Audio 4 & Traktor Scratch problems

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-- Audio 4 & Traktor Scratch problems

Posted by pzK on Jan-14-2010 13:10:

Audio 4 & Traktor Scratch problems

Hi everyone,

I've recently bought myself my first timecode setup: Traktor Scratch Duo with its Audio 4 audio interface, yet I'm facing some difficulties.

After everything was hooked up, I put two songs in beat and noticed something strange. Instead of the songs slowly drifting apart over time (when I don't correct them) they got out of beat suddenly, like in a discontinuous way. Then by waiting and doing nothing for a few seconds, it seemed like Traktor realised it did something wrong and put the songs back to how they were before (in beat + small drifting since my pitch correction is like 0.1 ). Then this cycle started all over again. I raised my latency (eventhough my pc should easily be able to handle this, my cpu load didn't go any higher than 15%) but it didn't have any effect.

So I go online to search if it's a common problem but then I notice that I am getting artificial noises in the background (on the PC where I plugged the Audio 4 into). It sounds like this: [[ LINK REMOVED ]]

A final weird thing I notice, everytime I unplug and replug the usb audio interface, windows install wizard(xp) wants to reinstall the audio 4 driver since it has "detected new hardware". Not certain if that's normal behavior or not.

I thought it might have something to do with an interference of my usb headset, so I unplugged that one and uninstalled its drivers, yet the problem remained. Then I uninstalled my kX drivers for my pc's main soundcard and let windows find and install its original drivers. Again, no difference, the artificial background sound remains.

Does anyone have any idea what might cause these problems and if they are in any way related?

Thanks in advance

Posted by woscar on Jan-14-2010 19:23:

Re: Audio 4 & Traktor Scratch problems

quote:
Originally posted by pzK
A final weird thing I notice, everytime I unplug and replug the usb audio interface, windows install wizard(xp) wants to reinstall the audio 4 driver since it has "detected new hardware". Not certain if that's normal behavior or not.

Same shit happened to me when I ran Traktor on Windows XP and then on Vista. To make shit even more annoying, one day Windows decided that it would only recognize the Audio 4 DJ when I hooked it up to a specific USB port. How did I fix it? Well, I got a Mac.

Posted by pzK on Jan-14-2010 20:46:

Ok, so I can definately add it to my list of problems then.

Posted by woscar on Jan-15-2010 17:28:

BTW, what brand is your laptop? There are some known issues with the latency being total shit with most Toshibas and I just read that there are also issues with some of Dell's Studio and XPS line.

http://www.native-instruments.com/f...ead.php?t=52319

http://www.djtechtools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3541

Make sure you read the entire threads.

Also, I think I was able to fix the random driver installation problem by downloading the latest drivers for the Audio 4 DJ. There is a more recent version than the one on the included CD available for download at the NI website.

Posted by pzK on Jan-15-2010 17:34:

I've got it plugged into my pc, not my laptop.
I might try to disable my other soundcards and see if it occurs again.

Posted by pzK on Jan-20-2010 01:29:

I think I found what's wrong. I noticed the moment the problem occured, traktor would display that the timecode cd is skipping for a split second. I then found http://www.native-instruments.com/f...ad.php?t=101413 so I assume that when I burn the newer versions it will be fixed.

Only (less vital) problem is the distortion I get when connection the audio 4 to my pc. Pretty annoying.

Thanks for the help tho

Posted by JD8180 on Jan-20-2010 02:06:

look at your local electronics shop for something called a ground loop isolator. that will most likely take care of the noise, as it is most likely a grounding issue.

here in the usa they don't cost more than like $15.

Posted by pzK on Jan-20-2010 02:52:

I thought something along those lines.
I send my mixer rec chan to the line in jack of my audigy 2 ZS and noticed that I can mute the disturbed sounds by muting the Line In channel. Ofcourse this doesn't allow me to record.
It's weird though, since without the audio interface connected, I can record from the line in chan without any disturbance.