Audacity Forum

NickGrouwen wrote:

PGA wrote:

steve wrote:I don't think there's much more that I can suggest - perhaps others will have some ideas.

Were the clean recordings achieved on EXACTLY the same hardware/software as the problem recordings? This question doesn't seem to have been asked (unless I missed it)

Were any Windows updates installed at about the time the problem first became apparent? (The focus of the investigation seems not to have established what changed at the time the problem first occured).

When something suddenly fails, having worked OK until that point - and "nothing has changed", the truth of the matter is that "something HAS changed", but it isn't obvious what!

Well actually I wrote in my opening post (don't worry if you missed it, it is kind of a long read lol)

Now this might not have anything to do with Audacity itself, but the thing is, this has been happening with another guitar as well. After my first guitar started giving me these ugly waveforms, I switched to my other one and that one gave me smooth waveforms again!! I was soooo happy!

BUT, after 2 weeks, I started getting the same ugly waveforms again like with my first guitar!

So yeah...I could try a third guitar but I don't really have one right now
I honestly don't know what it is...could be the guitars (pickups), could be the USB device, could be Windows, could be anything!
I'm installing a new pickup this week (probably tomorrow) and if that doesn't fix it I can at least cross it off the list =P

I didn't phrase my questions carefully enough as you've missed the point entirely. I was wanting to know if the computer hardware/software was EXACTLY the same. And you didn't even answer the question about Windows updates. A third point to clarify has come to me since my previous post: do you use Skype or any other VOIP application?

PGA wrote:

NickGrouwen wrote:

PGA wrote:

steve wrote:I don't think there's much more that I can suggest - perhaps others will have some ideas.

Were the clean recordings achieved on EXACTLY the same hardware/software as the problem recordings? This question doesn't seem to have been asked (unless I missed it)

Were any Windows updates installed at about the time the problem first became apparent? (The focus of the investigation seems not to have established what changed at the time the problem first occured).

When something suddenly fails, having worked OK until that point - and "nothing has changed", the truth of the matter is that "something HAS changed", but it isn't obvious what!

Well actually I wrote in my opening post (don't worry if you missed it, it is kind of a long read lol)

Now this might not have anything to do with Audacity itself, but the thing is, this has been happening with another guitar as well. After my first guitar started giving me these ugly waveforms, I switched to my other one and that one gave me smooth waveforms again!! I was soooo happy!

BUT, after 2 weeks, I started getting the same ugly waveforms again like with my first guitar!

So yeah...I could try a third guitar but I don't really have one right now
I honestly don't know what it is...could be the guitars (pickups), could be the USB device, could be Windows, could be anything!
I'm installing a new pickup this week (probably tomorrow) and if that doesn't fix it I can at least cross it off the list =P

I didn't phrase my questions carefully enough as you've missed the point entirely. I was wanting to know if the computer hardware/software was EXACTLY the same. And you didn't even answer the question about Windows updates. A third point to clarify has come to me since my previous post: do you use Skype or any other VOIP application?

I'm sorry Yes EVERYTHING is still the same, I checked Windows Update, I still use the same stuff, same USB device, everything is still the same. I don't use Skype or anything like that. And all those Windows enhancements were already turned off.
When my first guitar gave up I started using my second guitar and when I did, I got good waveforms again. But after a while I started having the same problem again.

kozikowski wrote:Yeah. Once you went through that whole multi-computer dance, we're going to jump on it right away. What was common? What did you take with you through all the recordings?

It's a very serious problem that you can't hear the guitar through an amplifier. If you have a bad guitar cord and the shield is going wrong, or a cracked connection even inside the guitar, you may pick up wall power buzz even before the first piece of electronics.

If you have that many computers available, surely one of them has a Stereo Line-In (blue in this illustration) in addition to Mic-In.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/ ... Final2.jpg

You can do something like this, subbing the guitar for the tape player.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/DesktopLine-In.jpg

That does work. The show will be a little low in volume, but one of our graphic artists does this regularly and boosts it up a little for presentation. If the distortion is gone, then the USB device is faulty.

Koz

Hey guys, I'm here with my update!!

First off, I want to say I'm really really sorry for not reporting back here earlier! I was caught up in a looot of business the other days sorry!

Today, I took out a screwdriver and inspected my guitars EVERYWHERE I could, I checked ALL the electronics. There didn't seem to be any problems at all. No loose wires or bad joints, nothing at all.

I haven't done that tape player thing yet as suggested by kozikowski cause I haven't been able to find the right stuff (player and cable)

BUT what I HAVE done, is that I was thinking about with kozikowski was saying about a "faulty USB device". At first I was like: "Hmp! No way! it can't be my USB guitar cable! I bought that thing like 3 months ago! But what if it IS the USB cable?"

