Back with another question... clicking when recording

  • Thread starter Thread starter Porter
  • Start date Start date
Porter

Porter

aka WookieMan
Hey everyone,

I'm using my Edirol Da-2496 card to try and record into Sonar. When recording if I have my input to a channel on my Edirol and the output to my SB Live card, there is a clicking in the wav file which it records.

I've experiemented with setting the recording input to be the Edirol and output to also be the Edirol and this records the sounds perfectly. Is there a way which I can get around this, ie leaving the output as my SB Live? I read a post earlier that asked the question as to wether someone had checked out the SB Live configuration guide on the Cakewalk web site. Could I please get the link to that if you have it. I tried searching for it but couldn't find it.

Thanks in advance,

Porter
 
There may be 'two card' issues, so this might not help but I'll ask...
Do you have the clock set for the Edirol as master since it is doing the more critical A/D roll? That should at least get your tracks cleared up.
Then does the play-back card get to see the first card as the master? Not sure how this works out in a two card set-up. It's (generally) better to have the A/D device be master, at least in the tracking phase...
wayne
 
Creatives card i usually not happy if there's another audiocard present on the system...
 
I did a search on the web for problems with 2 sound cards running in Sonar and I found this link... 2 Sound Cards. The users is using a M-Audio Delta card and has/had the same problem as I did. I'm thinking about writing to Cakewalk to see if they have a better solution.

Thanks for pointing me into the right direction guys,

Porter
 
Hey Porter, I use both Delta 66 and SB Live! no problem. It's the Creative problem, not the M card. Keep your eyes on it. What driver do you use for the SB ? Creative's ? Microsoft's ? KX ? What OS ? Do you also use NIC (network) card in the same machine ?

;)
James
 
Hey James,

I was looking at more that the same symptons that I have using a SB Live and my Edirol, are the same as the guy is having with the Delta and his SB Audigy.

When recording, if I set the output of the track I'm recording to, to the SB Live I get the clicking, however when I set it back to the the Edirol or none it works fine.

I'm running the following set up:

Windows XP Home.... fully patched up to the 31/01/2002.

I'm using the WDM driver that XP used when it installed it, so the Microsoft Driver.

I have 2 NIC cards in the computer, both are disabled. I'm booting off 2 HDD's, one for music and the other for general use, and I need two in my other set up.
 
Have you tried reinstalling the Windows ? Sounds poor answer, but once I get these clickin' sound, strugling for days with every driver, end up re-installing my Windows XP Home. I never update or patch anything. The original served me just fine. The problem's gone after I reinstall the XP. BTW, why would you use 2 NIC in the same machine ? Are you doing server / router thingee with your DAW ? The one might that came with your Mobo, but why would you plug the second if you dissable it ? Just because it dissabled, doesn't mean it doesn't take up PC resource. So generaly, it may cause trouble. Try to physicaly remove the card if you don't use it. As for two OS, it's fine. However, you should install the WinXP as the LAST installed. Even if you use any boot manager. So if you're running also Win98 for example, install it first, then install WinXP... This link you dont wanna miss...
www.musicxp.net

;)
Jaymz
 
James, other than the patches, XP is a clean install as of last week.

I use 2 NIC's because I run a home network... is to talk to other PC's on the network and the other is for my Internet connection.

I'm actually running two physical HDD's which I swap. I have a drive bay on the front of the computer and I have 2 caddy's, one HDD in each, I just swap the physical HDD as to which OS I want to run.

I'll try installing Sonar on a install of XP that doesn't have any pathes applied. I'll see how that goes.

I'll have a look at that link... it looks good.

I know that the problem is going to lie with the Sound Blaster... because the recording only has the problem when I'm trying to record and have the SB as the output of the same track.

Thanks again,

Porter
 
Porter said:
I use 2 NIC's because I run a home network... is to talk to other PC's on the network and the other is for my Internet connection.
Click to expand...
Uh oh! Not good (by my experience, that is)...

And what are you using the SB Live! for, anyway? I ripped mine out 6 months ago, and I'm happy that I did... :D
 
I still use my SB Live for music and games on my non-Music HDD.

When recording I want to use it to monitor and as an output for my monitors to mix.

Porter
 
Have you installed SONAR in "other" OS and hear the same problem ?
 
James,

I bought Sonar last week and wanted to run it on XP.. hence a fresh install of XP last week.

Porter
 
...I see. Well, I know it should be just fine in both Win98 and WinXP... but why don't you give it a try ? I mean, install it in your other OS (is it Win98 ?) then hear the result. If it just fine, then we can guess it's the driver thingee... Then you may wanna know where to deal with. But if it has same problem, then suspect the BIOS setup, or the SB for physical error...
 
It is most likely your power supply under load is not providing a perfect DC voltage, whereby there may be a small ripple, which is causing the distortion.

Also:

The clicking might be regular like a clock tick.

