Adobe Community: Clicks and spaces during recording

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Clicks and spaces during recording

Sep 10, 2012 3:12 PM

I experienced many clicks when I record. I see this not depends on the number of tracks or samplitude I set. I usually record at 88.2 kHz x 24 bit. The chain is made by MacBook Pro (last model), RME Fireface 800 through cable Firewire 800, Apogee Rosetta 8 channel set at 88.2 kHz x 24 bit too, Prism Sound Maselec and Neumann microphones. 4 channels in total. The problem is present when I record on the same session for more than 45 minutes - 1 hour. My tried buffer size was of 256 or 512.

Any possible solution?

1650 Views 27 Replies Latest reply: biribibi, Nov 26, 2012 6:41 AM

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4,755 posts
Oct 26, 2006

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1. SteveG(AudioMasters),

Sep 10, 2012 4:20 PM in reply to biribibi

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It sounds as though your computer is playing up. I spent the whole of last friday recording 12 tracks at once (several hours worth) using an RME Fireface UFX into Audition and had absolutely no problems at all - no clicks, nothing. If the clicks are occurring only after 45 minutes, and they are recorded on the disk (ie they are there every time you play the file), then it sounds as though something else is trying to access it. But there again, it's a Mac, and I really know very little about these.

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2. biribibi,

Sep 10, 2012 4:44 PM in reply to SteveG(AudioMasters)

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Thanks @SteveG for the prompt reply!

Really I have worst problems using Audition 3 on PC. Anyway using the MacBook Pro I will now try to installing a disk of 7200 g/m or connecting an external disk via firewire (even 7200 g/m). I think it should correct this matter.

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3. biribibi,

Sep 12, 2012 10:39 AM in reply to biribibi

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I say also that using the same equipment with Cubase I don't have click absolutely...

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4. ryclark,

Sep 12, 2012 10:49 AM in reply to biribibi

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Have you got the same audio interface drivers selected in both Audition and Cubase. It should be ASIO for both programs.

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5. biribibi,

Sep 12, 2012 2:14 PM in reply to ryclark

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But there again, it's a Mac, and I really know very little about these.
I thought that, while you did Audition for mac, you tested it for mac too. Anyway my is the last version of the mac available. How can I do to increase the performances on Audition in order it could be less heavy and cpu demanding?

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6. ryclark,

Sep 12, 2012 3:16 PM in reply to biribibi

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Adobe tested their Mac edition of Audition. SteveG doesn't work for Adobe. He is just a anopther user like you or me (although a very experienced one).

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7. Bob Howes,

Sep 12, 2012 9:10 PM in reply to ryclark

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Indeed. There was an extensive test programme for the Mac releases, including a public Beta. The old Audition for Mac forums still show up on the menu here.

However, most of us long term Cool Edit/Audition users run our software on PCs (inevitable since the first Mac release was less than two years ago) so, while we can answer Audition questions, once it gets into computer set up issues you have to wait for somebody with access to Apple hardware and software.

I assume there will gradually be more Apple users frequenting these user forums--but so far all the regulars are PC people (and I don't mean politically correct!).

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8. SteveG(AudioMasters),

Sep 12, 2012 10:33 PM in reply to Bob Howes

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Bob Howes wrote:

However, most of us long term Cool Edit/Audition users run our software on PCs (inevitable since the first Mac release was less than two years ago) so, while we can answer Audition questions, once it gets into computer set up issues you have to wait for somebody with access to Apple hardware and software.

I assume there will gradually be more Apple users frequenting these user forums--but so far all the regulars are PC people (and I don't mean politically correct!).
Yes - but unfortunately there's a major snag with this. Most Mac users tend to have, shall we say, rather more of an 'artistic' background and just assume (because Apple told them so) that their machines are wonderful*. What this means in general is that there are likely to be rather less Mac users who are sufficiently au fait with the inner workings of their machines to be able to diagnose what might not be working as well as it might be. And when you factor in the much smaller number of Macs in the world compared to PCs anyway - well all I can say is don't hold your breath waiting for Mac experts other than the ones within the Audition developers, because I don't think that they'll exactly be turning up in droves...

*Their machines are demonstrably no more wonderful than PCs when it comes down to it...

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9. biribibi,

Sep 13, 2012 3:01 AM in reply to ryclark

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Have you got the same audio interface drivers selected in both Audition and Cubase. It should be ASIO for both programs.
Absolutely.

