Curse you, clock rate!

joelpatterson · 16th October 2007, 02:32 AM

Every so often I do something stupid and thoughtless, like loading audio into the computer with the wrong clock rate set in Digital Performer! I suddenly notice this has happened because I switch to the internal clock and e..v..e..r..y....t..h..i..n..g.....s..l..o..w ..s....
r..i..g..h..t.....d..o..w..n so I flick back to the external clock, and it sounds okay, but I wonder... is it really "okay" okay, running to the wrong rate? Or doesn't it make one whit of difference?

Rick Sutton · 16th October 2007, 04:04 AM

At the wrong clock rate aren't you experiencing speed/pitch shift? Or is your external correct and just have the session file set wrong?
We took in some drum tracks once and the engineer put them at the wrong rate on our external clock. Everything was going well until the night before the entire project was to be sent to the mix engineer and it was discovered that there were two sample rates involved and some systems wouldn't allow that.....it was a long night.
But if you are rec/playing with the correct rate on the clock that is controlling the session it's probably no problem, especially if you don't have to send everything on to another studio.

nambams · 16th October 2007, 06:34 AM

Yeah, I've done that a couple of times. You can SR convert the files to a custom sample rate and then re-import them without SR to get to what it should be. I did this in PT a couple of times.

e.g. you tracked at 44.1 but the clock was at 48, so everything is slow. (you have too many samples for the audio you have, because the clock was fast). export the files with SR set to (44.1/48)*44.1 = 40517 samples per second. (you're using the same ratio to cut down on the number of samples used to represent the audio). then re-import to your 44.1 without SR conversion and voila! - the correct sample rate.

I guess alternately you can varispeed or pitch the audio up without time correction by 48/44.1, or 1.0884354. I've done this with the varispeed mode in Serato Pitch'n'time.

Hmm, maybe this has happened to me more than a couple of times! Hope this helps...
-I

joelpatterson · 16th October 2007, 02:47 PM

Thanks guys!

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16th October 2007, 02:32 AM	#1
joelpatterson Lives for gear Join Date: May 2005 Location: Albany, New York Posts: 3,471	Curse you, clock rate! Every so often I do something stupid and thoughtless, like loading audio into the computer with the wrong clock rate set in Digital Performer! I suddenly notice this has happened because I switch to the internal clock and e..v..e..r..y....t..h..i..n..g.....s..l..o..w ..s.... r..i..g..h..t.....d..o..w..n so I flick back to the external clock, and it sounds okay, but I wonder... is it really "okay" okay, running to the wrong rate? Or doesn't it make one whit of difference? __________________ Mountaintop Studios ~the peak of perfection~ Petersburgh NY 12138 mountaintop@taconic.net

16th October 2007, 02:47 PM	#4
joelpatterson Lives for gear Join Date: May 2005 Location: Albany, New York Posts: 3,471	Thanks guys! __________________ Mountaintop Studios ~the peak of perfection~ Petersburgh NY 12138 mountaintop@taconic.net

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16th October 2007, 04:04 AM	#2
Rick Sutton Lives for gear Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Atascadero, CA Posts: 1,842	At the wrong clock rate aren't you experiencing speed/pitch shift? Or is your external correct and just have the session file set wrong? We took in some drum tracks once and the engineer put them at the wrong rate on our external clock. Everything was going well until the night before the entire project was to be sent to the mix engineer and it was discovered that there were two sample rates involved and some systems wouldn't allow that.....it was a long night. But if you are rec/playing with the correct rate on the clock that is controlling the session it's probably no problem, especially if you don't have to send everything on to another studio.

16th October 2007, 06:34 AM	#3
nambams Gear interested Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 1	Yeah, I've done that a couple of times. You can SR convert the files to a custom sample rate and then re-import them without SR to get to what it should be. I did this in PT a couple of times. e.g. you tracked at 44.1 but the clock was at 48, so everything is slow. (you have too many samples for the audio you have, because the clock was fast). export the files with SR set to (44.1/48)*44.1 = 40517 samples per second. (you're using the same ratio to cut down on the number of samples used to represent the audio). then re-import to your 44.1 without SR conversion and voila! - the correct sample rate. I guess alternately you can varispeed or pitch the audio up without time correction by 48/44.1, or 1.0884354. I've done this with the varispeed mode in Serato Pitch'n'time. Hmm, maybe this has happened to me more than a couple of times! Hope this helps... -I