A few problems

[Th0mas]

When I record, I hear pops sometimes randomly in my recording. Basically I just bought an Alesis MultiMix 12, and I have a Rode NTK. I record on my laptop and everything, and I get a real nice sound but it's like in the middle of my words randomly you'll hear a pop.

I recently had a FireWire 410 pre-amp/soundcard, and I'm using that to record and my alesis came with a different firewire cable, but my laptop didn't have the port that the alesis firewire cable needed to connect to, so I had to use my firewire cable on my alesis to my laptop.

Everything is new, from the mixer to the mic, the XLR cords are new too. I'm just irritiated because when I try n record I feel nervous cuz I hate having to re-record shit just because of the pops I hear when I play it back.

I've been searching for an answer to this, google wise and all, but I can't seem to find the problem. I know it's not the Rode NTK cuz the same shit happens on all 3 of my mics when I try to use it with the mixer.

I'm uunder a deep impression it's the firewire cable, cuz like it's from my FireWire 410, not for the alesis, but I never seen a problem with using it because when I record, it sounds beautiful... but the only negative thing is those damn pops I get when I try an record.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

- Th0mas

 

[Spikeh]

Check the latency settings on the sound card and play about with them. The lower the latency, the more likely you'll get pops and clicks...

It could be the firewire though, as you said. I've not had any experience with Firewire cards, but I've read plenty about them... which is why I've stayed away so far

 

[Th0mas]

Yes, I've just ordered a new FireWire cable that hopefully will be better than my last. The problem with the cable that I'm using is that it may not transmit enough power to the mixer or something because it was from a pre-amp, and maybe that's why it's popping. I'm not too sure. As far as the latency settings on my soundcard, well, it's a default soundcard. LOL. I'm not sure how to do any of that at the moment, I'm kind of new to all of this.

 

[Spikeh]

Hmm, just looked it up. Not sure it'll have latency settings... did you install drivers for it? Is there a control panel to control the mixer settings etc?

Have a look around (in the system tray / start menu) and see what you can find to do with the interface, then click around and find the latency settings if it has them. Otherwise, RTFM

 

[Th0mas]

The mixer? Yes, I did install drivers for it. There is a control panel for it. My soundcard? No, it came with the laptop. It's a standard industry soundcard lol.

 

[Spikeh]

The mixer will be the soundcard you're using... if you plug it in via Firewire, your computer will be treating it like a soundcard Find the control panel and see if there are any latency settings...

 

[Elton Bear]

What sort of pop are we talking about? I don't mean to patronise or make myself sound stupid, but the key words I picked out from your first post were:

middle of my words

and

pop

Now, are we definitely talking about an electronic sound, and are you using a pop shield in front of the mic?
E.

 

[elly-d]

i might be way off, but would you have to disable your on board sound card? you do on desktops.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

If it's not plosives like Elton suggests checking (a good idea), then most likely Spike has you going in the right direction with the latency settings. Other things to check along the way if the latency settings by chance don't help you out:

- make sure you are set for the same sample rate all the way through your chain from mixer to interface to recording software; i.e. that you are not trying to record a 48k signal at 44.1k or vice versa.

- make sure you have all TSR-style software such as firewalls, anti-virus software, etc. disabled completly before you record. If you are running Windows, keep your System Tray as clean as possible, leaving only the necessarey stuff running.

- make sure you have plenty of contiguous free space on your hard drive, run a scandisk and a defrag to make sure you are running clean there.

G.

 

[SonicAlbert]

In addition to SouthSide's excellent suggestions, add to the checklist: making sure your clock settings are correct. What you are describing could also be the result of two digital devices not clocked together properly. So check your settings in the mixer's control panel and make sure everything is clocked properly.

With a simple setup like mixer into computer that shouldn't be an issue, but you never know. More likely it's a latency setting or a problem of throughput. Have you increased the latency (buffer) settings, and does that make a difference?

 

[Th0mas]

As far as disabling my sound card, I don't think I have to do that. My previous pre-amp worked fine, and I never had this problem until I started using the Alesis Mixer, but I think it's because of the FireWire cords.

Once I get my FireWire cord (which is in a couple days), I will check if the problem continues, and if it does, I gotta try some of your suggestions.

- Cleaning the disk up, making sure there's little to nothing running.
- Disabling my soundcard.
- Checking the latency.

@ Elton, the pops must be electonical, because of the fact that I am using a pop filter, and I take excellent care of my mic and mixer. I'm just very irritiated with this situation and it's difficult to record songs now

 

[Yonce N Mild]

latency, latency, latency,
I'd put money on it.

 

[Nandoram]

This may be a strange one, but I was getting pops just like that on my recordings.

Turns out our house has a rare AC unit... an expensive one... that has a device built into the AC that somehow "cleans" the air. It sometimes emits a crackling noise.. or a series of cracking noises... that sound almost like a lighter being flicked on or something... it does that when it's cleaning the air. Anyway, when the device goes this... I could also hear this while recording in my studio room. It would sound like a "pop" or a "hiccup."

I solved the problem by shutting off the small electronic cleaning device (it has an on/off button) when I record.

 

[Th0mas]

Interesting. There is an A/C power box that came with the Rode NTK, and I hook the mic up to there, and the XLR cord from the power box to the pre-amp. I'm not sure if I need the power box, but it came with the mic so I just use it.

 

[Th0mas]

I THINK I solved it. I tried turning the +48 Phantom power off, because my Rode has its own power box, and it was working decent. I'm not TOO SURE, but I did give it a test run and nothing came up. However, when I record my next song, I will then know for sure what's going on.

Keep on with the ideas guys, because if this theory fails, I need back-up. Lol.

And thanks for all of the help and posts, I owe you all!

 

[Th0mas]

Well switching the Phantom power off helped a little bit, and I fucked with the latency... on Cool edit pro I was recording at 44.1 and on my mixer it was 48, so I fixed that to 44.1 on both... so I'm awaiting my new FireWire cord, and hopefully that does the trick.

If not, I'm clueless.

I recorded today, and I had less popping, but there was still a few pops out of a 1:15 verse.

 

[RandyW]

I THINK I solved it. I tried turning the +48 Phantom power off, because my Rode has its own power box, and it was working decent. I'm not TOO SURE, but I did give it a test run and nothing came up. However, when I record my next song, I will then know for sure what's going on.

Keep on with the ideas guys, because if this theory fails, I need back-up. Lol.

And thanks for all of the help and posts, I owe you all!

Yes but if it did the same thing with 2 other mics it won't be your Phantom
PS which should be off on the mixer if your using an external pre. If it is not
plosives my guess would be you FW port on your lap top if it is not a TI then I would get one.

Also backup sure you have all your anti virus, spyware, firewalls and NICs turned off.

 

[Th0mas]

Yeah I'm feeling you. I just recieved my FireWire cord today, it's a nice one so I hope this does the trick. If not, I might just upgrade my firewire ports.