Audio is garbled and distorted.

dv4 2040us HP Pavilion Notebook. Windows 7. When playing a DVD or itunes my audio is all garbled and distorted. I have disabled the Enhancement under Sound, and I have downloaded audio driver updates. What can I do to fix this problem? Only 2yrs old.

my audio is all garbled and distorted. I have disabled the Enhancement under Sound

Similar Messages

Mystery audio performance changes and distortion

I listen to a lot of rock, hard rock, and heavy metal on my 80GB Video iPod. In the past two months, I’ve been having problems with distortion and equalization. I do have the latest iTunes and iPod software updates installed and I have re-instaled iTunes and re-initialized the iPod.
Originally, I was using the iPod earbuds and upgraded to vModa Vibes. Most of my music sounded great with an EQ setting of “Dance” with the vModas.
After a while, I started to experience distortion and loss of detail, especially on the left side (crackling). I thought I had damaged the vModa Vibes, so I purchased a pair of Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro Earphones.
The Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro earphones sounded terrible with no highs or midrange detail and way too much low range. They seemed to distort easily and overload in the-mid range if there was a lot guitars playing (drowning the details out). I tried all sorts of EQ settings to no avail. The problems remained, even on treble boost, but I didn't have a problem specific to the left side.
I returned the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro earphones and switched back to the vModa Vibes for a while and finally decided, on the recommendation of a friend, to try the Bose TriPort IE earphones.
The Bose TriPort IE earphones were much better than the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro earphones, but still lacked high frequency and mid-range detail as compared to the vModa Vibes.
While switching back and forth between the vModas and the Bose earphones, the sound performance (or equalization) seemed to change at random, even though I kept the EQ set to off.
At one point, the vModas suddenly had incredible bass, while maintaining the other performance characteristics, with the EQ still set to off. Later, I played the same song again, and the bass was normal (all I did was charge the battery with the Apple USB AC adapter).
I’ve been using the vModas again for about a week now, and every time I listen to the same song, it plays differently, sometimes great, sometimes with extra bass, sometimes muddled and distorted. The same thing happens with Bose TriPort IEs, except they aren’t as clear as the vModas.
The performance issues seem to somewhat track battery charging (i.e. – after I charge the iPod up, audio performance changes and it sometimes improves as the battery drains).
I figure that either there is a hardware problem with the iPod or there is some type of EQ virus going around.
Anyone having similar problems or have a solution??

I went out and bought a 2 GB iPod Nano and loaded some songs onto it.
Everything sounds great with the vModa Vibe earphones so I guess my 80 GB video iPod might have a few twisted transistors.
I'll have to try to clear out the 80 GB video iPod and reinitialize/restore it again to see if it corrects the problem.

Audio is slurred and distorted in my movie

About a month ago i tried to compress my movie due to it taking up too much hard drive space and now im reviewing the movie and the sound is distorted. Was wondering if the compression had anything to do with it or is it another problem. Also movie is about 30mins long and it doesnt play smoothly its all choppy- Help please.

If you're using OS 10.3.9 + iMovie 5 + Quicktime 7.x, you may want to read my post here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=361416
My problem seemed to be with Quicktime 7...

Music sounds garbled and echo

The music from the IPOD function of my Iphone sounds very garbled and distorted. Everything else appears to work fine. I have tried different headphones. This would have appeared to have happened since the latest update. This is an original iphone 8gig.

I found out after a trip to my apple store that my phone had picked up some moisture. Once they had determined that, they would not take it any further. There is an indicator in the bottom of your headphone jack. If it is red then you have had moisture get into your phone.
I would have thought they would have had an option for repair since the rest of the phone works great. They do not even have a refurbed phone at reduced pricing. basically I could buy one at the same price as the new one. Not a good way to serve your customers Apple!

Distorted audio in iTunes and other apps after 10.8.4 ?

