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  #1  
Old 07-24-2020, 10:20 AM
pperret pperret is offline
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Default Recorded Audio Sounds Alien/Warbled

Troubleshooting help needed!
We lost an entire day's worth of recording this week and are truly puzzled what caused it. I would love to hear if anyone has experienced anything like it or has theories on the cause.
We were recording an audiobook and every second (All takes) of the 5 hour record sounded like this file (alien/warbled).
https://soundcloud.com/user-110686510
Details:
ProTools 2018.10 on 2010 Mac Pro, Avid 192 with Sync HDs
Session setup for audio book 16/44.1
Lynx Aurora 8 A to D clocking to ProTools AES
Very basic routing. Mic in from Aurora, Slate out to Headphones and Director
Engineer heard 100% fine sound during the entire record.
Engineer was listening to input on the record track
Waveforms looked normal, not spiking or anything that looked unusual
Engineer did not Playback at any point
Engineer zipped session folder with Right click Mac OS Compress after session
--
We do run a backup on all records to external Compact Flash recorder (Tascam SS-R1), but the media was reformatted after 2 days. We were alerted to the problem after 3 days
Yes, we are changing that procedure to have more cards available so we don’t have to reformat so often.
Other applications that were booted during record, Fetch, Chrome, Adobe Reader DC, Source Connect Q manager
Only plugin in entire session was an inactive expander on the Director feed from external skype computer
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  #2  
Old 07-24-2020, 04:36 PM
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albee1952 albee1952 is offline
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Default Re: Recorded Audio Sounds Alien/Warbled

If you are now playing it back on a different system than did the recording, the first thing I would try to do is take the files back to that studio and test on their rig. That might tell you that the audio is okay(but your system has an issue) or if the audio is truly ruined(the examples sound to me like they are playing on a system that is maybe not configured for best performance or has some other odd thing happening(but its really tough to diagnose until you know if the audio files are good or bad).
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  #3  
Old 07-25-2020, 03:56 AM
dougdi dougdi is offline
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Default Re: Recorded Audio Sounds Alien/Warbled

Sounds like a sample rate or bit depth mismatch. Or a PT bug. Yes, check it at the original studio. I learned the hard way, more than once, to playback takes before the session is over for quality control. I hope you get it sorted, let us know the outcome.


Quote:
Originally Posted by pperret View Post
Troubleshooting help needed!
We lost an entire day's worth of recording this week and are truly puzzled what caused it. I would love to hear if anyone has experienced anything like it or has theories on the cause.
We were recording an audiobook and every second (All takes) of the 5 hour record sounded like this file (alien/warbled).
https://soundcloud.com/user-110686510
Details:
ProTools 2018.10 on 2010 Mac Pro, Avid 192 with Sync HDs
Session setup for audio book 16/44.1
Lynx Aurora 8 A to D clocking to ProTools AES
Very basic routing. Mic in from Aurora, Slate out to Headphones and Director
Engineer heard 100% fine sound during the entire record.
Engineer was listening to input on the record track
Waveforms looked normal, not spiking or anything that looked unusual
Engineer did not Playback at any point
Engineer zipped session folder with Right click Mac OS Compress after session
--
We do run a backup on all records to external Compact Flash recorder (Tascam SS-R1), but the media was reformatted after 2 days. We were alerted to the problem after 3 days
Yes, we are changing that procedure to have more cards available so we don’t have to reformat so often.
Other applications that were booted during record, Fetch, Chrome, Adobe Reader DC, Source Connect Q manager
Only plugin in entire session was an inactive expander on the Director feed from external skype computer
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  #4  
Old 07-26-2020, 12:55 AM
Ben Jenssen's Avatar
Ben Jenssen Ben Jenssen is offline
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Default Re: Recorded Audio Sounds Alien/Warbled

Quote:
Originally Posted by dougdi View Post
Sounds like a sample rate or bit depth mismatch.
I agree. This Kind of distortion is something I've heard before. Like twenty years ago, when you could actually playback a file with the wrong settings in an application and it would sound something like this. Doesn't happen much anymore. Apps are smarter.
I remember using a freeware audio app (Audacity?) to repair a file that no other apps would play correctly. It had a "import raw audio" function, and I could customize sample rate manually, and fix it.
Anyway, I suspect this has to do with the files "looking like" one sample rate, and being played back as another.
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  #5  
Old 07-26-2020, 07:04 AM
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Wizzoboy Wizzoboy is offline
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Default Re: Recorded Audio Sounds Alien/Warbled

The one thing that stands out for me is the line "Engineer did not playback at any point". Not what I would call a professional way of working.
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  #6  
Old 07-26-2020, 10:55 AM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is online now
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Default Re: Recorded Audio Sounds Alien/Warbled

I would have guessed this might be a TDM system with mixer/plugin clipping... but no. But we cannot guess, you folks will have to work it out. An obvious other test is to play the media files outside Pro Tools... and look back at playlists to see if they are all messed up. If so that tells you it was likely an input problem.

Why work in a session at 16 bit for anything? I would be working 32-bit float and bounce to crippled 16-bit at the end. And 16 bit might be related to problems here.

Are you needing to sync to video? Otherwise there is no need for a Sync HD box here and is the Lynx connected to Digilink? If so it needs to be the loop sync master (did they ever fix that)? Edit: I guess not since you say AES connected,... but all this outboard A/D, 192 IO, Sync HD... is insanity if just dumping it straight to 16 bits. And lots of chances for clocking confusion... which would not explain how an engineer could monitor anything in Pro Tools OK.. if it was a clocking issue, are you sure they were not monitoring an analog feed?

And posting your actual input track audio files on a cloud file share would be more useful than uploading to soundcloud. And it's not clear what you uploaded... a raw file or a bounce out of Pro Tools?

Last edited by Darryl Ramm; 07-26-2020 at 02:18 PM.
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  #7  
Old 07-27-2020, 08:52 AM
Steven1145 Steven1145 is offline
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Default Re: Recorded Audio Sounds Alien/Warbled

I had exactly the same sort of issue on Windows 10, with a hdx rig on a AVID-approved HP Z440.
Managed to solve it eventually by rolling the graphic card (Nvidia K2200) back to a... wait for it... 2008 driver!
No response at all from AVID here.

I'm glad I solved it and that we had identified that there was an issue (it's more obvious with multichannel tracks as you see the channels get mixed up). Listening through the hdx card all sounded fine, but recorded material was exactly as yours.

All clocking is good here.

Steven Ghouti, Re-recording Mixer, Yellow Cab Studios
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  #8  
Old 07-30-2020, 08:27 PM
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Ben Jenssen Ben Jenssen is offline
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Default Re: Recorded Audio Sounds Alien/Warbled

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Jenssen View Post
I agree. This Kind of distortion is something I've heard before. Like twenty years ago, when you could actually playback a file with the wrong settings in an application and it would sound something like this. Doesn't happen much anymore. Apps are smarter.
I remember using a freeware audio app (Audacity?) to repair a file that no other apps would play correctly. It had a "import raw audio" function, and I could customize sample rate manually, and fix it.
Anyway, I suspect this has to do with the files "looking like" one sample rate, and being played back as another.
It wasn't Audacity, it was Amadeus Pro.
I remember now, I had files scrambled just like your sample, and I fixed them by using "Import raw audio" in amadeuspro. This let me decide the format for the import, and when I guessed the right SR and bit depth, I got a perfectly good file that I could save.
I think you could save the files with this method, if you wanted to.
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