M-audio and Adobe Audition 1.5 pop problems

Dave Andrews · **Voice Talent** Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 23

Okay. So far I've raised the available RAM, stopped certain programs from booting up at startup, and closed others. There's virtually nothing running on here.

As I mess with this and try to listen to the problem it's sounding more like static than pops. When I zoom WAY in and look at the specific problem spots very closely it looks like there's less data in those spots, which is exactly the opposite of what I was expecting. I thought there would be extra info, which is what a pop would give me, like a spike on the graph. Instead, the signal looks less complex at these points.

I still think I'm getting a problem with not enough data getting into the program.

This is particularly frustrating since it ONLY seems to happen when using the preamp (Firewire 410 for those who haven't read the beginning of the thread). I just tried it with the mic plugged directly into the laptop's mic port. Damn, I had already forgotten how much background hiss there is doing it that way! My voice is MUCH louder that way too, considerably louder than with the FW410's gain turned all the way up.

Here's the thing though...Not a single distortion. Not one. The problem with the distortion ONLY happens when I'm using the FW410. I wouldn't think that AA could accept data more efficiently from the mic port than through the firewire port, but that's what it looks like.

Any thoughts? Has anyone else has similar issues?

I've gotta pay rent again in 4 weeks, I've got to start making some money and I can't do that until have this thing working.

Colin Campbell · Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007, 13:35 (GMT) Post subject:

Bravo! Another Symetrix user. Doesn't that box sound good?

Allen Scofield · **Voice Talent** Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 181

Dave Andrews · **Voice Talent** Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 23

Thanks Allen. I'll give that a shot. I don't do full production and need only one single track.

Bob Bair · **Voice Talent** Joined: 06 Oct 2003 Posts: 274

Since many other Adobe users have been following this thread, I'm curious if anyone has messed with the Adobe Soundbooth beta? It's supposed to be a stripped down Audition.

Colin Campbell · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007, 03:08 (GMT) Post subject:

Never heard of Soundbooth! Love to hear more.

Freddie Molina · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007, 12:31 (GMT) Post subject:

I got this a few days back, unfortunately with no extra time on my hands have not been able to try it, here´s the link:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/soundbooth/?trackingid=PPFI

Remember it is a beta version still.

Colin Campbell · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007, 15:41 (GMT) Post subject:

Downloaded Soundbooth. Two things. First it's only two track, maybe fine for the voice only crowd BUT THE BIGGEST DISSAPOINTMENT, it DOES NOT DO .MP3. Kinda usless for auditions unless you have another encoder and that of course would make the process tediouis.

I wish someone made a nice easy multi-track program that is desinged for audio only (I hate all that video integration.) Audition drives me nuts. I was trying to do my first real long form complex production over the weekend on Audition and it just acts STUPID sometimes. Why can't I simply copy and paste a clip in multi-track view? Instead I have to do a "clip duplicate" and then when I modify one of them the other one changes too. MADDENING.

Dave Andrews · **Voice Talent** Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 23

Okay, I'm pretty much ready to slit my throat at this point. I'm getting extremely frustrated. I've spent nearly $1000 to get set up here at home and I'm getting nowhere after a week of messing with it.

Sound Forge was actually considerably worse than Audition as far as the distortion goes.

I've done this SO many times trying different settings in AA 1.5 that I've found a pattern to the distortion. I get the first one at around 4 seconds. It just sounds like a simple click. Then is does it a couple more times between 4 and 9 seconds. At nine seconds, it becomes an almost constant distortion. It does this every time, no matter what I change in AA.

I've also messed with the signal gain and pad on the FW410 itself. Nothing seems to make a difference. Even though I had plenty of RAM left, I shut down tons of other programs on the computer as well, including things like trays for this or that.

Absolutely NOTHING I've done seems to change it at all.

Colin Campbell · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007, 20:28 (GMT) Post subject:

Wonder if it's your Firewire on the computer itself. Maybe update drivers or something.

George Karnes · **Voice Talent** Joined: 26 Dec 2006 Posts: 905

Dave-
Did you try installing on another PC yet.

It should help you isolate the problem. I know it is a pain, but it seems like you are in pain now.

Trouble shooting 101:

Isolate, Isolate, Isolate...

Good luck man,

Dave Andrews · **Voice Talent** Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 23

I didn't try installing it on another PC yet, but what I did just do it try recording using the cheapy "Sound Recorder" that comes for free as part of Windows XP. I changed nothing at all with the FW410, I simply used the cheap Windows recorder rather than Adobe Audition.

Although the quality is noticeably lower, there was NO distortion whatsoever. No clicks, no pops, nothing. It recorded perfectly, so I know it's not a problem with the Firewire410.

As I've mentioned, I've also bypassed the FW410 and plugged the mic directly into the laptop and gotten a low quality, but completely distortion-free recording using AA.

SO, what this means is AA works fine, the FW410 works fine, but I'm having a problem using the two together, specifically. Each one does great on its own. It's when I try to use high-end hardware and high-end software that I get the problems.

I just discovered this Windows "Sound Recorder" program over the last few minutes, so I've just now confirmed that the FW410 itself is working properly.

Dave Andrews · **Voice Talent** Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 23

I just downloaded a cheap program called "RecordPad Sound Recorder". I think it will server my purposes. I don't need all of the massively complex capabilities of AA and I certainly don't need the frustration.

RecordPad handled the Firewire 410 just fine, so I think I'm going to stop wasting my time with AA and just move on.

George Karnes · **Voice Talent** Joined: 26 Dec 2006 Posts: 905

Dave-
That same company has some other programs that are prett cool call Wavepad (basic function editor) and Mixpad (multitrack tool).

I used them until the demo period was up. They were just a little light on tools, but they were very easy to learn to use.

Dave Andrews · **Voice Talent** Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 23

I never did get this problem completely fixed, but I did find a big part of it. I switched to an external hard drive and the problems lessened considerably. Unfortunately, still not good enough to put out a finished dry product (which is the only type I do).

I can't afford to just go out and buy a new faster hard drive, but I'm wondering how it would affect things to use a 10k+ RPM drive.