Audacity Forum

Set Up:

CME Matrix K (firewire)
DELL M1530 with Vista
PIONEER DJM400 (dj mixer)
AUDACITY SOFTWARE

Aim:

I used to run a 2 x RCA to 1/4“ jack out of my mixer into back old computers sound card. To optimize my sound and get better quality for mixes and pod casting I bought the CME Matrix K.
Record my mixes from my pioneer djm400 to my laptop through the CME Matrix K.

Problems:

After I bought the CME matrix k, I had set it all up and tried to record my mix in audacity. The djm400 mixer has an 2x RCA output so connected 2x RCA to 1/4” cable, the 1/4” going into the stero input on the CME Matrix K and the Firewire going from this device to the firewire on the dell laptop. My initial problem was I was getting interference through my speaker. I disconnected the laptops charger and the interference disappeared. To eliminate the interference I figured out this may be due to earthing (3-prong connection) into the power point (I’m in Australia). I got a mate whos an electrician to rewire a laptop ac power adapter taking the earth out (I have a surge protector don’t worry) and the interference disappeared (Sweet! ).

I tried to record and everything was fine for about 5-10mins into my mix, before the blue screen of death appeared. I might try take a screenshot of it when I get home tonight if I can. But in the 2 secs it flashed up I thought it said something about virtual memory. But im not 100% sure. Also if its virtual memory I don’t think that would be a problem I got 3 gb ram, think 2.0 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 250gb hard drive I will confirm all of this tonight but lappy is only a year old and I got pretty decent specs.. I dunno is there something I can change in terms of the impact the recording has on my system or settings for the device (I’m not really an expert of sound recording, so don’t know what half the settings are), during the mix if I open other windows it doesn’t seem to be slow or laggy so not really sure whats the problem and why its cutting out.

is this a hardware, or software problem and how can I rectify this.. its very frustrating! Can anyone provide there knowledge and give us a hand! Any advice would be helpful.

Cheers,

Matt

mattjolly wrote:I got a mate whos an electrician to rewire a laptop ac power adapter taking the earth out (I have a surge protector don’t worry) and the interference disappeared (Sweet! ).

Hopefully you mean that you have a RCD trip switch.
Disconnecting the Earth from any appliance is not recommended (and will probably make it illegal to use in any public place). The much better (safe and legal) solution is to use "DI boxes" between the laptop and any external audio equipment. A DI box will allow you to "lift" the ground (Earth) connection without compromising the safety protection that the Earth lead provides. (Alternatively buy a Mac - they do not usually suffer from this problem).

mattjolly wrote:the blue screen of death appeared

Your operating system is some version of Windows? Windows XP?

If you are currently using Audacity 1.2.6, try upgrading to 1.3.7 which has better support for modern hardware (Audacity 1.2.6 is rather old now).