2 little Problems with ProTools LE (HELP!)

[L-1011Alpha]

Hi everyone! (Sorry about my english)

I'm having problems with Pro Tools (LE).

I don't know if the problem is the Mic (Audio Technica Condenser), the Mic Cable, the MBOX or some setting with Pro Tools...

PROBLEM 1:

When recording (or not recording)... I hear the voice good and clear, but from nowhere the sound gets distortioned (unclear) like a "ground" sound...
and to get it stopped and get the voice clear again in the recording, I have to go to the SETUPS >> PLAYBACK ENGINE >> H/W BUFFER SIZE AND CHANGE IT FROM 1024 TO 128 ..OR.. 1024 TO 128 SAMPLE...
It only gets good for like 20 or 30 seconds in the recording, and AGAIN I have to change the Buffer Sice!!!

PROBLEM 2:

I have to disconect the Mic' from the MBox so' I can hear good and clear the voice that Im recording.... If not, I hear the recording distiortioned...

ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED!

THANKS IN ADVANCE.

[lividone]

Hi,

An unexpected "ground sound" during tracking or playback would lead me to believe you're experiencing an "audio dropout", where the the DAW loses sync with the interface so badly that it just stops. Either that or you have a driver/IRQ conflict of some sort.

This could be caused by a myriad of different things, depending on your session.

In order for me ( or others on this forum ) to get a better idea, please post:

PC specs
Starting buffer sample size
Sample rate
Number of tracks in session
Number of effects being used
MBox driver version


Thanks.

[brandondrury]

I wish I could be of more help, but Pro Tools is a proprietary system. Everything they do is different from the rest of the universe.

Brandon

[Jroye82]

hook us up with your system and we can solve this easily.


pt 7.3?

laptop?
mac, pc?

[L-1011Alpha]

Ok, here's the info.

PC Specs:

Windows XP 2002 (PC)
Intel Pentium 4 CPU / 3.20GHZ / 0.98 GB of RAM

Pro Tools LE 6.1.1
With only 1 Track (MONO)
Starting buff size: 128 samples / 65% CPU usage
DAE Playback Buffer size: LEVEL 0 (Minimun)

The distortion increase as I keep adding more tracks. But if I disconnect the Mic from the Mbox it stops. (the recording keeps with the "ground or distortioned sound tough).

Thank you all in advance for all your help,

Sincerely,

L-1011Alpha.

[Charlie_M]

All I ever used was 7.3.

I found everything seems to work better if I have 85% allowed cpu usage in PTLE 7.3.

You have a much faster processor than I do (yours is 3.2 GHz, ine is only 1.86 GHz), but it might be worth a try to bump from 65% to 85% to see if that helps.

For whatever reason mine likes to be at 1024 or larger buffer size when I get more than a few tracks. I just run it up to 2048 most of the time these days and it seems to work fine.

Not sure if your version has this but under the "window" menu, there may be a "system usage" window you can show and it may be instructive to see what that looks like when you start to have problems. If the disk usage is maxed out or the cpu usage is maxed out those may be useful clues.

Also why do you have the DAE playback buffer set to level 0? Mine defaults to level 2 and I never change that. Maybe try 2, or perhaps an even higher setting to see if that alleviates the problem.

Hope that's helpful - good luck !

Charlie

[lividone]

How is the mic connected? Is it direct to the MBox?

It also sounds like a cabling issue, say, a TRS cable connecting an unbalanced output to a balanced In.

I agree to an extent with Charlie on the buffer settings, however you didn't mention the sample rate of the project - 96khz and 44.1khz at 128 samples is world of difference in terms of cpu load.

[L-1011Alpha]

Yep! The mic is connected direct to the MBox. Actually I've never tried changing the mic cable...

What do you think of connecting the mic cable to a mixing console, and from the console to the MBox?

[richiebee]

Sounds like your computer just can't keep up.

DAE playback buffer ain't gonna help for sure. Increase it to give your computer a fighting chance.

What kind of state is your computer in? When did you last defrag? Are you running realtime antivirus software? How fast is the hard drive? How much space is on it? What brand is the computer? Or did you build it yourself? Do you play games on it?

[L-1011Alpha]

Today I did something different to see if it worked and it did.

Instead of the mic, I put the keyboard direct to the mbox with a 1/4 line and it worked, the ground sound dissapeared.

I was thinking, maybe put the mic cable to a little console, and from the console the 1/4 line to the mbox.