going insane! Sony Viao and noise....

[Shazukura]

OK. I'm about to lose it.

I loved my PC when my primary hobby was gaming, but it's killing me when I try to make it an effective part of my studio. If it isn't one thing it's an other. I finally got the "fan control" driver to install correctly, but when I try to record, the system is still giving me 40+ dB of background noise.

To be specific, it's a Sony Viao Desktop PCV-RX465DS, which I've currently restored to the "factory" config (I took out the extra memory, the nice AGP card, the SBLive!, and the Echo Mia, then re-installed from Sony disks)

Below is a screenshot of everything muted in the control panel, and Cool Edit 2000 recording a jittery 42ish dB signal of nothing.... What gives?????

Please, can anyone offer any ideas? I'm so ready to just sell this on EBay ans start saving for a Mac it isn't even funny....

-Shaz

 

[Shazukura]

not good, not good

ok, 15 views, a number of downloads of the screenshot, not one reply except for someone agreeing that I'll need a good bankruptsy lawyer soon.

Has NOBODY seen a PC exhibit this behaviour before? Ok, the heck with EBay, I think it might be far more fulfilling to go to KMart and buy a shotgun to bid this %*%#$# computer the farewell it deserves!

Please, time is running out, can YOU save this computer?

-Shaz

 

[Beathoven]

You know what, I just tried the same thing and I got a BIG PHAT 63 DB OF NOISE!!! (With CoolEdit Pro 1.2a) So someone answer this question please, we are two persons in need of help now!!!

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!
Beathoven

(P.S.: Hard knock life... )

 

[skippy]

Which soundcard is actually supplying that input to your software? A high noise floor is what you'd expect from an SB- the environment inside the computer box is one of the lousiest places in the world to put A/D converters, and consumer-level cards do little to try and minimize that impact. Even really good cards can have their noise floors dominated by the EMI inside the computer. I had to scrap my Audiophile 2496 because it was too noisy for my purposes, and went with external converters.

I don't know anything about the Mia, so I'll defer to someone else on that one- but I though that it was pretty highly regarded. Ideally, if you use a soundcard instead of a standalone converter box and a digital connection to your machine, you'll want one of the ones that comes with a breakoutbox, and that locates the converters inside that breakout box (rather than in the electrically obnoxious environment of the computer's cabinet).

One thing you can do is to short the inputs of the soundcard's converters (insert a shorting plug). That will let you measure the absolute best-case noise floor yout are going to get from that soundcard.

Regrettably: digital audio is not a way around an electrically nasty environment, and I suspect that that's what you're up against here...

What is the nature of the noise: in other words, when you crank up your monitors and liten to it, what does it sound like? Hisses, hums, popcorn noise, wierd pitched screechings that change their character as you move your mouse?

 

[Shazukura]

Skippy,

Here is some background info (and an attached normalized sample of the noise, which incidentally doesnt change in the slightest as I move my mouse, and open/close applications, etc...)

Background:

I started recording before I got the Mia. When I would use Cool Edit 200 or any other recorder, if there was no input, there was no signal seen in the recorder. Then I got the Mia -- after a few hours figuring out how to use the different resolution files with my other software I was off and running -- and again, if I wasn't playing my keyboard the input signal didn't show (i.e. if it was there is was under -100 dB and off my VU meter.)

I was having some crackling trouble with the Mia though, and based on what I was reading in these forums I decided to go get a Delta Audiophile 1010. Oi' Vey! I have been living in a nightmare since then! To keep it short, the Delta drivers fubar'd my computer. It wouldn't shutdown properly anymore, and it still had crackling issues (though perhaps not quite as badly.) I pulled the Delta, and went back and got the Mia card again, and that's when this "noise" crept up.

Now mind you, since it first happened (after re-installing the Mia) I have completely rebuilt my computer. Right now it is factory config, built from Sony disks, and doesn't have the SB or the Mia in it BUT I have re-built it about 16 times in the last 4 weeks trying a million things, and I can't get rid of this noise regardless of what of my 3 audio driver choices (onboard SoundMAX, SBLive!, or Mia) I re-build with.

