Audio falling behind capture card recording

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Okay so i’ve been having this problem for a few weeks now & i’m at a loss with what could be causing it, basically i record console gameplay & use Audacity to record my commentary at the same time, there is always only around 1 second difference between the 2 to begin with, however the longer the session goes on the more i can notice the audio falling behind the video, the most bizarre thing about this issue is if i use my built in mic to record (Which isn’t an option) it’s perfectly fine, what i use instead is a simple USB soundcard, it was working fine a few weeks ago & since then nothing has changed that i can think of that could be causing this issue, if anyone has any idea what could be causing this issue please help it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

2

Sounds like Skipping : tiny almost unnoticeable pieces of audio are occasionally missing [dropped] . As time goes on the little pieces add up , so the tracks become increasingly out-of-sync. Possible solutions to skipping are listed here … http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#[b]How_can_I_record_without_small_skips[/b]_or_duplications.3F

3

…there is always only around 1 second difference between the 2 to begin with

That would be explained by the two applications using different buffer sizes. I would guess if the audio/video recorder has a bigger buffer (for a couple of reasons) and that would cause the game recording to lag behind the Audacity recording.

…however the longer the session goes on the more i can notice the audio falling behind the video, the most bizarre thing about this issue is if i use my built in mic to record (Which isn’t an option) it’s perfectly fine, what i use instead is a simple USB soundcard, it was working fine a few weeks ago & since then nothing has changed that i can think of…

Other than the fact that is was working OK… Another possibility is this - Every device has its own clock (oscillator) controlling the sample rate (i.e. 44.1kHz). No two clocks are exactly the same. Over time, they WILL drift apart.

If you have two high quality devices (such as a “prosumer” audio interface and a high quality podcast mic), or if you are just lucky and the two devices have well-matched clocks, it may be several hours before they drift-apart noticeably.

Pros use a very accurate master clock and interfaces with a master clock interface to keep everything locked in sync.

4

What i meant by the 1 second difference is that’s due to me taking one second to go from clicking record on the capture card software & then to click the record button on Audacity, sorry for not making that clear.

5

Are you still on Windows 8.1 and Audacity 2.0.6? It always helps us to know.

But that was always the case wasn’t it?

If the recordings used not to drift further apart using the same USB sound card, think about anything that might have changed. Sample rate differences can cause drift. Did you change the Audacity project rate or the capture software sample rate?

On what sound device is the game audio playing exactly? If you play the audio on the same device as the device that is recording the audio, you may avoid different clock speeds. For example, playing and recording on a USB headset, playing on a USB sound card and connecting a hardwired mic to that, or playing on the motherboard sound card and connecting a hardwired mic to that are all examples of using the same sound device for playback and recording.

On the other hand a USB mic (unless it has a headphones port that accepts audio from the computer) would be a separate device, so would be a poor choice for synchronizing audio.

If you don’t get the sync problem with the internal mic, try using an external hardwired mic connected to the motherboard sound card.


Gale

6

Are you really, really sure you should click “record” in both places?

I’ve never known that to work. There’s always a first, tho :laughing:

It felt like clock drift to me, until I saw your quoted text above.

7

I’m on Windows 10 now using Audacity 2.1.1 however i was encountering this problem before i updated, i’ve not changed anything in Audacity from what i’d normally use, i would use the internal mic port but because i have a combo jack (Both a headphone & mic port combined into one) I have to use a Y splitter which for some reason causes audio to ‘leak’ on to the microphone track regardless of how quiet i make the audio going into my headphones which is why i went for using a USB soundcard.

The audio plays through the capture card software so that may explain why i don’t run into that issue when using the internal mic, what i’ll try later today is connecting both devices so that they play through the USB soundcard & see how that goes.

8

Users recording video commentary often do that. That’s why we get so many requests that Audacity should support “global shortcuts” that work whatever app you’re in.


Gale

9

Recording with two different interfaces on the same computer is a Very Bad Idea™.

Those two inputs use different clocks*. The resulting drift won’t be too bad if you only record short clips. It will be very unpredictable and will drift a lot with longer recordings.

In this case, I’d first look at the video settings. Changing frame rate can make drift a lot worse or better. And it used to work in this case. Try 29.96 fps in stead of 30 or vice versa. I suppose the video capture card also does audio at 48 KHz. Make sure both recording programs us the same bitrate (48 KHz preferably as the final result is video).

