do everything in it:
www.serato.com

Also make sure you have all your latest laptop drivers (go to your manufacturer's website to check).

I'd also do this too after the above:
Close down all software.
Go to your Music > ScratchLIVE folder (or Music > Serato if there is no ScratchLIVE).
Rename the 'History' folder to 'History_old'
Reopen ITCH and see how the performance is going.

Cheers.

Hello! Thank you for your quick reply. As I mentioned before, the problem is not connected to my laptop configuration, or drivers, or external devices etc. I've been using VCI-300 without any performance problem for a quite long time - since January 2009. Everything was good - quick file load times, great performance during mixing and scratching. The problems starts right after the installation of the new firmware and ITCH 1.1.0. Opening of any MP3 file now takes awfully long time and the CPU's load during any file opening is 100%. If I try to playback the first file and then open and play the second file before the any of two files' analysis is finished - ITCH almost freezes. The waveforms starts to move very slow, with frames skipped and then playback stops completely and continue after 1 - 2 seconds. The problem with performance can be solved only if I use the "Analyze files" function with VCI-300 disconnected. Already analyzed files loads quickly. But it's not a solution. During mixing I need to open new files, that has not been analyzed before. And now, after the ITCH 1.1.0 upgrade, loading of a new files causes almost dead freezing of my laptop. I guess the problem is that in ITCH 1.1.0 files are opened and analized in new way - not as it was before in ITCH 1.0.4. After analysis all the waveform and other information is written into MP3 file's ID3v2 Tag. And the rewriting of a new MP3 file with new ID3v2 Tag loads the CPU and HDD to 100%. Personally I really don't like the new approach. Not only because the performance problem (actually it's not a problem - it makes VCI-300 completely unusable for me), but also because my music collection's ID3v2 Tags are rewritten - so checksums are damaged. Can you tell me how to turn off the writing of waveforms' information to IT3v2 Tags? How to rollback to 1.0.4? I want the performance back. I want the waveforms' information to be saved not into the MP3 files directly, but into Music > ScratchLIVE folder. All the recommendation about closing of all the software and delition of History folder does not work. I need your help. Looking forward hearing from you.

This is actually how things have always worked , analyzing files takes a lot of strain on the computer (as you see by the CPU maxing out). The analyzing is the same as far as I am aware, but something else could be highlighting an issue you've always had however.

Or you could have corrupt files (will have a little broken CD icon next to the file). You'd need to analyze all files,and then click the ALL... crate, then click the top box above the first column to sort any corrupt files together and remove them from your library (and hopefully from your computer so there is no risk of it getting re-imported at a later stage.).

You should always analyze files before a performance, otherwise you'll never know if you have a corrupt file etc.

The way the file information is written to the file is bound into the code, so unfortunately there is no way to change this - even if this was deemed safe by the programmers (which it probably wouldn't be sorry to say).

if you want to strip the tag information, go into iTunes, convert to no ID3 tags, then reconvert back.

However, as I mentioned, apart from some very minor bug fixes, there hasn't been any overhaul of this process.

I don't have any corrupt files. No any. And before the 1.1.0 after analization of the files there were no any information written by the ITCH to the files. Now in 1.1.0 it is written by default. That's why it's so slow. Prior versions of ITCH saved this information externally.I don't want to use 1.1.0, but I have already installed new firmware. Please help me to rollback to previous version of the firmware. It must be some way.

There has been no change in our code to MP3 meta tag information at all in ITCH apart from reading a key field. Have you read otherwise?

The only way we could rollback your firmware would be to re-direct a programmer's development time away from bug and feature development. But since there isn't anything the firmware does (apart from changing some of the way Vista manages soundcards).

Once a file has been analyzed and the information has been written to the file tag, the only time tag information is written to the file is when you add cues, loops, or alter the information through the library.

I have Analyzed whole my music library. It took almost two days! I thought that it will help. But NO!!!! During playback the processor now is maxed out all the time. I don't know what to do. I repeat - with 1.0.4 there were no problems at all. Please help me to roll back the firmware to use ITCH with version before 1.1.0. I will have a performance next week and I will not be able to use my VCI-300. I don't know what to do now!

Have you done this:
Close down all software.
Go to your Music > ScratchLIVE folder (or Music > Serato if there is no ScratchLIVE).
Rename the 'History' folder to 'History_old'
Reopen ITCH and see how the performance is going.

Yes, I've did everything. But performance still dramatically slow. Processor is maxed out all the time. And specially on load of files. Even though they has been already Analyzed. Before it was OK. I want ITCH 1.0.4 back. Please help me with downgrading of firmware.

The problem is solved. The reason was in a videocard's drivers. The card itself is ATI Radeon Mobility X1300. More than enough for ITCH, I guess and there were no problems with ITCH 1.0.4 - that's what strange indeed...
Anyways, I have tried to lower the "Maimum Screen Updates" settings to lowest 5 per second. And it helped! After this the processor started to max out only during the files' load (for about 10 seconds for each file). During the playback and other operations there were no maxing out, but still the load of the processor was about 90% all the time. So the problem was obviously in videocard.
I have uninstalled the official videocard drivers provided by ACER, and installed the alternative drivers "Omega" from www.omegadrivers.net Now during the files' opening the processor is loaded to 50% (for about 2 seconds each file, almost seamless). And the maximum load of the processor during the playback, scratching and other operations is 18%.
So, the solution is - install the official drivers from you notebook vendor. Then Uninstall the ATI Control Center and drivers of videocard itself. Very important, that you must leave the system logic drivers intact. System logic drivers frequently installed with ATI video card drivers in one pack (check the relevant question about this during the uninstall procedure). Then install the latest Omega drivers. Use all the default settings.
I hope my experience and the solution itself will be helpful to other users of ITCH who experienced or can possibly experience the same problem with performance. Special thanks to the author of the alternative "Omega" drivers.

Cool - thanks for the info. We do occasionally get people with video card issues. Probably it was trying to share system resources. Nice troubleshooting :D