goodness. helpless

[yesbergerman]

gahhhh.

i've been posting on recordingreview.com and the help has been limitedd so hopefully i could get some good ideas here.

heres the problem. i have a mackie 1640 w/ firewire and a laptop running xp with (currently) a 4pin firewire adapter. i have the mixer going into the computer via a 6to4 pin firewire cable and back out for monitoring (i don't actually monitor while playing). anyways. i'm using sonar, with 44.1khz and 512kb buffer and "safe" buffer speed.

i'm getting this clicking sound that only happens when theres sound.

thats a test of various channells and mics but by listening to the first segment you will hear what i mean. I have tried changing wall outlets, mics, channels n my mixer, and the clicking still persists.

this is SO frustrating ive spent so much time meessing around and ccannot find the source. ould it be the mixer? or my computer? any ideas would help. or anything more i could tell you i would be glad to do

your help is SO GREATLY APPRECIATED. you want a return? sure. i will do the best i can. i'm doing a recording on wednesday for basically a compilation of everything my trio has done and it would be great if I could get a nice clean recording.


thanks so much!!!

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[Tifstorey]

What's the spec of your computer? And how do you currently have it all set up through your mixer? (ie, mics? ins/outs etc)

 

[patrick9480]

Hi, I have a mackie 1620 mixer which I use to record in my studio. I run it through XP SP2 on a desktop computer that is quite powerful (3GB ram, AMD X64 +3500 processor, 2 hard drives etc) and get completely smooth, glitch free recordings. BUT, I bought a laptop recently with the idea of doing location recordings, but when I hook it up I get the same problem as you. I tried numerous tweaks amongst other things but still the clicks and pops. My advice is to get a dedicated powerful desktop (if you have plenty of spare cash) or visit www.mackie.com and go to the forums section where their should be posts from other people with similar problems. Sorry, I probably haven't been much help and I know its a pain when equipment won't work correctly.

 

[yesbergerman]

thanks

interesting. its a laptop thing then do you suppose? thats pretty dissapointing considering the money i put into my laptop. its pretty goood.

were you ever able to fix it using your laptop?

shoot.

well for Tifstorey:

i have an Hp laptop xp sp2, AMD turion 64 ML-40 2.19Ghz, 1.5gig ram, 1 harddrive with the OS and sonar installed thats 60gigs 7200rpm, and another 80gig 5400 rpm with all my other applications and files.

any ideas?

i want to make a high quality recording tomorrow it'd be nice if I didn't have to buy a new comptuer haha.


but i might have some ways of going about that.

THANKS

 

[yesbergerman]

oh woops

i forgot to say that when testing this I tried 4 different mics on my piano, one panned right the other left on channells 3 and 4 (i also tried 1 and 2) and i have it goign to my laptop through 1 6to4 pin firewire cable and back out the same cable for listening later through the phones jack on the mackie.


hope this is enough.

thanks.

 

[Tifstorey]

I'd have thought that spec would be more than adequate. Especially as you were only doing 4 mics. The only thing i can suggest you do in the meantime is try recording just 1 or 2 mics and see if that makes it better. If it doesn't, is there any chance you could try it on a more powerful desktop computer?

Minimum Spec # PC: Win XP, Intel P4 or AMD Athlon Processor, available Firewire connector, dedicated audio drive, 256 MB Ram or more

Your laptop is more than enough looking on the Mackie site.. Only thing i see is that it says AMD Athlon, where as yours is a Turion. I'm pretty crap when it comes to this.. could this be the problem?

 

[yesbergerman]

doubt it

i don't think the processor could be the problem.

i've been trying to download the windows SP2 firewire update but when i tray and install it is says access denied.


and thats not right.

yeah my laptop cost me a lot I thought it would be good for this stuff becaues its quite the machine so I'm pretty dissapointed with this situation.

hmm.

 

[yesbergerman]

well

i tried out alll those tweaks updated some drivers, and somehow it all got working.

thats good news. and i'm really grateful for all of your help.

THANKS SO MUCH

 

[Tifstorey]

Glad to hear it's sorted!

Have fun!

 

[patrick9480]

Fair Play, can you remember what exactly you updated or tweaked so I can try it with my laptop?