not sure if this is a problem with a DAW setting or my computer...

[braden_]

i'm posting this in both the Adobe Audition forum and the Digital Recording forum because either might be able to help me.

when i mix/record a song with around 9 tracks to it, and a few of those tracks have some eq or effects put on the track, i get a really, really annoying clicking sound randomly but often when i play back the song in multitrack view, however it doesn't carry over into a mixdown. it's very hard to objectively listen and mix properly with this obnoxious clicking happening. is this more than likely a problem with my computer not handling so much info at one time? that's my best guess, but i figured i'd post about it anyway. it only happens when a lot of things are going on with the song, when i record just a few tracks it is completely fine.

my computer is pretty decent
athlon 7550 dual core 2.50 ghz
3gb ram
32 bit windows 7
5.9 window experience rating

i should be able to handle a lot, right? maybe a temp reserve space setting in my daw?

any help greatly appreciated.

 

[somegeezer]

I have a friend who has that kinda problem on his laptop. Clicks and pops when playing back, but fine after mix down. Strangely, it's Cool Edit Pro that does that for him, which is the precursor to Audition. So it could indeed be the DAW. Download a trial version of some other DAW and see if you get the same thing happening. If not, then it would be your DAW. If it still does it, perhaps try another DAW to make sure. Then if it still does it, you know it's your computer.

 

[phriq]

i'm posting this in both the Adobe Audition forum and the Digital Recording forum because either might be able to help me.

when i mix/record a song with around 9 tracks to it, and a few of those tracks have some eq or effects put on the track, i get a really, really annoying clicking sound randomly but often when i play back the song in multitrack view, however it doesn't carry over into a mixdown. it's very hard to objectively listen and mix properly with this obnoxious clicking happening. is this more than likely a problem with my computer not handling so much info at one time? that's my best guess, but i figured i'd post about it anyway. it only happens when a lot of things are going on with the song, when i record just a few tracks it is completely fine.

my computer is pretty decent
athlon 7550 dual core 2.50 ghz
3gb ram
32 bit windows 7
5.9 window experience rating

i should be able to handle a lot, right? maybe a temp reserve space setting in my daw?

any help greatly appreciated.

It is a mixture of both. The reason you get the clicks and pops is becuase when you add EQ and effects, those get processed in "Real Time"(Unless you permantely change the wav by doing it in track view). Becuase of this, your system not only has to process the tracks playing at a time (which is like playing 9 songs in 9 different windows media player windows), but it also has to EQ each of them and add the effects. This takes a lot of processing power and adds up quickly. Also, if you don't have the newest version of Audition, then it isn't coded to benefit from multi-processor setups (which is like having a dual or quad core). I believe that support wasn't coded till CS5.5. Now, don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean that both your cores are not being used, but they are in no way being used as efficiently as they could be. So long story short, the reason you hear the clicks and pops is because your computer is not able to keep up with all the processing that takes place.

Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it), Audition does not have real time bounce down (or mixdown as reffered to in Audition), because of this, the whole mixdown processes operates differently then it does in some other daws (like ProTools). Anyway, because it mixes the files down this way, however, you will not hear the clicks and pops becuase they are not part of the "audio" but more so noise from your system not keeping up with the playback and processing. Onces your tracks are mixed down, then your computer plays back just 1 track without adding the other effects and eq anymore. So it makes it very easy to play that back on the system.

Hope this helps!

 

[jaygee]

Maybe I missed it, but what is your brand/model of audio interface ?

 

[Uhdinator]

set your buffer size higher when mixing (512-1024). For tracking use lower buffer size (32-64-128) if possible and mute all tracks not needed to track/overdub and keep latency as low as possible.