
Any ideas and /or help will be tried and appreciated.
Billy Hopkins
I do use NTrack pretty much exclusively for rendering and I have never had your problem. I don’t know what causes your pops, but I thought you should know at least that I and a host of others do this process with Ntrack without any drawbacks. I am using 3.3 and I don’t have the burning capabiltiy.
Hey, thanks for your replies! I wonder if Flavio could try to duplicate this, and determine the reason for the pops.
Billy Hopkins
Billy, do you hear the pop if you just listen to the wave file?
Yes, I do. Sorry I took so long to reply. But if I listen to the wave file in n-track, I hear the pop. This is on a wave file converted from 24 bit to 16 bit.
Billy,
I’ve converted a lot of songs from 24 to 16 bit on n-track. I always do it on mixdown-options 16 bit. It will first run the mixdown in 24 bit then convert the song. I then use a separate program to burn the songs to CD. I’ve used HP record now, Real player, Niro and Easy CD creator. They’ve all worked fine with no pops.
Billy, since you hear the pop in the wave files, this has nothing to do with burning to CD. That means you can forget the burning process and concentrate earlier in the sequence: rendering to 16 bits.
First, take one of those 16-bit files that pops and zoom way in on the beginning, where it pops. See if you can see what this pop looks like in the n-Track display and describe it to us.
One problem you might have is a DC offset, and it’s possible that the other conversion program you’re using automatically corrects for DC offsets. (n-Track’s doesn’t, and shouldn’t.) If that is the problem, there are tools to solve it, but it’s usually an indication that that there’s something wrong with your hardware. It’s also a condition that can burn out your speakers.
DC offset is when the your soundcard returns some nonzero value instead of zero for silence. Of course, there’s no absolute silence when your soundcard is recording, but the average value of the noise should be zero and if it’s not you have DC offset.
But first, zoom in on the beginning of the wave file and describe what you see. Zoom both horizontally and vertically. Ideally, there’s nothing of interest to see, other than the background noise (which you’d generally kill before burning to CD anyway, using “destructively silence”).
On a copy of the file, try using destructive silence toolbar button (hold shift or control key when using the button, whatever it says to use for destructive). Do this to a silent section near but not right on the beginning. (Select a portion of the wave by dragging, and then use the tool.) Zoom in vertically and see if there’s a “step” up or down where you did the destructive silence. If so, you have a DC offset.
Another thing you can do: if you have any web space, post the first few seconds of the wave file. (To do this, drag the mouse on the timeline to select the first few seconds, and then use “Offline Mixdown” with “more options”, and check “Use selection” and whatever other settings you normally use. Make sure it has the pop, and post it on the web or email it to me (find my email on my web page, below).
Great Ideas, particularly uploading the wave file so you can hear it, too. It is going to be a few days before i can set aside the time needed to work on this. I will be back with my results. Thanks Everybody!
Billy Hopkins