Digital audio recording w/Sonar 4 - playback sounds weird.

[dantheman]

Hi,
I'm throwing myself into this finally and I'm still grasping a lot of the basics.

I'm using a M-Audio Delta 44 soundcard, with the breakout box that lets me plug my guitar directly in, through a preamp.

I went through all of the set up procedures for the sound card and through the tutorial for Sonar 4, with regards to my situation: Recording just a single guitar track.

Finally got everything seemingly working, but when I playback, just strumming chords, it comes out kind of watery/swirly/compressed sounding and there is a constant low level popping/static-like sounds. Almost like a scratched record spinning fast.

Any ideas? Thanks!! First time posting first attempt at home recording.

 

[BentRabbit]

Usually when you get cracks and pops, it's a clock or sample rate issue...

Make sure everything in your recording chain is set at the same sample rate (44.1/48 etc.)

 

[FunkDaddy]

If you have a wireless card, turn it off

 

[dantheman]

Thanks!
Still not sure where's its coming from though. Everything seems to be set to 44.1...Sonar, as well as the Delta 44.

Could it be something with my speaker configuration? I'm using a 4.1 hand-me-down speaker setup from a friend.

 

[gecko zzed]

Hi,
I'm throwing myself into this finally and I'm still grasping a lot of the basics.

I'm using a M-Audio Delta 44 soundcard, with the breakout box that lets me plug my guitar directly in, through a preamp.

I went through all of the set up procedures for the sound card and through the tutorial for Sonar 4, with regards to my situation: Recording just a single guitar track.

Finally got everything seemingly working, but when I playback, just strumming chords, it comes out kind of watery/swirly/compressed sounding and there is a constant low level popping/static-like sounds. Almost like a scratched record spinning fast.

Any ideas? Thanks!! First time posting first attempt at home recording.

It sounds to me like you've got a feedback loop going there somehow, i.e. you play the guitar, signal gets recorded and played back, then rerecorded as you are playing.

Perhpas you could outline the process you are using. We might be able to identify a point at which the problem occurs

 

[legionserial]

What hard drives are you using and what motherboard (and specifically the SATA chipset on it)?

I had a similar problem when I first got my Delta-44. Turned out to be a problem with the SATA chipset on my motherboard. Had to get an IDE drive for audio streaming.

This probably isn't your problem but I thought I'd just throw it out there.

 

[dantheman]

Thanks for all of you help!
I'm at work right now, but I'll try to breakdown my process. I can post hardware and software details when I get home.

I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, as I just want to succeed at recording 1 single mono guitar track before tackling anything else.

My chain is:
Guitar via standard 1/4" ->
M-Audio Audio Buddy preamp ->
M-Audio Delta 44 breakout box (via TRS cable)
The breakout box plugs directly into the soundcard on the comp.

I'm using Sonar 4.
I did the tutorial for begining digital audio recording in Sonar. The M-Audio manual offers a couple common sample setups and the closest to what I'm doing is the 1 guitar/1 mic setup. I'm simply leaving the 2nd input on the breakout box unused, as I'm not messing with the mic yet. Just want to get the guitar.
Everything is set to 44.1

Using Sonar, I open up a new track with the settings suggesting in the tutorial, I check the sound card to make sure its receiving input (just below clipping), then just press record, strum for about 30sec, stop and hit play at which point it does replay my recording but with the audio issues I mentioned.

I can track down the motherboard/SATA ?s later, but for now (if it helps), I'm using a ~5 year old Compaq, running Windows XP Home Edition. Nothing fancy but I've never had any issues with it.
For what its worth, if this could be an issues, my Windows has been occassionally glitchy since some malware got in there, but I'm getting ready to wipe everything and reload the comp. I don't see how that could affect this playback issue though.

Thanks again for the help!!

 

[dantheman]

Also, could this be a driver issue?