crosstalk in cusbasis?

[Yadi]

I am hearing crosstalk across tracks in cubasis....not loud...but its there. Funny thing is that all the tracks were either midi instruments or recorded via j-station spdif outputs....in other words, no microphone/headphone bleed.

Is this normal? Is it the software or the equipment (wami24)

Also, whenever I move reposition the transport, while the song is playing, the audio restarts, but with a digital noise...very annoying. Now I am wondering if this will happen when I try to automate my mixes.

Sorry for the newbie questions, but would appreciate anyone's help.

Thanks,

Yadi

 

[JimH]

Crosstalk can't happen as a result of the software. At least not traditional crosstalk.

What happens if you play back just one track? Mute all the others. Can you hear the sound from another track? (I assume that's the case, otherwise I don't know how you'd perceive crosstalk.) Perhaps the other tracks you are monitoring are bleeding back into the recorded track. I'd suspect that there might be some routing path in the sound card that is passing the sound back.

How many tracks (inputs) are you recording at a time? Are you getting crosstalk between two tracks that you're recording at the same time?

Do some experiments. Try recording some sound with all other tracks muted and see if you get any bleed. Then try recording silence with all the other track unmuted and see if you get any bleed.

When you reposition the transport while the song is playing, you will get a little blurb of noise. This happens with my Delta 1010 and Cubase also. It's annoying, but not abnormal. When I used to use by Turtle Beach Fiji card I never had this artifact. It was very smooth. But then the latency was something like 700 ms, too. So I assume the little noise blurb is just the nature of working with a small buffer.

 

[Yadi]

Thanks for your response Jim. I definately hear the other tracks (that happened to be routed via spdif into my card) when all the other tracks are muted. I do record those tracks 2 at a time since it is a stereo output on my Johnson J-station.

I will try your idea of muting all tracks then recording a track...then doing it again to see if the bleed is still there. But what does that tell me...is it the card (which I still have 15 days left to return) or is it a software issue? If it is a software issue, I wouldn't mind, since it is a complimentary copy of cubasis that came with the card.

With your Delta 1010, what software do you use and are you 100% certain that you can't hear any crosstalk/bleed?

Oh....an your right...that blurb of noise is annoying...It makes me worry that I may damage my monitors.

 

[JimH]

I use Cubase v5. I haven't specifically listened for any crosstalk in my recordings, but I have never noticed any. I've never heard of anyone having this problem with Cubase.

I'm sure the problem can't be the software. When cubase records a track, it can only record it from a single input. And after it's recorded, there no way for sound from another track to get mixed in unless you intentionally mix tracks yourself. So I'm guessing that the already-recorded tracks that you monitor are getting mixed with the tracks you are recording as you record them. And this is happening in the sound card somehow. I don't know anything about the wami24 but I thought perhaps if it has some kind of mixer application that it may be accidentally set to mix the monitored tracks with the recorded tracks. Since you say you are getting crosstalk in a track that you recorded completely digitally, there can't be any analog crosstalk anywhere. So there has to be some sort of mixing happening somewhere.

So that's why I suggested muting all other monitored tracks as you record something. This would prevent the monitor tracks from ever getting to the sound card and so they could not be mixed in with the recorded signal. If you try this and you don't hear any crosstalk, then I'd start suspecting the sound card. (actually, I'm already suspecting the sound card, but more information helps you to zero in on the cause.)

Another thing to try is to set your latency very long. Then record a guitar track. If the crosstalk sounds delayed by the amount of your latency setting, then this confirms that the monitored sound is getting into the recorded sound somehow. Again, I can't think of anyplace this can happen except at the sound card.