Help with Digital Pops and Clicks in PT

[cletus]

So I have just recently got all my gear up and running in a new studio space and have started tracking when I noticed some very suttle pops and clicks while tracking in Pro Tools. It is very subtle unless I have the gain up high on my pre's. I'm not sure where it's coming from as nothing in Pro tools or in the front end is clippping. I'm using an 002r with an Apogee mini me for conversion, API pre's and Dynaudio BM5A's. I have adjusted the trim pots on the Mini me to a very low input metering level along with using the Soft Limit feature. I do set the Mini me as master clock source and have checked to make sure the sample rate matches pro tools and I also replaced the s/pdif cable in case that was the problem but to no avail. I've skipped the mini me all together and gone straight into the 002r and still the same issue. The sessions that I've done elsewhere or cd's I've listened to on the Dyn's sound good so it's not a cabling issue there. I realize that the API pre's have alot of gain but I'm not even getting close to the red when hearing the pops and clicks. Can anyone give me an idea where the problem may be?

[djui5]

Check your mic cables.

[cletus]

It does it DI 1/4" into my mic pres as well. I may need to check out the XLR to 1/4" cables in the back of my luchbox. Thanks for the reply my my space homey! Anyone else have a suggestion?

[gsharp]

Best troubleshooting advice I ever got was "Start with the source and go with the flow."

Just keep going until you've eliminated all variables from the mic to the speakers and everything in between. Do you have more than one API? If so does the problem persist when you switch pre's? Does the problem occur when you skip the API and plug into the 002's pre's? Are the click still there if you listen on headphones instead of the Dyn's? Do you see the clicks in the waveform after recording? If you can isolate it to the front end or back end of your system you're half way home.

best of luck with it.

G

[manning1]

cletus.....
u didnt mention the pc your using.
if youve eliminated the signal path mic pre/cables etc as the issue .....
and your on a pc it might be a sound card driver issue. OR the PCI bus overloading. If your on a pc and u have a number of pci slots occupied by other devices sharing with the sound device ...eg fancy cards like video cards or a hi speed internet card these can lock out audio thus pops occur.
if your running the net on the same pc as your recording with try turning off/disabling net activities while a recording session is in progress.
if your running a pc it would help to know what u have in your pci slots so i can comment further.

[max cooper]

It sounds like a clocking issue to me.

If I forget to set my 002 to clock to the Rosetta 800, I get a lot of popping and clicking.

[rickrock305]

Originally Posted by max cooper

It sounds like a clocking issue to me.

If I forget to set my 002 to clock to the Rosetta 800, I get a lot of popping and clicking.

yes, pops and clicks sounds like a clocking issue to me as well

can you give a little more detail about how your clocking your system?

[s.d.finley]

I had a bad ADAT cable once that was giving me pops and clicks, but ONLY while audio was passing thru it.

rock

sdf

[cletus]

My clock source is the Apogee mini me. It seems to do the same thing when clocked internally as well. I just bought new cable for my monitors and that didn't seem to help. I may have figured out the problem today although I'm still a little puzzled. I think having the fader up to high in protools was causing some of the problem cause as I turned it down, even though it was not clipping, the digital noise seems to go away. Is it possible to run the D/A to hot without there being any clipping in PT?

[djui5]

Were you monitoring input or output?

Pre or post fader meters?

When recording, you should be monitoring input, pre fader. This way, if you clip the input, you'll see it.

I have a feeling you were clipping the input and didn't know it.

[cletus]

I'll check it out when I get back to the studio. That may very well be the case. Do you know what menu in Pro Tools 7 has the pre/post fader option?

[max cooper]

Hey, Cletus, I don't use that exact converter, but if I'm in doubt I usually watch the lights on the converter to make sure I'm not clipping the input.

And I believe that unit has soft limit, although I don't usually use it, on some things it's not too bad. It does help keep from clipping the A/D, though.

In PTLE, the inserts are pre-fader, so you could put something like the free PSP Vintage Meter as the first insert (at the top, of course).

The meter on the channel is pre-fader but post insert. I guess the other way to do it is to open a free-standing send fader and select the pre-fader button, then watch the meter on that. But if you're going S/PDIF from the converter to the PTLE interface, I think it'd be better to just watch the meter on the converter.

[max cooper]

Like this:

[djui5]

Max,
That just changes the send to pre fader. This won't help him much.


If you click the "I" on the fader strip, right next to the Record button, it will put the channel in input mode.

The "pre-fader" monitor selection is in the "display" menu I believe. There's an option near the bottom for "pre-fader metering". Always have this checked when recording. Uncheck for mixing.

[SparkyCanada]

Hey there.

I too have had a problem with clicks & pops & PT. Turned out to be my external hard drive. Replaced the external HD & all seems well...

SparkyCanada

[maskedman72]

i too have had clicking and poping issues.

turned out to be my drives also. i was running sata drives and i had to change them to ata drives and it solved the problem.

[cletus]

Thanks all. I figured out the problem for now. Outputs running too hot and clipping the D/A in the 002 but not the meters in PT. The solution was to just turn everything down in PT and also make sure that I metered everything pre fader. Thanks for the suggestions + now I know another cause of clicks and pops, hard drives. That must have been frustrating starting from thinking it's your gain stages to your cabling etc, going all the way down the list to find out it's a hard drive! LOL