Recording sound distorted and slowed down.

As of OS X 10.6.3 and Pro Apps Update 2010-01 (FPC 7.0.2) I was encountering in both video sound and music sound tracks odd and somewhat unpredictable audio distortion (wrong pitch and left and right stereo sound running out of sync).

This problem seemed to pop up around the end of March 2010.

I have determined that it is related to iTunes 9.0 which has placed in my startup items iTunesHelper which is a startup item, just after AdobeResourcesSynchronizer, iChat and Stickies. I am not certain if it is the order of the startup that introduces the problem or the version of iTunes (which currently is now 9.1).

If you have this item in your startup, just delete it and perhaps your audio problems will go away.

Don

Me too. I'm just running a lead from my cassette deck into the audio-in jack (as I've done many times before) to digitise some old cassettes. Everything looked ok, but the sound is shocking. It sounds slow, and very distorted. But takes up the same duration as the original material. I switched to Adobe Soundbooth, all works fine. Come on Apple. This is your "pro" audio edit app we're talking about here.

I'm having the same problem and it's driving me crazy. I had to stay with OS 10.5.8 just to be able to continue working. Today, I installed a completely clean drive in my Mac Pro (2x2.66 dual-core), added all the updates, then installed Logic Studio (latest version) and added all the updates. Same distortion/slow problem whether I use an M-Audio USB mic preamp, the Apogee duet. I installed the software in a recent vintage 17-in. unibody Macbook, same software, all the updates, same problem with both interfaces, even with the built-in Mac.

Both these setups record fine, with both interfaces, into Garageband, Logic, Adobe Soundbooth. The problem is limited to FCP 3.0.1. This is maddening, as FCP is the program I need to use every week to produce my radio show.

Does ANYBODY from Apple read this blog? Has anyone at Apple ever acknowledged the existence of this problem? Based on the number of views this thread has had, it's got to be a widely encountered problem. We're not talking about cheap hardware or software. Using FTP to make recordings is hardly an obscure use of the program. This is outrageous - Apple, please respond, and fix this problem!

Let me put it in simple terms: THERE'S A BUG IN FINAL CUT PRO 3.0.1 WHEN USED WITH SNOW LEOPARD. IT DOESN'T RECORD PROPERLY. IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED, AND ONLY APPLE CAN DO IT!!

Hope somebody's listening in Cupertino ...

No, I don't think anyone from Apple reads this forum. And it's a user forum, so I don't expect them to, nor should anyone.

Here's a link to provide feedback and report your bug on STP, though:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/soundtrackpro.html

And here's the general Apple support page:

http://www.apple.com/support/contact/

Seems pretty obvious this is a bug - please report it and hopefully Apple can address it.

Perhaps related, I've noticed that often Apple software updates change Audio/MIDI settings. Just the other day I lost a recording due to a mismatch with STP (fortunately I record a duplicate separately on a digital recorder so it wasn't really lost, lost), but upon resetting Audio/MIDI to my STP defaults the issue, as usual, was resolved. It would be nice if you could make adjustments through the STP interface, but you really have to match things up manually.

Thanks. I'd like to try what you suggest, but I have no idea of what settings I should use for the Audio/MIDI SETTINGS PANEL. Can you offer any guidance or resource where I could learn more abou this?

Your settings for Audio/MIDI should match your choice in STP. I record voice, for example, so I like to use 96/24, which gives me plenty of headroom for editing. That's my STP default. Then I make sure that the sampling rate in Audio/MIDI is set at 96000. And I use a MOTU mixer, so I make sure its sampling rate is set at 96000. If these don't all match, you'll have problems. But you can choose whatever rate makes sense for you. Perhaps there's a way within STP to make sure everything's properly synchronized, but if so I don't know what it is.

The main thing that goes wrong, as I say, is that Apple updates (of almost any kind) often reset the machine's Audio/MIDI to a different sampling rate. Don't know why. Perhaps software engineers are using that rate to test their work and don't bother to have the update reset to prior defaults? Who knows? Just make sure that everything in your workflow is recording at the same rate.

Thanks for your suggestions re the Audio Setup panel. I checked to see that the sampling rates were identical, but it didn't make a difference in the problem at hand.

However, I re-read this string carefully, and came across this earlier post:

"When I choose a new audio track and I make it a Mono recording, the sound is fine. Only when I choose stereo I have the right channel (#2) dead and when I choose both left and right to be either both #1 or #2 I receive the distortion."

Just show you the importance of reading carefully. I use STP to produce a weekly radio show, which is a mixture of stereo tracks ripped from CDs and a voice track from a single mic. Up until now, I had been recording the voice track in stereo, but setting the record parameters to duplicate channel 1 from my mixer onto the left and right tracks. It never occurred to me to do otherwise, and it worked fine in STP 2 and 3, right up until the change to OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

I changed the track record parameters to "Mono" and ... the problem vanished! It makes no difference to the finished track, since STP mixes it all down into a two-track file with the stereo music reproduced properly and the one-source voice track mixes to two tracks, just as before. I'm embarrassed that I didn't try this earlier.

None of which changes the fact that there's a bug in this version of STP when used with Snow Leopard!