Periodic noise burst/pop/click when recording from FTU

[minuteman]

System Info:
Dell XPS 1530; Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 @ 2.5 Ghz
Windows Vista 32 Bit Service Pack 1
Pro Tools 8 M-Powered
4.00 GB of RAM
M-Audio Fast Track Ultra connected via USB Cable

Scenario & Problem:

I open Pro Tools 8 with a blank session, make a new Audio Track and when I set the track for recording there is a periodic pop/click/burst of noise in which the volume peaks for about half a second on the track. It seems to occurr randomly, sometimes two clicks follow each other, sometimes it happens once a minute or so.

Anyway, it only happens in Pro Tools, I figured out, because when the mic is connected and not set to record, it doesn't display it peaking on the M-Audio Control Panel.

Yet when I set the track to record in the Pro Tools Mixer, the M-Audio control panel displays Software Return, Hardware Input, and Main Output peaking periodically for the half-second just the way it does in Pro Tools.

I spent a long time before posting this thread searching for fixes and I disabled as many non-essential devices as possible and freed up the IRQ's for my USB ports, but the seemingly-random noise bursts still occur.

My CPU usage is low and my computer seems like running everything is a breeze, yet the problem persists.


Any help is greatly appreciated. I am new to Pro Tools and have not been able to properly record any track since I invested some $600+ in the hardware / software; just after I've figured out how to get around in it and work the hardware device, this formidable clicking occurs!

[Tiko]

Hello Minute Man. I think there is a post on this somewhere that solves the problem. I had the same issue.

I found the answer in these two posts the last one especially:

Yodah
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 63
Default Re: THAT AGGRIVATING WHITE NOISE!!!!!
FIXED IT! Here is the problem.....when you format to NTFS...windows will set the drive to compress for space....which turns the name of the drive and all of the files on it BLUE. So I went and just right clicked on all folders , go to advance, and it gives you the option to uncheck compression, do that ,click apply, then make sure you have the box checked that has all folders,and subfolders etc... click ok and just wait until its done. Then you have to deframent because it will be fragmented pretty bad when its done. Open a session and get to work! Oh you will know your files are uncompressed because the names will turn BLACK in color.
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#168 Report Post
Old 01-08-2009, 08:18 PM
The Weed The Weed is online now
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Default Re: THAT AGGRIVATING WHITE NOISE!!!!!
Yodah,

Next time, rather than defragmenting, copy your sessions off to another drive, format your audio drive NTFS with a cluster size of 32k (Digidesign recommends this size), then copy your sessions back to your audio drive. Digidesign recommends the format and copy back method rather than defragmenting. And double check that both "Compress drive to save disk space" and "allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching" are unchecked.

Cheers,
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[minuteman]

Hi Tiko, thanks for responding.

However, I don't quite understand the solution you suggested. I think you're saying the problem can be fixed by changing the way my hard drive compresses folders, but my folders are not compressed in the first place. I'm also not using an external drive, but I don't know if that has much to do with it.


Anyway, I also went to Setup - Playback Engine, which had a setting checked by default that said "Ignore Errors During Playback/Record" that said it may cause clicks/pops. Well I thought it would be solved once I unchecked that, but it wasn't! Same problem.


Here's some further description: Every so many seconds the track will peak in what sounds like audio pixelation, just a sudden, random blip that registers the volume of the track to peak. Other than that the recording quality is fine.


Help is very much appreciated so I can get recording without any blemishes. I will keep trying different settings in the meantime.

[BelaDMedia]

We are dealing with the same random noise burst. The sound is like that of a loud static hiss but more in bursting fashion. It seems to happen when you have a linear wav file that has many cuts (Option X). All drives are NTFS and not compressed (blue as you as say).

[minuteman]

Doh! I realized after all it was my Wifi interferring with the signal in Pro Tools somehow.


I just right clicked on my card in the taskbar and selected "Disable Radio" and the noise burst stopped.


I should have tried this way long ago!

[mjames08]

I've been having this same "noise burst" issue, but it only happens in one session (of course the one I'm working on overdubs with a client tomorrow morning), and the "bursts" are not in the audio because it happens randomly. I've already created a new session and imported all of the session data from the old and that didn't fix it. No plugins. I've even uninstalled every plugin I own.

HD2 on Dell Precision 690 running XP SP2.. drive is a firewire fat32 drive, and it's not the drive because all of my other sessions are on the same drive and everything else works great.

Digi? Any help is appreciated!

Mark

EDIT: I don't have a Wifi card in my PC, so unfortunately that's not the issue.

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by mjames08

I've been having this same "noise burst" issue, but it only happens in one session (of course the one I'm working on overdubs with a client tomorrow morning), and the "bursts" are not in the audio because it happens randomly. I've already created a new session and imported all of the session data from the old and that didn't fix it. No plugins. I've even uninstalled every plugin I own.

HD2 on Dell Precision 690 running XP SP2.. drive is a firewire fat32 drive, and it's not the drive because all of my other sessions are on the same drive and everything else works great.

Digi? Any help is appreciated!

Mark

EDIT: I don't have a Wifi card in my PC, so unfortunately that's not the issue.

Have you tried this session from a different drive? If not, I would start there.

This thread also has a long list of possible causes and solutions.