Random (intermitent) bursts of static during playback

[Knightbus]

Hi,

I've tried several times to search for an answer to my problem, but what I've found doesn't describe my problem.

Basically what happens is that when I've got a few tracks loaded, some plug ins and/or some aux tracks (usually with a reverb plug in,) and at random times, these loud bursts of static will appear on a track, often on several. Fades seem to increase the chances of this happening greatly. I've never found a correlation between the number of tracks, plug ins, aux tracks or fades, it's always been wherever at random spots. My disk usage window never really seems to peak or overload on anything.

This doesn't happen on recording tracks, only tracks playing back. It does, however, show up on bounces (I'd hear them during the bounce, and they'd be there on the bounce itself, same spot.)


This is what I'm running.

Macbook OSX 10.5.4,
2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo,
4GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM,

Pro Tools M Powered 7.4.2,
M Audio Fast Track Ultra (using the usb port)
Seagate Free Agent Pro 500 GB (using the Firewire - my only two usb ports are used by the iLok and my interface)




If anyone has any insight on this at all, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Knightbus]

anyone?

[hookabruthaup]

Sounds like a demo plugin.
Make sure all your plugins are the current versions
and authorized correctly.

[Knightbus]

Originally Posted by hookabruthaup

Sounds like a demo plugin.
Make sure all your plugins are the current versions
and authorized correctly.

That would make sense if it was a pink noise... it's definatley a white noise though (when you look at the bounced wav file, you can see the noise clipping everywhere, when the rest of the track is much lower.) I have no plug ins other than what pro tools came with.



Also, it occurs on tracks that have no plug ins.

[DigiTechSupt]

Typically this is caused by bad drive format or having incompatible plug-ins installed.

What type of drive are you using for recording and playback?

Have you verified that all installed plug-ins are up to date? There's info in the General Troubleshooting thread on how to check that.

I would recommend backing up your audio drive, erase it, copy the data back and test again.

[mtderose]

Originally Posted by Knightbus

anyone?

I'm having this same problem...

Happens with no plug-ins being used.

KnightBus, does your audio file 'look' normal?

Mine does. No visual peaking in the edit window, but the audible noise and meter both clip. I'm using files that were recorded to one external hd and copied to another for me to edit.

Tonight I'm going to try and moved files directly onto my internal drive and see if anything changes. Just gotta find the space.

If that doesn't work, I'll try and get the original drive and see what happens.

Let me know if you find the cure!


I'm running MacBook Pro, 10.4.11 - ProTools, 7.4

Recorded 16 live tracks through a 002 Rack. Problem occurs on all tracks...

[DigiTechSupt]

I just wanted to reinforce that this is likely drive related (or possibly you have some kind of wireless device enabled?). I had a case about 6 months back where many people were reporting this. A vast majority were traced to drive issues - a drive going bad or a drive in need of an erase/format.

Let me know what you find...

[mtderose]

Ok.

So I've got my hands on the original external hard drive and play back is clean.

Move files onto my internal hd (different from the first attempt ) and the bursts of static and echoes from other tracks return.

I had been moving the entire session over at the same time. One folder, all 12 gigs.

I've now moved single audio files over - one at a time and imported them into the mix. No static!!

I'm I over working one of the drives when transferring such a hugh amount at a time? Overrun or under-run of some sort. Firewire 400....

If it is a bad drive I'd like to know which one as to save the all the other files that are on it.

[DigiTechSupt]

"If it is a bad drive I'd like to know which one as to save the all the other files that are on it."

It's likely not a bad drive - most of the time the drive just needs to be erased/formatted (erasing on Mac, formatting on PC). You do not need to do an 'all zeros' format or anything like that. Just a quick erase will typically cure it.

[Knightbus]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

I just wanted to reinforce that this is likely drive related (or possibly you have some kind of wireless device enabled?). I had a case about 6 months back where many people were reporting this. A vast majority were traced to drive issues - a drive going bad or a drive in need of an erase/format.

Let me know what you find...

So I erased the drive, and I still get this problem once in a while. Do you think that maybe the firewire 400 is too slow? Should I switch to usb for the extra 80mb / s? What about eSATA? Is it even possible to hook that up on a regular macbook?