Smooth crackle / noise invading audio files when editing!!

misterlast · Post by **misterlast** » Mon May 26, 2008 11:37 am

one more here!
crackle has nothing to do with firewire,
buffer settings, studio settings and it comes and goes irregularly.
sometimes with only 2 audio tracks playing simultaneously,
and it infected the bounced track too.

didn't notice it on powerbook g4

but am experiencing it
on Macbook Pro 2.6GHz 2gb ram, DP 5.13, OSX 10.5.2

i think i'm noticing it more on imported audio tracks.

Dave Bourke · Post by **Dave Bourke** » Mon May 26, 2008 3:55 pm

I was cleaning up a documentary soundtrack today and had this experience. I had to get rid of an audience cough in a gap between the performer's words, so I found a snippet of silence later in the track and copied it into a new Room Tone track at the cough location. I then volume-automated the cough out.

Lo and behold – smooth crackling as the cursor approached the edit location and all through it and after it.

After much hair-pulling, I finally got rid of it by deleting the volume automation and dragging the snippet of silence on top of the cough on the performer's track.

Bizarre...

Kind regards.

bOing · Post by **bOing** » Mon May 26, 2008 4:51 pm

Dave Bourke wrote:After much hair-pulling, I finally got rid of it by deleting the volume automation and dragging the snippet of silence on top of the cough on the performer's track.

I was waiting for you to say "I finally got rid of it by dropping in a sneeze"

djc · Post by **djc** » Tue May 27, 2008 7:08 am

fwiw Had similar problems. Occurred intermittently at and around crossfades. Removing and replacing crossfades at slightly different points removed crackle most of the time.

ascdi · Post by **ascdi** » Tue May 27, 2008 7:11 am

that's interesting. i was definitely crossfading (well, fade-in- and out-ing) at the time. from what i understand of how crossfades work in the audio engine, it would make sense that something with the fade files is getting munged up.

it's an idea that seems worth testing, anyway.

rainmaker · Post by **rainmaker** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:11 am

I don't think this has to do with strictly crossfades. I think it is more of an issue having something to do with the start of a soundbite or the front edge. I always seem to get the noise when the playback wiper just passes a new soundbite edge. And of course, crossfades would be the same concept here. I have had it happen just as many times where no crossfades have been, thus indicating that crossfades may not be playing a role here at all. So it looks like the one thing in common that most people are experiencing is that it's happening at the start of a soundbite, crossfade or not. Is this true for everyone else?

Thanks,
Rainmaker

Phil O · Post by **Phil O** » Tue May 27, 2008 1:33 pm

I have gotten "crackles" right smack in the middle of a freshly recorded soundbite with no edits of any kind. Zooming in on the waveform reveals a short duration dropout. Sometimes so short that it doesn't go all the way to zero (kind of looks like a small V on the waveform). And I think mine were indeed firewire related. I got them with my Appogee Rosetta w/ firewire interface, but never with my MOTU 828's firewire interface. Interfacing the Rosetta through ADAT optical eliminated the problem.

Phil

bOing · Post by **bOing** » Tue May 27, 2008 3:47 pm

Phil O wrote:I have gotten "crackles" right smack in the middle of a freshly recorded soundbite with no edits of any kind.

This is what happened to me from what I recall. Just 24 bars or so of bass line and suddenly there's a sweeping, grainy crackling noise that comes in.

But for some reason I "think" that I fixed it while I was in the process of troubleshooting. It's not coming back to me now. It was a while ago and I've been away from recording for a couple of months doing other work.

djc · Post by **djc** » Fri May 30, 2008 8:02 am

Had this happen again on my latest project and found a "cure" that worked this time, at least.
1. Had a cue that needed to be shortened. Removed about 10 sec of a mix (final track to burn to CD) and then added (with a crossfade) the last few sec of cue for the ending.
2. Crackles occurred throughout the area of the "missing" part of the sound bite.
3. Fixed this by moving entire edited sound bites to a spot in the track completely away for where I had deleted the section of the original sound bite. No noise in the new location and no noise where it used to be.

Hope this helps some folks.

bOing · Post by **bOing** » Fri May 30, 2008 4:48 pm

djc wrote:3. Fixed this by moving entire edited sound bites to a spot in the track completely away for where I had deleted the section of the original sound bite. No noise in the new location and no noise where it used to be.

Yes, that's what I think I did too. Just grabbed it and put it in a new location and the crackle was gone.

I was just testing a new preamp, nothing serious. However, when you've got a whole mix cued, you can't really do much moving without some serious effort.

monsieurescargot · Post by **monsieurescargot** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:31 pm

Gosh...just had this problem for the first time in 3 years with DP. For the last week or so. I'm doing radio edits of some mastered tracks in 16bits (imported). Same case as you guys, editing with crossfades, chopping soundbites, built-in output or with traveler, not all the time, specially with fresh edits. Didn't happened with the same gear during the recording/editing of those tracks.
Pretty major issue I reckon.
OS 10.5.5 with DP 5.13

lewism · Post by **lewism** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:24 am

hey all

might be the same problem as what this guy had?
http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... =1&t=29506

see if the merge soundbites or option edge editing fixes things.
seems like a problem is in the referencing of the same soundfile multiple times.

also i found that by running the project off my external drive i didn't have the crackle.
maybe something to do with SATA drives in the Mac Pro

see if it works for you...

os 10.4.11 dp5.12 mac pro 2.66 xeon 3gb

dagross · Post by **dagross** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:21 pm

Hey Everyone -

Just wondering if anyone else is still dealing with this issue and whether there are any new ideas. I've had it come and go over the past 3 years or so (and have been following this thread for nearly as long!) and certain projects seem worse than others.

All my projects have lots of edited soundbites, volume automation, effects and fades. I cannot merge soundbites until the project is finished so that's not a possible solution for me. Usually I'll restart, but with the worst projects that doesn't even help.

As many of you know, this is a really really infuriating problem, especially as it infects the bounce as well.

I have upgraded to a Mac Pro Quad Core 2.66Ghz with 3GB RAM, recording with a MOTU 828mkii firewire, and running DP 5.13 and OS 10.5.8.

Any new ideas would be very much appreciated!

Thanks

quezbor · Post by **quezbor** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:05 pm

Merge seems to be the only solution. I had to sometimes work with this annoying crackle sound until all my edits were done before I would merge and then bounce. Try upgrading to a newer version, but that probably is another can of worms. I've stopped using DP since v. 5.13 because of this very problem. Good luck.

dagross · Post by **dagross** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:37 pm

So sad! I guess I'll have to make a clean break and finally move to pro tools.

MOTUnation.com

Smooth crackle / noise invading audio files when editing!!

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