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10. biribibi,

Sep 13, 2012 3:04 AM in reply to SteveG(AudioMasters)

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Most Mac users tend to have, shall we say, rather more of an 'artistic' background and just assume (because Apple told them so) that their machines are wonderful*
I came from PC and other computers since 1987 (Commodore...). Now keep two macs together with iphone. I think they work wonderfully... I have no problem while record with Cubase on both PC (even a 2000 version on old computer) or mac... And I never went to a technician to solve problems on my computers. So, please, why don't we talk about why I have all these clicks during a recording while when I use cubase I have not? Should be simple.

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11. biribibi,

Sep 13, 2012 3:16 AM in reply to biribibi

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Actually I don't want to leave Audition because I know it perfectly since CoolEdit. This means I can edit a disc very quickly while on ProTools I would spend more and more time. I bought all versions excluding the last one (the v. 6). I still use Audition 3 on my PC and will never upgrade it: simply it has no sense. The 2 recent versions lost a lot of features even if they are wonderful graphically. I use 5.5 on my macs, then go to the v. 3 to work (non sense but you can't leave me other chances). It's just impossible to share the sessions; this is just a great error from you and I never find a reason... I can't use then the CD burning within the markers, the scientific filters that is indispensible for who records a piano (by removing or attenuating some no-sound frequencies), and many other features are missing... I really don't know why they put a price to *downgrade* a version to another... should be the countrary. Anyway I am still very optimist about having a FULL version of Audition (maybe the 7th) with all features that the v. 3 has, possibly with some improvement that should be even necessary to be at the level of ProTools. I will have no problem to spend 2-300 euros more or even 500, but please think to a professional set! You are on the right way! This is sure.

Any missing feature or bug is a terrible losing of time and patience when you are working with artists, during sessions that you can't cancel and have to pay cash.

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12. Bob Howes,

Sep 13, 2012 3:45 AM in reply to biribibi

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Well, if it was a PC, clicks and dropouts are almost always caused by some other process in the background either grabbing processor cycles or trying to latch onto your audio device. If it was a PC, I'd be suggesting shutting down everything unnecessary (with special attention to anything involving networking/Wifi/anti virus) and perhaps adjusting the latency/buffer size on the Audition Audio Hardware control panel.

Whether any of this applies to a Mac, I dunno, but it might be worth having a look.

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13. Bob Howes,

Sep 13, 2012 4:33 AM in reply to Bob Howes

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I just noticed from your other thread that you work at 88.2/32 bit with quite long, continuous files. It might be worth trying something shorter at 44.1/16 or similar (even if you can't be persuaded to change that permanently. If that change improves or eliminates the problem, it adds credence to the idea that your computer is running out of steam on the processes it's doing.

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14. biribibi,

Sep 13, 2012 4:41 AM in reply to Bob Howes

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Thank you Bob.

But I repeat I can use a very old computer with Cubase and work easily with 8 tracks at 88.2 kHz/24bit while I really have so much difficulties working with a last computer model (pc or mac, I have many) and recording 2 tracks at 88.2 kHz/24bit using Audition. Though msconfig my computers (PC) are on their best performances.

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15. Bob Howes,

Sep 13, 2012 5:01 AM in reply to biribibi

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But your problems are on your high spec Mac?

I'm sorry but I'm becoming more and more convinced that the issues you're having are to do with your computer, not Audition. Admittedly I'm on PC (but a five year old medium spec machine) but I frequently record up to 32 tracks at a time. Yes, I work at 44.1/48 (depending on where my recordings will end up) but that's still more throughput than your 2 tracks.

If it was a PC I have several "optimise your PC for recording" sites but, yet again, I have no experience with Macs. However, a search has found me http://www.jakeludington.com/ask_jake/20050523_optimize_mac_os_x_for_a udio_recording.html or
http://www.alesis.com/tipsnov08 (scroll down for Mac stuff).

I notice that some of the same things I bang on about for PCs seem to be on the Mac list as well so maybe they're not as different as all that.

However, I do think you're going to have to dive into your computer side of things rather than expect a fix in Audition itself. Frankly, in terms of dropouts and clicks, there's little to adjust in Audition beyond the latency/buffer size. Normally it just works and, if it doesn't, you have to sort out a computer or driver issue.

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16. biribibi,

Sep 13, 2012 5:22 AM in reply to Bob Howes

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Thank you again Bob!

I hope you are right as it should be.

Could you explain me precisely what you do with your computer while recording? What kind of optimization, equipment you use for recording, etc. I know I am asking you so much, but I am really depressed about such a problem I always find.

For example I need to know which kind of hard disk do you have, cpu, external disks if any. How long the sessions are. Your initial set up (audio preferences), which kind of computer (I had bad experiences with Acer, never with Toshiba or Sony), buffer size. Do you use RME FF800? Are you connecting with Firewire or USB 2/3 or again with other protocols.

Thank you for all this. You are truly my last chance in having a good answers to that trouble.

