Taperssection.com
Gear / Technical Help => Post-Processing, Computer / Streaming / Internet Devices & Related Activity => Topic started by: greenone on November 13, 2003, 01:49:08 PM
-
I've been getting this in some of my recent transfers and I'm not quite sure what's causing it - hopefully someone here can help.
Basically, I'm getting what I can only describe as a "tabling" effect when looking at glitches that I hear in transfers I'm doing - the waveform will be going along just fine, and then suddenly there are maybe 15 or 20 samples that jump up or below above the rest of the waveform. Crappy ASCII rendition, assuming the flat line is the waveform and the anomaly is in the middle:
__________---------------__________
Anyone ever seen this before or have any idea what might be causing it? I don't think it's the deck because this has happened with all three of mine in different spots, and I don't think it's my cabling because I have both a coax and a 7-pin to coax.
Setup is a Mac G4/400, OS 10.2.8, Egosys U2A, recording with FeltTip Sound Studio 2.1.1b3. Plenty of RAM, all screensavers and HD spindown off, basically nothing goes to sleep. I recently defragged the entire 40GB drive and have about 20GB free. Ideas?
--Dave
EDIT: I *finally* figured out what was causing this - some bad RAM. Bought the piece of shit Kingston ValueRAM 512MB SDRAM less than a year ago and it's already worthless. Popped it out, ran a transfer, clear as a bell. Popped it back in, popped another one of my 64's out, snap-crackle-pop city. So if anyone ever experiences a similar problem, CHECK YOUR RAM!
-
Nothing to see here, just deleted an overly large screenshot.
-
Been meaning to respond to this one, though I'm not much help. I've had the same thing happen to me.
At the time, I was also having a grounding problem with my transfer gear (turned out the problem was the Oade 7-pin cable). The grounding problem presented itself as loud pops in the recording whenever I turned any other electric device in the house on or off. Also during this time, I encountered the same tabling problem you mention.
I solved my grounding problem by replacing/repairing the 7-pin cable. And as a result, the tabling stopped, too.
I know, doesn't help much, but...there it is.
-
Wow, that looks really fucked up. Here's to getting it solved quickly!
-
First, make sure it's only in the transfer and not in the original recording. You said in recent transfers - what change might you have made that caused this to start happening?
-Matt
-
Matt - that's what I suspected at first,but it's definitely not on the recording, because I can re-transfer and the errors will be elsewhere on the waveform. Nothing's changed in my live rig since April when I picked up the mics... and the only stuff that's changed on my home machine is clearing about 15GB worth of files off my transfer drive and defragging it. So if anything, it should be getting better, not worse!
I think if it were a bad batch of tapes the errors would always show up in the same place. It's happened on transfers from my DA-20, my SV-3700 and (I think) my D8. If it's my digi-cable, like Brian thinks, then transferring from my D8 should be clean because I need the 7-pin rather than my Hosa cable. I'll give that a try tomorrow. Otherwise, it's either my soundcard, computer or software.
It's almost like there's a temporary DC offset introduced into the recording, like you can see above. I just wish there were some tool in SoundEdit I could use to move more than one sample at once...
Thanks for the ideas - I'll see if it's the cable tomorrow since that's the easiest to test...
--Dave
-
Maybe your hard drive is ate up. What about trying to defrag??
-
And the golden +T goes to...Mistah Skalindah. I've tried several transfers on my D8 and 7-pin cable (as opposed to the Hosa coax I use with my DA-20/SV-3700) and they seem to be clean. Looks like a hosed Hosa - time to pick up a new one!
-
And the golden +T goes to...Mistah Skalindah. I've tried several transfers on my D8 and 7-pin cable (as opposed to the Hosa coax I use with my DA-20/SV-3700) and they seem to be clean. Looks like a hosed Hosa - time to pick up a new one!
You know, now that you mention it...back then, at the same time I swapped out my 7-pin, I'm pretty sure I also swapped out my Hosa cable. Could be a Hosa problem with the D8/7-pins. Glad it's resolved!
-
it is funny how those samples are inverted on the screen shot.