So I did another test. I grabbed my keyboard and plugged in the USB cable (it's this one btw: http://www.thomann.de/nl/the_tbone_usb1g.htm) and I played some notes and chords, well guess what?

The same problem as with the guitars! Same distortion too! Now I know for sure it's not the pickups! I guess I can return my new pickup (haven't unpacked it yet) and buy a new interface, right? Maybe I expected too much from a 10 euro cable. Not sure how it got this bad, though. It used to work PERFECTLY in the first month!

Could it possibly have something to do that when you turn your guitar volume all the way up, the signal is gonna be too strong and it's gonna damage the soundcard in the device?

I think it might be, because my previous guitar cable (not USB but just one that goes into the mic-in/line-in) is busted too. I still have it and just tried it out and it has the same problem + it records really badly. It probably messed up my laptop's soundcard.

Even though I normally record with the guitar volume knob way down, I have turned it up some times (not even that many times) and I think I must've been driving too high of a signal through these devices which in turn fried the soundcards. The soundcard in my laptop is probably fried and useless for recording. The USB guitar cable that I'm using has an internal soundcard and I must've fried that one as well.

A lot of people say it's impossible to damage your sound card by overloading it with a too strong signal but I think they might be wrong!

So I guess what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna return my newly bought pickup and buy a new interface. I think it's gonna be this Alesis GuitarLink Plus USB audio-interface thing. Cheap, but if it gives me good waveforms again I'll be the happiest man alive.

It IS possible to fry a sound card's input circuitry with too high a level, though usually such damage, if it occurred, would be fatal (either no signal at all, or extremely damaged).

Update!

steve wrote:It IS possible to fry a sound card's input circuitry with too high a level, though usually such damage, if it occurred, would be fatal (either no signal at all, or extremely damaged).

I guess I can return my new USB interface as well I tried my it yesterday, didn't change a thing. I was really down.

So now I know that it's NOT the guitar, it's NOT the cable, it's NOT Windows (tried System Restore), what is it then?

Then I tried something that I should've tried before I started buying stuff =P STUPID ME

I started looking for other DAW's (Kristal and Wavosaurus). I recorded some tracks in those DAW's and imported them into Audacity (cause I'm so used to the blue waveforms now, I can't work with anything else ), and of a sudden the waveforms look smooth again!

Maybe it WAS Audacity that somehow, at some point, changed some settings (it does that sometimes, randomly, usually it just changes to a different device, but I guess at some point it must've really changed some settings)!

I'm back on track! Not totally there yet, but I'm getting somewhere! I'll report back here ASAP! With pics and audio!

Another thing I noticed is that all of a sudden, there is less noise in my recordings!!!

I'm 100% sure this had nothing to do with any interference or grounding or stuff like that, somehow my tracks just got back to higher quality when I was trying those other DAW's!

Yet ANOTHER thing I noticed is that in Wavosaur, I have the option to set the Buffer Size of my USB interface, which isn't possible in Audacity or anywhere else in Windows (I think). I don't know if this has anything to do with the sudden higher quality of my recordings, but I think at some point in time, this Buffer Size thing must've been randomly set to a different (I'm guessing lower) value, so when I opened Wavosaur, it must've set the Buffer Size value back to where it belongs!

Of course this is just a theory, I don't know anything about this kind of stuff, but it's just something I noticed =D

Audacity uses the Windows sound system. Other DAWs often use "ASIO" which is another separate sound system (the "buffer settings" are for ASIO). If there were any changes to the Windows sound system then it would not affect ASIO. Unfortunately Audacity cannot ship with ASIO support due to licensing restrictions (ASIO is not open source).
If you can find what changed in the Windows sound system and change it back, then you will be back to your original sound. You now have an alternative option which is to use one of the other programs for recording. This second option gives you a good practical workaround, but if you do find out what changed in the Windows sound settings (you may be able to find that now that you know that there is a very good chance that the issue lies there), or if it "puts itself right", please let us know.

I'd suggest that you have one more look in the Windows sounds control panel settings (http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Mixer ... es#vistacp) just to see if you can spot anything, but otherwise I'd probably go with option 2 and record with one of the other programs.

Thanks you all for your replies!!! You helped me cross off all possible problems before I came to the final solution.
It wasn't the wiring, it wasn't interference, it wasn't grounding, it wasn't the interface, it wasn't the pickups, it wasn't my guitar, it wasn't my computers.

I guess at some point, Audacity must've changed some settings that I don't know of. Not that I blame Audacity, no no! Maybe it was prompted by Windows to do so, may it was Windows Update, I dunno, I really dunno

Bottom line (I think), is that when I opened Wavosaur, the settings must've been reset to their original values. Now I can record in Audacity again and get good waveforms! My signals distort perfectly again!

BEFORE:

NOW:


This is what I'm talking about guys No more flat and spiky waveforms for me!