Is it possible that my problem is with Cakewalk Home Studio XL 2004?
Here is my problem:
I get ticking sounds on all my tracks... some more noticeable than others. The tracks that are of vocals: very slight, but definitely there. More like a crackling... slight series of ticks on high frequency and/or loud vocal parts.
But when we do guitars... it's really annoying and obvious.
The bass: not bad, but noticeable if one is really looking for them, PLUS I can SEE the ticks in the wave form with the bass, little spikes, little thin lines shooting straight up and back down. We don't think it's pick noise, but could be wrong.
In all cases, the higher the recording input amplitude, the louder the ticks. I also suspect that the frequency of the wave may be a factor for how much ticking there is and how noticeable. We don't notice it on drums, but we think that's because those ticks would be totally LOST to our ears against the drum sounds.
But, we only very occasionally notice any of the noise while we are just listening to the sound card output. We can play or sing or recite the same phrase at the same volume and just listen to the soundcard and it's clean as a whistle. I mean this problem noise is basically not there. UNTIL we record it. We don't even notice any ticking when we monitor while recording. It's not til playback. It seems to be part of the recorded waveform, though... it always happens in the same place. And the noise can be heard in the mixed down .wav audio, as well.
If we record with a much lower amplitude, the ticking on the recording seems quieter... but is still noticeable. If we record hot... the noise is very much louder, so it's not a SNR issue, is it? It seems to keep the same relationship to the amplitude of the original sound. So if we recorded hot, the ticking is really hot. If we recorded very low gain... skinny little waveform.. .the ticking is there, but as much quieter as the actual audio is.
We are using an M-Audio Delta1010. Our computer is so fast and supposedly powerful that the kid that built it for us wanted to take on some other computers on the net, whatever that meant. I just doubt that our problem is processor being too slow, though maybe it is competing for IRQ with the fancy-schmancy video card.
We are monitoring this with headphones. We can hear EVERY LITTLE THING. But we are so scrimping that we can't afford the nearfield monitors, yet.
But, this ONLY happens when recording. I am thinking about installing a copy of freebie Audacity to see if the same thing happens there. But, I was wondering... maybe someone has already had this problem and can save us a few trouble-shooting steps or give us some new ideas of things to try when we run out of the ones we can think of?
I have tried all the drivers: ASIO, WDM, MME. No difference that I could notice. I have increased cache sizes... virtual disk size... changed the video settings for optimum performance... and there's probably more I can do.
But am I wasting my time, on a wild goose chase, in messing with these settings? There are so many possibilities! But it seems, by process of elmination, to be happening during the sampling, during the recording. We've tried at 44,100 and 96,000. Doesn't seem to make any difference.
But this is digital noise, true? Caused by missing data in the saved digital data, as I understand how all this works. We have almost no other kind of noise anywhere we can find in the chain... just when we lay down the track.
Would appreciate any shortcuts, or advice. thanks very much.
Here is my problem:
I get ticking sounds on all my tracks... some more noticeable than others. The tracks that are of vocals: very slight, but definitely there. More like a crackling... slight series of ticks on high frequency and/or loud vocal parts.
But when we do guitars... it's really annoying and obvious.
The bass: not bad, but noticeable if one is really looking for them, PLUS I can SEE the ticks in the wave form with the bass, little spikes, little thin lines shooting straight up and back down. We don't think it's pick noise, but could be wrong.
In all cases, the higher the recording input amplitude, the louder the ticks. I also suspect that the frequency of the wave may be a factor for how much ticking there is and how noticeable. We don't notice it on drums, but we think that's because those ticks would be totally LOST to our ears against the drum sounds.
But, we only very occasionally notice any of the noise while we are just listening to the sound card output. We can play or sing or recite the same phrase at the same volume and just listen to the soundcard and it's clean as a whistle. I mean this problem noise is basically not there. UNTIL we record it. We don't even notice any ticking when we monitor while recording. It's not til playback. It seems to be part of the recorded waveform, though... it always happens in the same place. And the noise can be heard in the mixed down .wav audio, as well.
If we record with a much lower amplitude, the ticking on the recording seems quieter... but is still noticeable. If we record hot... the noise is very much louder, so it's not a SNR issue, is it? It seems to keep the same relationship to the amplitude of the original sound. So if we recorded hot, the ticking is really hot. If we recorded very low gain... skinny little waveform.. .the ticking is there, but as much quieter as the actual audio is.
We are using an M-Audio Delta1010. Our computer is so fast and supposedly powerful that the kid that built it for us wanted to take on some other computers on the net, whatever that meant. I just doubt that our problem is processor being too slow, though maybe it is competing for IRQ with the fancy-schmancy video card.
We are monitoring this with headphones. We can hear EVERY LITTLE THING. But we are so scrimping that we can't afford the nearfield monitors, yet.
But, this ONLY happens when recording. I am thinking about installing a copy of freebie Audacity to see if the same thing happens there. But, I was wondering... maybe someone has already had this problem and can save us a few trouble-shooting steps or give us some new ideas of things to try when we run out of the ones we can think of?
I have tried all the drivers: ASIO, WDM, MME. No difference that I could notice. I have increased cache sizes... virtual disk size... changed the video settings for optimum performance... and there's probably more I can do.
But am I wasting my time, on a wild goose chase, in messing with these settings? There are so many possibilities! But it seems, by process of elmination, to be happening during the sampling, during the recording. We've tried at 44,100 and 96,000. Doesn't seem to make any difference.
But this is digital noise, true? Caused by missing data in the saved digital data, as I understand how all this works. We have almost no other kind of noise anywhere we can find in the chain... just when we lay down the track.
Would appreciate any shortcuts, or advice. thanks very much.
