JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Recording Studio and Gear Forum Recording/editing software question

My husband and I have a very modest home recording setup that is PC based, using the M-audio Delta 1010 card. The software that come with the system is the Sonic Foundry Vegas Pro. We sucessfully did a CD project using this setup (along with other peripherals.) We've just started having some serious problems with the system that seem to be software related; we get this awful buzzing/spitting noise. It's like digital clipping on steroids, but all our levels are fine. We were able to work around it for a while by saving each track, shutting down Vegas, and then re-opening for the next track. Now that's not working either. We tried to re-install the program, and that worked for 1 take, then we were back to the same thing. Does anybody know about this problem? Are we just looking at scrapping this program and looking for something else? Any ideas?

Thanks, lots!!!

ok. Now, I'm not sure I can help but I think anyone who can would be of better service to you knowing more about your problem.

Specifically, when are you getting this buzzing?

Is it a steady hum? is it centered around any particular frequency?

You wrote that it's like digital clipping on steroids (sounds awful enough) so are we to understand that the buzzing only happens when you approach 0 on the VU?

I think making this distinction between sometimes and all the time would help any expert help diagnose your problem more accurately. Personally, if it's a steady buzz, I would turn your scorn towards your hardware signal chain. I could be wrong, but that's my guess.

Miles

I'm not a computer/electronics person by any stretch, so the info here is relayed to me by my husband, who is the engineer for our system.

Our signal chain is AT4050 mics to a ART MPA to the Delta 1010, with monitering by the MPA's unbalanced outs to a Mackie board. There is no clipping while monitering the signal when recording, and we are not hitting higher than -5db on the signal moniter in the Vegas software. The problem seems to be in the software. It has been appearing on random tracks with increasing frequency when they are recorded. Closing Vegas and reopening it often fixes the problem for a take or two. When it happens it's uniform over the whole track. The program seems to be running less stable when running lately, sometimes crashing on start up. Reinstalling the program didn't seem to help. Adjusting the buffer on the driver made no difference, the buffer on Vegas is set to max. We are running Win98se on a 850 slot-a T-bird athlon on a 750 irongate chipset motherboard, with 512 MB of SDram, 27.3GB main drive, and a 120GB second drive for user files (ATA66 controller on the motherboard)

We have been going crazy trying to deal with this, there have been several days in the studio and several really great takes lost due to this problem. I realize that it's hard to discern from a posting all of what's going on, but I wondered if someone else out there is having the same problem, or at least has some idea of what's going on. I also know it's hard to describe a sound like this, the best I can do is that it's a steady buzzing with lots of consistent sharp crackles in it...it's quite obnoxious.

Thanks lots, Miles, for trying to help on this one!

I don't know how much I can help either. All of the products in the signal chain are from reputable manufacturers and have gotten good or very good reviews.

The one definitive clue you gave was "...We've just started having some serious problems with the system..."

This clearly, I repeat, CLEARLY indicates that something has changed. It WAS working, now it's not.

That change could be a cracked capacitor (or ASIC or other component) in the Delta 1010, for instance; OR it could be a new software package you installed that has corrupted part of the operating system (since you've tried re-installing Vegas Pro); or it could have corrupted the 1010 drivers...and just to eliminate the possibility, make sure to do a virus scan.

Sometimes just a seemingly innocent little change like updating a program like Windows Media Player or Real Player can cause problems. Sometimes installing a Service Pak can also cause mysterious problems with third-party products.

If you haven't tried re-installing the audio drivers (ASIO, probably), I would certainly try that. If you're using MME drivers, I would try switching to ASIO. Make sure you have the latest drivers available on the www.m-audio.com site.

Of course, if you know you've installed a new program since it was working correctly, try it again after un-installing the program.

Good luck and post again after you've tried these things.

...and thanks for pitching in, Miles!


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Larry
www.audibleresponse.com

[This message has been edited by Lwilliam (edited 12-02-2002).]

Your last post actually may have given us the clue we needed to find the answer...we started thinking in more detail about what had been changed/updated just before it became a problem. One of your suggestions-update the M-audio drivers-was one of the things we had done. My husband went in and put BACK the old drivers...and so far it's working perfectly. It had deteriorated to the point that we could hardly get the software to open, and could only, at best, record one track before the noise started. Last night he recorded 4 tracks, even recorded over one botched track. There's no way we could have done that before we 'un-updated' the drivers. If it continues to work this well, the problem is solved!!

I don't know if something else in the system is incompatible with those new drivers or what, but as long as everything works...!

Thanks so much for the help!!

Cool!

I just got off the phone with a client who had installed a Service Pak for their Windows 2000 PC and it blew up their Internet connection and their ability to print through their other PC, although TCP/IP was working. Go figure! The biggest problem was that UN-installing the Service Pak didn't fix the problem and he had to completely re-install Windows 2000. Yuk!

I'm glad that simply replacing the driver with an older one seems to have fixed your problem. I had a similar problem with an ASIO driver and Reason, where the new driver didn't work, but an older one worked just fine.

Happy recording!


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Larry
www.audibleresponse.com

I'm glad to see things are looking better too!

I also had an issue with WDM drivers on my soundcard. Ain't it just the thing? I suppose the lesson here is stick with what works!

Miles