Pro Tools & Reason- sound distortion, please help

[razork222]

I have a problem that was suddenly sprung upon me tonight. I hope somebody can help me out.

I use Pro Tools 6.9 and Reason rewired, I've been running both programs together for a year now without any problems.

Tonight I was recording some acoustic guitar tracks, using Reason to generate a click track, and it was all fine.

BUT THEN, suddenly, when I went to use Reason to put in some extra instrumentation, the playback of my recorded audio sounded like it had the gain turned up like 1000%, and it was clipping the meters and making such a loud noise I couldnt leave the headphones on. It sounded like white noise. Muting the track muted the noise.

So I quit Pro Tools and reopened my project, and it went back to normal, the tracks sounded as when I recorded them. I thought everything was fine and dandy.... but then when I went to use Reason (reWired as per instructions) the SAME THING HAPPENED.

If anyone has some insight into my strange problem, I would greatly appreciate it. It's really REALLY messing with my workflow.

PS: Some extra information, I have installed a new hard drive recently which is the only new addition to my computer. Now I have 2 hard drives, writing audio to the new drive while running Pro Tools off my primary drive. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it.

Thanks for your help and Merry Xmas!

Edit: Also, this is the first project I've recorded in 24 bit.... would this have something to do with it?

 

[wreckd504]

That is seriously weird. I've seen pro tools do alot of crazy stuff but never that...where in Australia are you?

When I was using pre 7.x Pro Tools I had a problem where after a minute or two of recording my input signal would become 10% signal 90% white noise, closing and opening Pro Tools fixed it for a few minutes then it would do it again. This only started happening after upgrading my CPU and motherboard, I changed from 6.something to 7.0 and have never seen the problem again.

It's a bit tedious, but go back to your exact hardware setup prior to the upgrade, and see if it does the same thing.

Are the hard drives ide or sata, what rpm?

I don't think the 24bit session will be the cause, I only ever record in 24/44.1 or 24/48 when working with video.

A few more educated stabs :

1. In Pro Tools, go to Setup > Preferences > Operation > Record and in “Open-Ended Record Allocation” instead of “Use All Available Space” set “Limit to: 10 minutes”. I personally use it with 8, and you can even set it to 5 (depending on how long most of your projects are). This will put a lot less pressure on your disk usage and avoid a long list of possible nags.

(tip 3.1 http://www.moozek.com/2008/08/18/10-pro-tools-tips-for-the-newbie/)

2. Trash your preferences

To trash Databases and Preferences on a PC:

* To trash your databases, go to “My Computer,” then double-click each of your hard drives on your system, right-click each “Digidesign Databases” folder and choose delete. Then, go to your System Drive (C: > Program Files > Digidesign > Pro Tools > Databases. Click on the folder called “volumes” and delete it.
* To trash your preferences manually on a PC, go to your Start Menu > My Computer > Your Local Hard Drive > Documents and Settings > “Your User Name Folder” > Application Data > Digidesign. Right-click the Digidesign folder and delete it. Then, go to your Start Menu > My Computer > Your Local Hard Drive > Program Files > Digidesign > DAE > DAE Prefs. Delete the entire DAE Preferences folder.

(tip 1 http://www.moozek.com/2008/08/18/10-pro-tools-tips-for-the-newbie/)

3. Remove all your 3rd party plugins from the plug in folder [no need to uninstall, moving the files to a temp directory will be enough so that they don't load with Pro Tools], see if the problem goes away then put them back in by manufacturer. I can't remember where they're stored [i'm at work], but I think its under c:\program files\common files\digi\dae or something like that, just move them to a different directory, like "c:\stupid plugins i'm not sure about".

I’ll check the exact location when I get home in a few hours.

That’s where I would start!

 

[wreckd504]

How did you go?

my plugins folder is c:\Program Files\Common Files\Digidesign\DAE\Plug-Ins. Copy them all out and then see if the problem goes away, if so add them back in by manufacturer.