Hi guys,
Newbie here…
but am a pro musician with a band trying to make a demo CD, and am getting frustrated with this issue of trying to make each new track synch with the previous, which seems to require minimum butter settings versus being able to run reverb and other effects on previously recorded tracks. When I set the buffers low enough for good track to track synch the effects start to stutter.
Laterst version N track. lots of ram…20 gig computer.
Ideas greatly appreciated?
Email me at rakun@rakun.com if you wish.
Bless you all!
Troy - In St. Louis
I’m a bit of a newbie myself, but I’ll offer a suggestion. Try using the “freeze” feature for each of the tracks with effects added. When N “freezes” a track it makes a new wave file with the effects and refers to that file during playback instead of trying to handle the effects on the fly.
Another option is to mixdown all of or a portion of your current tracks into a single wave file which can then be imported back into N as a new track. Then simply mute all of the tracks except for the one containing the mixdown.
I think the help offers an explanation that will likely be better than my attempt.
By the way how many tracks are you trying to play / record at a time?
Also in the St. Louis area…
Shayne
Something isn’t right if you need to lower the buffers to get things to sync. There are probably other reasons (you are not using LIVE mode are you?).
Generally sysnc problems can be attributed to the Soundblaster 48kHz issue using the system timer in Preferences (try unticking “Use system timer” for both options in the Preferences.)
Sometimes you can get sync problems with some plugins (like SIR) so generally it seems better to do the tracking without plugins and then add them at mix time.
I had random sync problems with built in soundcards of laptops. And strangely enough it seemed to be buffer related like this: if the buffers were high and thus latency long the new tracks aligned around one second late if I was too hasty to press record after stopping playback. I guess - and this is just a guess - the amound of the new track being late was the amount of latency I had.
But like I said, in most cases it worked ok… with a real interface and well tweaked computer everything goes sweet.
| Quote (XonXoff @ Jan. 23 2007,19:15) |
| Something isn't right if you need to lower the buffers to get things to sync. There are probably other reasons (you are not using LIVE mode are you?). Generally sysnc problems can be attributed to the Soundblaster 48kHz issue using the system timer in Preferences (try unticking "Use system timer" for both options in the Preferences.) Sometimes you can get sync problems with some plugins (like SIR) so generally it seems better to do the tracking without plugins and then add them at mix time. |
Question was if I was using "live" recording and the answer is yes. Not good when recording "live" from a microphone?? This is getting confusing.
Thanks for the thoughts guys!.
Troy
| Quote (rakun @ Jan. 31 2007,19:57) | ||
Question was if I was using "live" recording and the answer is yes. Not good when recording "live" from a microphone?? This is getting confusing. Thanks for the thoughts guys!. Troy |
Hi Troy,
Assuming you are not using VST effects or instruments to affect the signal you are recording, it isn't, (or shouldn't), be necessary to use "live mode" to hear yourself when you are recording. As you have noticed you get into the world of latency if you do.
Ideally you should "monitor" in hardware (rather than software as you are currently doing). This can be achieved in several ways. If you have a mixer you monitor via that, or if you are going straight into a soundcard you can configure the card to do the monitoring. This usually means setting the "Playback" settings of the card so that the input source (eg line in or mic in) is enabled.
It sounds harder than it actually is and when done frees you from the bounds of latency. Just ask if you need more help.
What card are you running?
X
.
.
Hi “X”
Thanks so much for the help. The sound card in the laptop is a Conextant AMC Audio I believe.
Wouldf using possibly a USB sound card of some kind be preferrable?
Regarding using the sound card to monitor the mic, would that still let me hear the playback of the previous tracks while I record the new track…both through my headphones?
Also…I have seen a reference somewhere here to making sure that a setting option something like “leave something or other OPEN” be unchecked. But can’t find that reference or an option like that in the menus. It was supposed to also help solve the lag problem.
Troy
OK, double click on the speaker icon in the System tray (down by the clock). This should open the Windows Mixer applet.
Goto “Options”–>“Properties” and make sure that the “Playback” radio button is selected. Tick all of the options in the box below. Click OK.
Now you should be looking at a mixer with a slider for each device you want to hear. Have a look at the “mute” buttons under each slider. I bet the input you are using (line in or mic in) is muted. If it is, un-mute it. You should now be able to hear your mic/instrument through the speakers without having to run n-track in LIVE mode.
Now, just as a double check, goto “Options”–>“Properties” again and this time select the Recording mixer. Again, tick all the input source boxes and click OK.
Now you are looking at a mixer off all of the PC’s recording. sources. Notice that instead of a “mute” checkbox you know have a “select” checkbox. Whichever source you select (and you can only select one at a time) will be what is recorded. So you want mic in or line in depending on what you are doing.
Note - on some soundcards you get an option for “what you hear” or “Wave out” or similar. Selecting this option will make your PC use what you can hear to be recorded. Avoid or you will record a track with the backing AND you new track.
X
.
.
I’m a big fan of the PCI Latency Tool for reducing buffer/latency probs. Doesn’t work with PCI express, and not sure how useful it is on a laptop, but on my (older) desktop it’s made a huge difference. http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951, ,it’s free.
Hi Azza,
Thanks for the new tip. The latency tool description on the download site you’ve recommended sounds like its designed to solve problems with VIDEO latency for games. But you’ve found that it also helps with the audio latency problems in N-Track?
Yeah. If you lower the numbers on the video card, you can up the the numbers on the audio card. Apparently the latency values are set stupidly high by defult on video cards. There is an old thread on Audiominds.com that bought it to my attention. I’ll try to link here http://audiominds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2890&hl=pci+latency+tool .BTW www.audiominds.com is a great site for extra tips on home recording (based around ntrack)
| Quote (rakun @ Feb. 05 2007,09:38) |
| Hi Azza, Thanks for the new tip. The latency tool description on the download site you've recommended sounds like its designed to solve problems with VIDEO latency for games. But you've found that it also helps with the audio latency problems in N-Track? |
The tool in question allows you to set the PCI buss latency for the card. This is the amount of time alloted for the card to seize the PCI buss. Obviously, if the video card has the buss, your audio card CAN'T have it. Reducing the PCI latency for the video card can improve audio performance.
I had an ATI card that defaulted to 255 PCI latency. I lowered it to 128 with no graphics problems but improved audio performance. The ATI card died about six months later and I dropped in a Matrox G450 dual-head. Much to my surprise, it defaulted to 64 PCI latency.
D
I’m running a dual monitor system using two graphics cards. One (AGP) is too big for my motherboard (pretty old MoBo) and the other (PCI) is about 200000 years old, and both wanted about 256PCI latency each by defult. Not really fair when my Audio Card (M-Audio Audiophile 2496) was allocated 32 PCI latency. Fixed that though, so I’ll stop my whinging.
New Dell E520 (64-bit Dual Core) with Creative X-Fi Audio Card (24-Bit) and a fresh installation of n-Track Studio (registered) and I was having serious latency problems.
The advice in this thread about adjusting buffers, turning off (temporarally) virus programmes and using the PCI Latancy Tool really helped to resove the issues.
I’m just now getting used to the interface. Thank’s for all the useful posts.
Modalities
this will also help - setting your PC to background improves performance for apps like N
from win2k help notes - should be same (almost) for your OS
Open “System” in Control Panel.
On the Advanced tab, click Performance Options.
Under Application response, Click Background services -
Dr J