Hey guys, I have been using audicty for years with my Rode USB mic. I usually play fusion drums through my usb mic on top of a track, however recently in the last month all my recordings are slowed down and completely out of sync. I have tried updating drivers, fresh restarting my laptop and reinstalling audacity many times but nothing seems to work. Can someone please help me as this never used to be a problem?
How bad is it? A fraction of a second or a fraction of a beat, or several beats?
Is it actually slow, so it starts-out in-sync and gets worse over time? Or is it just out-of-sync?
Same computer?
I have had the same computer for 2 years.
The sound just starts slow straight away and then gets more and more out of sync as the track goes on. By 30 seconds in to the track it’s out of sync by quite a few seconds and the drum is very slowed down.
There is a possibility of a sample rate mis-match. The difference between 44.1kHz and 48kHz is about 10%. Assuming you’re using one of those, try the other one.
…But that’s rare. Usually the software & drivers take care of any necessary re-sampling, etc., and it’s no problem mixing & matching.
It’s probably your soundcard/sound-chip, but that shouldn’t have changed.
The soundcard and USB mic have their own clocks (oscillators) and they will never match perfectly. The Rode mic is probably pretty-good, but “consumer soundcards” can often be off by enough to cause pitch & timing problems. (I assume the backing-track and playback are through your regular soundcard?)
That can be a major problem…
There are a couple of ways to check that - You can try using your laptop’s built-in mic. The clock (sample rate) may be off but you’ll be recording and playing-back with the same clock and everything will be OK (if that’s the problem).
Or if you have a properly-tuned instrument, you can generate a 440Hz “A” with Audacity and check if it matches the instrument. (The 440Hz file is perfect since it’s done mathematically so any error is in the hardware.)
If your soundcard is the problem, the best solution is to get a proper audio interface for playback/monitoring (example). You can also use an interface with analog studio microphones, and many have switchable mic/line/instrument inputs.)
This is great help I will definitely try this thank you so much. I will let you know what happens. Merry Christmas
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