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17. SuiteSpot,

Sep 13, 2012 5:27 AM in reply to Bob Howes

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Just a thought - I noticed you mentioned two things
1. MacBook Pro
2. "I will now try to installing a disk of 7200"

So that means (and correct me if I'm wrong) this is a laptop with probably a 5400rpm drive?

So I'm thinking maybe you could try checking to see if your WiFi is turned on and maybe if you have some anti-virus software running (apparently macs get viruses too?)

The other thing is that there is no way I would ever use a 5400rpm drive for recording @ 88.2 but that's just me

BTW as to "It's just impossible to share the sessions; this is just a great error from you and I never find a reason" probably because not only are they different platforms but different versions.
You can certainly get share your Au3.0 sessions with your mac CS5.5 using the Ses2Sesx app but going backwards (version wise not platform wise) makes no sense.
Now if you upgraded to the same version on the PC....... ;-)

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18. biribibi,

Sep 13, 2012 5:37 AM in reply to SuiteSpot

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SuiteSpot wrote:

The other thing is that there is no way I would ever use a 5400rpm drive for recording @ 88.2 but that's just me
You are right. But how about my other computers? : )
SuiteSpot wrote:
BTW as to "It's just impossible to share the sessions; this is just a great error from you and I never find a reason" probably because not only are they different platforms but different versions.
You can certainly get share your Au3.0 sessions with your mac CS5.5 using the Ses2Sesx app but going backwards (version wise not platform wise) makes no sense.
Now if you upgraded to the same version on the PC....... ;-)
I prefer to have Audition 3 on my PCs. It has a lot of more features I can't avoid to use. That's why. : )

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19. Bob Howes,

Sep 13, 2012 6:03 AM in reply to biribibi

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I'm not sure how much my experience will help because I'm on a PC but...

Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit on a Toshiba A200 Satellite laptop
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 @2.2GHz
4GB RAM
Internal drives with OS/Software 5400rpm 320GHz
External drive for recording USB2 7200rpm 1TB (also an older smaller one, same speed)

Audio: Yamaha DM1000 mixer with MY16AT ADAT cards x 2 feeding to
M Audio Profire Lightbridge which feeds firewire into my PC

I'm not on my sound PC right now so can't check my ASIO latency settings--I'll post those later.

In terms of prep for audio work, the main things I do are shut down EVERYTHING unnecessary but with special emphasis on turning off WiFi and networking and also my anti virus software. I believe Wifi is known as Airport on a Mac.

I've set up other things in Windows for optimisation (following a web site I checked) but those are too specific to Windows to be any good to you.

Please note that I'm not selling this as an ideal set up for audio (in fact I hope to be replacing it in the next week or two) but am just saying it works. I'd try it all at 88.2 but the ADAT part of my setup restricts it to 48kHz max..

Hope this helps in some way (though I'm not sure how much use it'll be to a Mac.

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20. SuiteSpot,

Sep 13, 2012 6:56 AM in reply to biribibi

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"You are right. But how about my other computers? : )"
Bit much to wade through but they are macs? yes?

Lets look at this logically -
Either :-
1. Audition for the mac is so screwed that no mac user can record at 88.2 for any length of time, or
2. there is something wrong with your particular setup.

Now possibility 1 is easy to test by checking the old mac forum posts to see if this is a known problem. I suspect that if this was the case it would be pretty well known by Adobe by now.
I'm not saying this is not possible but it is unlikely that you would be the only mac user with the problem - it would be all mac users.

Now if this is not the case it really only leaves possibility number 2 and it is this option that everyone is trying to assist you with.

As far as the RME FF800 goes I have one with a heap of other preamps attached and it is an exceptionally good piece of gear which works fine with AA3 and CS5/6
I would certainly try increasing your buffer size to say 1024 and I would turn off any CPU 'throttling' in the BIOS - but I don't know if macs have this sort of thing.

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21. SteveG(AudioMasters),

Sep 13, 2012 7:41 AM in reply to biribibi

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biribibi wrote:

Most Mac users tend to have, shall we say, rather more of an 'artistic' background and just assume (because Apple told them so) that their machines are wonderful*

I came from PC and other computers since 1987 (Commodore...). Now keep two macs together with iphone. I think they work wonderfully... I have no problem while record with Cubase on both PC (even a 2000 version on old computer) or mac... And I never went to a technician to solve problems on my computers. So, please, why don't we talk about why I have all these clicks during a recording while when I use cubase I have not? Should be simple.
I think you've just made my point... Rule 1. You should always beware of simple answers to complex questions, and vice versa.

Bob Howes wrote:

I'm sorry but I'm becoming more and more convinced that the issues you're having are to do with your computer, not Audition.

