what in god's name is this bizarre wave form?

Well, everybody, I reinstalled the driver, optimized my PC for recording, and cut all the low end. This picture is me sitting there in a quiet room looking at the line squiggle all over the place. There seems to be no sound going on that causes this. I captured one or two random household noises and you can see where they are in the spectral view which also shows the level of sound going on when the wild wavy lines start up. Any ideas?
more.weirdness.jpg
 
I must say man, all I heard was typical background noise on a track that has gain up way high.

Are you sure your zoom level of the waveform is just not too big? I don't hear anything abnormal here.
 
Hi OP,

I may have missed this, but have you provided a description of the actual equipment in use, and whether the computer is a desktop or laptop?

I'm wondering about some sort of electrical interference or grounding problem.

Paul
 
jimmys69 said:
I must say man, all I heard was typical background noise on a track that has gain up way high.

Are you sure your zoom level of the waveform is just not too big? I don't hear anything abnormal here.
Click to expand...


That's just the thing, there's no sound. I think the fluctuation is coming from something electronic inside my gear. The gain level is fine for my normal recording of voice over for on-hold. If I'm speaking when one of those silent bursts pops up, it gets laid onto the crazy contour. It the peaks are not too high, it's okay, but on the larger ones, voice will drop way down or break up.

When they erupt while I'm speaking, there's distortion and stuff but if it happens while I'm pausing and it's quiet even though the line jumps way up and down.
(I tried to attach an mp3 from the original screenshot but it's too large and even when isolating pieces of it, the site won't let me load them-too big.)
 
PRHunt said:
Hi OP,

I may have missed this, but have you provided a description of the actual equipment in use, and whether the computer is a desktop or laptop?

I'm wondering about some sort of electrical interference or grounding problem.


Paul
Click to expand...


M-Audio Luna mic, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface, Gateway NV79 laptop (father's day gift. The wife meant well), Windows 7, Adobe Audition cs5.5.

I have tried unpluggung the power cord when it starts but that doesn't change anything.
 
Right...I have a bit more time for a longer reply than my first, rushed suggestion to check the drivers.

First off, Audition. Since the problem is being recorded, it's highly unlikely that it's any setting in Audition itself. Unless you're doing a sample rate conversion (a bad idea anyway) Audition doesn't get involved in the recording--it just passes the data output of your interface straight onto your disk. This question came up before and I actually confirmed this with a couple of the Audition developers at Adobe.

Second, most electrical interference is superimposed on top of the material you're recording; your problem looks to me like the programme material is interrupted with some kind of strange noise rather than the noise over top.

For this reason, the culprits I'd be looking at would be a fault with the drivers (which I gather you've already tried) or some process in you PC intermittently upsetting the orderly flow of data to your disk. For this reason, those suggesting you go through and optimise your PC for recording could well be on the right track. Shut down all networking, wifi connectivity and anti virus software as a starting point then work through all the optimisation suggestion.

If none of this helps, it could possibly be a hardware fault in your interface--I hope not because the chances of an economic repair are pretty slim. If you can beg borrow or steal another interface to try, it's probably a worthwhile experiment.

As always, make sure all your cables (XLR and USB) are okay--though from the appearance of the problem, these wouldn't be my prime suspects.
 
Unclejohnny said:
That's just the thing, there's no sound. I think the fluctuation is coming from something electronic inside my gear. The gain level is fine for my normal recording of voice over for on-hold. If I'm speaking when one of those silent bursts pops up, it gets laid onto the crazy contour. It the peaks are not too high, it's okay, but on the larger ones, voice will drop way down or break up.

When they erupt while I'm speaking, there's distortion and stuff but if it happens while I'm pausing and it's quiet even though the line jumps way up and down.
(I tried to attach an mp3 from the original screenshot but it's too large and even when isolating pieces of it, the site won't let me load them-too big.)
Click to expand...

Dood, seriously, I hear nothing other than background noise from a mic picking up what it should. Who was giggling by the way?

If you have serious dropouts, or strange noises introduced to your signal previous to this recording, then it is likely a CPU or driver performance issue. You can send me the audio to my email if you have more to show (PM me), but from that clip, there is nothing abnormal, other than the street noise, and the funny giggle in the background.

I am going to guess that you just have your preamp level way too high to begin with.


Send me audio of when shiz freaks out.
 
Well, there IS sound but almost all the energy is in the 0 to 50Hz range so probably not hearable in most conditions. except for the very LF stuff, most of the background noise is down around -70dBFS or lower.
 
Bobbsy said:
Right...I have a bit more time for a longer reply than my first, rushed suggestion to check the drivers.

First off, Audition. Since the problem is being recorded, it's highly unlikely that it's any setting in Audition itself. Unless you're doing a sample rate conversion (a bad idea anyway) Audition doesn't get involved in the recording--it just passes the data output of your interface straight onto your disk. This question came up before and I actually confirmed this with a couple of the Audition developers at Adobe.

Second, most electrical interference is superimposed on top of the material you're recording; your problem looks to me like the programme material is interrupted with some kind of strange noise rather than the noise over top.

For this reason, the culprits I'd be looking at would be a fault with the drivers (which I gather you've already tried) or some process in you PC intermittently upsetting the orderly flow of data to your disk. For this reason, those suggesting you go through and optimise your PC for recording could well be on the right track. Shut down all networking, wifi connectivity and anti virus software as a starting point then work through all the optimisation suggestion.

If none of this helps, it could possibly be a hardware fault in your interface--I hope not because the chances of an economic repair are pretty slim. If you can beg borrow or steal another interface to try, it's probably a worthwhile experiment.

As always, make sure all your cables (XLR and USB) are okay--though from the appearance of the problem, these wouldn't be my prime suspects.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the thorough consideration, Bobbsy!
I disconnected internet access but I don't know if that's the same as shutting down connectivity and I have to ask Ms. Can't Quit Messing With Computers how to turn off the anti-virus stuff, firewall, etc. The interface is only about 5 or 6 weeks old. I was getting a similar problem with my old interface (Tascam US 122) but not as often.

The mic and cable are six or seven years old and see near daily duty. Maybe I shouldn't rule them out. The music store gave me a credit card so I can go and get a new mic and cable-even interface-and just bring the stuff back if there's no change.
 
Bobbsy said:
Well, there IS sound but almost all the energy is in the 0 to 50Hz range so probably not hearable in most conditions. except for the very LF stuff, most of the background noise is down around -70dBFS or lower.
Click to expand...

I had all the sliders 50Hz and lower pushed all the way down on the 31 band graphic EQ that comes with Audition
 
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