sync between audio tracks in pro audio 9

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fritz
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2004 9:38 pm
Location: saint louis missouri

Post by fritz » Sun Jan 25, 2004 10:35 pm

hi, fritz here :
i am trying to multitrack record several songs performed by my sons band, using cakewalk pro audio v9.02. we started by recording the drum parts to each song, mixed down to individual stereo 44.1k wav files, using sonic foundry's sound forge v4.5. i then imported the first song's stereo drum wav file to track 1 in a new cpa9.02 .wrk file. no problem. i then set up recording on track 2, and my son recorded his bass part while listening to the drum part on track 1. as we did this, the cpu and disk usage meters barely moved ... i definitely wasn't pushing the cpu or disk. but when we listened back to the take, my son's bass part was, progressively more as the song progressed, ahead of ( earlier than ) the drum part. that is to say, at the beginning of the song it was just a little bit ahead, and got further ahead and earlier as the song progressed ( not a fixed amount ), like 2 tapes and 1 was running slightly fast. i was puzzled by this, since the bass take was recorded while listening to the drum wav in cakewalk itself. we did several additional takes, and the problem repeated itself consistently, the newly-recorded part always got ahead of the imported wav part, by about a half second for every minute into the song.
thinking this might be a problem with the imported drum file, i then muted the drum part and recorded a third part on track 3, listening only to the bass part recorded in cakewalk on track 2 for reference. again, when we listened back to the bass part and the newly-recorded guitar part, the guitar part got progressively further ahead of ( earlier than ) the bass part, even though both were recorded in cakewalk, in the same session.
my computer is based on a 300mhz, amd k6-2 cpu, and i'm using a creative labs sound blaster 64awe sound card. unsophisticated stuff, to be sure, but i don't think they were the problem.
has anyone run into or heard of this problem before, or have any ideas about what may be going on ?
thank you very much for any help on this.


andychap
Posts: 685
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2003 7:26 pm
Location: UK

Post by andychap » Mon Jan 26, 2004 12:42 am

The awe 64 card won't be helping much, it was designed mostly for it's midi capabilities. It is not a full duplex card as far as I can remember and will not record and play back audio at the same time in sync. What is happening is down to buffering and read ahead settings. I don't really know how to explain it.

Just check though that you have the audio sync enabled, there should be a button on the toolbar for this. When these programs open they sometimes default to midi sync.

The only thing I would say is get a card with better audio capabilities and although the processor may seem to be ok, recording audio is down to memory, the audio to digital conversion speed and quality and the speed and condition of you hard drive.

knobby

Post by knobby » Wed Feb 18, 2004 8:51 pm

Hello,

Had the same exact problem in CW 9 with my system (AMD athalon 1.3 ghz with 512 ram). I had a Phillips acoustic edge soundcard and had tried TONS of software configurations, new drivers, and thelike. I ended up going to the M Audio Audiophile 24/96 which immediately fixed the problem. In short, I think your soundcard is the weak link here as that AWE 64 is just not made for the intensive audio workout you are giving it. By the way the Audiophile 24/96 ran me just under $150.00 new on the internet.

Good Luck!

Guest

Post by Guest » Sun Nov 28, 2004 2:13 am

fritz wrote:hi, fritz here :
i am trying to multitrack record several songs performed by my sons band, using cakewalk pro audio v9.02. we started by recording the drum parts to each song, mixed down to individual stereo 44.1k wav files, using sonic foundry's sound forge v4.5. i then imported the first song's stereo drum wav file to track 1 in a new cpa9.02 .wrk file. no problem. i then set up recording on track 2, and my son recorded his bass part while listening to the drum part on track 1. as we did this, the cpu and disk usage meters barely moved ... i definitely wasn't pushing the cpu or disk. but when we listened back to the take, my son's bass part was, progressively more as the song progressed, ahead of ( earlier than ) the drum part. that is to say, at the beginning of the song it was just a little bit ahead, and got further ahead and earlier as the song progressed ( not a fixed amount ), like 2 tapes and 1 was running slightly fast. i was puzzled by this, since the bass take was recorded while listening to the drum wav in cakewalk itself. we did several additional takes, and the problem repeated itself consistently, the newly-recorded part always got ahead of the imported wav part, by about a half second for every minute into the song.
thinking this might be a problem with the imported drum file, i then muted the drum part and recorded a third part on track 3, listening only to the bass part recorded in cakewalk on track 2 for reference. again, when we listened back to the bass part and the newly-recorded guitar part, the guitar part got progressively further ahead of ( earlier than ) the bass part, even though both were recorded in cakewalk, in the same session.
my computer is based on a 300mhz, amd k6-2 cpu, and i'm using a creative labs sound blaster 64awe sound card. unsophisticated stuff, to be sure, but i don't think they were the problem.
has anyone run into or heard of this problem before, or have any ideas about what may be going on ?
thank you very much for any help on this.

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