distortion in phones while recording

[juliakasdorf]

Howdy. Sometimes, but not always, when I'm recording, the tracks I've already recorded are distorted in my headphones. I'm trying to sing a nice vocal but the guitar sounds totally distorted, like I'm overdriving somewhere along the signal chain. Then when I play back, all sounds well again. I've swapped headphones, and there is no change. Sometimes it sounds fine, sometimes the very same tracks will sound horrible. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[kozikowski]

Just so we're clear. You record vocal and the guitar sounds distorted. Stop, Edit > Undo, and do the exact same thing again only this time it's clean? Can you try that next time it does it?

Sometimes, Audacity will mix down from multiple tracks to one single presentation, and sometimes it just adds up all the tracks and have a happy day. If you like to capture live performance up near "0" on the meters (a very dangerous thing to do) then it doesn't take any effort at all to make you sail into distortion.

Next time it does it, select all the existing tracks and Effect > Amplify > -3dB. See if it's still distorted. You can always adjust final volume just before export.

Koz

[juliakasdorf]

hi k. Thanks for writing back.

The distortion is not caused by recording levels. The only time it occurs is when I am recording new tracks, ef, only the tracks i laid down before are distorted in my headphones. Stop recording, and the tracks in my phones are fine. I believe it is a monitoring issue. What are the gain stages in headphone monitoring, and where can I adjust them? Thank you for taking the time to address this.

[juliakasdorf]

hi, koz. I tried the -3 Amplify move nothing changed. The tracks that sound fine normally sound terribly distorted when I am RECORDING. I thought the Green Input Meter were supposed to manage and reflect this phenom, but no amount of sliding on Mixer bar changes the fuzzy recording experience.

[stevethefiddle]

Stop recording, and the tracks in my phones are fine.

Are they fine when you play all tracks together?

What happens if you do this
1) Open Audacity
2) Generate 30 seconds of Silence
3) Record something onto a new track.

[jomazq]

i have this same problem in audacity and id try recording the 30 seconds of silence and then recording over it.

That's all well and good; the problem occurs in recording another track over the acquired sound (in my case vocals) when monitoring recorded tracks.

it would seem to me that the cross traffic might be somehow problematic.. but that might be silly.. i use a lexicon alpha and record in 16 bit to the tracks. there are some things that i want to do where i'll have to listen to already recorded tracks in order to blend it..

If you want to record without monitoring then fine. playback without monitoring is not a problem. the data is intact and sounds pretty darn good.

the tracks are not peaking either in audacity or per my device. but if i wanna listen to already recorded tracks in my headphones while i record the tracks come out distorted and out of tune...

listening to them again without attempting to record one can hear that the tracks came out fine even if you recorded while experiencing the problem.

[stevethefiddle]

i have this same problem in audacity

Maybe and maybe not - I don't think that we established for certain what juliakasdorf's problem was.

it would seem to me that the cross traffic might be somehow problematic.. but that might be silly..

That is one of the possibilities - USB connections are uni-directional, so if you play and record through the same USB connection the connection must repeatedly switch from one direction to the other. Because of the overhead involved this is more than twice as demanding on the USB port than just playing or just recording. So the idea that bi-directional communication "might be somehow problematic" is not necessarily silly. It is not necessarily the problem either, so let's look at other possibilities.

if i wanna listen to already recorded tracks in my headphones while i record the tracks come out distorted and out of tune...

Here's where I'm unclear about your description. Do you mean that the new track records with distortion, or just that it sounds distorted through your headphones?
If you play that second track (after recording it) with the "solo" button pressed, how does it sound?


Do you have "Software Playthrough" on or off (selected or not selected)?

[jomazq]

Here's where I'm unclear about your description. Do you mean that the new track records with distortion, or just that it sounds distorted through your headphones?

the previously recorded tracks sound distorted. However upon inspection both tracks having been recorded sound fine.

In an attempt to clarify: This problem is intermittent. It occurs only while listening to playback of a recorded track while recording at the same time. and this is only affecting the previously recoded tracks' playback ... not the actual data.

for example:

in an attempt to layer harmonies i like to listen to the previously recorded vocal tracks. During said attempt to monitor through headphones and record simultaneously in order to properly execute the harmonies within the context of the melody is difficult because the notes are distorted. Let us say that i decided to push through and attempt the recording of the new track, despite the strange distorted tones in the headphones: I would have recorded two intact tracks, as evidenced in listening to playback while the laptop receives no input signal.

If you play that second track (after recording it) with the "solo" button pressed, how does it sound?

it sounds good such that the problem is only occurring in the playback of recorded tracks while both monitoring and recording

Do you have "Software Playthrough" on or off (selected or not selected)?

software playthrough is not selected.

[stevethefiddle]

You seems to have ruled out most of the possibilities apart from the USB struggling to cope with bi-directional data. I can't think of any clear "cause" of the problem other than the USB is not performing sufficiently fast and so corrupting the playback data. On the positive side, at least it's only the playback and not the recording.

You could try recording with a different sample rate and/or bit depth to see if you can get any improvement. CD quality is 16 bit 44100Hz, so if you are after good quality recording I would go no lower than that. Some devices perform better at 44100 Hz while others prefer 48000 Hz (depending on what their "native" sample rate is) so it would be worth trying both. At 16 bit there is only half the amount of data as there is at 32 bit, so it is likely that performance will be better at 16 bit, but again try both. These are set in "Edit menu > preferences > Quality".

Try to keep all tracks at the same sample rate as the default sample rate for the Audacity project. While it is possible to mix and match different sample rates within a project, it may increase the processor overhead.

If still no joy, a possible workaround would be to use the USB device for the recording input and your internal sound card for playback (while recording). The downside of this is that you will not be able to monitor the input through your headphones while you are recording which may or may not be a problem.

[stevethefiddle]

Just noticed this post: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=11094#p67568