Random crackling in recorded audio

We use the Presonus Firepod as a recording interface for GB on Sundays for our live recordings. As I begin to listen to the recordings each week I will hear these crackling and popping sounds at random. It happens during messages and/or during music. I know for sure that it is not a clipping issue, and the noise is only heard as the signal comes through. As long as there is no signal present there is no crackling. I searched through the previous posts I thought might be related and no one seemed to give nay helpful answers to my problem. This is not an issue that can be resolved by eliminating an EQ frequency (already attempted with a 32-band graphic EQ) nor would sampling help). One more thing... the noise doesn't always begin right at the start of the recording but usually at some random point during the recording.
Please help me if you can. This is driving me absolutely nuts, and I cannot continue having this issue. If nothing else, if someone could tell me if the problem is with the hardware, software, or the mac (God forbid) please do.
Thanks
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

THANK YOU!!! I have the EXACT same problem I believe, look at my post for crackling/buzzing while recording, in GarageBand 2 (even though I use GarageBand 3). Oh, man I thought I was the only one with this problem, but thankfully I'm not... Except that still gets me nowhere, because I still don;t have an answer, and im sorry i dont have an answer for you... but I think i know what you're talking about. when I'm recording my guitar, all of a sudden, and completely randomly I hear a loud buzzing that sometimes overloads what I'm playing, and it's EXTREMELY annoying, because no onw seems to know what it is, and i'm thinking of reinstalling garageband, but I have no idea where my ilife '06 DVD is... so im stuck with this stupid crackling/buzzing sound, and i'm pretty sure its the one you're talking about. i hope you can find someone to help you, and if so, PLEASE tell me how to fix the problem, because I can't get anything recorded. It's also good to know, because now im sure its not a problem with my rig, it's garageband. anyway if you can find the install DVD for GarageBand, delete GarageBand ONLY and not the music files you want, so you can retrive them later, and just install GB again. i don't know if that'll work, but im pretty sure it will, and ill try it if i find the install DVD...

Similar Messages

Help urgently needed re- random crackle in GB

Hi all, been using GB for 2 years and have suffered on and off with random crackles while recording or especially when mixing or converting to an i-life preview or itunes, lately though it seems to be onevery track and stopping me from finishing my album. Im no tech master but Ive done a lot fo checks with my m audio fast track interface and my imac and cannot be sure still which is the culprit..ive disconnected my fast track and done tests converting i-life previews of songs and Im still getting random 5-10 second crackles all the time so im guessing its some kind of problem matching the interface with my imac, but whyis it so random and why can some songsbe worked on effortlessly without this noise and others have it a lot- the crackle cna appear at quiet moments a lot but also it can be anywhere within a song. I use a lot of internal GB Fx but do ahve large RAM to cope with it I think. As I say any advice or anyone that has suffered with this particularly in mastering or the end stages of converting to itunes etc please any help appreciated. There must be a solution.

hi,
ive spent a week on this one song trying every possible version to eradicate the crackle. Ive dumped excess Fx's and tracks that werent really that important. I even heard and saw the crackle show up on one particular LED track volume bar and so I thought great Ive found which AU plugin is causing the prob, which was a synth called Podolski. So i muted this track and did another mix without it.....crackle still on the song.
Can i emphasise that I dont hear the crackle very often or atall on some songs when playing the song in GB...it always comes after Ive done the i-life preview in GB or comverted to itunes to hear it so its hard to tell if its actaully on the song itself or that the crackle is something that is caused by diffrent buffer systems speeds battling with each other. Since you cant alter GB buffer preferences I am lost as to what to do now.
the song has quite a lot of FX and about 10 tracks in total. Ive tried to minimize the amount of mastering FX in GB on this song aswell. PLease any ideas?

