Pops and clicks

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

I get them here and there when recording. I use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, the computer is 900 mhz cpu with 768 megs ram, the soundcard is a Soundblaster Live card, and the OS is XP Pro. Far from state of the art but should be more than enough for digital recording, I don't have any problems with it hanging up even with 20 tracks of audio, but even with just one track there will often be a few pops and clicks in the track. Know what might be making the clicks? It's not me...

*Just noticed, it seems that most if not all of them are happening during playback and aren't in the actual recording... that's good for the guys I record tracks for, explains why no one has mentioned them... but bad for me for when I want to record my own stuff and get clicks in the mixdown.

Darned newfangled gadgets...! Oh Well

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Go through your PC and disable any Windows System Sounds, shut down (or at least disable) any IM programs that are running, shutdown other running programs when you are doing playback (dont' have e-mail and browswer running, etc). Sound is a "low priority interrupt" in the PC and thus anything else with a higher priority has the potential to cause interrupts, etc in the sound. Audio is usually on a shared interrupt with some other device.

Finally, I've seen several reports of video cards/drivers causing noise in playback. So, get the latest drivers and install them for your video card.

Chris Tarrow · From: Maplewood, NJ

I'm not familiar with PCs, so I can't offer specifics, but that sounds like a clocking error, make sure your software and hardware are locked to the same clock source.

Loren Claypool · From: Mequon, WI

One thing to check is if you are peaking on volume on an individual track, an effects track, send or receive to an effects track, or on the master fader.
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Richard Durrer · From: Alberta, Canada

I have had the same problem with some software programs. Soundblaster sound cards seem to like 48000 Hz as a recording/playback instead of the 44100 Hz. Audacity was clicking and popping for me.
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Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

There have been a lot of problems with pops and clicks on playback on Dell's. So far (a year and a half) I have not had any problems with my Dell desktop and a Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum EX sound card. I do a lot of mixdowns from my Fostex VF160 hard drive recorder to the PC and use the 48Khz. The 48Khz is the default for my SB card.

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Thanks for your replies, all. I have always been using it with nothing else open, no sound scheme (it annoys me anyway), no loud signal input peaks, etc. and still get the pops. I've come to believe it's the sound card.

I downloaded and installed the latest drivers some time ago and it caused all kinds of bugs so went back the the older drivers. Since then I wiped the hardrive and reinstalled everything, the computer was having other bugs not related to sound... and the computer has been working much better, at least not counting the pops when recording.

Since I have reinstalled everything on a clean hardrive, I tried the newer sound card drivers again. It has been working fine without the previous bugs, except for the pops, same as before.

Another thing, with either driver, the audio level seems to be reducing, both output and input. I can't get the volume out of it, or a good strong recorded level either.

Even the tone isn't right, just sounds bad.

It's not my mixer, cables, or other gear, I connected them up to my laptop and recorded just fine, with no pops or clicks and a nice, clear, strong sound and level.

For now, I've disabled the soundcard and enabled the on-board sound chip in the desktop.

I think I'll record the audio on the laptop for a while... but I'll still have to use the desktop do do midi since this laptop can't connect to my midi stuff which is somewhat old and not USB.

Speaking of sampling rates, I thought I'd heard that 48K was prone to problems and 44K was preferred.... apparently that's incorrect? The stuff I'm recording at the moment is for a vocalist, sending him my steel tracks by internet... I don't know what sampling rate he's using, should I use the same as he's using or does it matter?

Thanks again for the help.

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

I used a Soundblaster Audigy soundcard many years ago, and replaced the original driver with one that was developed especially for music production on SB soundcards, it's called the "kX driver". It improved the performance of the Audigy a great deal, but since it was more streamlined for music production I lost some of the extra 'bells and whistles' of the Audigy.

I have no idea how these works now, so I won't guarantee anything (don't sue me! Wink

), but up to date versions of the kX driver seems to be available many places, for example here.

