Clicks and pops

[Lame Thrower]

I'd like to solicit some advice if I could.

In n-Track, during recording or playback, on every track I get a geiger-counter type sound. It doesn't seem to be distortion really, I've checked all my I/O levels for this. The louder the track, the more clicks and pops.

Here's the kicker: I was going to mix down an MP3 to attach to this message as a reference, but I found that final mixes as MP3 or .wav sound fine. This makes me think maybe something to do with my buffer settings?

Can anyone offer me some advice on this?

Here's my setup:

AMD K-6/2 400Mhz
Lucky Star MB with VIA MVP chipset (Cheap garbage)
128MB RAM
15GB ATA33 HD
Yamaha DS-XG sound card (actually the same model Dragon used in his "Digital Results" article)

Thanks for your time and any help.

[TimOBrien]

Unlike some other programs that cost 10 times as much, N-Track doesn't hold you hand. You do have to play with the Preferences to find the right driver and buffer settings for YOUR computer.

Sounds like your computer isn't keeping up with the data. K-6/2's and VIA chipsets do have problems with the massive amounts of data pouring through with audio. You might want to consider upgrading. (Audio and Video production is no place for cheap components.)

You'll also find that having a dedicated 7200rpm drive for audio will increase performance and give you less problems.

To give you an example of what's possible tho, I only have a PII-450mHz Gateway with two 20Gb drives and I've run 33 tracks of 16-bit audio or over a dozen tracks of 24-bit audio with no problems.