I keep hearin' pops....

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ANDtheMC

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I have a Studio Project B1 and a Line 6 UX2 interface and I'm tryna learn mixing 'n mastering so I let people come over 'n record so I can learn to mix... But sometimes, when I'm recording, I hear pops and almost "skips" (like on a CD) in the vocal recording tracks... I dunno what it is... Any idea what could cause this? Is this the hardware?
 
Could be a number of things...
What's your complete chain?
What type of PC do you have and how much RAM?
 
most likely it's a hardware buffer issue
you need to look in your software for information on 'buffers'

When recording the computer stores information in these buffers for any processing that needs to be done on them before passing them on. If the buffer size is set too small the computer may not have enough time to process it so it leaves out information or glitches when writing to disk. If the buffer is set to high you experience a large amount of latency in the monitoring chain.

When recording you want to turn down the buffer size as low as you can get it without hearing those pops. This way you avoid as much latency as you can and also keep the signal steady enough so no pops/glitches are introduced.
And when mixing you want to turn it as high as you can get it. The higher you make the buffer, the slower the response time between you hitting play on the keyboard and the software actually starting to playback. This can get annoying, so just find a comfortable spot. But, the higher the buffer the more processing can be done without glitches during mixing.

HTH
 
If they sound like sharp clicks, it may be caused by two (or more) pieces of gear that are digitally connected, but aren't set up so that only one acts as a master clock and the other(s) as slave(s).
 
I had a simalr problem. When I was panning the tracks, the copyed tracks kept popping but the oringinals were clear. I deleted a bunch of tracks and it was sounding clear again. im not sure if this the buffer or ram..
But if there recording with pops its probaly the buffer,
If it only happens when recording mutilple tracks I would go with pc/ram.
 
So can someone tell me instructions on how to fix this? I used Adobe Audition 1.5....

I'm new at this so break it down slow please....
 
ANDtheMC said:
So can someone tell me instructions on how to fix this? I used Adobe Audition 1.5....

I'm new at this so break it down slow please....
MC,

I'm not being trite when I say this, but Audition gives much better help here than we can probably (I have Audition 1.0, and just checked it myself.) Their help files contain a truckload fo information on setting all the different buffer sizes that goes into a lot more detail than most will be able to type out coherantly here.

Pull down the Help menu in Audition, click on the "Search for help on..." selection to pullup your help file search screen. In the search box, type in the word "buffer" (without the quotes) and then click the "List Topics" button.

On my version, the search returns 11 entries, the first one labeled "Play/Record" perhaps going into the most detail.

HTH,

G.
 
I skimmed thru it... Too much to read... I just wanna know around what levels of buffering I should use... Can anyone help me out?
 
ANDtheMC said:
I skimmed thru it... Too much to read... I just wanna know around what levels of buffering I should use... Can anyone help me out?
There is no single answer. Buffering is a tunable parameter for a reason; the optimal setting varies depending upon specific computer situations. If there were one setting that worked for everybody, there'd be no option for changing it.

Benny put it as simple as it gets:
bennychico said:
When recording you want to turn down the buffer size as low as you can get it without hearing those pops.
Either your record buffer, or your playback buffer, or both may currently be set to too low of a value for your computer rig. The only way to determine the correct values is basically a trial and error process, bumping up the values incrementally until the problem goes away.

G.
 
Also try:


Defrag your hard drive,
Update your sound cards software
Larger buffer size
More ram
cross all your fingers - (also toes)

-Stew
 
ANDtheMC said:
I skimmed thru it... Too much to read... I just wanna know around what levels of buffering I should use... Can anyone help me out?
Waa,waa,waa/... I am too lazy... waa, waaaa, someone spoonfeed me the information.... waa,waa,waa... I am suffering from ADD, can't bother with reading. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
 
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