Static while recording, sometimes

[sombunya]

@ Gale.
I increased it as you suggested and will give it a try. Thank you.

@ Koz,
I've never saved any of it but I will sometime and see about getting some of it up here. Thank you.

[sombunya]

I've attached a short 10 second clip of the noise I encounter once in a while. This is the lead-in groove, normally fairly quiet, and the program is just starting.

Again, if I quickly stop and then start the recording again, the noise is gone.

[Gale Andrews]

Did the buffer setting make any difference?


Gale

[hellosailor]

Gale, I know beter minds than mine have worled on this but has anyone been able to tell if these noise problems are from the computer dropping/chopping the USB audio thta's coming in, as opposed to extra audio being ADDED to the USB audio?

His audio doesn't sound exactly like mine did (going by memory, mine was more like "picketfencing") but I was thinking that a big step in troubleshooting this type of problem could come from first asking, if the audio is being "polluted" by other signal being added to it, as opposed to the audio being "dropped" by something making the computer too busy, literally dropping out the audio.

Does that make any sense? Or if it is old news, can you share the answer?

--Red

PS- In my case, the same problem was happening with two distinct audio paths. Whether it was Behringer USB audio, or Creative on the PCExpress54 bus, the problem was the same either way.

[kozikowski]

If you magnify the noise on the timeline, you find a great many sharp, vertical transitions between segments of music (three in this pix). It's very unlikely to get that kind of damage in analog land. It has to be during or after the signal becomes digital. It's very difficult to believe that adding two digital signals together can produce that, but it's no stretch at all to get that by dropping bits or bad bitstream management. Koz

[kozikowski]

While I rip the waves apart, I found that the show is mono. There are two sound channels there, but they are identical. So if you think you're capturing the work in stereo, you're not.

This could drag us straight to wiring problems on your computer.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

USB shouldn't be acquiring noise from physical sources of noise once the signal is digital. USB can be prone to RF noise at the sampling stage, just before it becomes digital, but I agree Sombunya's MP3 does sound like some kind of "stream management" problem.


Gale

[kozikowski]

I use Audacity to digitze vinyl.

I found that the show is mono.

Unless you're digitizing 78s you have a damaged capture system right out of the gate.
It's not good to ignore symptoms even if they appear to have nothing to do with the complaint.

Did the buffer setting make any difference?

Gale asked you that multiple times.

Koz

[hellosailor]

Just a thought: IIRC when I first loaded Vista, the default USB audio settings were for MONO oddly enough. Might be worth checking the advanced properties for the USB sound device to make sure it is set for stereo. (I know, the OP is running Win7, but could still be worth checking.) I think the default is still MONO presuming the sole audio input is the mono mic built into most computer audio these days.

[sombunya]

The buffer setting did not change anything.

I am recording in Mono? Not good. I'll be checking into that right away.