Crackle at cut and paste point

[ido1957]

I may have asked this before...
When I copy a small section and paste it somewhere on the same track I get a "crackle" where the cut paste starts - but not where it ends... And sometimes I get no crackle at all. It's inconsistent and annoying, as I have to try and automate it out without a big gap in sound.....

But I would not want to go back to cutting and glueing tape....

 

[gecko zzed]

What DAW are you using?

Some are more snap friendly than others.

Two things you can try:

1 Do tiny fade out and fade ins on the at the joins.

2 Do a small crossfade between two segments

 

[ido1957]

Hey GZ - I'm using Sonar PE 6. And yes I use crossfades and volume envelopes to combay the crackles. Just wondering why they occur and if it can be avoided.

 

[gecko zzed]

I don't know about Sonar 6

I used Logic, and now Reaper.

The usual cause is a bit of signal at the start or end of a clip. That's why I suggest tiny fade in and outs . . . to make sure there is a null at the start and finish.

With Logic you can set an option somewhere so that when you grab a sample, it grabs start and finish from nearest null point.

I haven't seen that option in Reaper, but Reaper seems to know that if you do a cut and paste, you will not want it to click, so it makes sure it doesn't somehow.

I'm not sure what options Sonar has.

But as a double check, have you established that it is actually the join that is causing the click?

I ask because at times I've thought I heard such a click, and it turned out to be a bit of noise on another track

 

[GazEcc]

it could be the waveforms not matching, like say you've got a waveform thats ending halfway above the middle like ( 0 ) and the next one starts a tiny bit below it could just be the speaker trying to jump to it without having anything to bring it there, you get me?

 

[witzendoz]

Don't know about sonar, but there should be a setting for automatically fading the edit points so that the edit is always on the zero line. The fade in / out is so short that you wont hear it but it stops the click problem.

Alan.

 

[dgatwood]

Ideally, you should edit at a point in the waveform where both the first and second derivatives of the signal are similar. (That's the slope and the acceleration/change in the slope for you non-math-nerd folks.) For a simple sawtooth wave or square wave with only a positive excursion, editing at the zero crossing is sufficient. For most real-world signals, it will still result in an audible burble if you choose the wrong zero crossing.

For example, if your waveform has a large bump up, then a small bump down, then a small bump up, then a large bump down, you need to make sure that both sides of the edit are before the same bump in the same direction. If the edit is between the wrong pair and you end up with a bump up followed by a bump up, the transition will sound like a pop even if you edit at a zero crossing, and it will sound awkward even with a fade. If the edit causes a large bump up followed immediately by a large bump down (instead of a small bump down), it will change the character of the sound in a way that may or may not be noticeable, depending on how thick the mix is.