bass dropouts with multiple travelers

exact · Post by **exact** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:11 pm

Hoping for some help/advice with the following:

I'm running multiple (3) travelers with a PowerBook G4 -- I know I'm straining the system but I'm doing no processing, and monitoring and mixing analog . . .

Here's the mystery: dropouts are cropping up in overdubbed bass tracks. I have not experienced dropouts before in any situation -- even when tracking multiple tracks simultaneously.

Any thoughts? I've tried increasing the buffer, but the same thing keeps happening.

Thanks in advance for any help --

DK

stephentayler · Post by **stephentayler** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:18 am

Question: are you running a lot of tracks? Is it possible you are maxing out the available voices?

Stephen

Smokehouse · Post by **Smokehouse** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:59 am

Hard to tell with the information you've given so far. How about a few tests to isolate the problem?

What has changed? It sounds like it used to work and now it's just not working. Is there anything new about the failing scenario? If there's NOTHING new, then you have to wonder why it never did this before.

Is it CPU, Storage, or FireWire bandwidth? Try repeating your recording experiment (the one that fails) but this time with every effect turned off. Put the absolute minimum load on the CPU and see if it changes things.

Storage? Perhaps you hard drive is highly fragmented and this particular project has a bass track that strune across the hard disc. Try a defrag and repeat the experiment.

Other similar tests of changing ONLY ONE THING and then retrying is a good way to isolate the problem.

exact · Post by **exact** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 7:21 am

Hi, thanks for the advice -- I have no effects on, I have tried turning voices off, and now I've defragmented/optimized the drive I'm recording to, and it seemed to ease the problem but not eliminate it -- latest attempt left me with a perfect track except for ONE dropout. So the problem is still there . . . Any other ideas? Thanks -- DK

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 2:20 pm

Does your bass track drop out when it's soloed, or the other tracks are play-disabled?

or...

When you look at the dropping out tracks waveforms, can you see the dropouts?

If no, it's a playback data bottleneck. Perhaps too slow a hard drive, or severely fragged as mentioned. Try copying your tracks to a 10K drive.

Tell us more about your set-up. You can get better quality help that way, and I'm curious how this multiple Traveler rig is working out for you, otherwise.

rockitcity · Post by **rockitcity** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 7:17 am

dropouts are cropping up in overdubbed bass tracks.

Umm, maybe the bass player has a bad cable?

Can't think of any reason why it would be just the bass tracks. Does this happen with other overdub tracks on the same disk? If you move the bass track up in the tracks overview does it still drop out? Maybe it is sharing a voice with another track, and the higher voice is taking priority. Are all your tracks on auto voice? What software are you using?

CMurph · Post by **CMurph** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 11:35 am

Has this prolem resolved, out of curiosity?

exact · Post by **exact** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 8:45 pm

Thanks for everyone's help. The problem was solved with further defragrmentation/optimization/freeing up processing and storage space.

Now, a few months later, it's resurfaced. I'm recording 7 tracks simultaneously (drums), it's been no problem on song after song. Suddenly, I can't get a take down without dropouts.

I tried defragmentation; optimization; freeing up space. Still finding dropouts.

The only thing I can think of that is different on this song, is that:

-- there are crossfades in one of the tracks
-- it's longer than the other songs I've worked on, but has FEWER voices, not more.

Any thoughts?

thanks,

-- DK

MOTUnation.com

bass dropouts with multiple travelers

bass dropouts with multiple travelers

tried defragmenting; improvement but problem persists

solved with defragmentation; now resurfaced