Finding audio 'skips' in the waveform on playback

Christopher-Baldwin wrote on 6/11/2023, 6:09 AM

Hi folks,

I am finding more and more frequently, audio 'skips' in playback from newly recorded waveforms. I am transferring from vinyl, and initial playback from the source is excellent. However, playing the track back directly from the waveform I am discovering these little 'skips'.

I am using Audio Cleaning Lab MX on my laptop, latest Windows, and the source is a Pro-Ject turntable and Marantz amplifier.

Just yesterday (10th June) I tried updating the program and reinstalling it to see if this could solve the issue, but unfortunately the 'skips' are still evident. I am thinking my laptop, which is relatively new, is struggling with the input, but would like to have the opinions of the community before I look at changing things.

Comments

emmrecs wrote on 6/11/2023, 8:51 AM

@Christopher-Baldwin

Welcome to the Magix user to user forums.

Two things occur to me as possible "reasons" for the skipping you are experiencing:

  1. Audio Cleaning Lab MX is now a very old version of the software and may not run properly under latest Windows. (Is that Win 10 or 11?)
  2. "Skipping audio" can be caused by your hard drive failing to stream the data "fast enough" for recording or playback to be continuous. If you have the option in your version of ACL, try increasing the audio buffer size.

BTW, since this problem seems to occur on playback (you said that initial playback from the source is excellent), I doubt the issue is whether your laptop is struggling with the input. To verify this, do you have any facility to copy one of the troublesome .wav recordings to a USB stick which you can then open and test on a different computer? If so, is the problem still present? If it is, then your laptop is struggling with the input; if not, then it is purely a playback problem on your laptop.

What kind of hard drive does you laptop have, HDD or SSD? And what capacity? If an HDD, what is its speed?

Jeff
Forum Moderator

Win 11 Pro 64 bit, Intel i7 14700, 16 GB RAM, NVidia RTX 4060 and Intel UHD770 Graphics, MOTU 8-Pre f/w audio interface, VPX, MEP, Music Maker, PhotoStory Deluxe, Photo Manager Deluxe, Xara 3D Maker 7, Samplitude Pro X7 Suite, Reaper, Adobe Audition 3, CS6 and CC, 2 x Canon HG10 cameras, 1 x Canon EOS 600D, Akaso EK7000 Pro Action Cam

Christopher-Baldwin wrote on 6/14/2023, 2:20 PM

@emmrecs

Many thanks for taking the time to get back to me.

My HD is brand new and super fast (replaced in the last 5 weeks). I can't honestly give more info than that. My knowledge of such things is basic if I'm honest.

However, I do have an alternate method of saving my vinyl and I am to visit the shop where I purchased my HD a few weeks ago.

Kind regards,

Chris