User profile for user: nxtvanhalen
nxtvanhalen Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Mysterious crackling/buzzing

OK, so I have been playing my guitar through GrarageBand for quite a while now, and it's absolutely amazing. Except recently, I've discovered this annoying little intermittent buzzing that seems ot be completely random. I should probably explain my setup: I have my guitar plugged into a POD XT live which connects to the computer via USB. It's been working great for a few months like this, and I use the POD XT effects through a track with no effects to record. I have checked multiplae times to see if the connection is OK, and it seems to be. I don't think I'm overloading the input or speakers, because if i plug my speakers directly into my POD it sounds great. I think the problem is GarageBand because I only have this problem when I'm playing through GarageBand. The noise sounds like it's being overloaded, like a loud and pretty frequent buzz, completely different and much louder than normal buzzing. I have low impedence active pickups and they are supposed to be really low on noise, and I have a cord that quiets the hum also. The buzzing also seems to take the last couple of notes I've played and repeat them over, sometimes resulting in a sudden huge delay between my playing and the sound, and even the notes I play sounding a half step down... It's odd, but it seems to happen at just the right times, like when I just get to the cool part in the solo I'm imrovising. It's almost impossible to play for 15 seconds without a huge distorted buzz, which goes away until the next time I start playing something really cool. So hopefully I've explained this enough for you guys to understand my annoying situation, and thanks in advance...

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Dec 8, 2006 6:33 PM

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User profile for user: Kurt Weber
Kurt Weber
User level: Level 6
13,969 points

Posted on Dec 10, 2006 11:08 AM

Much of what you are describing sound like guitar effects. Have you tried recording with all effects on the Pod off?


The noise sounds like it's being overloaded, like a loud and pretty frequent buzz, completely different and much louder than normal buzzing.

Sounds like Overdrive or distortion effect


The buzzing also seems to take the last couple of notes I've played and repeat them over, sometimes resulting in a sudden huge delay between my playing and the sound, and even the notes I play sounding a half step down... It's odd, but it seems to happen at just the right times,

Sounds like a Delay and Chorus effect

Kurt
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User profile for user: Kurt Weber
Kurt Weber
User level: Level 6
13,969 points

Dec 10, 2006 11:08 AM in response to nxtvanhalen

Much of what you are describing sound like guitar effects. Have you tried recording with all effects on the Pod off?


The noise sounds like it's being overloaded, like a loud and pretty frequent buzz, completely different and much louder than normal buzzing.

Sounds like Overdrive or distortion effect


The buzzing also seems to take the last couple of notes I've played and repeat them over, sometimes resulting in a sudden huge delay between my playing and the sound, and even the notes I play sounding a half step down... It's odd, but it seems to happen at just the right times,

Sounds like a Delay and Chorus effect

Kurt
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User profile for user: nxtvanhalen
nxtvanhalen Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Dec 10, 2006 9:30 AM in response to isteveus

All right, sounds like a good idea actually. I think I switched to my M-Audio USB cable once but I can't remember if it worked or not...

If all fails I guess I can solve the problem like I did last time, by deleting and reinstalling GarageBand. It's wort a try, but I'll have to copy all the songs I want to iTunes, because then I'll have at least some of my songs.
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User profile for user: nxtvanhalen
nxtvanhalen Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Dec 9, 2006 1:16 PM in response to isteveus

Haha, thanks.. Yay, someone replied! Well I tried that of course, but i think it seems to be one of those unfixable problems. Last time I had a problem, I had to call the GarageBand suport team and I gradually worked my way up the ranks until i reached the head guy In Apple GarageBand, and he had no idea what was going on. So I had to buy a new GarageBand (but only because I lost the DVD to reinstall it) and it solved the problem. But now I'm back to looking through countless FAQ's that seem to fix the easiest problems, and I have that same feeling, you know... that "I'm jealous of everyone else's problems because they can find a simple answer just by looking at the FAQ's that are only there for people who don't like reading manuals, whereas I'm the only person who has this problem, and it's either caused by some freak accident (somehow freak accidents usually happen to me) or God trying to tell me to do something other than make sweet songs on GarageBand. It's OK if there's no solution, there usually never is...

