Terratec EWS88D recording glitch
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Posted on Aug 24, 2005 11:17 pm
Brian The Saxman
Member Since: Aug 24, 2005
Hi all,
I am new to HRC, and would like to congratulate all on participation, advice & resources. Great stuff.
My wee problem is a sound glitch when recording stereo guitar into a stereo track on Sonar 3. It records a digital 'tick' noise at random parts of the track - not dissimilar to a very light record scratch. When I record vocal or sax, it has no problems or noise issues - perfect sound. The only diference is the voice & sax only use one channel input.
the gtr is routed through a Fostex VM200 digital desk via fibre optic to the Terratec EWS88D card.
Another separate issue is a horrendous digital static burst occuring whenever I start a track in Cool Edit Pro. It never used to happen in an older win98 system. Once the track gets going it's fine, but I've tried many ways to stop it happening, with no joy - including fresh installs of Cool Edit Pro, and the d-loading of the latest Terratec drivers and software.
Very exasperating, as I use Cool Edit Pro to remove the nasty tics being recorded on my Sonar gtr trax!!!
Any help would be much appreciated.
Brian
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Aug 24, 2005 11:22 pm Welcome to HRC.
I am not entirely familiar with your Fostex unit, but the first question that comes to mind is if you have tried other routing options to get the guitar from the Fostex to the sound card. Perhaps there is an issue with the fiber optic jacks that send or recive, have you tried simple 1/4" cables to see if the problem lies there?
Regarding CoolEdits scratch, I dunno what to say there yet...my one thought is stop using it if you have Sonar 3 :-)
Aug 24, 2005 11:34 pm Hi dB - thx for the prompt reply!
I can't put the gtr thru any other way, as the Terratec EWS88D doesn't have a line in other than a single S/PDIF in and out - which I have no cabling for.
I might try switching back to the onboard soundcard and recording the gtr thru that (the HP won't allow both soundcards to run side by side - I have to swith them at the BIOS) This will help determine if its a Sonar issue or a Terratec issue, but is not exactly ideal for a permanent solution due to reboots via BIOS.
Heh - I haven't found any audio editing features like those of Cool Edit within Sonar - am I missing something there?
Cheers - B
jmailjimmie neutronMember
Since: Feb 14, 2005
Aug 25, 2005 06:50 am The answer is in the clock - look into "clock"... Cool Edit is confused and trying to keep time with the VM200, hence the static burst, as they try to "sync". Your "clicks" are clock drifts, sort of. When you record thru the VM200, do you have either device set to "Master" and the other set to "Slave"? Also, what fibre optic do you have, ADAT or S/PDIF? Do you have fibre in both in & out to the other device, or a clock cable (if your devices use them)? ADAT will embed clock in its signal, I don't remember about S/PDIF... Probably the easiest thing to do when you record thru the VM200 is to set it to "Master" and the computer with Cool Edit to "Slave"... 'course, if you're going to record something else at the same time thru analog inputs, they might start crackling if Cool Edit doesn't like the VM200 clock or can't keep up... The best thing to do is get your VM200 manual out and read-up on "sync" or "clock" or "SRC" or whatever you can find about "Master" & "Slave". Cool Edit will have some on the subject in the Help files, but very generic, if I remember correctly...
Aug 29, 2005 08:59 pm Thanks for the feedback Jimmie.
I have been remiss at not rechecking the whole clock and master/slave thing since I dropped my ADAT 8 track out of the system. So I'm looking into that now. It seems that the VM200 can only be master if set to 44.1 kHz, but I have recorded my material at 48 kHz! So I will try to resolve the issues at 48 with VM200 as slave first. Thanks to your post, I've found that I missed a 'Word In Termination' switch at the back that should be on when the VM200 is a slave, so I'll see if that fixes the problems.
The next option is to convert all my tracks to 44.1 kHz and set the VM200 to master and see how that goes.
I will report back any results.
FYI - the fibre optic connections I'm using are ADAT configuration, and I'm using those for in and out on the VM200 - Terratec EWS88D (PCI card) so clock cable needed as ADAT carries clock sync. I have the Terratec card set to Internal Master at 48 kHz and the VM200 to ADAT 48 kHz (anything other than 44.1 kHz on the VM200 meansit is the slave).
I'll change all this if I have to resort to 44.1 kHz with the VM200 as master.
Note that I'm only eperiencing the 'tics' on Sonar when recording stereo gtr tracks - mono vox or sax record fine. I haven't tried recording stereo gtr, or anything else on Cool Edit as I only use it for editing waves and professional mix-down.
Thx again - & I'll keep you all posted.
Regards - Brian
Aug 29, 2005 10:01 pm Hello again,
I have the issue with Cool Edit Pro fixed - the settings on the Terratec Card needed to be changed to 'External' when using the ADAT fibre optic connectors, even though it's the Master! It has a 'Samplerate Locked' button, which I have enabled to make sure no glitchs occur, and it is now running sweetly at last! I am hoping that this will resolve the problem in Sonar with the guitar recordings also - I suspect it will, as the Terratec Control Panel is responsible for the input configuration for Sonar.
I will report back when I have had time to test it out.
Regards - Brian
