Tracktion 4 Intermittent Static in Live Recording

[websterdan]

Hello,

I am a new DAW user and have a question about my first live recording I made over the weekend. I used Tracktion 4 with a Mac Book Pro 2.4GHZ Core Duo 4G RAM running Yosemite 10.10.1. I used a Mackie Onyx 1620i board with firewire

After listening to the recording I find a short digital static about every 15-20 seconds. It appears in the tracks that have sound (I used 16 tracks but only 8 or 9 have music being performed at any one time).

I am a first timer with this so I would appreciate your help in locating how this can occur.

Thanks for your help!

Dan

[Peter Widdicombe]

Is it RECORDED with the static, or do you experience this only on playback?
Solo the tracks one by one, to see if it's in one or two tracks only, or is in them all; and if it's consistently in the same place... If always in the same place, it may have been recorded that way - either processor is too busy, or configuration on the sound card ?

If it moves around, it may be playback buffers are too small. I don't know about the MAC version, but in windows you can check audio settings (in tracktion), and make sure you have enough buffers (i.e. make it 10 or 20 milliseconds if you currently have it as, say, 5 milliseconds).

[websterdan]

Thanks Peter, no it is embedded in the recording. It is intermittent so it is not on a timed interval. I just don't know if my laptop is too old (2010) to handle processing or if there is an issue with how I set up the recording. I am using the 64bit version of Tracktion 4.

Any further help is appreciated.

Thanks

Dan

[TSC]

Sounds like the software might not be registered - in Tracktion, go to 'about' - does it show it registered to you?

[Peter Widdicombe]

Again, check the audio buffers Settings - Audio - Audio buffer size. For playback only, you can set it to a higher number, but try 512 samples. Larger buffers will cause latency, but this really only matters if you are recording along with other pre-recorded tracks, but during playback it normally isn't an issue (if the processor can keep up, hence the larger buffers).

Plus which audio driver are you using? DirectSound is simpler, I suppose, but ASIO (Asio4All) usually gives better results.

If unregistered, you normally get a buildup of "hissing" on audio tracks, not a breakup like being reported. I sometimes get that if my latency is set to 5 ms on my older XP machine. Setting it to 11 ms (the 512) normally clears that up.

Oh, I'm assuming that none of the tracks are severely overloaded. +6 as a recording level was OK in the magnetic tape days; it just doesn't work for digital. Plus, I assume your speakers/amp have no issues...?