Huh... ok I think my rant is over...
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User profile for user: HangTime
HangTime
User level: Level 9
53,853 points

Dec 10, 2006 9:59 AM in response to nxtvanhalen

but I'll have to copy all the songs I want to iTunes


Just to make sure, I hope you don't mean you're going to drop your garageband projects into iTunes and think that's going to keep them for future editing in GB. You can export them, but not simply drop the projects into it (you'll wind up with any audio files (regions) as separate songs in iTunes) ~~Hang
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User profile for user: nxtvanhalen
nxtvanhalen Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Dec 11, 2006 4:17 PM in response to Kurt Weber

Oh, no I know it's definitly not that... I've been playing guitar for about two and a half years, and I know about distortion, fuzz, echo/delay, phaser, flanger, reverb, chorus, and I have a POD XT Live, which is a multi-effect pedal board that I use for my distortion tone (it's actually amazing how high quality the effects are on it) and all of the crazy effects like reverse delay or synth effects, and I run it through a channel with no effects on GarageBand. I can understand what you're saying, and it would be kind of...well...sad... if that was the problem, but thanks for pointing it out anyway. The problem I'm having is a KIND of distortion, but it's not the desired distortion effect that I'm using through my POD. It lasts for about a second or two, and is more of a buzz that overloads what I'm playing, that usually goes away for a while, but then comes back at the worst times. Haha yeah, It's definitely not an effect I'm using, that would be pretty funny. I'm not riping on what you said, I can understand how someone who had never used an overdrive on their guitar would react if they heard it. The overdrive on GarageBand is extremely scratchy and distorted witout any tweaking, so I'm sorry if I wasn't really clear before, and thanks for covering that, I guess I should've clarified that I wasn't talking about an overdrive or distortion. Also, I should probably add that the buzz/hum/scratching that overloads my guitar signal happens even when I;m playing clean, so it might not be the fact that I'm running a distortion effect through GarageBand.
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User profile for user: HangTime
HangTime
User level: Level 9
53,853 points

Dec 11, 2006 4:41 PM in response to nxtvanhalen

I'm not following you. Why are you not just going to work with the projects as they are? Re-installing GB is not going to delete your GB projects (unless you delete them)

(BTW, the word for that delay you mentioned above is "Latency". When you use that specific word folks will know that you mean the lag time between playing and hearing rather than an audio effect yo u may have added) ~~Hang
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User profile for user: nxtvanhalen
nxtvanhalen Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Dec 11, 2006 7:31 PM in response to HangTime

Really? I guess I thought that if I deleted and reinstalled GB it would erase my files... wait a sec, if I delete just GB and not the songs, I don't have to lose the files..... haha ok, wow if that's what you're saying then sorry, I should've thought about that! LATENCY! I was trying to remember that word for my last post, but I couldn't remember what it was! Thank you...
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User profile for user: HangTime
HangTime
User level: Level 9
53,853 points

Dec 11, 2006 7:38 PM in response to nxtvanhalen

if I delete just GB and not the songs, I don't have to lose the files.....


'Zactly

haha ok, wow if that's what you're saying then sorry, I should've thought about that!


Is exactly what I'm saying. Applications and their support files are separate from your data files. Just like if you delete iPhoto, you don't delete your photos. or if you delete choke MS Word, you don't lose your documents, etc.

LATENCY! I was trying to remember that word for
my last post, but I couldn't remember what it was!


And now you will never forget it again. Sometimes it's rough remembering all the words, but using the right words is often crucial in getting the right answers

Thank you...


No sweat. Now let's hope you get a solution to the original prob. Good luck ~~HT
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User profile for user: nxtvanhalen
nxtvanhalen Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Dec 13, 2006 6:34 PM in response to HangTime

All right, well I read your reply, and I tried repairing permissions and deleting the plist and cs but it didn't work. I started up GarageBand and was doing fine until all of a sudden there was that awful grating sound. I'm thinking I might have somwhow damaged GarageBand because I used it to record a few very loud band practices, but that doesn't make much sense... thanks anyway, I hadn't though of deleting the cs and plist so hopefully it fixed some overlooked problem at least.
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Mysterious crackling/buzzing

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