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What's this noise?


Ty Ford

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I have a VO friend who has been experiencing a noise in his recordings that seems to come and go, lasting about a minute.

 

He's on a Mac 10.8.5

 

Running Pro Tools 10.3.8 

 
He says he has a 25 foot optical cable from a Folio FX 8 Soundcraft to a Focusrite iTrack Solo I/O box.
 
I don't know either of those boxes, but I don't see an optical connector on the iTrack, so I'm gonna have to call him back on that.
 
Anyway, has anyone heard this sort of noise before? He says it lasts about a minute in his recordings and then goes away. He doesn't hear them while recording because he's only listening to the headphone output of the FX8. He does hear the problem when playing back from Pro Tools 10.
 
Regards,
 
Ty Ford
 
 

WeirdStatic-Aug1.mp3

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I don't see an optial on the Soundcraft http://www.soundcraft.com/downloads/fetchfile.aspx?cat_id=user_guides&id=271

 

my first thought it it sounded like the SyFy plug-in but given the Soundcraft has a built in TBFX section that may be the cause

 

quick test would be to try his VO mic directly into the iTrack (and it can olny help is chain)

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I agree with Engin,

This sounds like a AtoD converter or playback framing issue with the conversion.  Were the original files  B-wave?

This can be caused by incorrect sample size marking (16bit vs 24bit or perhaps a 32bit floating conversion problem)

Sounds like a software issue and is not static or any kind of analog problem.  Try playing the file in other players and see if they sound the same.

 

If it was in the initial conversion to digital it was a problem with the A to D converter.  If it sounds fine in other players it is probably a file corruption or driver problem.

 

This can happen if a byte is dropped somehow in recording.  This causes the sample framing or byte alignment to be off by 1 byte which can cause this type of distortion.

 

---Courtney

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I would try troubleshooting using a different output (even system audio) or D/A converter and see what happens.

 

This may be a little too obvious, but you also may need to check the Apple Audio MIDI Setup, unless Pro Tools is completely bypassing that with its own drivers. I have encountered situations like this where a succession of reboots and resets was needed to finally get the correct bitrate/bit-depth to sink in. 

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Sounds like USB driver bugginess to me.   Class compliant USB audio devices don't seem to be all the same when it comes to reliable audio.    A quick search for itrack solo comes up with problems noted on iOS.

 

The apple in-box audio driver is the same code for ios and mac os x, so bugs/incompatibilities on one platform are likely to exist on the other.

 

the original post mentioned OS X 10.8.5, which means it must be an older mac, but what model - they all behave differently, especially when it comes to USB 2.0 devices plugged in to USB 3.0 ports.   Putting a usb hub in between has shown to be helpful in some combinations.

 

Tom @ TASCAM - seen/heard one too many USB audio problems.

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