Audio out of sync in Cubase

[frist44]

I have a Cubase 5.0. I've been recording multiple acoustic guitar tracks on top of each other one at a time. I have a delta omni studio and a check box in the asio direct monitoring box. My latency is currently at 21 ms and there's not noticable latency through my monitors because of the sound card.

I will record a rhythm track and then go and record lead over top. Everything's fine until i go to listen back the two tracks together and it seems as though the lead track goes in and out of sync with the rhythm. It's not consistent either, it won't have the same delay at the same spot. When I first start playing them together it seems alright, but then it'll start going in and out. I don't think my playing is as off as it's making it sound.

I've tried changing the bit rate it records at, the file caching, the buffer size and no luck. I also changed the sync reference from in to out.

My system is:

PII 400 slow i know
128 mb ram
delta omni, latest asio drivers
recording at 24 bit, 44.1

Please some help, I've tried everything.

Thanks,
Brandon

[toyL]

hi frist44...I doubt that our ears can hear the difference between 16bit and 24bit recordings...try recording at 16bits...also, make sure you are playing-back at 16bit...if the recording is 24bit, but the output is 16bit, this may be your problem...let us know.

[frist44]

I couldn't hear the difference between 16 and 24 bit in terms of overall quality, but i could definitely tell that the discrepancy in timing between the two tracks was still there on both settings.

How do i know what bit rate the recording is playing back at? is that in the multimedia setup?

[frist44]

It seems the output in setup was set at 32 bit for all the channel of my delta omni studio. I set the recording at 24 bit because i thought that's the most my sound card would handle. However, when I changed the recording bit rate to 32 to match the output, the problem was gone. So the problem's gone but my question is now:

My soundcard (delta 66) claims to record up to 24 bit, when i set cubase to record at 32 bit, everything seems to record fine and the wav files even show 32 quality, but is the sound quality actually 32 bit?

I would think that because of the limitations on the soundcard, the I would need to set everything to 24 or 16 to match up. I am eventually mixing down to cd, so is it worth recording above 16?

You guys have been super helpful. Even before I was a member I was always reverting to this forum to solve my problems, so thanks for all the good advice. It's nice to know there's people that know what they're talking about and have the patience and time to help those of us who don't all the time.

~Brandon

[toyL]

Hi Brandon. I’m glad to help when I can. Your latest questions are excellent. These are exactly the things you should be asking, and I must admit that there is much that I don’t fully understand. You are at least beginning to get to the fundamental nature of digital audio, recording and processing. You only need a few more details to become thoroughly confused. Along with more hands-on experience--including plenty of critical listening--these details will help you to form some “opinions” of your own. Your 1st question addresses the “sound quality” of 32bits. If your delta is set to output at 32bits, then this is the digital signal your DACs (digital to analog converters) will receive and convert to analog for your listening pleasure. The “quality” of the sound coming from your speakers is very much dependent upon the quality of the DACs on your delta—if your delta’s outputs are connected to your amp. Of course, the quality of your amp and speakers are also important. I imagine that delta uses 24bit DAC technology, although they could be using any one of several very different schemes. The quality of the various DACs on the market will vary considerably, and the numbers used to identify them can be misleading. I believe Sony, for example, has a 1bit DAC technology that “sounds” very good by most accounts. In theory, 32bits of data into your DAC components—one for the left-OUT and one for the right-OUT—is “supposed” to sound better than a lesser value of bits. The number of “bits” in the signal, however, is not the only factor affecting the “quality” of the sound. The DACs themselves can be measured by their signal to noise ratio and frequency response among other things. I’m sure delta uses quality components.
Your last question strikes at the heart of the matter. The short answer is “yes”, it is worth it. The “content” you capture with 24 or 32bit “tracks” will not necessarily disappear when you create a CD. Maintaining the integrity—the “content”—of your 24 and 32bit “track-recordings” during the CD-burn process can be tricky, but it is possible. A good exercise would be to use CuBase to record the same audio file twice—first at 16bits and then at 24bits. Then use WAVELAB to create a CD of each, converting the one to 16bits. Now compare the two to see if you notice a difference. Let me know how this turns out….later.

[toyL]

hello frist44. are you still with us?

[frist44]

Yeah i'm still alive. I've just taken some time to really get dirty with cubase and see if i couldn't figure things out on my own. I guess the main thing I don't understand is that my delta claims to record only up to 24 bits.

I'm using the latest ASIO drivers and when i run the media setup within cubase, i test every channel and each channel associated with the delta card both input and output, set themselves up to record and playback at 32 bits per channel. Is this something that cubase realizes the delta can do. If so how come, i thought the delta could only record up to 24 bits.

The other thing is, i run those test on the each delta channel and it chooses 32 bits, but in the control panel of the setup, i could have every channel record and play at 16-bit. But unless cubase finds the channels to be 24bit, there's no way to change them to 24bit. Does this make sense, it's sort of confusing to explain with words.

So now i have cubase recording at 32 bit only because that's what seems to work. I assume, the recordings with stay in sync as long as each track is the same bit rate. But it just feels weird when i set cubase to record and playback at 32 bit when i know my delta card only handles 24 bit max.

If anyone could shed some light on this, i would greatly appreciate it. Should i keep recording on cubase at 32 bit even thoughi know the delta can't handle that. or should i record at 24 bit, when the output of cubase is set to 32 bit???

Please help.

[Chriss]

it actually doesn't matter as long as your computer can handle it..