Sharp noise spike inflitrates audio

L

LizardKing

New member
Hello all.

Last night on the vocal track, after recorded and being saved, out of nowhere a instantaneously ugly frequency noise spike, lasting a fraction of a second, audibly appears in the track. However it does not show up as a visual wave-form capable of deletion or manipulation. It's just there. You can't do anything but operate on the track to remove it.

I figure it's a electrical noise spike form the central AC unit turning on, so I just bought a power conditioner and back up to try and solve the problem.

Has anyone else ever had this problem? If so how did you solve it.

LZK
 
Could be a number of things, from your description.

Post a screenshot and I'm sure people will speculate for you.

Have you checked your cables?
 
mjbphotos said:
How can there be a sound, but nothing visible in the wave form?
Click to expand...

That makes me think that it's computer performance related. Overburdened CPU causing the audio playback to choke. Or it could be one of those inter-sample peaks that I've heard about but never experienced first-hand.
 
If there is literally nothing appearing on the waveform, check to see a hard disk/cpu load indicator (Cubase has one, not sure about other software).

I had an issue bouncing a project down a while ago where the hard disk running out of cache to stream the audio messed it all up, until I moved the project to a different(faster) hard drive and tried again and the problem disappeared.
 
Sounds like a momentary CPU overload. The first question would be..........does the spike / noise appear in the exact same spot (time wise) on the track when you hear it? If not......the good news is it's not recorded. The bad news is........your PC is having difficulty with your song data. If it is in the same spot every time I find it highly unlikely you would not see that in the waveform. But.........to help you..........as previously mentioned..........we would need to hear it in a sample of the track.
 
I see (hear) clocking errors that don't show up on wave forms all the time.

ALL the time... :facepalm:

Sorry - It was one of those mornings. Removed several dozen clocking errors on a vocal track.
 
The CPU is barely working as it's only 9 raw tracks with no plugins on a quad core new IMAC 27. That said, all my cables are Mogami and in very good condition. Again the spike never occurs in the same spot and it's very random. It does not show a wave form, which is weird. I have had this happen with my old 1880VS system in this new home I bought 1.5 years ago. So I believe it's electrical noise. When it happens again I will post the offender. The current spike has been overdubbed out.
 
Massive Master said:
I see (hear) clocking errors that don't show up on wave forms all the time.

ALL the time... :facepalm:

Sorry - It was one of those mornings. Removed several dozen clocking errors on a vocal track.
Click to expand...

If you can imagine being electrocuted for a split second, this is what the Spike sounds like. it has no tonal quality just a nasty ugly multi-electronic blip that cuts through everything.
 
The fact that it never appears in the same spot ndicates it's not a sound system problem, but a clock or CPU issue.
 
Speaking of clocking errors -- Just grabbed this one. Note the highlighted area in the wave form -- You'd never know that horrifically nasty 20-20k spike was in there (as seen in the spectral editor).

APFMIYWTL.jpg
 
LizardKing said:
That could be a major problem. Any ideas how to resolve it?
Click to expand...

First thing I would do is run Dpclat for 20mins or so and if it finds something it is them a process of elimination.

Re seeing things! IF it is recorded, Samplitude will magnify up to individual samples (can need some pretty nifty mouse work!) so IF it is there, it must show.

You don't have somebody MIG welding carts down the block do you?

BTW..DON'T rush out and buy generally useless power "conditioners"!

Dave.
 
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mjbphotos said:
The fact that it never appears in the same spot ndicates it's not a sound system problem, but a clock or CPU issue.
Click to expand...

Forgive me. Once the spike is on the track, it is in the same position until removed or recorded over. I don't know why I stated it wasn't in the same spot. Sorry.
 
ecc83 said:
First thing I would do is run Dpclat for 20mins or so and if it finds something it is them a process of elimination.

Re seeing things! IF it is recorded, Samplitude will magnify up to individual samples (can need some pretty nifty mouse work!) so IF it is there, it must show.

You don't have somebody MIG welding carts down the block do you?

BTW..DON'T rush out and buy generally useless power "conditioners"!

Dave.
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention Mig welding carts because that's just what a buddy of mine does for a living. He welds shopping carts.

I did just go out and buy a Power backup and noise canceler. It may not help but at least when the power crashes they system wont.
 
LizardKing said:
Funny you should mention Mig welding carts because that's just what a buddy of mine does for a living. He welds shopping carts.

I did just go out and buy a Power backup and noise canceler. It may not help but at least when the power crashes they system wont.
Click to expand...

Ah! You have bought an Unintteruptable Power Supply (UPS) . Not sure what a "noise canceler" IS but I bet you don't need it!

The UPS however IS a good move since you can pull the plug and run on battery power for long enough I bet to diagnose things. I will be very surprised if the problem proves to be mains borne interference.

There is a form of UPS called "continuous conversion". These run on battery power all the time and thus must deliver super clean juice but they are expensive, big for a given VA rating and tend to have noisy cooling fans in them.

Note that in the UK we can switch off a mains outlet but preserve the earth connection. If you cannot you might need to make other earthing provision for testing.

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
First thing I would do is run Dpclat for 20mins or so and if it finds something it is them a process of elimination.

Re seeing things! IF it is recorded, Samplitude will magnify up to individual samples (can need some pretty nifty mouse work!) so IF it is there, it must show.

You don't have somebody MIG welding carts down the block do you?

BTW..DON'T rush out and buy generally useless power "conditioners"!

Dave.
Click to expand...


Actually I purchased an "APC Pro700 Back Up" power supply with pole to pole noise cancellation. Rather inexpensive protection and so far I have had no noise spikes since installing. Still evaluating but it looks like the problem is solved.
 
LizardKing said:
Actually I purchased an "APC Pro700 Back Up" power supply with pole to pole noise cancellation. Rather inexpensive protection and so far I have had no noise spikes since installing. Still evaluating but it looks like the problem is solved.
Click to expand...

I meant a cheap power strip that is SAID to include power and spike filtering. That APC is a good idea anyway and will also have proper mains filters in it.

Dave.
 
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