Timing Issue with guitar tracks and drums.

Jplay wrote on 9/21/2020, 11:26 PM

I will lay out a drum loop. Then I will go to next instrument and record my guitar track (myself playing an actual guitar.) During the recording I am playing in time with the drum beat. The playback however is showing that the guitar rhythm is being recorded out of sync with the drums. It's like the recording input is being delayed from real time. It even seems to fluctuate in timing because I magnified the sound shapes and moved the guitar track to line up with the first drum beat but somehow the rest of the segment will get out of time too. I do notice a muffled click after I hit record, which I never had that issue before. (This is new software, new laptop, and new interface listed below.) I've tried every audio setting possible. Not sure what else to do... I am using a Focusrite Scarlett Studio interface with Music Maker Plus Edition on an ASUS VivoBook15 Laptop, which I specifically picked out based on Music Maker's system requirements. Any advice? Please and thank you!

Comments

SP. wrote on 9/22/2020, 12:35 AM

I suspect that you are using the Focusrite ASIO drivers. Is this correct? What are your sample rate and buffer settings there? What system load is shown in the Windows task manager while you record? Is your processor having 100% spikes? Are you having real time effects on your guitar sound that are calculated by the laptop? Are your headphones/sound monitors plugged into the Focusrite or into your laptop?

Jplay wrote on 9/22/2020, 2:11 AM

SP, Thanks for the quick reply! I managed to solve the issue. It's quite odd but this is what did the trick. I went to the top of the screen, clicked file, then settings, then audio (recording). When this menu pops up, there is a drop down tab about half way down called "Recording Quality." It was defaulted to "DAT" but I changed it to "CD" and that instantly fixed the issue. Yes, you are correct, Focusrite ASIO drivers is what I'm using. I had increased and decreased sample rates and buffer settings to no avail before discovering the above fix. Thanks again!

emmrecs wrote on 9/22/2020, 6:28 AM

@Jplay

Good to hear you fixed the issue!

I'm going to guess/speculate why changing "DAT" to "CD" worked: I think DAT would default to 48kHz sampling rate, whereas CD would default to 44.1kHz; that rate difference would cause playback problems, especially if your project is set to 44.1kHz

Jeff
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