Hi
Listen. After i installed the latest 10.8.4 i have distorted audio in iTunes and other music applications.
I have tested this on 3 mac's all with the same result. distorted audio when playing loud
Anyone else got this new problem after installing 10.8.4 ?
I already filled in a bug report to Apple at https://bugreport.apple.com
We need to get this fixed NOW... Please write your situation if you discovered the same bug.
Thanks.
Have fun.
Erik

Ask on the Microsoft forums, as it's their software you're having problems with:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac

My audio is really slow and distorted whenever I try and play a video sent through an emails

The audio of any video Link in my emails that I receive,when clicked on to play it, the vocals are very slow and distorted. It sounds like the monotone sound of vocals being distorted to make it unrecognizable. It has been this way ever since I downloaded and installed it.

Currently there is no Flash support for Firefox on Android. Fret not though, there are mobile developers working on front-end Flash support currently and if all follows through you will see Flash support in the near future in a future release of Firefox Aurora.

Video images are garbled and colors are all run together

Just got a new computer and downloaded newest version of quicktime. I can't watch any videos/webcasts etc. The sound is fine and the video plays but the screen is "garbled" and the colors are all off/run together?
I can play a dvd fine
Dont know much about computers and Dell would not help me....any ideas?

I am having a similar problem and tried the same fix and it did not work for me either. In my case the video plays for a few seconds then get choppy but the audio is fine. Someone on this site suggested that my machine does not have enough to play the H.264 codec. I do have an older machine a compaq 1.20 GHz , 512 MB Ram running XP home sp2. It should be able to run a video. After all I am not on a 486 machine. I finally had to back out of the QT 7.1.6 and currently running QT 6.5.2. It works fine for me at least at this point. But of course now that means I cannot look at videos using the latest format.

Sound clicking and distortion with X

Anyone else having sound clicking and distortion with their X-Fi Card? Its rare in most games, but I have a couple games where its very common Eve-Online for example. I have a X-Fi Fatalty FPS.

Using Asio4All will introduce a higher latency than using Creative X-Fi ASIO / Bit-Matched -mode, so the later is recommended. If you get distortion make sure that your volume is not turned up to max, it should be around 0db in the mixer, which corresponds to about 80%. If you get cracks/pops then it's due to the bad performance of the ASIO drivers of the X-Fi. The latest beta also says to remove cracks/pops and some distortion problems in audio creation mode, maybe try them.
Again, here is a list of real latencies as measured on my own system, using the latest stable driver (not the beta one):
Rate = sample-rate
Comp = latency compensation in ms (by how much the real latency differs from what the application/driver reports
Low = lowest no of buffers (in samples) that I was able to use
Real = real measured latency (in contrast to what the application/drivers reports)
ASIO4ALL
Rate Comp. Low Real
44k hb: +12.5 112 23.6
48k hb: +6.18 80 12.2
44k kb: +15.5 80 19.1
48k kb: +6.20 80 9.53
48k kb: +5.66 80 8.99
96k: +6.71 80 8.38
192k +5.78 144 8.03
Creative X-Fi not Bit-Matched
Rate Comp. Low Real
44k: +9.05 44 13.3 !most times glitches!
48k: +8.29 48 12.4
88k: +9.73 88 12.9
96k: +8.94 96 12.0
Creative X-Fi Bit-Matched
Rate Comp. Low Real
44k: -0.65 44 3.61 !most times glitches!
48k: -0.61 48 3.47
88K: -0.27 88 2.86
96k: -0.25 96 2.79
Delta Audiophile 2496
Rate Comp. Low Real
32k: +0.15 64 6.09
44k: +0.11 64 4.42
48k: +0.08 64 4.04
88k: +0.05 64 2.20
96k: +0.10 64 2.08
Message Edited by Timur on 06-03-2006 09:18 AM
Message Edited by Timur on 06-03-2006 09:22 AM