*Unless it’s professional gear with a separate sync or clock connection.

10

It can’t be that bad of an idea if it had been working perfectly for over a year, it’s only until recently that they have started to drift apart from one another, if i use a separate audio recording program however it still drifts apart but it doesn’t occur until much later.

11

As long as you:

  • Record the mic using the same audio device that the game audio is playing on
  • Record the mic at the same sample rate that the game audio is playing at

then the mic and game audio should be synced with each other. You still have the problem of the video not recording at the same speed as both sets of audio.

I would look in Windows Sound at the Default Format of the audio playback device. Make sure the Default Format of the audio recording device uses the same sample rate as the playback device. Set the Audacity project rate to that same sample rate. As cyrano says, 48000 Hz may be the most appropriate audio rate. Look at the audio help for your video capture software.

Sometimes it may help to use the same software for both the video and audio recording. Fraps is supposed to work quite well on Windows 7, but there is no official version for Windows 10 yet.
Bandicam is supposed to support Windows 10. There is also Open Broadcaster Software which is free and open source and could be worth trying.


Gale

12

Yeah, no matter what i try with the USB soundcard, nothing has worked, the only thing i can do is connect my microphone to the microphone part of the Y-Splitter, however one problem with this (Which actually caused me to start using the USB Soundcard in the first place) is that any audio that passes through my headphones is somehow picked up clearly on the microphone, this is not a case of it being too loud & leaking from my headphones. I’ve tried to fix the audio issue described but yet again everything i try never works out, i’ve attached an audio sample just to demonstrate how bad the issue is, if you know of any way to stop this from occurring i would greatly appreciate it.

13

And is the game audio then playing on the computer sound device?

And is the video then synced with the game audio and commentary?

Did you look into those sample rate issues?

Did you try playing the game audio on the USB sound card? I am not clear what that device actually is.

So that shows the mic recording what should be just low level noise, without you speaking?

Exactly what mic do you connect to the Y splitter and what is the make/model number of the Y splitter device?


Gale

14

The game audio isn’t being played through the PC, i’m recording from my Xbox 360 & recording commentary audio on PC, yes the video is synced with the game audio & my separate commentary to begin with, i’m still trying to determine how long it takes before it begins to drift apart, yes i did, everythings sample rate matches although before i ran into these issues i hadn’t changed a thing so the sample rates weren’t actually matching but that caused no issues, what the device is is basically a USB device with both a headphone & microphone port, i use this device so then i don’t run in to the audio leak issue i described in my previous post.

Yeah, without me speaking the recording should just be low level noise but instead it’s anything/everything that i listen to. The device connected to the splitter doesn’t make a difference, this occurs regardless but the device i’m using is the Sony ECM-CS3, the Y-splitter doesn’t seem to have a make or model, it’s just a simple cable that is used to bypass the combo jack of my laptop.

15

The easiest solution seems to be to use a small analog mixer.

One input channel is your Xbox’s stereo out, another channel is your mono mic.

The mixed output from the mixer goes to the stereo sound input on your video digitizer.

That way, game video output and audio will be in sync because they come from one device.

It can’t be that bad of an idea if it had been working perfectly for over a year, it’s only until recently that they have started to drift apart from one another, if i use a separate audio recording program however it still drifts apart but it doesn’t occur until much later.

It’s a bad idea because operating systems change. And just a tiny bit of latency change in the wrong place, might trigger the problem. You install a new USB driver, fi and things go wrong.

If professional equipment has these expensive clocks and an external clock connector, it’s because professionals need their gear to work every time. And it needs to work with all other gear.

In your case, your computer clock might be off, or the digitizers’s clock, or the USB audio interface’s clock. Changing one device might fix it. But you’re not gonna buy another computer to fix it, I think. Nor an new digitizer, as the new ones might behave the same.

The same thing is true for using 48 KHz as THE audio sample rate for video. It isn’t a law carved in stone, but it avoids some problems when connecting different hardware and software.

16

I see, I missed the meaning of of “console gameplay” in your first message.

Is it possible to play the game on the Windows 10 Xbox app? That gives you an additional possibility of using the Xbox app “Game Bar” to record the gameplay video and audio.

The “mixer” solution seems the best method otherwise.


Gale