Recording with an M-Audio JamLab ....annoying lil click sound....

Question

Recording with an M-Audio JamLab ....annoying lil click sound....

Hey everyone,

I am doing basic demo'ing in garageband using the m-audio jamlab (this is all i can afford at the time being) and I notice that when i'm recording/playback tracks, I often get this lil 'clicks' or 'glitch' pops in the track that occur like ever 6 bars or so...

Last night I updated the driver of the jamlab to the most recent, 1.6.1...
I really want to do some demo's and put alot of effort into this. I know most of you will say its about time to purchase a half decent interface, but at the time I cannot. Is there ANY kind of recommendations u can give me regarding this annoyance which is taking away from the quality of my tracks?

MacMini, Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Posted on Aug 25, 2006 9:12 AM

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Answer 1

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Aug 25, 2006 9:16 AM in response to David MacVicar

Only a guess since I can't see or hear your recording, but that reads to me like your signal is clipping. You have to make sure the last bar (the one offset to the right from the rest) in GB's meters does not light. Could this be the problem?

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Answer 2

Aug 25, 2006 9:36 AM in response to HangTime

Hangtime,

No I made sure my signal is not clipping. In fact, my bass guitar's signal can't even get towards the red...to me its almost as if the computer's processing is causing these lil pop sounds in the background....is that possible?

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Answer 3

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Aug 25, 2006 10:04 AM in response to David MacVicar

Do the clicks occur at the exact same spot(s)? IOW, are they recorded, or just occurring randomly during playback? Can you see actual spikes in the waveform?

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Answer 4

Aug 25, 2006 10:19 AM in response to HangTime

Hrmm...

They appear to be random, although I am not quite sure. I DO NOT see actual spikes in the waveform of the recorded track, but it is definately there. I wish I had a way to post the clip of the bass track with the clicking there. You would then have a better idea.

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Answer 5

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Aug 25, 2006 10:29 AM in response to David MacVicar

One more thought to narrow it down. If you export the song to iTunes, do you hear the clicks when you play that back?

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Answer 6

Aug 25, 2006 10:31 AM in response to HangTime

SOrry, double post of the same info

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Answer 7

Aug 25, 2006 10:40 AM in response to David MacVicar

Hangtime,

Update...Yes I do see a spike in the waveform where the click sound is...For this track, I can delete that part of the waveform to remove the click, but in some tracks, I won't be able to...so its still an issue

But yes, I do see a spike

As well, when I mixdown the track to iTunes and listen to it as an AIFF, I still hear the pop sounds...

Any direction?

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Answer 8

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Aug 25, 2006 10:46 AM in response to David MacVicar

I'm not sure now. Some people had issues in GB2 with clicks during playback, but they were not recorded (I saw it only once myself).

Does it require a driver? Have you checked M-Audio's web site to see if there are any newer versions?

It kind of seems like the issue is with the interface. In the 7 months GB3 has been out I don't recall seeing anyone post about an issue like yours (I also don't recall anyone posting about using that interface B-(>

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Answer 9

Aug 25, 2006 10:54 AM in response to HangTime

Hangtime..

Last night I updated to the latest driver. I'll have u know, this is m-audio's cheapest and lowest quality usb interface.

As a side note, it appears that I only get the clicking/pop when I have the track monitoring ON so I can hear myself play the bass parts. If I turn it off, and just play with the metronome with no bass output, there is no clicking....what is this an indication of?

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Answer 10

Aug 25, 2006 10:57 AM in response to David MacVicar

SORRY...

When I have monitoring off, I am STILL GETTING THE POP! This is driving me up the freaking wall! I have such great music to record, but who wants to record music with all this maddness goin on in the background!

BTW, I have a Mac Mini PPC 1.42GHz, with 1GB of DDR SDRam, is this not sufficient for Garageband's needS?

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Answer 11

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Aug 25, 2006 10:57 AM in response to David MacVicar

Hm! I have never heard of an issue like that.

THis is really kind of grasping at straws, but try this:

Open GB's prefs and under Audio/MIDI select "Built-In" from the Output PopUp menu, and plug your headphones into the Mac. Does the problem still occur? I'm wondering if the Interface may have some kind of issue with recording and playing back at the same time.

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Answer 12

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Aug 25, 2006 11:00 AM in response to David MacVicar

SORRY...

When I have monitoring off, I am STILL GETTING THE POP!

Drat. I thought we might be on to something here B-(>

Try what I suggested anyway, see if it makes any difference if the interface doesn't have to play anything back.

BTW, I have a Mac Mini...

That's plenty, I work with a lot less for recording. The recording machine is a wee 800Mc iBook with only 640MB of RAM (I use a more robust machine for Mixing and Mastering)

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Answer 13

Aug 25, 2006 11:07 AM in response to HangTime

Hang...

I have it setup in the sound preferences that my INPUT device is my M-audio jamlab, and my OUTPUT sound device is my headphone jack on my Mini (which is a set of Logitech Speakers). So, this means that the playback isn't even going through the jamlab device, correct?

I guess this makes matters even worse I assume 😟

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Answer 14

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Aug 25, 2006 11:11 AM in response to David MacVicar

How about we try reversing it then. Set the output to the jamlab and jack your speakers into the jamlab as well.

If that doesn't do it, I'm afraid you might need to contact M-Audio

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Answer 15

Aug 25, 2006 11:21 AM in response to HangTime

First bass take i just did worked fine

2nd bass take as a test produced the exact same lil popping sound.

Off to m-audio?

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