scratch sounds in recordings

George Wixon · Post by **George Wixon** » 5 Jul 2004 3:23 am

Have a problem and not sure what to look at.
I recently installed a Soundblaster Live 5.1 card and also changed over to Windows XP Home , and noticed that I can hear what sounds to be like scratches from a needle on an old LP record. During the recording process, everything sounds clean but when I play it back, I can clearly hear this stuff. Any one have any ideas on what to look for?
I should also add that I was using the SoundBlaster PCI 16 before and never had this problem.
You can hear this on my site. I just did a recording of "Wonderful world" and it is located on the "time line sound page" at the 2 and 1/2 year mark on www.gwixon.com
Thanks for any help you can give me.
George

William Peters · Post by **William Peters** » 5 Jul 2004 6:25 am

George,

Even with the scratches, it sounded good to me.

I did load your song into my digital recorder software so I could look for the noises, thinking that maybe you were clipping a little. But your signal never went above -10db. So it might sound better if you recorded at a higher level, shooting for 0db.

I agree though that the static noises shouldn't be there at all.

Nice website by the way... I listened to all your clips, and the description of the pitch correction for BIAB was great. I didn't know it could do that.

------------------
Bill

www.wgpeters.com
Cougar SD-10, PV-260, Tubefex, PV TNT-115, Gibson SG, Squier P-Bass, Berhinger V-amp Pro

Fred Martin · Post by **Fred Martin** » 5 Jul 2004 6:31 am

Although I cant help I wll surely be watching your thread. I just spent a frustrating week trying to get sound out of a Dell Laptop with a Celeron processor 2.2 Gig before sending it back. At first I thought the computer sound was ok until I tried to hook up a new Tascam US 122. Windows XP home had some big problems with the unit. Got warnings and even the blue screen of death. I got mad, sold the Tascam for a steal and then with a more critical ear I found the computer was the problem. It could not even play the Windows start up file with out low level interference. After a last ditch at Dell service where I had some one with a strange dialect I could not understand trying to get me to take the unit apart with a screwdriver while holding on to the phone with the other hand I sent the Dell back too. Unit had a soundmax card and I was hoping maybe a Soundblaster unit would be the answer. I hope you find a simple fix for your problem. Keep us posted. Good luck.

Fred Martin · Post by **Fred Martin** » 5 Jul 2004 7:07 am

That is a nice site and I will get back to it. I played your song and on my computer speakers I was not sure I was hearing the scratch. I put on the ear phones and picked it right up. It sounded like you were playing through the Dell I had the problems with. Just the same. Windows XP has a pile of updates on Microsoft.com and some affect sound. I loaded them til I was sick but never made a difference. The other thing I tried was to go into the device Manager and you can look at your drivers to see if they have a problem by a little ? or ! by them when you expand the menu. Course mine were fine according to the machine. Then theres a hardware device wizard on there someplace also.

George Wixon · Post by **George Wixon** » 5 Jul 2004 12:54 pm

Well,
Just did some testing and found that the problem is with the recording function and not the playback. Since I use Power Tracks to record with I muted out the rhythm track and just lisentend to the steel track. That static is all over the place.
I also tried leaving the volume pedal wide open and playing nothing during the recording process and after playing that back I didn't hear any static or scratching sounds for the recorded track.
Thanks for reminding me about the pitch correction Bill, I had told another steel player that I would put up a file on how to adjust the master tuning and totally forgot about it. Just posted that today.
I'll let you know what I find if anything comes up. I also wrote to creative labs and am waiting for a reply.
George

William Peters · Post by **William Peters** » 5 Jul 2004 3:06 pm

George,

You're not going direct into the sound card with your volume pedal are you? That usually causes a lot of scratchy static when you move the pedal, because the sound cards put a small amount of dc voltage on the input lines.

------------------
Bill

www.wgpeters.com
Cougar SD-10, PV-260, Tubefex, PV TNT-115, Gibson SG, Squier P-Bass, Berhinger V-amp Pro

George Wixon · Post by **George Wixon** » 5 Jul 2004 3:27 pm

No Bill,
I go directly from the amps line output to the line input on the sound card.
The set up I use for recording is also on my web site.
I just put the old sound card back in and tried recording and it was just as clean as could be.
It may just be the soundcard. Just because it's only a few months old dosen't mean I didn't get a bad one.
George

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 5 Jul 2004 4:51 pm

I've decided to edit out my comments about Creative labs. <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Ken Lang on 06 July 2004 at 06:51 PM.]</p></FONT>