Random Clicks

[BurnBarfield]

I just recently began using a new setup for recording, and on my first few sessions I have been getting random pops or clicks, whatever you want to call them. I also have been faced with a random dropout where in the middle of mixing, recording, or just having the DAW open, I start getting what sounds like alien noises, but once I exit out of the DAW program they go away..

I just really need to get this sorted out before I go any farther. It isn't consistent whatsoever, not every track has a pop, and some have a few.. and I can go hours or minutes without the dropout..

My setup is as follows..

I/O - Motu 8Pre
Computer - Toshiba Satellite Notebook, 2.5 GB ram, dual core 1.73 ghz processor, 160GB HDD 5400 RPM..

 

[Gandalf]

What software you using. Don't know about other, but on cubase, there are 2 little indicator things on the far left of the transport that show overloads. The one on the left is CPU/soundcard and the one on the right is hard drive. If the red light at the top of either bar comes on when u get a pop/click it indicates that you have had an overload of some sort.....


CPU (CP/disk light on with bar up to top) - using too many plugs/programs at once.... unload something
soundcard (CP/disk light on with bar nowhere near top) - try increasing the buffers for the soundcard
HDD - may well be this as you appear to have only one (slow) HDD for operating system and your recordings. Get a faster drive just for recording to

That would be some of the possible reasons for random pops/clicks while recording/playback. However, the fact that you get problems just having the DAW software open means it may be something else. Have you tried updating all your drivers etc? I was getting similar problems when I first built this PC, then I updated the BIOS and hey presto, all problems went away.... no idea why but they did.