I don't know if this is Ntrack or hardware...

  • Thread starter Thread starter getuhgrip
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getuhgrip

getuhgrip

Bring Back Transfat!
In addition to some track bleed, I noticed another problem working in Ntrack.

Initial playback of my guitar tracks sound fine, but at about the 3 min point of a 4 min piece, the "quality" drops off through the rest of the song.
I can't determine what's actually being degraded. The levels appear to remain the same, but it sounds "distant" and like there's a small amount of phaser.
 
Wow, wierd.

I'm not sure how that could be a problem caused by the software. To me that sounds like your computer is diverting too many resources to other things (virus checker, checking the CD tray for a new CD, scheduled maintainance, etc) and it is causing some degradation of your auido on its way in. Maybe.

First thing I'd do is defragment the harddrive. I do that regularly, anyway to keep peak performance up. Then I'd make sure my PC is optimized for audio- have you done that already? If not, head over here: http://www.tascam.com/support/faq/pc_optimize/index.php (for non-XP OS's)
of download this PDF for XP and 2000- http://www.tascam.com/products/computer_recording/W2k_XP_Optimize.pdf

Now the track bleed is something else. I can't think of any reason that the software would allow track bleed, so there almost has to be something else going on. Is it bleeding from the headphones into the mics? Do you have your PC mic muted in the windows recording "mixer"? How 'bout the wave output? None of these are really all that likely to cause bleed (other than the headphone bleed) but you never know.

I've never had any of those problems with n-track. You might also try uninstalling the software and reinstalling it just to see if that makes a difference.

Take care,
Chris
 
yes, sounds like the computer's resources are dragging; you didn't list what you have but I'm working on a PII and I don't have that kind of problem. You'll definitely want to optimize your PC for audio and a second hard drive devoted to audio definitely helps. You want NO other processes than recording to be running while you're doing audio in any sequencer.

Track bleed: check to make sure "What You Hear" isn't checked in the Windows audio mixer; that's one of the most common problems 'cause it loops the playback into your recording input.
 
Thanks guys.

I've been meaning to setup this other hard drive for a couple months. Right now everything's on one 7200rpm drive. The box is a home built athalon 1000 w/512 mb of PC133 so I don't guess processing power is too big of an issue. Just a lot of junk on the drive.

I'll install the 2nd drive (5400rpm) this weekend and check out optimization settings for '98.

I think I'll grab the 3.0 ver of Ntrack as well.
 
This sounds very much to me like a soundcard problem. Perhaps excessive clock jitter is causing those nasty phasing problems, especially over time. Track bleed should *never* occur, and again I'd look at the soundcard first. Whatcha got?

Slackmaster 2000
 
ST Audio C-Port. PCI card and a breakout box that houses the converters and I/Os with 2 pres.

On the phasing issue, I think I really need to get drive 2 up and runnin and then check eack soundcard setting one at a time. I could have clock settings mis-matched.

I'm starting to wonder if the pots for the pre are toast.
I tried several tracks last night using seperate ins (1,3,6) and bigger than hell, everything recorded on 1 (1 & 2 are hot) bleeds into the other tracks.

I'll take the box apart tonight and see if replacing the pots looks like an easy deal.



BTW- you get my message about the CD?
 
Dang, I thought it would be something crappy :(

Putting & pulling data to & from the hard drive is not a timed operation. A slow hard drive will not cause phasing problems. Could it be that you're getting a whole lot of short dropouts?

I get lots of messages about the CD :) If it was regarding an address then don't worry about it. If it was in regards to wanting one, it should be no problem....just keep watching the comp cd forum for new messages.

Slackmaster 2000
 
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