Logic Pro 9 - Recorded audio just silly with crackling, clicking noise

PLEASE!!! Read my entire post before commenting. I don't mean to sound rude but I've posted this in several other forums and it's obvious they hadn't read/understood my issue based on the comments they left, ie., suggesting everything I've already tried, saying to contact tech support and even asking what comp and DAW I'm using... I've been dealing with this issue for ~8 months
SPECS
I use 2 daisy-chained Firepods connected to a Mac Pro Quad-core running 10.6.5 and Logic Pro 9.1.3.
I get the results described below whether I'm trying to record at 24 or 16 bit and at either 44.1K or 48K.
Generally I record 12 tracks simultaneously AND I always use the same inputs for each instrument; ie., Vocals = track 11, guitar = track 2, bass = track 1, etc...*
PROBLEM
Although this is a sporadic issue it happens to occur WAY more than it doesn't; ie., very rarely do I get a recording session without the anomaly.
The issue is that after I have recorded a session and listen back to the recorded material there are random crackles, pops, clicks throughout. When I audition tracks individually, some may have no crackling and some will have crackling at different points in time and of varying intensity. Every session is different as well, no two sessions are the same. One day I may have a perfect vocal track and a guitar track that is just silly with the crackling. The next day the guitar track may be fine but now the vocal track is all messed up with crackling. Another confounding point is that the crackling does not occur during periods of silence.
I will add that each Firepod appears to function properly (with no issue) all by it's lonesome - but that doesn't help me, I need 12 inputs minimum!
Things I've Tried
1. All new FW cables
2. Disconnecting the FW cable that goes from the Firepod to the Mac. Turn on the Mac. Turn on both Firepods, master first. Connect the FW cable that goes from the Firepod to the Mac. Launch Logic.
3. Disconnecting the FW cable that goes from the Firepod to the Mac. Turn on the Mac. Launch Logic. Turn on both Firepods, master first. Connect the FW cable that goes from the Firepod to the Mac.
4. Tried every conceivable configuration of Audio Midi Setup.
5. Tried several other FW and USB audio interfaces, obtaining perfect results.
6. Been working with Apple tech support (both hardware and Logic support).
7. I've checked that both Firepods have the same firmware version.
8. Installed a fresh SATA HD with clean installs of both OS10.6.5 and Logic Pro 9.1.3 with fresh custom templates and no 3rd party plugins or loops.
9. Lots of praying, swearing and fits of anger.
Final Comments
First, I think that the chassis FW connectors on the firepods are absolute garbage (read, cheap, cheap, cheap) and are inferior to anything else I have encountered during my troubleshooting process.
Last, I will go ballistic if I hear one more Presonus rep say anything to the effect of, "Huh! Never heard of anyone else experiencing the symptoms you're describing..." Yes, I have spoken adnauseum with Presonus tech support with zero results.
Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

Hi Pancenter! I'll try to be brief. LOL
I had 4 perfect multi-track sessions and then the gremlin woke up and and cast his spell... Frustrating... The biggest difference I enjoyed using your suggestion was that when I launched Logic, loaded my template, enabled my tracks and hit record, the session started without a hitch. Prior to your suggestion, I would have to futz around with Logic audio prefs, AMS settings, turning the Firepods off/on, quitting/restarting Logic and/or shutting down/restarting my Mac Pro just to get the session to show my enabled tracks had activity. I would not know if the session would have the noise artifacts until playback. I should add that I never had this problem with my PPC G5 nor did I for the first 10 months of use with this Mac Pro. Also, with the help of Apple tech support we had eliminated Logic, 10.6.5 and the Mac Pro (except the FW800 bus) as probable causes. Again each Firepod and Logic work flawlessly when I use one unit not daisy-chained. So, I think there is no problem with the individual units, and, as I said, both units worked fine chained with my PPC Mac Pro.
So, I called Presonus. Again... And I get yet another tech who tells me something different; every time I speak with Presonus I get different suggestions. This guy asked what kind of cable I was using to connect the Firepods to the Mac Pro and I said I'm using a *firewire 9-pin to 6-pin cable*. So has asks well, is it *bilingual*? He said that would def fix my problem. I told him it is advertized as bilingual and that had not fixed the problem; he had no answer for that. Then, I broached the option of adding a firewire 400 card to my Mac Pro. He said I guess you could try that; get one with a TI chipset. That's where I'm at now, deciding which one to get and whether I will need to provide auxiliary power to the card's on-board molex plug.
Any ideas?
Oh, thanks for responding

Recording Stops rather randomly or with no audio... HELP!!!

I've been trying to record audio through an Alesis USB 8 Mixer. I can record audio through the mixer however it seems if there is a pause in audio in between a guitar part or any drop in volume, it stops recording. This makes it incredibly hard to record a song if have to keep going back and hitting record over and over again every time the part of the song playing has a rest. Can anyone help?

