Audacity Forum

Whenever I record, I get these clicking noises, but from what i've seen, I don't think these are your standard clicks or pops. My levels are fine, my buffering is at a reasonable time. In all honesty, I'm betting this is an issue with my CPU, but I can't say for sure. I couldn't really find a solution on the guide, but if there is an obvious one, I am sorry for posting this here. Any help will be appreciated.

Audacity Ver. 2.0.3
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
This happens when I record anything
I'm using an SM57 running through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. It's short, but I can record something longer if you'd like. The click is in the middle.

https://soundcloud.com/krey317/click

I'm not sure what that is...

My levels are fine, my buffering is at a reasonable time.

Have you tried a bigger buffer? What's "resonable" depends on lots of factors. If you are recording at "high resolution" (24/96, etc.) have you tried something lower, like 48kHz? The more audio data you try to handle, the harder it is for your computer...

If latency is not an issue (if you are not monitoring yourself through the computer with headphones), go ahead and maximize your buffer... Even a few seconds of delay is of no concern if you are not monitoring in real-time through the computer. (Your Focusrite allows direct zero-latency monitoring, so your monitor-path doesn't need to go through the computer.)

If it happens at exactly regular intervals (some fraction of a second or so) that could be a bug in the driver (in the way it's handling buffer-switching).

Have you tried recording from you regular soundcard/soundchip's line-in or mic-in (different hardware and different drivers)?

I'm betting this is an issue with my CPU,

It shouldn't be directly CPU related. CPUs have been plenty fast enough for mono or stereo recording for many years. If it is CPU/speed related, then it's also related to your buffers... Windows is always multitasking in the background, and the CPU needs to read a burst of data from the buffer, go away and "multi-task", and then get-back from whatever else it's doing and read the buffer again before the buffer over-flows. (When recording, buffer overflow is the issue. During playback, buffer underflow is the issue.)

...but if there is an obvious one, I am sorry for posting this here.

This kind of shtuff is never obvious or easy...

The lower the project rate, the less i hear these clicks. My buffer was at 3000 and i still heard them. I'm about to get a new PC anyways, so I will update when I get my new setup. Thanks for the info doug

What happens if you record silence? I recently was using an MBox 1 purely for I/O/Extra set of Headphones etc (yeah yeah probably should use ProTools but rendering a track in real time is BS for an hour long podcast) and noticed some clicks, during the silent periods it would happen. Thinking it was noise generated on the USB line from the power supply.

I have heard those clicks before on another system I had. It could be the sound card itself.PCs are noisy environments

Damien