Subject:Static Burst Problem

Posted by: Phantom Engineer

Date:10/30/2015 5:33:28 PM

I have Sound Forge 11 Pro. Occasionally when saving a file I get a quarter second or so static burst pop up in the file. It's completely unpredictable. I've been using SF since 1999 and this is fairly new. Anyone ever have an issue like that?

Subject:RE: Static Burst Problem

Reply by: ChristoC

Date:10/30/2015 11:52:30 PM

Are you, just on the off chance, saving files to a USB3 external drive?

Subject:RE: Static Burst Problem

Reply by: Phantom Engineer

Date:10/31/2015 9:47:11 AM

Thanks for your response ChristoC, but if you're asking about my disc burner drive no, I have two internal drives. At first I thought it might be a burn error but it is happening on the hard drive in the file. It's difficult to trace down something that happens randomly but I did finally see it happen. After editing a song I hit Save and when it reopened the static burst was there. It doesn't happen a lot but it's very destructive because it's then permanently saved in the file.

Subject:RE: Static Burst Problem

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:10/31/2015 12:59:16 PM

Actually he was asking if your hard drive is external USB3. There have been problems reported with such drives causing exactly the static you describe.

Subject:RE: Static Burst Problem

Reply by: Phantom Engineer

Date:10/31/2015 2:22:12 PM

Oh yes, I should have caught that. It is an external USB drive but I believe it's USB2. I didn't know there was an issue with that.

Subject:RE: Static Burst Problem

Reply by: ChristoC

Date:10/31/2015 4:14:39 PM

OK, the obvious place to start is to determine if it ever happens if you just use an internal drive, such as your system drive or suchlike....

Subject:RE: Static Burst Problem

Reply by: MissingTheFOUNDRY

Date:11/1/2015 3:39:14 PM

SHORT 1/2 second - 2 second whitenoise-esque corruption at FULL VOLUME embedded randomly once in the file.

YES!!! YES!!! YES!!! I have absolutely experienced this, with DEFINATELY no relationship to external USB3 drives.

This was one reason I went ahead and dropped the cash on SF11, but it has showed up now as well. I can't tell you with what frequency, but maybe as high 1% of editing work. I have found it in old files, preventing me from nailing it down, but definitely SF10, and I;m fairly sure even SF9 (which would be PCA file work).
To date I have seen this about I'd guess perhaps 40-50 times. I couldn't possibly guess what causes it as I only discover it well after the editing sessions have been concluded.

I have had SERIOUS trouble with output plug-in (flac/MP3) and know they are broken in SF11, and they were changed ( as I am told by sony rep) because they had something dysfunctional in the SF10 versions - so might be a place to experiment. Are your saves to MP3 or FLAC?

I'd have made noise about this in the past, but this is modern Sound Forge, the buggy, troubled super expensive sound editor that it is; Bravo Sony. (hey Sony - ever gonna repair those SF11 flac/MP3 output plug-ins with confirmed critical flaw? ...this decade?)

Subject:RE: Static Burst Problem

Reply by: Phantom Engineer

Date:11/7/2015 11:38:35 AM

Thanks MTF, that was very informative. I'm believe I have USB2 but I have been editing on an internal drive and haven't yet seen the static burst raise it's head. Of course that is not definitive as it is oo random.
I do save to FLAC a lot but I have had this happen in WAV as well. But still I think I'll try saving in WAV and convert to FLAC after with a different program.

Subject:RE: Static Burst Problem

Reply by: UKharrie

Date:11/14/2015 6:40:31 PM

Maybe silly of me - but are you saying this happens when you Copy-Save...it is not there as a Render?

I would think it should be - How does the recording Media know it was receiving a Render, or a Copy-Save?

First-off, is to list all recent "changes" to you and the PC - that might help. I'm guessing the OS has changed too???

+++: Try ten saves/renders to the internal HDD and ten to the USB stick, or External HDD. Compare. I guess the file length needs to be something like a minute, but maybe base this on your experience of how often it occurs.

Is it possible we might have hearing of this sound? Your description is Terrible ( I mean hair-pulling terrible )

Have you tried an internal Drive with a larger "Buffer" - modern ones have ever-increasing RAM attached - and I recall some have an SSI built-in. = "Hybrid HDD" Also, being "internal" SATA should remove any blame on USB.

It's possible a glitch is being "recorded" as the USB fetches more digits, perhaps.
+ I wonder if it occurs to a HDD using eSATA. Odd that it is so rare.
It's obvious you'd check house thermostats, etc.

It's very odd - hope you solve it real soon.
+ Let us know the Fix...

Subject:RE: Static Burst Problem

Reply by: Doug_Marshall

Date:11/21/2015 9:37:35 PM

I get exactly the same blast of static when I play files from one of my older external USB drives, but not all (I have a total of six). It's been more of a consistent problem with Vegas, however, and I haven't experience actual file damage. I've also noticed that when Vegas is creating .sfk files for the .wav files they sometimes have areas of repeated full-scale hash in the display. Fortunately for me, the sound files themselves seem fine.

When I need to work on a project on the drive that Sony programs don't like, I move all the project files to a "good" drive, to save my ears.

Hope Sony's listening...

Doug

Subject:RE: Static Burst Problem

Reply by: MissingTheFOUNDRY

Date:11/22/2015 2:37:15 PM

I have just run into 4 more files with this corruption this very week. It is older editing so I can't nail down the circumstances, I'm afraid. I have seen this in files whose creation predates USB3 (!!), so maybe its ALL USB drives?? I may possibly have used a USB2 drive at various eras.

I also want to correct an earlier post on this thread: I had issues with flac and PCA output plug-ins (not flac and MP3 plug-ins). I don't think I've experienced any issues with the mp3 plug-in. With the PCA files, they could be truncated at the end by varying amounts, and with flac files, they could be truncated at the beginning by a few seconds. These issues were confirmed (though not yet fixed) by Sony rep! Beware.

Subject:RE: Static Burst Problem

Reply by: Geoff_Wood

Date:11/22/2015 4:53:10 PM

I suspect it is something inherent in streaming continuous data through USB. Maybe the start of the stream inherently takes a while to get up to full speed, or something like that, and the noise is the result of a buffer under-run (not getting the data quickly enough to play back, so gaps or some other herniating).

Increase playback buffer size ?.

geoff