Good A/D converter (for cheap, OF COURSE)?

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ScienceOne

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The latency pops in my audio are killing me. I use a Delta 410 and a Delta 1010 together, and even when the latency is set pretty high I still get pops, especially if the project has a ton of tracks. Can anyone reccomend a quality D/A converter preferably $300 or lower or a fix for my cards so they stop popping? Thanks
 
If you're getting clicking and popping, that's a symptom of bad clocking, NOT converter quality.
 
What OS are you using?
What software?
What drivers?
How do you have the two cards set up (properly synching two cards takes some fiddling)?

Have you contacted M-Audio tech support? That is what they are there for. I have found them useful in the past.
 
Ok, I hardly understand clocking so that could be it. It's not a constant popping and clicking, just sometimes I'll hear a pop in the recorded audio. I'll believe Blue Bear and assume it's clocking troubles.

I'm using Cubase SX on a Pentium 4 1.3 ghZ with a 40 GB system hard drive and a 120 gb hard drive for file storage. Both drives are IDE.

How can I sync my two cards? I don't often record on both simultaneously but could that still cause these pops if I was just recording through one of the cards while the other was installed right next to it?
 
If you go back and re-play the section where you heard the pop, are you still hearing it?

Your next step should be to set up Windows so that there are no unnecessary programs or operations running in the background upon startup. And double-check using your task manager to close out anything unnecessary before you start tracking. This includes Norton or other anit-virus programs by the way, so I'd be careful when you visit the porn sites and/or if you download stuff. :D

It also couldn't hurt to beef up your RAM.
 
From what I heard from M-Audio, if you are running both cards at once, you have to be using ASIO drivers (post this in the Computer Recording and SOundcards forum), otherwise, they need to be linked via the S/PDIF ports (out of one to the in of the other) with one of them set as the master. I don't think they will work well if you just stick both of them into their respective slots, enabling both and cross your fingers .

And like Chessrock said, is the pop/click always in teh same place (ie was it recorded), or is it random (it is happening on playback).
 
Also be sure that you arent clipping across the mixer/pre. Ive never quite been able to figure it out - but depending on how I set my 1010 (+4.-10) I can get levels in Cubase to appear proper (mostly green) while the mixer is clipping thereby recording a pop. It doesnt show up as a spike in Cubase. I wish I could get the two levels to equal but Ive never been able to figure it out. Good luck,
 
The pop is always in the same place. It is not clipping distortion either, although I too would like a solution for that level descrepancy between Cubase and my Deltas that Scinx was talking about. My clicks and pops won't be on the transient attack of a pluck or hit, it will just be seemingly random. I'll try syncing the cards with the s/pdif suggestion from cstockdale.

I already have 512 mb of ram (albeit it is SDRAM, not DDR), do I need more? Also, I'm pretty sure/positive I am using the ASIO drivers, is there a quick way to find out?

Anybody have any other ideas as to what it could be aside from synching? Would cstockdale's idea of hooking them up via s/pdif definetly get them in sync? How do you spell 'synching'?
 
Hooking them up via s/pdif is going to be the only way to digitally sync them up. Without them sync'd up in this manner, you are guaranteed to get clicks/pops out of one or both of them.

I would do it this way...

Set the Delta 1010 master-clock hardware settings to "Internal", and the Delta 410 to "S/PDIF In". then, make sure you have the s/pdif-out of the Delta 1010 card connected to the s/pdif-in of the Delta 410 card.

That should take care of things.
 
If you dont mind - how do you suggest I solve the level discrepancy?
Thanks a bunch
 
Your mixer clipping but the soundcard in the green shouldn't cause a pop. If the levels on the mixer are low but the 1010 is in the green then you might try setting it to +4. The 1010 will expect a hotter signal and will buffer the inputs. Then you can turn up the mixer and they should be more in sync.
 
Thanks Tex - I guess what I want to know - is if there is a way so that 0 on the mixer can be matched to 0 in Cubase - a perfect (or close to) match...Ive fooled around with the +4/-10 settings but things still arent close...I can record...its just a petty thing I wouldnt mind correcting if possible
 
I would like to know as well. Scinx, maybe manually moving the faders on the Delta around until 0 dB on it lines up with 0 dB on Cubase would work. Think it's worth a try?
 
I tried that a while back to no avail...however - I should prolly revisit it and see what I can figure out now that things are going much better. Just got out of a horrendous dry spell for music...nothing better than that feeling
 
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