Flash files with audio sound garbled or high pitched

I have finally clarified the sound problem I reported in this
forum.
See below.
TechSmith
Camtasia Studio Support
Flash files with audio sound garbled or high pitched
Question
Flash files played in the the newest version of the Flash
Player sound garbled or have a high-pitched "chipmunk" sound to
them.
Answer
http://techsmith.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/techsmith.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1250&p _created=1197056770&p_sid=BZo7CNSi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmc F9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTImcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9 zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PUZsYXNoIFBsYXllcg**& p_li=&p_topview=1
Flash files with audio sound garbled or high pitched
Question
Flash files played in the the newest version of the Flash
Player sound garbled or have a high-pitched "chipmunk" sound to
them.
Answer
The latest release of the Flash Player (v9.0.115.0 released
on 12/03/07)) causes audio to sound garbled and/or high pitched
like a chipmunk. Our development team is looking into this issue
and working to find a fix.
To avoid this problem, you can roll back your Flash Player to
a previous release. If you have problems installing an older
release of the Flash Player please review this article and contact
Adobe for further support.
At this time, the problem is limited only to SWF files
produced with the MP3 audio codec. As a workaround, you can produce
your SWF files with the PCM audio codec or use the FLV format
instead of SWF.
Adobe Flash Player Support
Reinstalling an earlier version of Adobe Flash Player
Contact Adobe:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402435&sliceId=1
Safe versions security restrictions when installing Flash
Player
Issue
If you previously installed a later version of Flash Player
for Internet Explorer, you may be prevented from installing an
earlier version. For example, if you installed Flash Player
9.0.47.0 and attempted to install version 9.0.45.0 the installation
would fail.
Reason
This issue is due to registry key settings applied by the
Flash Player security model. The restriction is to prevent users
from downgrading Flash Player minor versions. The minor version of
Flash Player is the third set of numbers in the version name. For
example, the minor version for Flash Player 9.0.47.0 would be 47.
If Flash Player 9.0.47.0 was installed and you attempted to install
9.0.45.0 (minor version 45), the installation would fail.
Solution
To resolve this, download the uninstaller for Flash Player
from "How to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and ActiveX
control" (TechNote tn_14157).
Select Start.
Select Run.
Type cmd
In the command window, type the following:
uninstall_flash_player.exe /clean
This will remove all entries in the system registry and
resolve this issue.
Note: The uninstall_flash_player.exe file must be saved to
the same directory that the command window is in, for example C:\.
Additional Information
If you are still having trouble installing Flash Player,
please see "Troubleshooting Adobe Flash Player installation for
Windows" (TechNote tn_19166).
TechNote Details
Last Update: 08-16-2007
ID: kb402435
OS: Windows Vista
Windows XP
Browser: Internet Explorer
Permanent Link:
http://www.adobe.com/go/kb402435
Products Affected: Flash Player

Hi,
I doubt it's Safari that's changing the settings:
Why does this happen?
Some third-party audio applications may change your computer's audio output setting. In fact, if you use the third-party application again after applying the above solution, the issue might occur again.
No sound from some applications, but system alert sounds play (Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4)
iMac G5 20" 2GB RAM, Soundsticks, Netgear 814 ---> Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Perfect audio in FCPX timeline, distorted after export to QuickTime mov

Anyone experiencing distorted audio with a QuickTime movie file exported from Final Cut Pro X? The audio sounds great in the timeline, but muffled and distorted after exporting it. Here's the kicker, I took that same file and opened it using QuickTime 7 and the audio is fine. I took that same file and converted it to a WMV file using Flip Player, and the audio is fine. So it would seem that the problem is the newest version of QuickTime (v10.4). If any of you have come to a similar conclusion, is there a way to remedy this? It's problematic because when I upload the file to YouTube, the distortion is present. Thanks in advance to everyone who can assist with this.
MY SYSTEM:
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), 2.8GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM
OSX Yosemite 10.10.2
FCPX v10.1.4
QuickTime v10.4

Hi Al,
Here are the steps I use to export:
From the File menu, I select 'Share' and select 'Master File'
In the pop-up dialog box I click on 'Settings' and select 'H264' as the CODEC
I open the rendered file with QuickTime Player and the audio is distorted.
I open the rendered file with QuickTime Player 7 and the audio is fine
I convert the exported file to a WMV file using Pro version of Flip Player. The audio in the resulting file is fine.
I'm no expert but this would on the outset appear to be a problem with QuickTime v10.4. I can't seem to find a way to resolve this. Thank you for your assistance.
FYI - the audio file for the project is pulled in to FCPX as an mp3 directly from the iTunes library via the 'Music and Sound' browser.