Steinar
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Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Thanks Steinar, I'll check into that driver.

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Well I tried the kx driver, same thing, still pops and clicks and even an occasional zzzzt! Not loud, but they can be heard and that's loud enough.

I took out the SB card, enabled the on-board audio chip and same thing. I give up. Plus, enough radiated static from the cathode-tube monitor gets into my pickup that you can hear the slight hum if you turn the volume up, very slight but I'd rather it wasn't there at all and I can't get my steel any farther from the computer and still be in the same room, putting it in another room is too much, I've got a music room here in my house but I'm not going to spread it all over the whole house, with a wife and young daughter with me that's just not practical.

I made a test track, about 20 seconds silence and the rest playing, with the SB card, the on-board audio, and then on the laptop. Noise in the desktop no matter what I do, and the laptop is absolutely silent, except of course for the guitar audio, and it is very clear... so it's pretty obvious I'm going to have to use the laptop until I get a new desktop with a good soundcard and probably a plasma monitor. Can't do that for a while.

Funny, I thought the laptop would have the worst audio, everything being minimized to fit into a laptop. Go figure.

Chris Tarrow · From: Maplewood, NJ

Nothing right or wrong with 48k or 44.1k, in theory 48k should sound superior but whether that's true and to what degree will depend on the digital converters.

Best rule of thumb is to start with whatever sample rate the final product is going to be, that way you avoid sample rate conversion (so for example, recording everything at 48k and then bouncing to a 44.1k file in mixing - not recommended).

Justin Douglas · From: Austin, TX

sorry in advance for this long one, but i hope it helps!

if the pops are in the recording, then chris is right: that's a clocking error.

you will either need to change your clocking source in cakewalk and/or the software for your soundblaster card.

i'm not too familiar with either of those platforms, but somewhere under preferences or setup you will be able to specify clocking source. the easiest remedy (this will be in cakewalk) will be to set it to INTERNAL.

now - if you're getting clicks and pops and stutters ONLY in playback and particularly when you're taxing the CPU, that's because the buffer is set too low. in cakewalk's prefs or setup page you will be able to change the playback buffer. crank that baby up and your problem should disappear (but you'll get more latency when monitoring recording).

as for 44.1 and 48kHz; i've heard that soundblaster defaults to 48k - i don't know if that's true and if it is it's downright ridiculous. the nyquist theorem states that the highest reproducible frequency will be half the sampling rate. so at 44.1kHz you can record sounds up to 22kHz. at 48kHz you can reproduce sounds up to 24kHz. human hearing typically goes up to 20kHz (if that). 48k does sound a little better, but you're going to have to bounce down to 44.1k eventually as that's the sampling rate for CDs and virtually all digital media, and the math involved in going from 48k to 44.1k is extremely complex and outside of professional software the algorithms are extremely poor, so your music will come out sounding much, much worse than it would have just recording at 44.1k.
worse is a poor choice of words - 44.1k is the standard outside of film, so if you're just recording your band or yourself, do it at 44.1k. it'll sound better in the end and save a lot of time and headaches!

cheers!

Bent Romnes · From: London,Ontario, Canada

I'm no expert on this, all I can tell you is what I have experienced.
Using my sound card, I did hear the pops and clicks.
After getting my Alesis Multimix8 USB2.0 mixer and using it for a sound card, the pops and clicks have disappeared.

Jack Stoner is correct with his advice also. Alesis recommends you disable all windows sounds.
Hope this helps.

Delvin Morgan · From: Lindstrom, Minnesota, USA

Bent,
Don't mean to hijack the thread, but, how do you like that little Alesis mixer? Does it do all you expect. Does it sound good? I am looking at the Firewire model, so I am just a little interested.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I have the Alesis io26 firewire interface unit. I haven't done much with it, yet, but I'm converting over to computer recording and plan on using it. I didn't like the Cubase LE they give you with it and bought Sonar 7.

Bent Romnes · From: London,Ontario, Canada

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