recording problems (lag)

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antipunt1

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 30, 2008
Messages
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hey guys, I'm in some deep trouble with regards to home-recording :(

I tried both the mic jack and the line-in jack, but for some reason, all my microphone recordings are messing up big time. I use Cakewalk to record, and essentially, what happens is everything I record is out of sync or lagging when I hear it again via playback. The weird thing is: I suspect that it's my PLAYBACK that is choppy. I've tested this by rerunning my recordings multiple times over, and every time, the choppiness is at -different- times during the recording.

For example, I would record myself saying 1-10.

Sometimes it would get laggy/choppy at 8 and 3. other times at 2 and 10. sometimes, it would just STOP PLAYING ALTOGETHER after 6 or 8.

So I suspect something is pooping out in my sound device or something (I have integrated Realtek). I really have no idea what's going on, my old computer recorded fine...
 
In addition, I tried recording over another song.

#1: I try importing the song and just playing it: it plays fine
#2. I try importing the song, and recording over it: the song starts to lag/chop up, even at places where I didn't record over it
#3. I try importing the song and press the record button, but say NOTHING. The song still lags/chops up.

The conclusion is the second I click that record option, it messes up something related to the playback in cakewalk. Help would be AWESOME, thanks
 
There is a processing delay if you use an internal sound card of like a half second. Most people use an external sound daw. That way the processing is done in hardware and can monitor it in real time.
 
Try updating the sound drivers if possible or putting in a PCI soundcard if you have one.
 
I found out something new. Apparently it has 100% to do with the record button.

On cakewalk, you have to click/unclick the 'r' icon to record. I found out it's the culprit. For exmaple, even if I do ZERO recording, if I import a pure mp3 song and click the 'r' icon, the song will get choppy and eventually putz out (while listening via playback)

So IF I record (with 'r' icon activated) and let it go putz out, but record anyways, and then end the recording. Unclick the 'r' option. And listen, the song comes out 100% correct.

But WHY does this happen. Why is it that when I have 'r' checked, everything goes bonkers. This is extremely irritating b/c it means I still can't really record because it kills any audio that I'm listening to -while- recording.

Hope this hint helps further along the pathway to the solution. Thanks guys
 
antipunt1 said:
So IF I record (with 'r' icon activated) and let it go putz out, but record anyways, and then end the recording. Unclick the 'r' option. And listen, the song comes out 100% correct.
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with Cakewalk, but you're describing a record ready state, so you're still dependent on hardware/input latency when you're in record ready. Unless your hardware supports zero-latency monitoring, this is always going to be an issue.

As for why the audio's choppy, it may boil down to your buffer sizes. As a general rule, you'll have one setting for ASIO buffer size (and number of buffers) and one for Cakewalk's internal mixer (if you're using ASIO4All). If one is too low, and the buffers aren't able to be filled quickly enough and you experience drop-outs. Raise the buffer size or increase the number of buffers to increase latency and reduce the chance of drop-outs.

If you're not using ASIO at all, stop what you're doing and set up ASIO4All.
 
phide said:
I'm not familiar with Cakewalk, but you're describing a record ready state, so you're still dependent on hardware/input latency when you're in record ready. Unless your hardware supports zero-latency monitoring, this is always going to be an issue.

As for why the audio's choppy, it may boil down to your buffer sizes. As a general rule, you'll have one setting for ASIO buffer size (and number of buffers) and one for Cakewalk's internal mixer (if you're using ASIO4All). If one is too low, and the buffers aren't able to be filled quickly enough and you experience drop-outs. Raise the buffer size or increase the number of buffers to increase latency and reduce the chance of drop-outs.

If you're not using ASIO at all, stop what you're doing and set up ASIO4All.
Click to expand...

1. "Unless your hardware supports zero-latency monitoring, this is always going to be an issue."

the strange thing is, my old crappy dell from 8 years ago never had this problem

2. I discovered that this -may- be related to a vista incompatibility issue. But I've done all the vista-fixes, and the problem isn't gone so...

3. "As for why the audio's choppy, it may boil down to your buffer sizes. "

I'm not sure if this is definite, but I tried moving the buffer slider all the way to the right (it now reads 'effective latency at 44kHz/stereo: 1050.0 msec). After doing this, I've noticed some improvement. the putzing out now happens less frequently, but still there! (as I've said, this never happened with my old, crappier computer). I was also told to change the driver mode to MME (32 bit) as part of a vista fix. not sure what this did.

4. "As a general rule, you'll have one setting for ASIO buffer size (and number of buffers) and one for Cakewalk's internal mixer (if you're using ASIO4All). If one is too low, and the buffers aren't able to be filled quickly enough and you experience drop-outs. Raise the buffer size or increase the number of buffers to increase latency and reduce the chance of drop-outs. If you're not using ASIO at all, stop what you're doing and set up ASIO4All."

^this might be the golden ticket right here. I have a feeling you're onto something. problem is, i'm not exactly sure what this means. clarification from someone would be awesome. 'drop-outs' are exactly what I'd label the problems I'm experiencing currently
 
so after installing the driver, I can't even record anymore. I suspect peaking or, eh I don't even know. I'm incredibly confused. Essentially now my problem is even worse b/c nothing is being recorded in the program.

it might have to do with this

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/Antipunt1/ger5.jpg

I don't even know , at this point I'm starting to rage. this is driving me crazy, it shouldn't have to be this difficult
 
by the way, it started recording again after I caught the problem. It was that after installing asio4all, my 'Audio Driver Bit Depth' had been altered from 16 to a higher number. After I changed the driver back to MME (32bit), and changed the driver bit depth back to 16, it started to record.

About the breaking, it's 'most definitely' affected by the 'buffer size' slider. I slide it to the right (increase it), and the cracking is less frequent.

still experimenting here, thx for help thus far, but far from the solution. if someone could clarify what's been happening, and hopefully solve the problem, it'd be fantastic
 
btw, this is my hypothesis so far:

I think it has to do with something regarding Guitar-Tracks-Pro-3 and/or something being 'too old', while my computer's integrated sound power is 'too high'. Something related to the 'bit depth' or something rather, if that makes any sense at all. Essentially, I think I had no problems on my old Dell b/c the computer was old, and the prog. was made for it at the time. But my pc is rather new, and the sound hardware might be related to something 'too powerful' (it's called Realtek HD so...).

So I suspect the issue might be a 'sync-problem' between old and new stuff. This might be why after adjusting the bit-depth DOWN from where asio4all set it, the recording started to work again. (mind you that I'm not using Asio4all at all, b/c it doesn't let you lower the bit depth down from 24)

I'm tech-retarded so I have NO IDEA what's going on, but this is what I think I've put together thus far. need a genius to clarify this all for me
 
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