Audio playback frequencies are distorted...

All of a sudden, audio playback through my speakers/headphone jack is muddy and distorted. Sometimes, the vocal track disappears completely. This is not just in iTunes (where I've unsuccessfully tried to adjust the equalizer), it's also on Youtube videos. Sonos, which does NOT go thru system audio, sounds fine. I'm including etrecheck diagnostics. Thanks for any ideas. Oh, and the only thing that's changed, systemwise, is the latest Yosemite upgrade. The problem started after that, but not immediately after.
Problem description:
Audio playback is distorted
EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)
Report generated April 16, 2015 at 11:20:10 PM CDT
Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck
Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.
Hardware Information: ℹ️
    MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) (Technical Specifications)
    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,1
    1 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
    16 GB RAM Not upgradeable
        BANK 0/DIMM0
            8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
        BANK 1/DIMM0
            8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
    Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported
    Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
    Battery Health: Normal - Cycle count 298
Video Information: ℹ️
    Intel Iris
        Color LCD spdisplays_2560x1600Retina
System Software: ℹ️
    OS X 10.10.3 (14D131) - Time since boot: 1:26:40
Disk Information: ℹ️
    APPLE SSD SD0256F disk0 : (251 GB)
        EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 150.14 GB (103.49 GB free)
        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
        BOOTCAMP (disk0s4) /Volumes/BOOTCAMP : 100.00 GB (26.24 GB free)
USB Information: ℹ️
    Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
    Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
    Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
    Maxtor OneTouch 160.04 GB
        OneTouch4 Mini (disk1s1) /Volumes/OneTouch4 Mini : 160.04 GB (116.48 GB free)
    Seagate USB Mass Storage 100.03 GB
        Seagate 100 (disk2s1) /Volumes/Seagate 100 : 100.03 GB (91.52 GB free)
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
    Mac App Store and identified developers
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
        /System/Library/Extensions
    [not loaded]    com.bose.bluetooth (1.0.0) [Click for support]
    [not loaded]    com.marvell.kext.USBGenericPrinterClass (1.0.0) [Click for support]
Launch Agents: ℹ️
    [loaded]    com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    org.gpgtools.gpgmail.enable-bundles.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    org.gpgtools.gpgmail.patch-uuid-user.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    org.gpgtools.Libmacgpg.xpc.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    org.gpgtools.macgpg2.fix.plist [Click for support]
    [running]    org.gpgtools.macgpg2.shutdown-gpg-agent.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    org.gpgtools.macgpg2.updater.plist [Click for support]
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
    [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]
    [running]    com.fitbit.galileod.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.rogueamoeba.instanton-agent.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.sonos.smbbump.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    org.gpgtools.gpgmail.patch-uuid.plist [Click for support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Click for support]
    [running]    com.hp.printerAgent.plist [Click for support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
    iTunesHelper    Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
    Dropbox    Application (/Applications/Dropbox.app)
    Safari    Application (/Applications/Safari.app)
    Mail    Application (/Applications/Mail.app)
    AdobeResourceSynchronizer    Application Hidden (/Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/Support/AdobeResourceSynchronizer.app)
    Fitbit Connect Menubar Helper    Application (/Applications/Fitbit Connect.app/Contents/MacOS/Fitbit Connect Menubar Helper.app)
    Airfoil Speakers    Application Hidden (/Applications/Airfoil Speakers.app)
    Printer Pro Desktop    Application (/Applications/Printer Pro Desktop.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
    FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.169 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
    AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.10 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.10 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.169 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
    Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30514.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 8 Update 31 Check version
User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
    Stamps.com: Version: 1.1.13 [Click for support]
Safari Extensions: ℹ️
    1-ClickWeather
    Adblock Plus
    SafariRestore
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
    Flash Player [Click for support]
    GPGPreferences [Click for support]
    Java [Click for support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
    Skip System Files: NO
    Mobile backups: ON
    Auto backup: YES
    Volumes being backed up:
        Macintosh HD: Disk size: 150.14 GB Disk used: 46.65 GB
    Destinations:
        Data [Network]
        Total size: 497.62 GB
        Total number of backups: 55
        Oldest backup: 2014-03-29 22:27:52 +0000
        Last backup: 2015-04-17 03:29:42 +0000
        Size of backup disk: Excellent
            Backup size 497.62 GB > (Disk size 150.14 GB X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
         4%    WindowServer
         1%    fontd
         0%    Fitbit Connect Menubar Helper
         0%    Dropbox
         0%    AppleSpell
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
    361 MB    Safari
    100 MB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
    86 MB    mds_stores
    86 MB    Mail
    86 MB    WindowServer
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
    10.03 GB    Free RAM
    5.01 GB    Active RAM
    571 MB    Inactive RAM
    1.57 GB    Wired RAM
    1.63 GB    Page-ins
    0 B    Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
    Apr 16, 2015, 09:53:12 PM    Self test - passed
    Apr 16, 2015, 11:11:30 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CalendarAgent_2015-04-16-111130_[redacted].cras h
    Apr 15, 2015, 12:23:01 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.WebKit.WebContent_2015-04-15-122301_[ redacted].cpu_resource.diag [Click for details]
    Apr 14, 2015, 06:55:26 PM    /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Mail_2015-04-14-185526_[redact ed].crash
    Apr 14, 2015, 02:47:54 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CalendarAgent_2015-04-14-024754_[redacted].cras h