-
Ok...bumping this back up because it wasn't the coax cable. Replaced the coax and the same thing happened. I thought my D8 transfers were clean but a closer listen yielded the same problem. :banging head:
So I figured it was my sound card because I thought I heard a rattle on the coax in of the U2A. Loose connection could cause problems, sure. Bought an emi 2|6 off eBay...problem still not fixed. :banging head: :banging head:
All right, maybe it's the software. I'm using a beta of Felt Tip Sound Studio (2.1.1b3), maybe it's acting up. No problem, I download a stable version that I used without problems before (2.1), ran a transfer, STILL not fixed. :banging head: :banging head: :banging head:
Now I'm replacing the USB cable, running yet another transfer. If this doesn't work the only thing I can think of is using a different USB port on the machine...and then wiping the hard drive completely instead of the thorough scan and defrag I did before. That should be fun. :P
-
An update in case anyone cares but me...USB cable replacement didn't do it. USB port change didn't do it. Two more things to test - saving the file onto another hard drive, and then trying to do a transfer in OS 9.2.2. This is NOT my idea of entertainment...and I'm getting REALLY tired of listening to the same *&@^#$ recording over and over again... :(
-
are you sure it's NOT on the dat?
have you tried something like spark instead of sound studio?
-
Try defragging the HD. Looks like your HD is freezing for a split second, dropping a handfull of samples before continuing. If the defrag doesn't help, try messing with system settings and background services to optimize for audio.
-
Scott, I haven't tried anything other than Sound Studio but I used both 2.0.7 and 2.1.1b3 for months without any problems. I re-downgraded to 2.0.7 but I'll give Spark a shot. The only reason I don't like Spark is that you have to be there to begin and end the recording; you can't just do it with AppleScript (I start a lot of transfers before I leave for work or before I go to bed). Is there any way of automating it?
Oh, and yes, it's not on the DAT - I've been able to eventually get one clean version by copying-and-pasting parts of one transfer over the bad parts of another.
Craig, I did defrag the whole HD after deleting maybe 20GB worth of old SHNs off of it. I also ran a full Norton Systemworks scan...not sure what else I could do? ??? This HD is a year and a half old, tops...hate to think it's failing already. We'll see what the transfer to my original installed HD does - that sucker is close to 3.5 years old now.
Scott and any other Mac users...what other settings can I tweak to optimize a machine for recording? I'm running 10.2.8. The HD doesn't spin down at all, I have my screen saver off, energy saver off, no other programs are running other than Sound Studio and AppleScript.
-
Good idea. Try using software you'd had success with in the past. That should eliminate your HD as a problem if you can get it to work. Maybe you can tweak the buffer settings in your recording software? Good Luck! I'm all out of ideas.
-
Hmm, buffer settings. I hadn't thought of that. I'll definitely look into that. Thanks for the inspiration!
-
>>The only reason I don't like Spark is that you have to be there to begin and end the recording; you can't just do it with AppleScript (I start a lot of transfers before I leave for work or before I go to bed). Is there any way of automating it?<<
spark xl has a timer. tell it to record for however long and it'll stop when you want it to. email me
-
and no, no settings i can think of. i've even sent a usb signal into my laptop while burning a cd on it and the 16 bit stream was fine, so i don't think it's any settings on the machine...
-
Just a shot in the dark (I operate Windows) but it sounds like you just can't find the answer. My PC was all f-ed up whenever I tried to do ANY data transfer, whether transferring data in, transferring it out, burning data to cd, and even copying/pasting files! I was going nuts just like you. Turned out my RAM just went bad. Replaced it and I'm back to complete normalcy.
-
Nope...not the HD. Transfer to a different hard drive had the same problems. Checked the buffer and I had it up as high as it would go, latency as low as it would go (I thought low was good - will bumping it up help?) so that's not the culprit either. Gonna try some different software now. I don't have too much head left to bash against this brick wall... :P
-
>>latency as low as it would go (I thought low was good - will bumping it up help?)<<
that could be the problem right there. set it higher. i think i used to have the latency set the highest it'd go in sound studio when i was using a usb device
but then i switched to spark...you should too :)
-
Hey Chris - just wanted to say that you gave me the answer to my "tabling" problem a month ago and I finally realized that that was actually the issue - some bad RAM! Popped out the offending chip and bam, clear transfers... +T for the tip even though it's from a PC user. :)
-
way to go man, I bet that's a huge relief. ;D