That being the case do the following.

1) Select the Setting Icon

2) Under the Record Control tab, select either "Post Compression" or "No Compression"

3) Create a new audio file and test again.

4) If this fixes the problem, it means your PC is incapable or real-time compression so just record this way and recompress with the likes of Cooledit.
 
Lord_GalAthon said:
It is most likely your power supply under load is not providing a perfect DC voltage, whereby there may be a small ripple, which is causing the distortion.
Click to expand...
Sorry... I find that most UNlikely. If your power supply is not providing perfect DC voltage, I would say it's more likely that you damage your MB or CPU...



Also:
The clicking might be regular like a clock tick.
That being the case do the following.
1) Select the Setting Icon
2) Under the Record Control tab, select either "Post Compression" or "No Compression"
3) Create a new audio file and test again.
4) If this fixes the problem, it means your PC is incapable or real-time compression so just record this way and recompress with the likes of Cooledit.
Click to expand...
Now I'm curious. This I've never seen before. :) What is the "Setting Icon" and "Record Control"? And if your computer somehow should be able to add compression while tracking, I think that the best way is to add it later. ;)
 
I was playing around with the software the night before last... recoring on my Edirol then playing back on my Creative. The only way it would play back is if I changed the latency, otherwise it would sound warped (best term I could think of describing it). So yesterday I went to a local electronics store bought 2 RCA to 1/4" plug and a 2RCA's to stereo 1/8". I'm now running all sound through my Edirol.

I went back to my original image last night, used the musicxp.net site James posted and uninstalled all unwanted windows applications and disable most windows services and disabled my SoundBlaster. Installed Sonar and played around. Using default settings I'm now achieving a 8.7ms latency (is that good?) when recording and playing back. Everything seems to be working nicely.

BTW, Lord_GalAthon, I don't think there is anything wrong with my power supply... the clicking got worse depending on the loundness of the track. I even exported the track to a wav and played it in media player.... same thing was happening.

Anyway, Thank You for all your help guys,


Porter
 
I run a Dakota pro audio card alongside the built-in Creative Labs SB on my motherboard. I have no problems whatsoever with it. Let me just say that usually a popping and clicking sound in your audio usually signifies a configuration issue, such as not enough buffers, latency too low for your configuration, shared interrupts with especially the sound card or the video card, Only 1 hard drive supporting both audio and OS+software...or audio drive isn't at least ATA66 and 7200RPM...or DMA mode isn't enabled, or the system hasn't been performance optimized.

Disable Windows Sound, Disable the flashy desktop features under performance properties...minimal settings on that panel, disable MS Auto Update feature and Uninstall MS Indexing Service from the ADD/Remove programs/MS Windows control panel.

Also, Tell Sonar not to use the Creative Labs card for recording. Use it for playback only. Then you can test your mixes on a different output, and you can use the MIDI port on the SB Gameport if you need it. This is how mine is setup...I'm using 3 MIDI ports on mine.

Hope this helps!
 
tntkemp,

I think the problem was due to latency. My Edirol can run as low as 8.7ms, however my SB Live likes a latency of 90ms or so.

I'm running all the sound through my Edirol now and it's working like a gem.

As for my system configuration, I'm running XP Home. No Desktop, no sounds, not IE, no SBLive. I've even uninstalled programs that aren't initially listed in the add/remove windows components. I used the link that James Argo put up.. musicxp. I'm running the same services as what the guy who wrote that page is running... and I was still getting that conflict issue... both card were running on different DMA & IRQ addresses.

When I was having problems was when I set the output to the SB whilst recording from the Edirol.

Thanks for the suggestion,

Porter
 
I was going to say is it the metronome! but apparently you fixed the prob.
 
Ok, I see. I never use my SB for that. Only for playback when I am testing a mix....sometimes for Windows Media Player or something, but never for monitoring while recording.

Just for additional info:
Fortunately, with my Frontier Designs Dakota, I have 18 separate outputs, so I can send my monitoring signal virtually anywhere. We have a Mackie 1604 mixer with a Crown Amp and Yamaha speakers sitting in the studio for live playing and monitoring. I route all of my signals into the computer via the mixer direct outs (first 8 channels) and a Fostex A/D/A converter.....monitoring nothing live through the PA. I feed back a stereo mix with my Dakota's control panel, containing mostly vocals, a little guitar, and enough drums to trigger some reverb on the snare. This comes from one pair of channels on the Fostex A/D/A converter, and is fed into channels 9 and 10 of the Mackie Mixer....that's what we listen to live in the studio for Band practices....never direct. I know.....we're spoiled! The other nice thing about this arrangement is that I have a feedback destroyer between the signal coming back from the Fostex A/D/A converter and the Mixer, so feedback is minimized between the PA and our Mics. It's the only way I could find to play at the level we play in such a tiny space and still hear the vocals with minimal feedback.
 
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