Strange Latency Issues

bbrooks wrote on 7/15/2004, 6:01 AM
I had been using Vegas 2.0 for audio recording and recently have started using Vegas 4.0. I am having a very strange problem with overdubed parts. I recorded all of my drums and a scratch part from my guitar player.

Everything there is ok.

I then had a couple of band members overdub a keys part and a guitar part. simultaneously. Then later we did a bass part.

problem 1
Not only did the two parts od'd not line up with the drums, they didn't line up with each other. The odd part is I can't simply slide the parts into sync. It's as if the od'd parts are streched out longer than the parts recorded 1st. I have to go and line up a little bit at the beginning and then gradually line up repeatedly as I go through the recording.

problem 2
I am playing back from one hard drive and recording to another. I am also getting some "gapping" or stutters when recording and playing back simultaneously and have repeatedly adjusted the buffer. If I play back and record to the same drive, it only makes the problem worse. I have even tried utilizing my external firewire hard drive and have the same issues.

It shouldn't be a memory/ram issue. The internal drives are 40 gig each. The external is 80. The processor is 1ghz. my ram is 768 mb.

I am using an STAudio interface. Should I be using MME, ASIO, or GSFI? My sample buffer in the STA inter face is set at 512. and sample rate is 44.1.

I also have a MOTU 828 mkII firewire interface but haven't even used this in this project.

I am so lost right and and utterly frustrated.

Brandon

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 7/15/2004, 6:14 AM
RAM is light, but will work if you're only recording 1 track at a time.
Use Classic or ASIO drivers. Problem is likely your audio interface not being able to be interfaced with Vegas quickly enough.
You could try the MOTU 828, but it's a latent driverset as well. Echo and M-Audio have this down pretty well. You should be able to get latencies as low as 7ms with the equipment you have.
Are you sure your card has a locked sampling rate? Odd if your samples can't even be lined up.
bbrooks wrote on 7/15/2004, 6:32 AM
I checked that last night re: locking, and will try some more test recordings tonight. I didn't really have this problem w/ vegas 2.0. Where do I adjust the latency offset? I am still green in some areas.

Thanks for your help
Brandon
bbrooks wrote on 7/16/2004, 6:27 AM
OK, here is the strange but true (supposedly) account of a friend who had the same "stretching" issue.

He explained is as my system had a "hicup" or "burp". One of my hard drives was probably out of sync with the other due to the RPM's being slightly slower or faster. He said to reboot and try again. So far so good. VERY STRANGE.

I did get some of my "regular" latency issues addressed as well.

Has anybody every heard of this RPM issue before?

Brandon
Spot|DSE wrote on 7/16/2004, 6:41 AM
No.
Audio latency isn't governed in the least by drive speeds matching up. Call it coincidence.
Sounds like buffering issues, and rebooting cleared the buffer.
In Vegas, go to options/prefs/audio and you'll find the latency adjustments.
Kill all applications when recording, except Vegas.
bbrooks wrote on 7/16/2004, 10:48 AM
Yeah I make sure to kill everything else that might even think about running.

It was still weird though. It wasn't behaving like a latency issue. It was more like silly putty wave files, getting all stretched out. Really weird.

Thanks again.
Brandon
craftech wrote on 7/17/2004, 5:44 AM
Hve you tried recording your audio with Vegas 2.0 and editing with Vegas 4.0?

John