Is This The Same Issue as the Noise Bursts?

[danevaz]

Hi All,

Been using 11.3.x native on WIN 7 for about 2 years now. Never paid much attention to all the postings about noise bursts because I never had a "white noise" type burst and never used PT12.

But about 2 months ago I was mixing a session (48/24) - and suddenly there was a very loud "pop" and my left speaker went out - no sound. I closed the session, quit and restarted PT and luckily my speakers were both working and the session was still OK. (But my ears definitely took a hit).

Well, I had the issue again last week (on new monitor speakers no less). Same exact issue, with the same session - loud pop while mixing - no sound in my left speaker - but everything working again after quitting and restarting PT.

In both cases, the pops occurred after I'd been working with the session for about an hour and I was doing a lot of swapping/bypassing/inactivating of the plugs.

But this one really hurt my ears and now I'm a bit gun shy to get back to using PT. (I don't monitor loud - I keep things in the high 70s db.)

So I took some time and really took a closer look at the long thread in the PT 12 forum about the "noise burst" issue.

Is this the the same problem? I thought the noise bursts referred to "white noise" (which I've still never had).

I use mostly IKMulti T-Racks and Waves plugs. The session in question has @15+ plugs across @10 different instrument, audio, and Aux tracks.

(For the record, the IKMulti plugs have always had an issue where if you're doing a lot of on the fly bypass/activate/inactivate of the plugs, the session will sometimes lose its phantom center and the sound stage kind of gets shifted hard right - but all recoverable after a close and reopen of the session) - but this is not the same issue.

And yes, I had recently added midi and audio track automation to the session in question.

So, is this the same issue as the infamous "noise bursts"?

Thanks,
Danny

[musicman691]

I think this is different. A pop can be due to a few different things like:
noise bursts on the incoming AC mains line, especially if you have powered monitor speakers
a problem with your interface (what are you running for that?) and does this alwasy happen to the same channel?

Noise bursts on the AC line can be due to any number of things like a compressor going on or off, dodgy flourescent lights (those cfl's are prodigious noise generators), or just crappy incoming power from your utility company.

BTW I've never had issues with IK plugins losing their soundstage and not all plugins generate a phantom center - that's due to phasing issues. Which exact plugins are giving you this problem? I have a goodly chunk of their ecosystem so maybe I can check here.

[danevaz]

Sorry for the late reply - busy with other stuff.

My interface is a Mackie Onyx 820i - via firewire 400. I've been using it since 2010 and never had this problem before - so I don't think it's the interface (as I also use it with other Digital Audio programs).

Speakers - Yamaha HS80m - maybe getting a little old (7-8 yrs) - but again no other audio or software programs generate these "pops." And coincidentally, I was auditioning some new monitors (JBL LSR305) the second time it happened - so it can't be the monitors).

And these weren't your garden variety clicks and pops - these were extremely loud pops which caused one of my speakers (the left one *both* times to lose its audio signal (I thought I blew the speaker). But upon quitting and restarting PT - both times the speakers were still fully functional.

No flourescent lights.

Here's what has changed in my PT 11.3.2 setup in the last few months:

- Installed Eucon 3.3.2 to use the iPad PT Control app. While I wasn't using the PT Control app when the pops occurred, the 8 Euphonix midi devices were still loaded.

- I had been experimenting with using an AKAI MPD226 pad midi controller. As such, I had added a Peripheral MIDI controller to my PT setup, and had it configured as an M-Audio Keyboard running as a slave with an ID of 127. But - the MPD wasn't connected physically on either occasion when the pops occurred.

- Recently added the Blue Cat Frequency Analyst plug-in as the last insert on on the Master track and always have that window open for watching my levels while mixing.

- And the most recent change was the adding of both MIDI Volume and MIDI Mute automation to a couple of Instrument tracks (running IK Multi Sample Tank 3.6.x VIs).

Session has 5 instrument tracks, 3 audio tracks, a click and a master track.

The plugs are mostly IK Multi (Plate Reverb, EQ PB, Precision Comp Limiter, Opto Comp, Prog EQ 1A, and Classic Comp) and a few WAVES plugs (Ren EQ, Ren DeEsser, Vocal Rider), and one SoniVox Big Bang percussion.

That's it.

I'm not asking anyone to de-bug my session or setup, but just trying to help in the event anyone else is experiencing these "pops" or loss of audio, and sees any similarity in their setup.

Thanks,
Danny V.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by danevaz

Sorry for the late reply - busy with other stuff.

My interface is a Mackie Onyx 820i - via firewire 400. I've been using it since 2010 and never had this problem before - so I don't think it's the interface (as I also use it with other Digital Audio programs).

Speakers - Yamaha HS80m - maybe getting a little old (7-8 yrs) - but again no other audio or software programs generate these "pops." And coincidentally, I was auditioning some new monitors (JBL LSR305) the second time it happened - so it can't be the monitors).

And these weren't your garden variety clicks and pops - these were extremely loud pops which caused one of my speakers (the left one *both* times to lose its audio signal (I thought I blew the speaker). But upon quitting and restarting PT - both times the speakers were still fully functional.

No flourescent lights.

Here's what has changed in my PT 11.3.2 setup in the last few months:

- Installed Eucon 3.3.2 to use the iPad PT Control app. While I wasn't using the PT Control app when the pops occurred, the 8 Euphonix midi devices were still loaded.

- I had been experimenting with using an AKAI MPD226 pad midi controller. As such, I had added a Peripheral MIDI controller to my PT setup, and had it configured as an M-Audio Keyboard running as a slave with an ID of 127. But - the MPD wasn't connected physically on either occasion when the pops occurred.

- Recently added the Blue Cat Frequency Analyst plug-in as the last insert on on the Master track and always have that window open for watching my levels while mixing.

- And the most recent change was the adding of both MIDI Volume and MIDI Mute automation to a couple of Instrument tracks (running IK Multi Sample Tank 3.6.x VIs).

Session has 5 instrument tracks, 3 audio tracks, a click and a master track.

The plugs are mostly IK Multi (Plate Reverb, EQ PB, Precision Comp Limiter, Opto Comp, Prog EQ 1A, and Classic Comp) and a few WAVES plugs (Ren EQ, Ren DeEsser, Vocal Rider), and one SoniVox Big Bang percussion.

That's it.

I'm not asking anyone to de-bug my session or setup, but just trying to help in the event anyone else is experiencing these "pops" or loss of audio, and sees any similarity in their setup.

Thanks,
Danny V.

Debugging your setup IS in order as that may well be part of the problem. What other electrical loads do you have on the circuit powering your recording setup? Anything with a compressor in it like an air conditioner or fridge? Cycling one of those will cause AC mains line noise. Is everything in your setup plugged into the same AC circuit?

I would try changing the firewire cable to the Mackie.

Is Sampletank 3 common in all the sessions you're having problems with? I have ST3 here and there are some clicks and pops in some of the samples at certain velocity levels; they're sampling does not have consistent cleanliness and the worst offenders for me are the tenor and baritone saxes.