I don't think I ever got it to work. I believe I used Audio Hijack Pro (rogueamoeba.com) to digitize the cassette (using the Griffin iMic) - then i used Soundbooth to do some editing.
If you need to remove hiss from an audio tape, or pops and clicks from an LP, you might want to check out a product called SoundSaver (www.bias-inc.com)
SoundBooth worked pretty well for removing noise, but I had to do it manually - scrolling through the waveform finding aberrations to "erase".
SoundSaver does this job automatically, and does it well. In addition, it has an "enhance' feature that really improves the audio quality of both tapes and LP's.
It also makes child's play of the task of identifying and naming the tracks. So I use that product exclusively now. SoundBooth is probably not the best tool for working with tapes and LP's.
Hope this helps.
Del Simcox
White Bear Lake, MN

Logic not responding when saving or changing settings & Can't record audio

I have just started to use Logic for the first time (installed it a month ago and now trying to use it).
I have the latest version of Logic, OS X and have a MacBook Pro.
I do not have any external hardware or plug-ins installed.
PROBLEM:
Whenever I try to save or save as a song (even when there is no MIDI or Audio in the tracks) the colored pinwheel spins forever.
I also was trying to figure out how to record audio. I discovered that there was no path for recording audio which might be the problem why I couldn't get it to record (see below), and when I clicked the select path button it also froze on the spinning pinwheel.
Audio Recording Problem:
I set one of the default Audio tracks to Input 1 (built-in microphone) and I see the monitor responding to sounds, but when I turn on the record button on the track and then click record, the mic is still working but nothing is recorded in the track. When I open Garageband and record it works perfectly fine.
Help?

I had many problems with my Mac G5 2.7 refurb/Logic 7.2.1 when I first got it back in March. Although my problems were different than yours some things I remember doing that helped:
Trashing Logic's preferences fixed a situaution where my Logic windows were flashing randomly and Midi info was corrupted causing my Mackie Control Universal and my Korg Triton to freak out Logic.
Repairing disk permissions because 2 times Logic did not totally install correctly. Yes I reinstalled Logic at least 4 times to figure out why I was having freezeups system wide.
Working closely with Apple Care documenting my problems and finally getting my local Apple store in our local Mall to change out the motherboard, dual processors and optical drive. Yes essentially a new computer. Since that time I have not had one system wide freezeup (any wood around here)
or major problem.
AT one point running the "Quick Test" from Apple's startup disc showed a Bad RAM chip. Again not related to you but running the test could show something.
I have 2 issues left to fix - Logic 7.2.1 for me has a transposition problem. Midi tracks will show up after I open a song file transposed down a step. The fix is to reboot Logic which is a pain. 2nd - Annoying beep coming from my power supply. Beep is audible in studio near the tower and is also in the audio chain coming out of speakers. No fix yet but again I'm working with Apple Care.

Random "garbling" after recording

Ok, after recording a podcast we'll review the program and do editing. But we developed a problem within the last month and that is in random places of the audio it will abruptly garble. Maybe 5 minutes later in the show its fine, later on its broken audio again. Is there a patch or means to fix this problem? It is frustrating to say the least. It is also effecting my friends macbook.
We are using a 24" imac with 4 gig memory (I know its sexy cool too), a blue snowball usb mic, and garageband.
Garageband input is set for snowball mic and output at system settings.
Message was edited by: hawkeyeharley

I posted re. the recording issue two weeks ago but didn't get ANY response.
Yes the box will sleep after four hours if you don't press any keys on the remote, slightly annoying but it's an energy efficiency thang.

Unable to record audio

I am trying to record audio into Logic through a electro-acoustic guitar and AKG microphone, which are both plugged into my Saffire 6 interface. Everytime I set up a new audio track and select the 'R' record button, a loud static noise plays through my monitors. You can see that the interface is picking up a signal from the guitar but all you can hear is the static.
When I increase the gain on the instrument channel on my interface, the noise stays at the same level. But when I increase the volume of the monitors or the volume of the mixer channel in Logic the noise gets louder. This makes me think that all the cables are fine but it is something to do with a setting in Logic.
The mixer channel in logic always looks like this when audio recording is enabled:
I've read on some other forums that it might be to do with the buffer size - I've tried changing this but the problem seems to persist. I also read that it might have something to do with setting the midi clocks in the synchronization tab but there wasn't enough information explaining how to do this.
My midi setup currently looks like this:
I've had this problem for ages now and can't find a way around it....

Couple of more questions:
Does the Focusrite have a feature called zero latency monitoring, also called direct monitoring? If so make sure it is turned off and not used. The Saffire has a "Mixer" knob, do you have that in the correct position. Do you have the latest drivers? 2.6 it looks like.
http://www.focusrite.com/products/audio_interfaces/saffire_6_usb/downloads/
Does the microphone channel work ok? Have you tried reversing them.
What happens to that channel if the guitar is not plugged in, is there any noise?
Are you using a standard 2-conductor guitar cable, or is it by chance a three conductor stereo cable? It should be just a standard guitar cable.
It there anything else being used on the USB bus, are you plugged into a USB hub or directly into the Mac?
Speaking of which, wht Mac and OS?