The Echo people said that EMI in the computer or power source could not cause this before I knew it was a systemic problem and not a Mia problem. Could a bad power-supply cause that? I think it's a bad power supply because it took me 16 re-builds just to get the "fan-control driver" to install (it's a dual-fan power-supply with a variable speed fan.)

Sigh...

 

[skippy]

That noise sounds like broadband pinkish noise, with about a 10hz repetitive _splat_ on it. The broadband noise sounds like a preamp running at far too high a gain, and the repetitive noise is either an artifact of the encoding and my player here, or bus noise coupling onto the audio (which most definitely _can_ happen, regardless of what the support folks say). Is there any chance that the Windows mixer is getting in on the act and dumping huge amounts of noise from your motherboard sound hardware into the mix?

The thing that bothers me is that changing audio sources/drivers does not change the residual noise level. That's *badly* broken: sounds to me as if there is something seriously gstuphed with the audio setup there. Which is no news to you, I'm sure.

I'll have to pass on rendering help from here: I'm out of my depth with the problem at this point, and am likely to do more harm than good. I'm mopre of an analog/standalone HDR guy than a real DAW guy. Hopefully, Emeric, drstawl, or one of the other true computer-audio gurus will see this soon and help out. Hey, fellas- doing any searches on your username?

The one last thing I can say is this: the drivers for my Audiophile 2496 have proven to be essentially impossible to get rid of. Even the "driver remover" from their website left a lot of things behind. I'm _still_ trying to root the last of their stuff out of my machine. Sometimes, getting all traces of this stuff off a machine proves nearly impossible- and I wouldn['t be surprised if they mucked with portions of Windows itself, changing files that they didn't even own...

 

[Shazukura]

Well, I certainly appreciate all your efforts, Skippy. I'm starting to wonder if there is time for me to return my Mia, but I'd much prefer to just get these bugs ironed out.

Is there any chance that the Windows mixer is getting in on the act and dumping huge amounts of noise from your motherboard sound hardware into the mix?

I don't think so. Did you look at the screenshot in the first post? Everything is muted, which I thought would cut any "windows mixer" noise out.... but then I'm no Windows expert.....

As it is, I'm falling the standalone direction pretty hard -- I already got an Akai DPS16 and SCSI cdrom (which means I can still "master" on my PC by tediously exporting WAVE to CD from the Akai then loading that to detour the integral noise I get recording directly to PC). None of this is very inspirational though given how long it takes -- I like being able to just hit record and go. With the standalone unit, I have to admit it's a lot less hassle than dealing with the buggy PC, BUT I do lose a lot of audio "power" without my PC working well in the mix.

I'll wait and see, but my computer knows that the clock is ticking.... now, where is the recipt fo the Mia card.....

-Shaz

 

[skippy]

That's exactly how I got into it: I do all my tracking to a standalone (Fostex D1624), and then fly the tracks into Cubase for backup, and maybe a little editing. I treat the 1624 as if it was just a normal analog 16-track, and I'm only just starting to get into MIDI/editing-with-Cubase/plugins and all that jazz. I know very little about the DAW world, and what little I know s very colored by my somewhat Luddite leanings... (;-)

I've had the DAW for over a year now, and I'm glad I got it- it is *powerful*, to be sure. But it is also basically a pain in the ass. When I have people in the room and I'm ready to record, most of the time I don't even boot it up. Computer recording really can be a huge hassle, and that's a long way from my mental model of the recording process- which is "throw a fresh reel of 456 on the tape machine and press record!". The standalone gives me that: it does only one thing (record/reproduce), and it does it well, and it _never_ fails.

Other people really make their DAWs dance and sing, though, so don't let that color your judgement... Hopefully, they guys who are good at it will weigh in soon, if we keep this topic up near the top!