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-- mixes "lag" when recorded

Posted by Tegu on Aug-01-2005 21:11:

mixes "lag" when recorded

i'm not sure why but every 2-3 minutes there will be a slight lag/stutter when i'm recording my mixes. i never notice it until i actually listen to it burnt on cd, it's certainly not the records skipping or anything like that.

i'm using my laptop with 1.8 dothan, 1024 ram, and adobe audition. i always close all processes and applications that aren't necessary when i record, so i'm not sure what's causing it. sometimes i notice the blue bar above the volume gains in audition appear, i'm assuming that's meaning lag occured...but what's causing it?

shouldn't my comp be able to handle this? is this a soundcard issue? i wanted to get the echo indigo, but if my computer is too slow to record live mixes...which i would have no idea why...then there'd be no point in that

Posted by Fresh on Aug-01-2005 21:31:

The problem is when you record mixes you record them (typically) at 16 bit 44.1kHz as a .wav file. Wave files are huge in size so when your recording, your hard drive is recording all this data to the fragments on your drive (wherever there is space). So basically the needles on your hard drive are constantly skipping around different areas of your drive to find free fragments but because the data being recorded is so large in file size your hard drive cant cope.. meaning it skips or stutters ever so often.

The quick solution is to defrag your drive, which leaves all the sectors of free space and files together in one big chunk. But the safest way to record smoothly is to create a partion and use it soley for recording onto and nothing else

Posted by Tegu on Aug-01-2005 21:37:

whoa, never thought about that, i assumed 7200 rpm was fast enough. makes perfect sense though. thanks Fresh!

p.s. you reccomend i partition the drive after defragging?

Posted by Fresh on Aug-01-2005 21:56:

I dont think it matters if you defrag before a partition or not mate. Aslong as theres absoloutely no data on the new partition then your good to go

Posted by i got big pants on Aug-02-2005 01:11:

i have the same issues with my laptop when trying to record. ive defraged and crap...no real difference. when i borrowed my friend's external soundcard, it recorded perfectly. you might want to look into an external soundcard because maybe your laptop's soundcard can't handle all that info and can't buffer it fast enough. *shrugs* give it a shot

Posted by Inertia on Aug-02-2005 01:18:

makes no sense to me, my piece of shit 400MHz PC can record perfectly, i even have it go to mp3 on the fly, which takes up more CPU time, and it does it quite well...

perhaps your PC is just riddled with bullshit and you're in need of a nice defrag or a complete reformat...

Posted by Tegu on Aug-02-2005 07:26:

well i'd like to create a partition, but i'm not able to using disk manager as my current partition volume is set to occupy the entire hd, although about 35% of space is available. how can i change the alloted volume size to allow for the new partition?

-->and could this just be a soundcard issue? the standard soundcard in my lappy is crap, so if that's the case, upgrading will solve my problems, yes?

Posted by razzi on Aug-02-2005 22:37:

you could try recording directly to mp3 if its the HD problem. i cant imagine why you would need wav quality for a personal mix.. just kick up the bitrate if you need to.

i use a program called 'advanced mp3 wma recorder', never failed me on a 7200rpm HD when recording sets up to 3 hours long.

razzi.

Posted by Tegu on Aug-03-2005 00:01:

but that doesn't answer my question...is it a hd problem or just my crappy realtek ac97 soundcard that just can't handle the job?

Posted by djkoolaide on Aug-03-2005 03:38:

quote:
Originally posted by Inertia
makes no sense to me, my piece of shit 400MHz PC can record perfectly, i even have it go to mp3 on the fly, which takes up more CPU time, and it does it quite well...

exactly. mine too.

quote:
perhaps your PC is just riddled with bullshit and you're in need of a nice defrag or a complete reformat...

that's probably not it. i was having some problems with my pc doing the same thing last summer (athlonXP 2500+ 512mb ram). i was using the newest drivers at the time. so i uninstalled the new drivers and went back to the old drivers that came on the CD with the motherboard. worked perfectly ever since.

Posted by Tegu on Aug-03-2005 16:40:

i don't think it's a driver issue.

my laptop can more than handle it hardware wise
cl 56 w/
1.8 Intel Dothan
1024 RAM
7200 rpm 60 GB hd
ati radeon 9700 128mb

possibly it's the standard soundcard? realtek ac97

and i do disable the wifi card under network devices while recording...

perhaps i should just buy the indigo and see if that fixes the problem

Posted by Basilf1 on Aug-03-2005 19:53:

You should have plenty of power to record your mixes, and do tons of other stuff at the same time, especially with a gig of RAM. You shouldn't have to do anything drastic to get it to work. Since you're using a laptop should try check your powersettings, make sure things are set to 'never turn off' before you record. Its possible that it is powering down your HD, then it quicky starts it back up. But sounds weird though , let me think about it.

Posted by Inertia on Aug-03-2005 20:06:

would be wierd if it was the soundcard as well, i have a piiiieeeccceee of shit card, and if you don't count the fucking amount of background noise, it works weel at recording.

Posted by KiNeTiC ENeRgY on Aug-04-2005 05:30:

Sounds like a driver issue to me. look for any updated drivers, if not u need a better sound card or recorder box. realtek ac97 cards suck major balls from my experience, especially for recording.

Posted by Tegu on Aug-04-2005 05:43:

quote:
Originally posted by KiNeTiC ENeRgY
Sounds like a driver issue to me. look for any updated drivers, if not u need a better sound card or recorder box. realtek ac97 cards suck major balls from my experience, especially for recording.

that was my thought...

and yes, i have power management set to always on. i've pretty much covered all my bases i think. must be the soundcard?

Posted by tamtui on Aug-04-2005 13:32:

if you are going to spend more money

Although I've had friends successfully record to their computers almost always they say they have to tinker with their PC one time or another to get it to work.

If ultimately you can't get it to work without spending money on new gear....consider a set top CD recorder.

I've had a Marantz CD recorder with XLR inputs and RCA's in the back and it works great.

You can even insert tracks during the mix by pressing the "insert track button" so it's transition wait for the break "insert track" find the next record.

When I'm done I have a studio quality finished recording with tracks to either start making copies from or ripping audio into my computer using the CD-ROM drive.

Works for me and I never have to worry about drivers and or software f'ing up.

Posted by Tegu on Aug-04-2005 16:50:

cool, thanks for all the help guys. i actually downloaded some new drivers for the realtek soundcard that were just released a month ago, hopefully that will fix the problem. will keep you posted.