Will try. There are no cables/exterior connections involved here.
Oddly enough, this worked. I was unable to hear anything in Safe Mode, so just exited and rebooted (yes, I'd already tried rebooting, with no effect). Gave iTunes a shot, and am now back to normal.
Whatever works!
Thank you.
bkb

"severe overlapping of bitmap and distortion of video image"

I'am watching the online seminar " Architecture by Design" on Quicktime after 5 minutes it start showing square bitmap from 4 to several bitmaps to overlapping and distortion of image and stays forever. Audio is running continousley clear and normal. I did upgrade the quicktime and it still doing the same. Please advise - thank you.

Can you post an URL to the video?

After 5 minutes, all sound goes all grainy and distorted PLEASE HELP!!

Hello people,
After 5 minutes, all sound goes all grainy and distorted!! Using Logic Pro 8.
This happens especially if I crank the speakers semi-loud. This is not a problem with the speakers as Itunes plays perfectly. I have no idea why this is happening! The problem disappears when I restart Logic only to reappear again 5 minutes later.
The sound goes super grainy and I cant really make out anything. Is Logic overloading the sound card or something? Although this never happened before and it is a Tascam US-144, usually very good.
If anyone knows why this is happening I'd really appreciate some help.
Thank you, all the best!!
Tristan

Hello and thank you for your time! The speakers I do believe are active in that they have their own power source. They are Behringer MS40's. The headphones indeed also suffer the graininess, any sound that comes out of the sound card via Logic!
At the moment the buffer is at maximum of 1024 with a large Process Buffer Range as it runs more smoothly this way. Does it help if I change this? Is there any other settings I can try changing which may realistically fix the problem? Unfortunately the technical side is not my forte, being a songwriter rather than a producer.
Yes Itunes also plays via the Tascam with perfect results!
Unfortunately, this distorted sound and graininess happens with every Logic project, the more Audio tracks it seems, the more frequently.
You have been very kind, thank you. If you have any ideas of how I can fix this then please do let me know.
PS. Something I noticed is that this started happening after some guy screamed into the Mic for a laugh whilst recording and the project instantly crashed. I do believe there is a connection between the Audio tracks and the grainiess rather than the MIDI tracks.
Sometimes I can get a good 15/20 minutes of working time before the sound becomes distorted again! Which is what I've been doing these past 2 days.
All the best,
Tristan

