Hi folks, so I've been helping an acquaintance of mine get set up for recording his drum kit at home so he can record some halfway decent demos. I've been walking him through the signal chain, and tutoring him on recording with Reaper. (later we'll get into a bit of mixing, but that's a whole other can of worms!)
He has mentioned an intermittent problem while recording. I haven't noticed it when I'm on site, but I only had him play a couple minutes to set levels and adjust the mic positions a little, as well as doing a scratch recording while playing to a drumless track that was imported into a track in Reaper.
The problem that he mentioned is that every half minute or so while recording (it's not exactly every 30 seconds, but roughly that time frame) the system "hiccups". It basically freezes for a split second before continuing, and when it freezes, there is an audible pop like someone thumping a mic. He was asking me if he should put a filter in, or if it's a problem from unclean power. I told him let's research a bit more before spending money on a solution that might not work.
He did say it happens while recording, but he doesn't recall hearing the problem during playback. He's going to send me a rendered mp3 of the recording soon to see if the sound from the interruption is captured or not. (I'm assuming it won't be).
The signal chain is as follows: Mics -> XLR cables -> Snake -> Focusrite Scarlett <-> PC
Scarlett Output 1 and 2 -> powered JBL Monitors
SM57's on the snare and on the floor tom. Rode M5 SDCs as overheads, Beta 52 on the kick. He had some older XLR cables from his PA system on hand, but they weren't quite long enough to reach the interface, so I recommended he either get longer cables, or just get an 8-channel cable snake like the one I brought out (basically 8-channel cable snake 8 heads on each end). He ended up getting a snake that terminates in kind of a stage box strip at one end, XLR leads on the other end, which plug into the interface. So I just worked with it, connected the mic cables to the 8-channel strip. Seemed to be fine, got good signals at the interface and in the DAW. Didn't sound too bad, just need to tweak mic positions next time I'm over there.
For the interface, he's using a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Mk2 connected to his PC via USB 2.0, running Windows 10. 1/4" Outputs from the AI are running to a pair of powered JBL monitors. His system, firmware, drivers, and Reaper are all up to date. Everything seemed fine when I was setting levels and having him record a bit to a drumless track he had. And for the few minutes I had Reaper recording, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
On the Scarlett, the Channels 1-4 have the +48v enabled for the Rode M5's.
Unfortunately, I won't be meeting with him again until April, so I won't be able to troubleshoot each piece of the signal chain or try to reproduce the problem or witness it in person until then.
I don't know off the top of my head what's happening. My first thought is a power or device interruption involving the Scarlett. Seems like an audio interface going offline or being interrupted might hang Reaper briefly. I mean, I've seen cases of a VST taking a dive causing the DAW to hang or crash, so an interface being interrupted somehow might cause that "hiccup". Any insight on this would be appreciated. Meanwhile I'll keep trying to search around for similar issues and if they were resolved or not.
Thanks!
He has mentioned an intermittent problem while recording. I haven't noticed it when I'm on site, but I only had him play a couple minutes to set levels and adjust the mic positions a little, as well as doing a scratch recording while playing to a drumless track that was imported into a track in Reaper.
The problem that he mentioned is that every half minute or so while recording (it's not exactly every 30 seconds, but roughly that time frame) the system "hiccups". It basically freezes for a split second before continuing, and when it freezes, there is an audible pop like someone thumping a mic. He was asking me if he should put a filter in, or if it's a problem from unclean power. I told him let's research a bit more before spending money on a solution that might not work.
He did say it happens while recording, but he doesn't recall hearing the problem during playback. He's going to send me a rendered mp3 of the recording soon to see if the sound from the interruption is captured or not. (I'm assuming it won't be).
The signal chain is as follows: Mics -> XLR cables -> Snake -> Focusrite Scarlett <-> PC
Scarlett Output 1 and 2 -> powered JBL Monitors
SM57's on the snare and on the floor tom. Rode M5 SDCs as overheads, Beta 52 on the kick. He had some older XLR cables from his PA system on hand, but they weren't quite long enough to reach the interface, so I recommended he either get longer cables, or just get an 8-channel cable snake like the one I brought out (basically 8-channel cable snake 8 heads on each end). He ended up getting a snake that terminates in kind of a stage box strip at one end, XLR leads on the other end, which plug into the interface. So I just worked with it, connected the mic cables to the 8-channel strip. Seemed to be fine, got good signals at the interface and in the DAW. Didn't sound too bad, just need to tweak mic positions next time I'm over there.
For the interface, he's using a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Mk2 connected to his PC via USB 2.0, running Windows 10. 1/4" Outputs from the AI are running to a pair of powered JBL monitors. His system, firmware, drivers, and Reaper are all up to date. Everything seemed fine when I was setting levels and having him record a bit to a drumless track he had. And for the few minutes I had Reaper recording, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
On the Scarlett, the Channels 1-4 have the +48v enabled for the Rode M5's.
Unfortunately, I won't be meeting with him again until April, so I won't be able to troubleshoot each piece of the signal chain or try to reproduce the problem or witness it in person until then.
I don't know off the top of my head what's happening. My first thought is a power or device interruption involving the Scarlett. Seems like an audio interface going offline or being interrupted might hang Reaper briefly. I mean, I've seen cases of a VST taking a dive causing the DAW to hang or crash, so an interface being interrupted somehow might cause that "hiccup". Any insight on this would be appreciated. Meanwhile I'll keep trying to search around for similar issues and if they were resolved or not.
Thanks!