Recording audio from a DVD

Does anyone know of a good freeware or shareware program for recording audio from a DVD into any format?
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 80G HD/1.33GB RAM/ Too Much Music

A nice tool for ripping and demuxing the audio part off a DVD is OSex.
You will get ac3 track - convert them with mAC3dec. http://sourceforge.net/projects/mac3dec

Trying to record Stereo Mix with a monitor through my headphones. Using Screenium to record Audio and Video, using Avid MBox Mini with MXL 909 Microphone for the audio through the interface.

Basically, what I am trying to do is this:
Record my screen through Screeenium, record my voice as audio through an Avid MBox Mini (interface) with a MXL 909 microphone to pick up the audio. I have all that figured out. I'm able to efficiently record my audio and screenplay through these instruments and programs. What I am having trouble with is the stereo mix. I am running into a slew of problems here... My goal: Add on the audio of a game that I am playing (for example, Amneisia) so that the audio for my game will be picked up internally, and not through the speakers to be recorded through the microphone. I want there to be no external sound except me talking into my microphone. I also want to be able to HEAR the audio of the game through my headphones (and if possible, myself as well, through a monitor maybe?)
Problems I have run into so far:
-Haven't gotten it to pick up in game audio at all while using headphone. Can't figure this out
-Downloaded soundflower, have the output as soundflower. Not picking up anything, will put all my sound and midi settings at the end.
-When I do record through my microphone, it is only picking up a single channel (left earpiece only, no right channel)
-I have figured out it is NOT the equipment, I use Pro Tools and am able to pick up both channels with my mic, recorded a few tests. It's settings and I can't figure it out
-Trying not to run 16 million programs while running the game, will cause lag.
Summed up:
Trying to record:
-Audio from gameplay of any game I am playing through alternative route of speakers (do NOT want to record game audio through speakers, internally)
-Record voice through Avid MBox Mini and MXL 909 microphone.
-Record screen gameplay through Screenium
I followed a guide that told me to achieve "stereo mix'' I need to download soundflower and follow "X" steps. That is done and these are my current settings:
Audio Midi Setup - Stereo Mix custom Aggregate Device, Soundflower (2ch) selected, Avid Mbox Mini selected, Soundflower Output #1 has 2 channels (1-2), using Avid MBox mini for "Input" in order to record. Using Soundflower AND Avid MBox mini as "Output" in order to hear the sounds and replay game sounds (could be the problem? Maybe?)
Sound Settings - Output Stereo Mix (custom channel) Input Avid MBox Mini (recording)
I'm hoping this isn't too hard to understand.. I'm VERY bad at explaining information regarding computers.. It's hard becuase I don't understand it. I can clarify anything that I am able to, so any help on finding certain things would be greatly appreciated.
My computer: Macbook Pro MAC OS X Lion (11G63) 10.7.5 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7 4GB 13333 MGz DDR3 (If any of this is imporant)

Hey guys,
I tried to do some research and it looks like you need to have an external device and its drivers, such as an external microphone, installed on the computer to record audio that can be saved as a sound file. Another Suggestion is to try an auxiliary spliter for your headphones and external speakers?
What software are you using to record your game?
If anyone knows anything different, please let me know.
Thank you for being a part of the Lenovo Family,
Catie
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Recording Audio and Midi at the same time in Logic 7 Express Can it be done

I am wondering if I can record audio and midi at the same time in Logic 7 Express. I am running my guitar thrugh a Roland GR 33, and a line out and using the GR 33 to trigger sounds in the Logic's synth section but cant seem to record all three tracks at once. If any one knows how let me know. Oh and I am running the GR Synth and Guitar into the Prosonus Fire Fox and have the GR 33 out midi to the Fire Box as well. So I guss the question is how do I sent up two audo tracks and one midi track to record in real time. Thanks Victor

I am wondering if I can record audio and midi at the
same time in Logic 7 Express. I am running my guitar
thrugh a Roland GR 33, and a line out and using the
GR 33 to trigger sounds in the Logic's synth section
but cant seem to record all three tracks at once. If
any one knows how let me know. Oh and I am running
the GR Synth and Guitar into the Prosonus Fire Fox
and have the GR 33 out midi to the Fire Box as well.
So I guss the question is how do I sent up two audo
tracks and one midi track to record in real time.
Thanks Victor
Try arming the audio tracks, select one of the tracks, then while holding down the shift key, select the midi track you want to record, arming the "r" on the midi track. Press "record".....
HL

