Pops and clicks?

[eugen3]

Hey, i'm currently using a Lexicon alpha into the bundled Cubase LE.
Sometimes when i record i do get some pops and clicks into the recording itself. checked the waveform, it was actually recorded in to the track.
Any idea on how to solve this?

 

[Zarin]

hmmm, maybe there could be sumthing wrong with the cables? or the gain is too high? im not quite sure. but i suspect the cables.

 

[ac]

Sometimes, the input/output activity is screwed up, either by a. slow drive, b. too small audio buffers, c. bad onboard controllers, d. having too many other things running in the background, e. using too many vsti/fx.

 

[eugen3]

Zarin, i highly doubt its the cables and the gain.

ac: might it be a latency issue? My setup is a condenser>Presonus bluetube pre>lexicon alpha>USB>PC. Recorded to an external 500gb Western Digital hard disk (USB)
MY pc is a single core intel 2.4ghz P4, 1024mb ram (i think)

What else you think might be the problem?

 

[ac]

I think it's the USB bus. Try locating the drive and the soundcard into usb ports that are far from each other. Ports that are close usually share the same usb controller.

But be aware that sometimes, there's no way of totally relieving clicks and pops. Those conditions state earlier will crop up eventually.

The best would be to have one on firewire and the other on usb. But then again that might not solve the problem.

 

[amoslu]

Check your buffers. If you are recording at 48000 khz you get acceptable latency with a buffer of 256kb. For 96000 khz you can get acceptable latency with a buffer of 512kb. Too low a buffer may mean the cpu is unable to process the data fast enough and click. Check that you have frozen your cpu intensive VSTis as well...