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SoundsGreat-Elaine Singer · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:14 am Post subject: Strange phenomenon

I have been experiencing a strange phenomenon lately. Here's a quick rundown of my equipment - a Rode NT1000 mic into a dbx286A preamp/processor using Cool Edit Pro 2. I am finding that there will be a hiccup in the recording - a syllable or word will be missing in the middle of the recording. Any idea what that can be attributed to? I'm hoping it's something simple like a bad cable. It's extremely frustrating and, of course, seems to happen on my best takes! I can give you some examples if my description isn't explicit enough.

Thanks.

Elaine
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Elaine
The Youthful Mature Voice (Emeritus)
Senectitude is not for the faint of heart.

billelder · Guest

What kind of computer (processor, RAM etc) are you using? I have an old laptop that's a plain Pentium. If you try to record full quality wav files in stereo, it will hickup and drop words. I use a Pentium III 800Mhz with 256 ram. That would be where I would start. Hope this helps.

SoundsGreat-Elaine Singer · Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2005 3:20 pm Post subject:

Thanks Bill. That's got me to thinking - I just added some new hardware (LCD monitor and cordless mouse and keyboard) and maybe that's taking up more juice. Although I am recording mono and not stereo and I do have 256 RAM with a Celeron 2.4 GHz CPU. Could the cordless mouse and keyboard be causing interference even though I record in another room away from the computer? Or am I just going to have to upgrade my RAM.
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Elaine
The Youthful Mature Voice (Emeritus)
Senectitude is not for the faint of heart.

billelder · Guest

I forgot to say that I'm running Windows 98SE which is fine with 256 megs of RAM. Windows XP requires a lot of horsepower to run. Start up Cool Edit Pro and that's taking some system resources. You may try doubling the megs you have. Even up to a gigahertz if you can swing it. Maybe someone with more computer experience than I can help, but that's where I'd start.

Joe Whistler · Guest

LCD monitors are great. CRT monitors can cause interference.

Cordless mouse and keyboard? Think about it. It operates on RF...radio frequency. Stick with good quality CORDED gear and you won't have the RF unknown to worry about. Try going back to a corded keyboard and mouse and see what happens.

Also: are you running A/V software on this computer? Particulary Norton A/V 2004 or 2005? This software runs in the background and is a resource HOG. Try turning off as much background processes as possible. Clean your OS temporary files and cache.

Joe Whistler · Guest

Ok... dream computer as a DAW?

If you're a Mac person, you'll want a G5. This is the made for this kind of work and I know several people who use them with Pro Tools. They are die hard fanatics, but you've to got to have about $5K to get up and running.

PC? Get a minimum of 2.8 Pentium IV. Minimum of 1 gig ram 2700 DDR, and get 2 - 120mb SATA hard drives. One hard drive to run the OS (XP Pro) and the other to use for your recordings. A system like this will do anything a Mac G5 can do and you can get one for about a grand.

Of course...then you need the A/D interface and everything else.

And you won't have any "hick-ups"

Deirdre · Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 4:15 am Post subject:

Dream Computer, eh?

I got myself a G4 Powerbook this summer and haven't looked back. I've got a Gig of RAM in it and boy oh boy it can do some pretty fancy dances with Pro Tools.

It's completely silent-- no fan noise. Makes the perfect recording machine.
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jrkaiser · Guest

The cordless equipment could be causing problems as it is using more resources. More than anything I would upgrade ram. 512 Min... 1 gig recommended, the more the better.

Make sure you are optimized for audio. If you need some help and areas to look, feel free to e me off-list justin @ justinkaiser dot com

Sony Viao's are big for this... but it is a matter of optimization... and Celerons, or anything else without Cache are not the best choices for audio.

Justin

kgenus · Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 9:58 pm Post subject:

Dream computer = One that works without errors! ProTools on Linux.

Can wireless network cards, blue tooth devices and cordless peripherals. Make sure your hard disk used for audio is cleaned regularly (I clean mine up after each session). If you're using a Pentium 4, make sure you disable HyperThreading in the BIOS.

Kevin
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SoundsGreat-Elaine Singer · Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 11:02 pm Post subject:

Can cordless peripherals still cause problems if they're in one room and the mic (and Sleep

are in another?
_________________
Elaine
The Youthful Mature Voice (Emeritus)
Senectitude is not for the faint of heart.

kgenus · Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 1:54 pm Post subject:

SoundsGreat-Elaine Singer · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 3:43 pm Post subject:

Just wanted to thank everyone for their input. I seemed to have solved the problem for the time being by shutting everything down when I record (guess I should have been doing that anyway!). I'll be upgrading my memory as soon as I can so that should help as well.
_________________
Elaine
The Youthful Mature Voice (Emeritus)
Senectitude is not for the faint of heart.

schaer · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 5:59 pm Post subject:

Justin,

I would be very interested in that script you mentioned. I am running Pro Tools LE with a Digi 002 on a Shuttle XPC Win XP with AMD Athelon 64bit processor and 2 SATA drives. There are some compatability issues so I had to create a separate - completely stripped down - hardware profile when I do recordings because the wireless network and the built in soundcard would interfere. It would be perfect if your script allows to toggle back and forth so that I don't have to reboot to switch between hardware profiles.

Best,

Bernard

schaer · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 6:12 pm Post subject:

ooops.... I intended to address my post to Kevin. :oops:

Bernard

Guest · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 7:45 am Post subject: Strange phenomenon

Elaine,

Go to "help" on your Cool Edit software, and do a search for "buffer." I also use Cool Edit, and sometimes will experience that same hiccup on playback. You'll read about the specific buffer settings you'll want to have set. They give you options to prevent this type of symptom on your recordings. Sometimes, a slight change in the buffering, will stop this from happening. Outside of other suggestions, this is worth checking out under the "help" function of Cool Edit.