Crackly audio playback...what gives?!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tim Perry
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Tim Perry

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I’m having trouble setting up Sonar 3 to record audio correctly.

Some quick background. Got a new computer: 2.8 ghz processor, 512 mb RAM, 200 gig hard drive. Plenty of horses. I use a Yamaha UW500 USB interface I’ve had for a couple years and I updated the driver for Windows XP. I’m previewing a demo version of Sonar 3.

Recording audio sounds fine in all my other multitrack apps (except CW Guitar Tracks Pro-demo...interesting).

When I do a test recording in Sonar, I get a very noisy, crackly result….as though I were jiggling the input jack around as I record (which I’m not!). I get the same result whether I use my USB interface or the sound card that came with the computer.

I’ve played around with the record and playback configurations and can’t seem to eliminate or improve it. I haven’t touched the buffering parameters yet.

It does appear to be a playback issue tho because as I monitor the recording, it sounds fine going in. And if I import a good quality wav clip done on another app, the playback is still crackly.

Any suggestions? Thanx in advance!
 
Are the "crackles" in the same spot everytime? IOW, are they imprinted in the wave? If so, it's likely a recording issue. If not and the crackles are random, it's a playback issue.

If it's a playback issue, there are many things that can cause this and many steps to try and improve them.

First off, you want to tweak your computer and OS for audio work. Get rid of any background programs. Turn off many of the XP "features." Etc. Here is one site for tips, but there are many others. http://www.musicxp.net/tuning_tips.php

If that does not solve the problem, you may want to look at increasing your latency settings. This is found in Options > Audio. Setting it is slightly different depending on whether you are using WDM drivers or ASIO drivers.

Also, you can look for IRQ conflicts, as well as possibly updating your video card drivers.

BTW, I would not recommend a USB interface for audio work - particularly USB 1.0 (which I'm guessing yours is, as you said its been around awhile).
 
Thanx!

I'm still getting acclimated to XP. I'm aware of most of the tweaks. The part I don't get is why it crackles in the Cakewalk products, but not my others. The crackle seems tied to peaks, but with a lot of ambient noise underneath as well.

Never had a problem with the USB on my old computer (400 mhz, 256 RAM). And it beats the $15 sound card they put in these things. I'm just getting set up with the new one.
 
Tim Perry said:
The part I don't get is why it crackles in the Cakewalk products, but not my others.
Click to expand...

Just a guess, but perhaps it's because Cakewalk is using lower latency WDM or ASIO drivers while your other programs are using MME drivers.

You can do a test with your Sonar demo software. Go into Options > Audio > Advanced and set the driver mode to MME. See if the crackles go away. If so, there's your answer.
 
Tim Perry said:
I'll give it a go and let you know. Thanx!
Click to expand...
BTW, you will probably have to reprofile the sound card after this change and then exit and reenter Sonar before everything will take effect.
 
It was the MME drivers. Made the switch and all is quite kosher.

You da man!

Thanx!
 
Tim Perry said:
It was the MME drivers. Made the switch and all is quite kosher.

You da man!

Thanx!
Click to expand...
Actually to be more precise, it was your latency. The WDM drivers were trying to use a latency setting that your machine couldn't handle with your current settings.

This may or may not be an issue for you. If you don't use Input Monitoring, or try to record "real time" midi, you can probably continue to use the MME drivers. Otherwise, you might want to start tweaking your machine to get better performance, and switch back to the WDM drivers. With a 2.8 processor and 512 memory, you should be able to get decent performance.

Your weak links right now, however, appear to be the USB interface and only having a single hard drive.

Again, it may or may not be an issue - so if you don't encounter any problems, leave the drivers set to use MME.
 
I just try to record passable song demos. This is not serious audio.

Ain't no upgrade in the world gonna make me sound any better! ;-)

Thanx again!
 
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