softsynth drum audio distortion with loop play

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Post by Guest » Fri Sep 26, 2003 9:51 am

Hi folks. I spent too long last night trying to work out if this was me or a known bug. Anyone had this?

I'm running a 2.6GhZ P4 512MB with a standard soundcard that comes in a DELL Dimension 8300. Software is CW Home Studio XL 04.

I create a simple drum pattern using the piano roll editor, which is one bar long. It only has a few kicks and a highhat pattern. Then I setup the loop start/end times and click PLAY. The whole bar plays, as you'd expect, then at the end it returns to 00.00.000 and starts playing again, only this time, the kick drum sounds a little distorted. The highhats sound fine. The next loop the kick drum sounds decidedly sick, until finally all I hear is a distorted fart sound. As soon as I stop and start play again, the problem is cleared and the drum sounds play normally again for one or two loops.

Things I've already tried: I've reduced all the note values from the usual semiquaver lengths to only '1'. I've tried extending the loop by a little, and moving the note events away from 00.00.000. I've also tried removing the kick altogether, but then the same problem occurs with the highhats. It seems that whichever is the first note is the sound which will become distorted. If I copy the pattern, for example, 3 times, then play the complete four bars (without the loop feature) it works fine. No distortion to the sound at all.

The DXi instrument I'm playing is just the standard Edirol VSC.

Sound familiar to anyone?


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

Post by andychap » Fri Sep 26, 2003 10:24 am

It is maybe the VSC that is causing the problems here. There is always a small amount of latency when playing through a VSC. It may not be noticable at first but each time the loop is repeated the latency will still be there but incremental each time the loop goes round.

Probaly the best way to solve it is to copy and paste for the required amount of bars in the song. This you have already tried and it works.

If you want to use it as a loop then set it all up as before just in one bar playing through the VSC. This time bounce the clip to audio and then loop the audio track. There is no latency issues with audio but it will be at a fixed tempo unless you acidize the clip so that it can be stretched (I don't know exactly how that works).

Smugley

Post by Smugley » Mon Sep 29, 2003 10:00 am

Hey, thanks for the advice Andy. I'm not sure I understand why latency would be responsible for the problem I experienced. But perhaps with further research into this phenomenon the answer may become clearer.

Are softsynths operated via the MIDI layer, like external MIDI devices or are they somehow addressed directly by the sequencer by some other means?

If the Edirol does indeed simply read the MIDI data bus, then how does the perceived problem occur? I mean, it's only about a dozen pieces of MIDI information. The note on / note off times do not overlap, and there is plenty of space between each note and the next. I still don't get it why one instrument voice can break down like that. Anyway, like I said, I'll keep reading. It may indeed be an Edirol bug.

Cheers..

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