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Recording Issue... need some help

mr.brettmr.brett 678 Posts
edited December 2006 in Strut Central
About two months ago I bought a M-audio firewire solo hoping to increase the quality of my vinyl rips. Unfortunately, I'm having a funky problem that I never had prior to using the interface. I get these heinous digital scratchy sounds going on in my recordings every once in a while. Here's a short example of the problem: http://www.missouri.edu/~bar54e/Recording%20Problem.mp3Any help you can give on this would be appreciated.Here's the other equipment/software I'm using: technics 1200 -> rane ttm 56 -> M-audio firewire solo -> sonic foundry vegas audio 2.0.

  Comments

  • AlGarthAlGarth 353 Posts
    Try to isolate the problem if possible. That sounds like some sort of interference. Is there any rhyme or reason at all? If you re-rip the same song will it be fine? Do you have pro-tools or another sound editor you can try? Does that noise show up visibly in the wave form or is it just audible?
  • pjl2000xlpjl2000xl 1,795 Posts
    try different buffer sizes in vegas's audio preferences. It might be set to low. Also make sure its set at a compatible sample rate. usually 24 bit 48000 khz is good, but 16 bit 44.1 khrtz is fine
  • mr.brettmr.brett 678 Posts
    Try to isolate the problem if possible. That sounds like some sort of interference. Is there any rhyme or reason at all?
    Not that I can tell. I haven't been listening to most of my rips after I record them though. That's going to change though.
    I've heard interference can happen when you have audio wires travelling over electric plugs. Is this true?
    If you re-rip the same song will it be fine?
    Yeah, it's fine... but re-recording is a hassle.
    Do you have pro-tools or another sound editor you can try?
    I actually bought Vegas Audio a while back, so I've been just using it instead of downloading something else. I got a trial version of Live with my interface, but I got frustrated trying to use it and decided it wasn't worth learning how to use it because all I do is record stuff and make re-edits occasionally.
    Does that noise show up visibly in the wave form or is it just audible?
    I think it's visible. Kinda hard for me to tell.

    Thanks!
  • BeatsoupBeatsoup 511 Posts
    It might be an issue with your dma buffers being too low and your comp can't write the data fast enough...asuming you have similar maudio drivers to what I have....double click on the M at the bottom right of your screen or go to maudio in the windows control panel. Hit the hardware settings tab and at the bottom you can adjust the buffer size, 512samples should work for just recording...

    Also make sure you have maudio's latest drivers, also check the settings in your daw, could be a buffer setting there...Lastly you hardrive might be fragged up and can't write/ playback the data properly giving u pops and crackles.
  • mr.brettmr.brett 678 Posts
    Hit the hardware settings tab and at the bottom you can adjust the buffer size, 512samples should work for just recording...

    It's on 256 right now. It let's me hit the up arrow, but it doesn't change from 256. Maybe because I'm using it currently?

    also check the settings in your daw, could be a buffer setting there
    I don't know what a daw is.. can you elaborate please?
  • pjl2000xlpjl2000xl 1,795 Posts
    try different buffer sizes in vegas's audio preferences. It might be set to low. Also make sure its set at a compatible sample rate. usually 24 bit 48000 khz is good, but 16 bit 44.1 khrtz is fine
    damn i gotta keep quoting myself today.

    Is there an maudio control panel? Your rate should be at 512 instead of 256. In the panel its probably locked at 256 so you need to change that. And make sure you have 13 ms of latency. you can change this in your Digital Audio Workstations preferences which in your case is vegas. you should get a wave editor like the free audigy or goldwave. Do a search on google for downloads of them. A lot better for what you are trying to do then using a full blown sequencer like vegas. If you want to buy one or get a bootleg get wavelab or soundforge.
  • mr.brettmr.brett 678 Posts
    try different buffer sizes in vegas's audio preferences. It might be set to low. Also make sure its set at a compatible sample rate. usually 24 bit 48000 khz is good, but 16 bit 44.1 khrtz is fine
    It was at 16 bit 44.1, i put it up to 24 bit 48000 though.

    Is there an maudio control panel?
    Yes... this is what I was refering to when I was talking about not being able to change from 256 to 512.

    Your rate should be at 512 instead of 256. In the panel its probably locked at 256 so you need to change that.
    Ummm.. how?

    Thanks for the tips. I changed my latency too. Can you give me a one sentence explanation what that does?
  • TabneticTabnetic 206 Posts
    . Can you give me a one sentence explanation what that does?

    latency is the lag-time experienced by sound cards. the buffer size is in direct relationship with that. the larger the buffer size, the more latency, but the faster your system will run. the inverse is also true. that was 4 sentences, sorry.
  • mr.brettmr.brett 678 Posts
    Your rate should be at 512 instead of 256. In the panel its probably locked at 256 so you need to change that.
    Ummm.. how?
    I installed sound forge and suddenly i was able to change from 512 to 256. It says that latency is set at 11ms now, which i guess corresponds to 512 samples.

    Hopefully using sound forge with these adjustments will solve the problem.

    I still need to figure out how to use sound forge though. It's similar to vegas audio, but different enough to trip me up.

    I recorded the whole side of an EP. When I went to crop one song to save it, I expected a file of the entire ep to be on my hard drive, but I couldn't find it in the folder i have temp and recorded files saved to. Does sound forge not save the whole recorded file? Do sound forge users usually record a song at a time, normalize, then save. Or, is there some easy way to record a whole side, chop up the songs, normalize individually and then save?
  • pjl2000xlpjl2000xl 1,795 Posts
    yeah you record one big wave, then highlight the audio you want to make a track, then just drag it outside of the window your working in soundforge -like the backround. It will make a new file of just your highlighted section. Save it as a 192bps mp3. Repeat and do that for the whole original recording to break up your tracks. then just dont save the og recording when you are done.
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