No Audio during Log and Capture

Hello, I have FCP 6.0 and am unable to hear my audio during log and capture. I have this problem on all 5 G5 Macs that I have, and have tried different editing docks and cables. I have used FCP for more than 5 years and have never had this problem. iMovie has audio during capture, so I am convinced that there is a pre-set in FCP that I don't have checked properly, but I've been over them many times and still have no answer. I searched past forums and didn't really find anything helpful to me.
My pre-sets are set to DV NTSC 48kHz and the playback pre-sets are set to default. I can hear audio of my clips after I log and capture, but I still need to hear audio during importing. I'm more confused than anything. If anybody has had this problem before or any suggestions for me, I'm all ears.
Thanks.
John

... as Bogie says.
However... this is a non-feature that dates back to slower CPU days... yet, still with all the different formats and such I (ME!!) I believe it's still good practice to leave it off.
Devoting as much CPU work to the capture process lessens the chance for something to go wrong. You can easily monitor the audio directly out of the deck as needed.
Sure -- octo cores need 30 apps open just to get your money's worth and I'm sure you won't have any issues using an 8th of one to send audio thru itself while the other 7 and 7/8ths are used for capture... but who wants to risk it?
Not me... I'm to old to change my ways.
Blast you FCP v1.2.5 on a beige G3 with 7gig and 15gig hard drive -- you taught me well.
CaptM