Can I record audio on an iPad direct from a mac via line out

I use the noteability app alot, recording audio at a live lecture works great. However, due to a bug you can not add an audio file directly into your notes (at the moment), you must record them.
I have a bunch of podcasts that I would like to add to my notes. I know I could play them from my mac and record audio through the ipads mic but what I hoped to do was connect a male to male cable between the line out of my mac into my ipad, playing the audio without interferance. This didn't work
Does anyone know if there is a similar way to do this or something I could have done wrong.
Thanks

yeah - you can do it, but you need an adapter. The earphone jack on a pad is a special jack with stereo headphone uot put and a seperate mic in channel. The adapters i have seen are usually built to accomodate a standard 1/4 in - into the pad, like the one in the attached link. In theory, you could use the lineout on the mac, to a 1/4 in male - then into this adapter to get it back into the pad. Somebody probably makes the cable you need with the 1/4 shift, but I couldn't find one.
Options - in you notes, insted of copying the file, put a link to the podcast
http://www.tmart.com/Multimedia-Guitar-Audio-Interface-Adapter-for-iPhone-iPod-T ouch-iPad-Black_p126356.html?fixed_price=us_us&utm_source=base&utm_medium=organi c&utm_term=87002502&utm_campaign=product&gclid=CPq6t_jal74CFdDm7AodhSoABw
Message was edited by: pjl123 forgot the link...

Can No Longer Record Audio With iMic

I've been using the Camera Connection Kit with the iMic to record audio from my studio via 'Line In' for months with no issue. A few weeks ago, my iPad stopped recording using iMic. It only records with the internal mic now, so the sound is garbage. The software company says it isn't their software that's the problem. Did Apple have an update (prior to latest release) that rendered iMic useless?
Without the ability to record audio in this fashion, the iPad is a useless paperweight for me.
Any help is appreciated.

Users have reported that some accessories that worked with the CCK before the update to iOS 4.2.1 now no longer work. This article, updated after the iOS update give a clue that the update changed what worked.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4106

Record audio is not working

Does anyone know why when I open up the "Record Audio" button why it would not be recording? The audio box appears but there is no sound. It was working but now..... it has stopped and could use some advice. Thanks.

The fact that it also fails in iMovie suggests that this is probably not a problem with FCP X.
That leaves either a hardware failure or a software conflict.
You can check whether the microphone itself is functional by testing in System Preferences->Sound directly.
Open the input panel and speak into the microphone. As you speak, you should get some visual feedback like in the picture below. Do you get some bars or does it stay the same all the time?

Recording audio from device on server

I have some really nice audio recording gear hooked up to my computer, and I got a neat idea. I want to turn my PC into a web server and serve a flash application from it that allows a user to record audio from MY hardware (basically record the output of a mic hooked up to the "server") and then download the resulting audio file to his or her computer. Is this possible to do using a single flash application? I'm sure I could send commands to a C application on the "server" that would do the recording, but I'm wondering if there is a more simple solution. Also, monitoring the audio while it is being recorded would be nice.
Thanks

The issue I see with iTalk and similar iPod apps is that the iPod has no line-level input, so you'd have to use one of the earbud/microphone combinations or an external microphone like this one which will be limited as to quality. There are some other options here. But if you want pro quality, and particularly want to tap straight off of a mixing console, a device like the Alesis is going to be necessary, though there may be something less expensive that I can't find.
If a microphone works for you, then iTalk might be fine. There's a freeware version of iTalk, iTalk Lite, you can try, to see if it will do the job. It doesn't have the advanced playback controls and has a limit of 2MB per recording, but it should allow you to test it out. Voxie is another possibility.
Regards.

When i'm watching a show or movie on iTunes, the video will randomly freeze and the audio will continue, the video catches up after awhile, but it does it again. This happens to all my shows, and I downloaded them from iTunes. Why is this happening?

Whenever I try to watch movies on iTunes on my computer, the video will randomly freeze, but the audio will continue. This happens will all of my shows, however this never happens on my iPod or iPad. Whenever I want to watch a new movie I buy or any of my shows this problem keeps happening. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling and it did not work. Why does this problem keep happening, and how can I fix it? Thank you.

John0618. Did you ever get a response or solution to problem? I have the same problem (starting about three months ago).

Random crackling in recorded audio

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