Drifting?

D

danny.guitar

Guest
[Fixed] - Drifting?

My friend just got a new computer, an audio buddy and a mic so he could start recording.

He hasn't gotten a new soundcard yet, so he's using the stock soundblaster (Live! 24-bit). He's not too worried about quality right now he just wants to record some acoustic stuff.

But when he records one take, say a rhythm, then tries to do a lead over it, the tracks go out of sync.

Is this called drifting?

I've never had this problem with a soundblaster when I used to use one.

Could this be a hardware/software conflict or something? Anyone else ever have this problem? :confused:

I tried installling ASIO4All on his computer and that didn't work either.

I use Adobe Audition 1.5 which has a "correct for drift" option, but he's using Reaper and I don't know if it has that option.
 
Last edited:
studiomaster said:
Get a recording soundcard. period.
Click to expand...

I agree. But he just saved up and spent over a grand on what he has now...the computer was about $1,000 from dell, plus the audio buddy and MXL mics...

I tried to tell him I could help him put a computer together himself but he insisted on going with Dell.

Any other ideas for the meantime? He said he's going to get a soundcard when he gets some money on christmas, but that's still a couple months off.
 
MadAudio said:
Has he messed with any of the latency settings or other preferences in Reaper?
Click to expand...

Nope, everything's at the default settings.
 
well, could be the default setting may be set to high.
He wouldn't notice it recording the first time (unless he was monitoring it at the same time)...but the second time he could be even more off.

Turn down the buffer as low as you can get it avoiding any pops or clicks.
 
Figured out the problem

bennychico11 said:
well, could be the default setting may be set to high.
He wouldn't notice it recording the first time (unless he was monitoring it at the same time)...but the second time he could be even more off.

Turn down the buffer as low as you can get it avoiding any pops or clicks.
Click to expand...

I set the ASIO4All buffer to it's minimum, 64.

No pops or clicks but still the same latency.

Ended up being the fact that the SoundBlaster cards are locked in at a sampling rate of 48KHz. Anything other than that, and they have to resample in real-time causing latency.

This explains why I never had problems back when I had one because I always used to record at 48KHz.
 
bennychico11 said:
well, could be the default setting may be set to high.
He wouldn't notice it recording the first time (unless he was monitoring it at the same time)...but the second time he could be even more off.

Turn down the buffer as low as you can get it avoiding any pops or clicks.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily too high, but....

There are two aspects of latency: the delay for output and the delay for input. If you play back audio, you get hit with the output latency. When you record, you get hit with the input latency. Most (good) audio software will compensate for the input latency, but not the output latency of the playback.

With a decent audio interface, output latency is negligible. With a SB card, it isn't. As a workaround, many audio apps have a recording offset that can be used to compensate for this. Experiment until you get a reasonable value.
 
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