Weird popping sound

G

ghostred7

New member
Setup: MXL --> Focusrite Sapphire Pro 40 --> firewire to PC --> Win7 x64 --> Sonar X1 producer

I've tried changing the sample rate, latencies, etc with no luck. I'm at a loss. I tried this same thing with direct in via guitar chord into the preamps of the interface...no luck. I'm getting a popping sound amongst other things. It is in the raw recorded audio (checked outside of the DAW). I'm sure I've noob'd something up, but like I said, I've switched sample rates between 44.1 & 48. I haven't tried 88.2 or 96 yet. I've changed cables, mics, etc...also to no avail.

Seriously at a loss here, so any thoughts/ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 
It sounds like your PC is struggling with resources. Your audio recording is being interrupted about 5 times a second.

Did you have another heavy use program running at the time? eg: antivirus, defrag etc? Try again making sure your recording program is the only program operating.

Check in Windows Task Manager under Performance setting that you arent overtaxing the PC with other tasks when recording.
 
One other thing to check is your chord I had that happening for a while finally tracked it to a bad guitar chord it was shorting out. drove me me nuts for days
Tim
 
Tim Gillett said:
It sounds like your PC is struggling with resources. Your audio recording is being interrupted about 5 times a second.

Did you have another heavy use program running at the time? eg: antivirus, defrag etc? Try again making sure your recording program is the only program operating.

Check in Windows Task Manager under Performance setting that you arent overtaxing the PC with other tasks when recording.
Click to expand...
Nothing overtaxing or even above 60% utilization. I am wondering if there's just a raw processing/bus speed issue since I'm running a slightly older rig (Core2Quad & 4GB RAM).

tpb said:
One other thing to check is your chord I had that happening for a while finally tracked it to a bad guitar chord it was shorting out. drove me me nuts for days
Tim
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, it's not just 1 track/channel. I only exported this one because it's the most prominent (hotter signal/output), but also had 3 other inputs/chords/mics being used this is occurring across. I am curious as the Saffire has the option for phantom pwr for 1-4 & 5-8....could a standard mic being plugged into an input w/ the phantom cause issues internally of the Saffire? I noticed it was like than when I unplugged everything.
 
ghostred7 said:
Umm...not sure what this is. It's the on-board FW, so maybe?
Click to expand...

Yes...it needs to be the Texas Instruments 1394 Chipset. It appears to be the only one that handles audio particularly well. If your onboard FW is not using this, that's likely the problem.
 
I'm going to pick one up today and hopefully that'll help. I get the same issue on my laptop, but that was fixed with changing from 44.1 to 48 for my projects.
 
I suggest you optimize your pc for audio recording (there are numerous articles with tips that can help you out)
This can make a big improvement and may solve your problem. The best is to have a windows partition only for music (no internet, no firewall, no antivirus) stripped to the ground (using only the vital system processes)
When this happens open your task manager, go to processes to check what's happening in terms of memory usage, and also set priority to real-time for you audio software.
One last thing is that it could be a conflict between your audio and your graphix card.
 
Disable any wireless internet devices (or internet in general) as they continue to look for connections, also diconnect any non used usb cables /devices except keyboards and mouse etc.
 
I'm not sure what the final fix was...but not having the issue any more. I am disabling the other audio drivers, killing all background apps, etc....that could have something to do w/ it...not sure at this point since I've changed out so much.
 
ghostred7 said:
I'm not sure what the final fix was...but not having the issue any more. I am disabling the other audio drivers, killing all background apps, etc....that could have something to do w/ it...not sure at this point since I've changed out so much.
Click to expand...

When you record, you don't want ANYTHING running besides your DAW. I suggest you turn off all Windows OS services (Stripping down your OS is a better option). I would reset all your settings back to default, reboot and make changes one by one to single out the problem, for future reference.
 
It reared its ugly head again. This time on a completely different machine. I am "mobile" with my laptop and recorded last night. I tried 48khz/24bit as well as 96k/24bit and getting the same thing. Nearly all non-essential programs were turned off and/or uninstalled completely. The only thing I didn't do is reduce graphics resolution, but per the meters in the DAW, no where near resource cap. No way to use a different FW card since it's on-board in a laptop....it'd cost more to try & replace than to buy a new laptop (which I've been considering TBH). I was using WDM mode on this recording. It's definitely embedded in the recorded audio...I pulled it over to my desktop and just played it, so it's there. I am so frustrated (at myself mainly b/c of noobness) that I almost sold my Saffire this morning. Latest sample:

 
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