Listen to this distortion

[innermusic]

Please have a listen to this CLIP. The word is "lifestyle" and on the second syllable (...style) you'll hear this weird distortion. Looking at the waveform you'll see it's irregular. This is happening randomly on many projects, not often, but often enough. What do you think is the problem? The vocal chain is a U87 into a Neve 1089 (EQ is bypassed) into interface MOTU 24I/O, into PT. Lots of headroom - no where near clipping.

Driving me nuts!

[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by innermusic

Please have a listen to this CLIP. The word is "lifestyle" and on the second syllable (...style) you'll hear this weird distortion. Looking at the waveform you'll see it's irregular. This is happening randomly on many projects, not often, but often enough. What do you think is the problem? The vocal chain is a U87 into a Neve 1089 (EQ is bypassed) into interface MOTU 24I/O, into PT. Lots of headroom - no where near clipping.

Driving me nuts!

Are you using elastic audio?

[innermusic]

Originally Posted by Emcha_audio

Are you using elastic audio?

Nope.

[WombatStudio.Org]

It does sound like stretched elastic audio ... If that's not going through a plugin (thinking dithering) then maybe a clock problem?

[NuBus]

Is it just with this Girls voice??? Pronunciation???? Phlegm???

[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by WombatStudio.Org

It does sound like stretched elastic audio ... If that's not going through a plugin (thinking dithering) then maybe a clock problem?

That was my other thought too.

[dave911]

Hard to tell but it sounds similar to what I get when I insert a convolutional reverb with a very long response tail.
Regardless of other system loading PT will sometimes put up the "running of processor" warning, but will often sound like your clip or play with decreased speed.

[innermusic]

Not a performance issue, as it’s been happening with various performers.
Sounds digital, doesn’t it?

[necjamc]

Originally Posted by NuBus

Is it just with this Girls voice??? Pronunciation???? Phlegm???

After listening my wife and I agree it sounds like phlegm. But I've had weird sounds like this when using a buffer size to low with plugs that cause CPU spikes. It won't throw an error, just add digital artifacts to the sound.

[TimothyJohn]

Originally Posted by necjamc

After listening my wife and I agree it sounds like phlegm. But I've had weird sounds like this when using a buffer size to low with plugs that cause CPU spikes. It won't throw an error, just add digital artifacts to the sound.

To me, it sounds digital. To isolate the problem, isolate each step. For instance, starting today, record all audio tracks cleanly--no plugins at all. Then route your audio tracks to aux tracks with your intended plugins.

Diagnosing intermittent problems is always a huge pita. But, if it's a clocking problem, your clean audio tracks will distort, ahem, intermittently. If that happens, change your interface/clock and maybe problem solved. I agree, this type of distortion is very annoying.

Also, even though it sounds digital to me, I wouldn't neglect checking connections in particular--mic to cable, cable to cable, cable to interface, etc.

Anyhow, +1 for digital distortion, -1 for raspy throat, and a big maybe for hardware connectivity.

Let us know when you nail it down!

TIm