Very odd clipping problem?!

[Devon8822]

Hey, I've been having some pretty bad issues tracking DI bass lately and have exhausted so much time into troubleshooting it, I have finally narrowed down somewhat where the issue lies but i'm pretty stumped about what to do next. Basically, when recording DI bass I am getting the sound of clipping with aggressive/slap playing, without any visible clipping, even with pads and attenuation everywhere. I have swapped out mic pres (API 3124+, Daking mic pre IV, Apogee Duet)... the problem remains. I have tried different converters (Lynx Aurora 16, Apogee Duet), the problem remains. I swapped pickups and eventually borrowed some other bass guitars to test... the problem remained. The one thing I have not swapped out is the computer/DAW.

What was very revealing today was that my problem did something different than usual. I plugged in my bass and started playing through the DI out my monitors and it sounds great, the low end was back and the clipping was gone. So I clicked "record" and immediately my problem returned... so than I switch from my usual sample rate of 96kHz to 88 Khz and than back to 96, just to reset the interface/connection, and w/e else that resets in the DAW i dont know... and it worked again. I tried this test multiple times with different basses and gear once again and it was consistent. Every time I clicked record the problem returned. Note that after clicking record I could turn off the recording and just play live through my monitors and the problem would still be there until I reset the sample rate. Also, when monitoring the signal was going through the same conversion and everything as when recording, I was not direct monitoring/analog.

I would really appreciate if anybody had some insight on this? thanks!

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Your comment about the low end coming back suggests to me a phase and possibly polarity problem that is only present with the record enabled. Is there a second path of input monitoring that comes on when arming the track?

 

[Steenamaroo]

You should post up an audio clip of the problem, but I can think of a few things.

Maybe you have some processing on your record-armed track that's pushing it over the edge? Compressors, limiters etc?
Don't forget to check the master output path too.



Or (more likely) you're just hearing glitches from a computer struggling to process.
Does the noise get recorded down, or is it just audible during real time monitoring?
Maybe try increasing your hardware buffer size to see if anything changes.



Another option is a clock issue. I've had problems in the past like this even when the correct clock source was selected.
The remedy was to switch to another source then switch back.
Obviously it was some kind of software glitch.

 

[hamnstar]

Or (more likely) you're just hearing glitches from a computer struggling to process.
Does the noise get recorded down, or is it just audible during real time monitoring?
Maybe try increasing your hardware buffer size to see if anything changes.

I've seen this cause symptoms similar to what you're experiencing. Does it only do this with the bass, or does a regular guitar or other input produce the same behaviour? You could try turning off any monitoring that you may have in the DAW and see if that changes the behaviour.