[Reid Caulfield]

I have Declick software that works beautifully on “lip smack”, so it can indeed work. It’s true the Pro Tools stuff isn’t do great for this. Otherwise, manual declicking or editorial works but is time consuming.

Reid C

[Reid Caulfield]

is the battery fully in or has it come loose? Is it bulging? If so, get it out of there & get thee to an Apple Store Genius bar & have them replace it.

Reid C

[Reid Caulfield]

My understanding, and my experience, is that sync methodology – i.e. 9 pin control vs simple timecode chase – introduces different latencies in HDCAM vs DBeta. Indeed, 9-pin setup is crucial. I’ve dealt with houses for layback that had no idea this was an issue. Took 2 different layback sessions for them to figure it out. How much of a difference is there? And is the difference identical on all HDCAM tapes?

Reid C

[Reid Caulfield]

what version of FCP are you running? Might the latest ProApps update be to blame if it’s installed, OR, if it’s NOT installed, might 7.5 require the latest ProApps update?

Reid C

[Reid Caulfield]

Anyones who’s ever gone out & bought a PC for any reason, not just media work, in the last 25 years, has usually been faced with a line item called “sound card.” There were usually a few choices. If you go buy a Dell right now online you’ll get to a point in the order where you need to decide what sound card you want. Macs have never been that way. All Macs come with this built in to the computer, not as a separate card that takes up a slot. There are limitations to this. Usually it’s stereo only, not 5.1/7.1, the connectors are fairly flimsy small “jacks” and the internal quality of the components is just ok, which affects sound. Fine for general audio use. It’s entirely possible that the internal sound components are failing so you could always take the system to a Mac authorized repair place & have them look at it.

So to your problem: what else do you have hooked up to the Mac? List everything, please. Drives, mice, trackballs, etc. Does this distortion only happen with certain clips, or within certain applications, or does every sound eventually succumb to it? What happens if you play a song off of iTunes?

You have several options for getting sound out of the Mac. PCI cards or external USB or Firewire boxes. Before going down that road, best to figure out what’s going on.

Reid C

[Reid Caulfield]

Can you actually hear a speed variation? re drive not spinning evenly, digital audio doesn’t work that way. If there are issues with drive throughput then you’d either hear real nastiness (really bad & pervasive clicks, pops & other crap) or nothing at all. The only thing I can think of is that somehow your card is receiving bad clock or is clocking to an unstable internal crystal.

By “clock” I refer to what digital audio devices use to maintain accurate-speed recording & playback. In professional environments, we’ll have a separate (fairly costly) device oversee & maintain this signal (“wordclock”). Then we’ll feed that signal to all of the digital audio devices in the studio so that every device is seeing the same clock. Like “house sync” for video, only much more accurate. Only very high end computer audio cards have an input for this clock signal. Most simply reference to their own internal crystal, which are accurate enough for general video work.

If your audio card has a dying crystal or is somehow searching for an accurate clock signal – OR, if it HAS an input for clock but isn’t seeing valid input – then I guess your issue could arise. Usually the card will just mute & not output anything. So if you can actually hear a speed variations, you either have a bad audio card or the card is trying to keep time to an inaccurate click signal somewhere in the chain.

Reid C

[Reid Caulfield]

Though I haven’t tried it in awhile, and being as how my main audio environment of choice is Nuendo (as opposed to Pro Tools, which I also use), I remember the first time I did a “23.98” project in Nuendo. Slight drift all the way through due to the discrepancy, but there was no other choice, as I recall. The app allowed for entering a rate in the field but wouldn’t go more than 2 decimal places. Resulted in me having to do cuts every minute or 2 & move audio by subframes to keep absolute sync. They seem to have fixed it. That’s the kind of havoc the second & third decimal places can play. Thanks for the affirmation of the 23.98/23.976 question.

Reid C

[Reid Caulfield]

There’s one in Burbank & one in Manhattan Beach that I know about & have used.

Reid C

[Reid Caulfield]

Both Compressor & Motion seem to be sensitive to new FCP service installations. Sometimes they just stop working (in the case of Compressor & Motion) or lose their presets (in the case of Motion). With Compressor, my understanding is that QMaster has quite a lot to do with it. There are very specific procedures for deinstalling/reinstalling to get it back working. This is well documented in the forums.

Reid C

[Reid Caulfield]

I believe 23.98 is shorthand for 23.976. The more important question is, if this is NOT the case – if they ARE different things, in other words – is there rounding going on. My inclinations is to say that this is not the case. Actual rounding would be mathematically disastrous, especially on long shows. Presume 23.976.

Reid C