Duh! Call me an old cynic if you must, but that was the very first thing I said. And, it's a Mac. We know very little about them. We need somebody who does - now that is simple. Who have we got?

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22. _durin_,

Sep 13, 2012 9:37 AM in reply to SteveG(AudioMasters)

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Let's step back and take this process to its most basic, then re-introduce elements until you see the behavior change.

1. Create a new multitrack session at 88K. Set your device buffer size to 512. Arm one track for record and begin recording - don't add any effects yet. Do you experience the clicks and dropouts? (Be sure to let us know if these are Stereo tracks or Mono tracks.)

2. If not, repeat this process adding another track recording each time until you begin to experience the problem.

3 Once you experience the problem, change your device buffer size to 1024 or higher. Do you still see this problem with a higher buffer?

4. Start adding the track effects you typically use, starting with Track 1 and repeating until the problem starts to happen again.

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23. ryclark,

Sep 13, 2012 3:01 PM in reply to _durin_

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biribibi it might help if we had a few more details of your Mac. You haven't told us which Mac OS you are running or how much RAM your computer has.

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24. Bobaudio,

Oct 14, 2012 9:36 PM in reply to _durin_

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I just picked up a Fireface UCX and ran into this problem, as well as another one.

MacBook Air, 2GHz i7, 8GB RAM, SSD hard drive, OSX 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion), with a RME Fireface UCX connected via USB to a dedicated USB port (not connected to a hub).

In Audition the hardware buffer size was set to 128 and sample rate was 44100Hz for the recording, and it happened at higher buffer sizes. Lots of clicking throughout a recording. That said, I had done a 20 minute recording previously with the same settings that had no issues. No other software was running in either case. So it seems to be an intermittent issue.

As a point of reference, I tried other audio applications and in all of them I have been able to record with a 64 sample buffer size with no clicks. Might be something between the RME driver and Audition?

And one more issue with the RME device and Audition. If I run Logic before opening Audition, files in Audition are then played at a lower pitch and slower speed than expected. Seems to be a mismatch in the expected sample rate for playback and what is actually used by the device. I say this because if I use the option in Audition "Interpret Sample Rate" and set it to 48khz, the file plays correctly in terms of how it sounds (speed/pitch). This is for a 44.1kHz file though. So it seems Audition thinks the RME device is operating at 48kHz, but it is actually playing at 44.1kHz.

Here's how to reproduce the problem.

1. Open Logic.
2. In Logic, play a file, and then stop playing the file.
3. Open Audition.
4. Close Logic. (or leave it open, it doesn't make a difference)
5. Play a 44.1kHz file in Audition. The file plays slower and at a lower pitch than expected.

And here's one way I found to fix the issue.

1. Close Logic
2. In Audition, go to Settings, Audio Hardware. Change the Default Output Device to Built-In Output
3. In the same drop-down, no set the Default Output back to the RME device

This seems to reset the device and its state with Audition. Files play back correctly then.

I'm only finding the above recording/playback issues with Audition, so maybe there are some issues to iron out in relation to RME drivers. I'm running the latest (as of this writing) driver available from RME. I had another audio device installed previously and didn't run into these issues with Audition.

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25. biribibi,

Nov 26, 2012 6:33 AM in reply to ryclark

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Hi Clark,

Sorry for my delay.

I'm using a Mac 2 GHz Intel Core i7, 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, Western Digital external disk (3 T at 7,200 gpm). When I record I turn off the wi-fi and all softwares excluding the Fireface 800's. My currect settings are with buffers at 128 or 256, so very low. Hope this helps.

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26. biribibi,

Nov 26, 2012 6:34 AM in reply to Bobaudio

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1. Close Logic
2. In Audition, go to Settings, Audio Hardware. Change the Default Output Device to Built-In Output
3. In the same drop-down, no set the Default Output back to the RME device
Sorry Bobaudio, how can you set that way if you are using Fireface...? You should set Fireface to use it... please explain.

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27. biribibi,

Nov 26, 2012 6:41 AM in reply to _durin_

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_durin_ I tested it many times and it doesn't depend on how many tracks I am using. The problem appears both with one track and more per time (6 for example). I solved it adopting these two devices:

1) restart a new session after a lot of files have been opened/recorded;
2) close all unused files.

I also found that it is possible the problems depend on a certain drowsinnes of the disk when it is left stationary for a while. I really don't know how to keep this always active: seems that Mac has not a way to do it (I mean also the external, Western Digital disks I use). I saw infact that when I record after I pause the computer makes a lot of difficulties to wake! This is surely not because of the software.

Another thing I can adopt is:

3) to record longer files instead of more shorter files.

Anyway: using Cubase I don't have all these problems of clicks.

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