A quick primer on audio drivers, devices, and latency

This information has come from Durin, Adobe staffer:
Hi everyone,
A common question that comes up in these forums over and over has to do with recording latency, audio drivers, and device formats. I'm going to provide a brief overview of the different types of devices, how they interface with the computer and Audition, and steps to maximize performance and minimize the latency inherent in computer audio.
First, a few definitions:
Monitoring: listening to existing audio while simultaneously recording new audio.
Sample: The value of each individual bit of audio digitized by the audio device. Typically, the audio device measures the incoming signal 44,100 or 48,000 times every second.
Buffer Size: The "bucket" where samples are placed before being passed to the destination. An audio application will collect a buffers-worth of samples before feeding it to the audio device for playback. An audio device will collect a buffers-worth of samples before feeding it to the audio device when recording. Buffers are typically measured in Samples (command values being 64, 128, 512, 1024, 2048...) or milliseconds which is simply a calculation based on the device sample rate and buffer size.
Latency: The time span that occurs between providing an input signal into an audio device (through a microphone, keyboard, guitar input, etc) and when each buffers-worth of that signal is provided to the audio application. It also refers to the other direction, where the output audio signal is sent from the audio application to the audio device for playback. When recording while monitoring, the overall perceived latency can often be double the device buffer size.
ASIO, MME, CoreAudio: These are audio driver models, which simply specify the manner in which an audio application and audio device communicate. Apple Mac systems use CoreAudio almost exclusively which provides for low buffer sizes and the ability to mix and match different devices (called an Aggregate Device.) MME and ASIO are mostly Windows-exclusive driver models, and provide different methods of communicating between application and device. MME drivers allow the operating system itself to act as a go-between and are generally slower as they rely upon higher buffer sizes and have to pass through multiple processes on the computer before being sent to the audio device. ASIO drivers provide an audio application direct communication with the hardware, bypassing the operating system. This allows for much lower latency while being limited in an applications ability to access multiple devices simultaneously, or share a device channel with another application.
Dropouts: Missing audio data as a result of being unable to process an audio stream fast enough to keep up with the buffer size. Generally, dropouts occur when an audio application cannot process effects and mix tracks together quickly enough to fill the device buffer, or when the audio device is trying to send audio data to the application more quickly than it can handle it. (Remember when Lucy and Ethel were working at the chocolate factory and the machine sped up to the point where they were dropping chocolates all over the place? Pretend the chocolates were samples, Lucy and Ethel were the audio application, and the chocolate machine is the audio device/driver, and you'll have a pretty good visualization of how this works.)
Typically, latency is not a problem if you're simply playing back existing audio (you might experience a very slight delay between pressing PLAY and when audio is heard through your speakers) or recording to disk without monitoring existing audio tracks since precise timing is not crucial in these conditions. However, when trying to play along with a drum track, or sing a harmony to an existing track, or overdub narration to a video, latency becomes a factor since our ears are far more sensitive to timing issues than our other senses.   If a bass guitar track is not precisely aligned with the drums, it quickly sounds sloppy. Therefore, we need to attempt to reduce latency as much as possible for these situations. If we simply set our Buffer Size parameter as low as it will go, we're likely to experience dropouts - especially if we have some tracks configured with audio effects which require additional processing and contribute their own latency to the chain. Dropouts are annoying but not destructive during playback, but if dropouts occur on the recording stream, it means you're losing data and your recording will never sound right - the data is simply lost.   Obviously, this is not good.
Latency under 40ms is generally considered within the range of reasonable for recording. Some folks can hear even this and it affects their ability to play, but most people find this unnoticeable or tolerable. We can calculate our approximate desired buffer size with this formula:
(Sample per second / 1000) * Desired Latency
So, if we are recording at 44,100 Hz and we are aiming for 20ms latency:   44100 / 1000 * 20 = 882 samples. Most audio devices do not allow arbitrary buffer sizes but offer an array of choices, so we would select the closest option. The device I'm using right now offers 512 and 1024 samples as the closest available buffer sizes, so I would select 512 first and see how this performs. If my session has a lot of tracks and/or several effects, I might need to bump this up to 1024 if I experience dropouts.
Now that we hopefully have a pretty firm understanding of what constitutes latency and under what circumstances it is undesirable, let's take a look at how we can reduce it for our needs. You may find that you continue to experience dropouts at a buffer size of 1024 but that raising it to larger options introduces too much latency for your needs. So we need to determine what we can do to reduce our overhead in order to have quality playback and recording at this buffer size.
Effects: A common cause of playback latency is the use of effects. As your audio stream passes through an effect, it takes time for the computer to perform the calculations to modify that signal. Each effect in a chain introduces its own amount of latency before the chunk of audio even reaches the point where the audio application passes it to the audio device and starts to fill up the buffer. Audition and other DAWs attempt to address this through "latency compensation" routines which introduce a bit more latency when you first press play as they process several seconds of audio ahead of time before beginning to stream those chunks to the audio driver. In some cases, however, the effects may be so intensive that the CPU simply isn't processing the math fast enough.   With Audition, you can "freeze" or pre-render these tracks by clicking the small lightning bolt button visible in the Effects Rack with that track selected. This performs a background render of that track, which automatically updates if you make any changes to the track or effect parameters, so that instead of calculating all those changes on-the-fly, it simply needs to stream back a plain old audio file which requires much fewer system resources. You may also choose to disable certain effects, or temporarily replace them with alternatives which may not sound exactly like what you want for your final mix, but which adequately simulate the desired effect for the purpose of recording.   (You might replace the CPU-intensive Full Reverb effect with the lightweight Studio Reverb effect, for example. Full Reverb effect is mathematically far more accurate and realistic, but Studio Reverb can provide that quick "body" you might want when monitoring vocals, for example.) You can also just disable the effects for a track or clip while recording, and turn them on later.
