Macintosh/Cubase Noise

C

calvinist216

New member
Hello All!!

I've searched through the threads as much as I could trying to find someone with a similar problem, but no one seems to have the exact same issue...

I am recording through an M-Audio pre into Cubase SX on a Mac G4. I am also running Cubase LE with a Tascam interface and/or a Zoom USB guitar pedal into a custom PC.

No Matter which set up I use, I am experiencing little occasional pops/cracks on the audio tracks. They are VERY intermittent...but they are enough to ruin an otherwise solid take.

I Have set the Buffer levels as high as they will go on both versions of Cubase on each computer. The only common factor in every audio crack/pop is that I am using a version of Cubase. So I have 2 questions:

1.) Is there something I could be doing to cause the little cracks, since it seems to be happening no matter what computer/interface combo I use...??

2.) Since they are not major pops all over the place, is there a way to just filter them out with a quick editor tool in Cubase?? Is there a trick to quickly fixing these little nuances without having to re take and re take until its right AND sans cracks & pops??

These may seem like simple problems, but I am new to hard disk recording, having used Otari 8 tracks and ADATs all my life. Waveform editing is greek to me.

Thanks!
 
I am running Cubase studio 4 and an iMac and have had the same exact issue however I am using a presonus firepod as my interface/preamps. I heard from a friend that it had to do with presonus, but thats interesting that you're having the same issue. I've just been cutting them out, as they never seem to happen in the wrong spots for me.
 
calvinist216 said:
The only common factor in every audio crack/pop is that I am using a version of Cubase. So I have 2 questions:

1.) Is there something I could be doing to cause the little cracks, since it seems to be happening no matter what computer/interface combo I use...??

!
Click to expand...
The cracks and pops are most likely from using the same hard drive for running the programs and for data collection. If so then get yourself another hard drive for just the audio files.
 
Well, I am using 2 separate drives now, and I am still getting the noise (pops and cracks).

Maybe this is a driver issue??
 
calvinist216 said:
Well, I am using 2 separate drives now, and I am still getting the noise (pops and cracks).

Maybe this is a driver issue??
Click to expand...

go ahead and reinstall them and check for updated ones as well... but that's not the kinda thing you normally see when drivers are the issue... i noticed your running an older copy of cubase... is it a crack?? they use a dongle for protection and cracks typicly try to answer dongle calls (interupts to make sure the dongle is there) most of the time it works poorly at best and that can cause pops and such... also how much ram can be an issue... and buffer size...
 
nope...not a crack.

oddly enough, when I use the line in to the sound card on the mac or the PC I dont have the "popping" problem....it only occurs when I use a USB interface.

plenty of RAM on both computers...

buffers set as high as they will go...

is USB common for this sort of thing?
 
calvinist216 said:
nope...not a crack.

oddly enough, when I use the line in to the sound card on the mac or the PC I dont have the "popping" problem....it only occurs when I use a USB interface.

plenty of RAM on both computers...

buffers set as high as they will go...

is USB common for this sort of thing?
Click to expand...

while not really my area of expertise... where usb seems to have issues it's primarily a problem of too many things on the usb ports... that is to say if the printer is usb then disconnect it when recording... apparently usb alocates a certain amount of bandwidth to the port even if it's not actively in use... also usb works best in a burst mode kind of way... as opposed to a steady stream like FW...
 
dementedchord said:
while not really my area of expertise... where usb seems to have issues it's primarily a problem of too many things on the usb ports... that is to say if the printer is usb then disconnect it when recording... apparently usb alocates a certain amount of bandwidth to the port even if it's not actively in use... also usb works best in a burst mode kind of way... as opposed to a steady stream like FW...
Click to expand...

agreed.

I will have to try a firewire product and see if that make any difference. In the meantime, I guess I am forced to make due with the Mac's 16 bit 44.1 k soundcard. Its not the best...but it is certainly not the worst sounding card in the world.
 
At this point I'd have to say it's the USB that's the problem. Sorry about the earlier advice not fixing the problem but you won't go wrong with that extra hard drive for sure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top