[Lorenzo]

when you say “isolate the track”, do you mean “solo” it, or lesson to the wav file in Edit view ?

Did you check the volume enveloppe ? there might be an “accidental” lowered volume curve on this part, which does not show until you activate the “show volume enveloppe” in the task bar.

And also : it would be a very unlucky thnig, but it might be some kind of masking effect between your vocal and another similar frequancy range instrument like, say, an elec. guitar or strings… but this wouldn’t sound like a drop-out, your voice would just sound “drowned” in the mix.

Interesting article on this matter : https://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/~bosse/proj/node9.html

Bye

Laurent

[Lorenzo]

Yeah, you’re right. Although I (wrongly) assumed that a TASCAM machine was somewhat properly aligned…

and yes, I use the card output for playback, which works OK as long as I’m not recording at the same time (in that case, the incoming recording track is “muted”. And yes, the card has full duplex capability).

I got a 1.5 trial version today, so I’ll try and see if things get any better.

Bye.

[Lorenzo]

OK, so now for all interested readers, here’s the status :

1- Working with an M-Audio Audiophile USB makes it *mandatory* to work in 48khz session. Actually, that is the only way to get the playback correctly pitched. Sounds strange, but it is *reality checked* !

2 – Transfering tracks to an analog tape recorder, add additional tracks recorded on the tape recorder, then back to Audition and hoping it will naturally synchronize with the original playback is just hopeless : simply forget about it (or send me the solution !). I tried every possible option like Acurate sample synch and alike, nothing works, either in 44 or 48k.

3 – To work properly, you definitely needs an external bussing system which allows you to separate what needs to be playbacked from what needs to be recorded : the card internal bus itself does not allow you to record and hear outcoming playback at the same time. Believe my word, I have tried ! this might sound obvious to experienced people, but for beginners like me it is definitely not (I found my way out of it using strange cabling through a bypassed rack guitar effect, a TC electronics G-major in my case !). Unorthodox, but it works…

and once again, thanks for your time Willie. 😉

Laurent

[Lorenzo]

Once again, thanks for your help Willie…

1) the pops and cracks were eyesterday’s prtoblem: I juste restarted the whole thing (including the PC) => problem solved. It now records in 48k or 44.1 without noises.

2) The point is : if I stick to 44.1, I get a high pitched playback ONLY while recording new tracks. If the whole session is 48, no problem. And again, this might be a (somewhat strange) limitation of the sound card itself, which does not seem to deal correctly with lower rates sampling. My conclusion is that Audition records at 48 because the sound card acts like a “master” and “tellls” it to do so, but as the playback is 44.1, it tries to render it at a higher resolution… but I’m not a specialsit, this is only logical thinking !

3) I will try tour “rewire” thing. I’m not at my workstation now, so I can’t check it out, but I’m not sure I have this feature. Are you sure this is not a v 1.5 add on (I’m on Audition 1.0) ?

4) Playback options on the tracks seem correct although I don’t use the BUS feature, I just route all output to the same “Audiphile USB” device, asusming the card allows multi-tracks monitoring. Should I use different buses (in my view, I should do so only for specific FX setups)

5) My hardware config for playback is :

The PC ==> the external Audiophile sound card through USB port ==> analog outputs to, alternately, a Behringer 6 tracks mixing desk or the Tascam 4 tracks depending on my needs.

The recording config :
The mixing desk OR the Tascam ==> analog inputs of the sound card ==> the PC.

Pretty simple, I guess ! I dont’ use MIDI or SPDIF I/O which might cause collateral problems. I really tend to think this whole thing is a “dialog” problem between the card (which works OK with other softs) and Audition (which works fine, even with the cheapest standard PC internal sound card !)

I will investigate further issues and post results if I finally get it working.

Thanks again (and by the way : I’m basically a musician, spending extra time solving technical problems really bugs me !)

Bye

[Lorenzo]

Thanks for the advices.

Meanwhile, I have tried to work things around, and your intuition was good: it seems like I have a sample rate problem. Actually, the sound card supports up to 48k. So if I stick to 44.1 whith Audition, I get a pitched-up playback.

I tried to set Audition to 48k, and the playback pitch is now OK. However, I still cannot hear the track I’m recording (and I don’t own an expensive multiple busses console to manage this !), and I hear pops and crackling in newly 48k recorded tracks, which is the only problem I had not experienced until then ! 😉

Another strange thing : In the Device order window, I keep changing the order and (EV) preference, but it does not record my choice. When I close the window and reopen it, it still pops up with Audiophile USB SPDIF as a default choice (I’m working with analogs in/out), and moreover, it put the Audiophile USB (the standard analog I/O I’m currently using) in the Disabled table ! and the strange thing is : it works ok anyway , like if Audition had made some “swapping” between SPDIF and Analog gear, but only for the names ! – by the way, this is the same sound card, external, in a box with analog and SPDIf connections.

Thanks for your help,

Laurent