Device and Driver Options: Different devices may have wildly different performance at the same buffer size and with the same session. Audio devices designed primarily for gaming are less likely to perform well at low buffer sizes as those designed for music production, for example. Even if the hardware performs the same, the driver mode may be a source of latency. ASIO is almost always faster than MME, though many device manufacturers do not supply an ASIO driver. The use of third-party, device-agnostic drivers, such as ASIO4ALL (www.asio4all.com) allow you to wrap an MME-only device inside a faux-ASIO shell. The audio application believes it's speaking to an ASIO driver, and ASIO4ALL has been streamlined to work more quickly with the MME device, or even to allow you to use different inputs and outputs on separate devices which ASIO would otherwise prevent.
We also now see more USB microphone devices which are input-only audio devices that generally use a generic Windows driver and, with a few exceptions, rarely offer native ASIO support. USB microphones generally require a higher buffer size as they are primarily designed for recording in cases where monitoring is unimportant. When attempting to record via a USB microphone and monitor via a separate audio device, you're more likely to run into issues where the two devices are not synchronized or drift apart after some time. (The ugly secret of many device manufacturers is that they rarely operate at EXACTLY the sample rate specified. The difference between 44,100 and 44,118 Hz is negligible when listening to audio, but when trying to precisely synchronize to a track recorded AT 44,100, the difference adds up over time and what sounded in sync for the first minute will be wildly off-beat several minutes later.) You are almost always going to have better sync and performance with a standard microphone connected to the same device you're using for playback, and for serious recording, this is the best practice. If USB microphones are your only option, then I would recommend making certain you purchase a high-quality one and have an equally high-quality playback device. Attempt to match the buffer sizes and sample rates as closely as possible, and consider using a higher buffer size and correcting the latency post-recording. (One method of doing this is to have a click or clap at the beginning of your session and make sure this is recorded by your USB microphone. After you finish your recording, you can visually line up the click in the recorded track with the click in the original track by moving your clip backwards in the timeline. This is not the most efficient method, but this alignment is the reason you see the clapboards in behind-the-scenes filmmaking footage.)
Other Hardware: Other hardware in your computer plays a role in the ability to feed or store audio data quickly. CPUs are so fast, and with multiple cores, capable of spreading the load so often the bottleneck for good performance - especially at high sample rates - tends to be your hard drive or storage media. It is highly recommended that you configure your temporary files location, and session/recording location, to a physical drive that is NOT the same as you have your operating system installed. Audition and other DAWs have absolutely no control over what Windows or OS X may decide to do at any given time and if your antivirus software or system file indexer decides it's time to start churning away at your hard drive at the same time that you're recording your magnum opus, you raise the likelihood of losing some of that performance. (In fact, it's a good idea to disable all non-essential applications and internet connections while recording to reduce the likelihood of external interference.) If you're going to be recording multiple tracks at once, it's a good idea to purchase the fastest hard drive your budget allows. Most cheap drives spin around 5400 rpm, which is fine for general use cases but does not allow for the fast read, write, and seek operations the drive needs to do when recording and playing back from multiple files simultaneously. 7200 RPM drives perform much better, and even faster options are available. While fragmentation is less of a problem on OS X systems, you'll want to frequently defragment your drive on Windows frequently - this process realigns all the blocks of your files so they're grouped together. As you write and delete files, pieces of each tend to get placed in the first location that has room. This ends up creating lots of gaps or splitting files up all over the disk. The act of reading or writing to these spread out areas cause the operation to take significantly longer than it needs to and can contribute to glitches in playback or loss of data when recording.

There is one point in the above that needed a little clarification, relating to USB mics:
_durin_ wrote:
If USB microphones are your only option, then I would recommend making certain you purchase a high-quality one and have an equally high-quality playback device.
If you are going to spend that much, then you'd be better off putting a little more money into an external device with a proper mic pre, and a little less money by not bothering with a USB mic at all, and just getting a 'normal' condensor mic. It's true to say that over the years, the USB mic class of recording device has caused more trouble than any other, regardless.
You should also be aware that if you find a USB mic offering ASIO support, then unless it's got a headphone socket on it as well then you aren't going to be able to monitor what you record if you use it in its native ASIO mode. This is because your computer can only cope with one ASIO device in the system - that's all the spec allows. What you can do with most ASIO hardware though is share multiple streams (if the device has multiple inputs and outputs) between different software.
Seriously, USB mics are more trouble than they're worth.

Audio is garbled and distorted.

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