Need help recording rap vocals. There's a constant crackling noise...

switch-man

New member
Need help recording rap vocals.

Equipment I use:

Audio Technica AT2020
PreSonus Audiobox 96 USB
Wavepad

The issue I'm having is there is always some crackling noise in my vocals. Sometimes it's totally clear, but every once in a while during a recording, some of my vocals will have a crackling sound to it. It's the sort of noise those old vinyl record players make.

Here's a recording I made a few days ago so you can hear the issue.
https://clyp.it/o32sw2p1

It's actually not this bad anymore. Uninstalling and reinstalling the Universal Control software (the drivers) fixed it for the most part, BUT it's not completely gone. The vocals are now mostly clear, but the crackling issues pops up every other word. It's enough to be annoying.

How can I get rid of it completely and have crystal clear recordings?
 
This sounds like a buffer issue. Try raising the buffer size from the (software) control panel (Universal Control).
 
I dunno If You can relate. But I had crackling sound in Fl studio because of cpu spikes on My old pc as it could not handle the process. Got new pc, all is good now.
 
This sounds like a buffer issue. Try raising the buffer size from the (software) control panel (Universal Control).

I'll give this a shot when I get home...

I dunno If You can relate. But I had crackling sound in Fl studio because of cpu spikes on My old pc as it could not handle the process. Got new pc, all is good now.

Crap. It could be that... I work on a 2008 HP latop... the Compaq 6510b to be exact...

2 gigs of ram, 120 gigs hard drive....

It does have a crap load of issues running FL Studio when I load up way too many plugins.
 
I'll give this a shot when I get home...



Crap. It could be that... I work on a 2008 HP latop... the Compaq 6510b to be exact...

2 gigs of ram, 120 gigs hard drive....

It does have a crap load of issues running FL Studio when I load up way too many plugins.

Hardrive space has little to do with it, ram and cpu are your main focus, you can upgrade your ram for more memory but it's probably not worth it (if even possible, depending on your laptop) to upgrade the cpu, you should have atleast 8 gigs of ram, Plus an external soundcard
 
I'll give this a shot when I get home...



Crap. It could be that... I work on a 2008 HP latop... the Compaq 6510b to be exact...

2 gigs of ram, 120 gigs hard drive....

It does have a crap load of issues running FL Studio when I load up way too many plugins.

Either way man, 2008 is really old for pc now days. You need a new one.
My old one was from 2010 or something with 4gb ram and it was not able to handle more advanced projects at all.
 
Since your laptop has only 2GB of ram and like you said you've been running a lot of plug in, it is definitely a Buffer Size issue. And good news for you there is a solution! :) Setting an high Buffer can cause latency to your microphone!!!! So the solution is to play the track that you need to record on with minimal plugin, deactivate any echo, limiter, compressor etc. so that the PC doesn't have to struggle and make those noises.
I hope it all make sense for you and finally solve it.
If you didn't understand, please have a look at this article that i made which talks about buffer and buffer size in a more detailed way.

How to Set Buffer size - Learn once and forever the BUFFER | Tips for music producing and recording

Please let me know how you go with how i told you, sometimes buffer size can be a pain in the ass!!!!
CHEERS!!
 
Old computer or not, recording a single track of audio isn't at all demanding for the CPU. Of course if your session is already chock-full of plugins, it might be what pushes it over the edge, so to speak, but basically it shouldn't be an upgrade-your-computer level issue.
 
Yeah, I actually don't have any plugins loaded when I'm recording.

And the problem persists even with the buffer size at 64...

I'm at a loss...

Same issue on Wavepad, and Audacity...

As I said earlier, it's no longer anywhere near as bad as the audio I uploaded in the op, but the crackling is still noticeable every other word...

This is extremely frustrating. My usb mic from way back was never this annoying.
 
Old computer or not, recording a single track of audio isn't at all demanding for the CPU. Of course if your session is already chock-full of plugins, it might be what pushes it over the edge, so to speak, but basically it shouldn't be an upgrade-your-computer level issue.

If the pc is old, stuffed with things, with malware or perhaps some viruses, the one track recording can have bigger latency and lag, Im taking that from experience.

Also Switch-Man...You can take all Your gear and record at friends pc or something to check if its pc fault or the gears. ;)
 
Yeah, I actually don't have any plugins loaded when I'm recording.

And the problem persists even with the buffer size at 64...

64 is a really small buffer size - the larger the buffer, the easier for the computer to handle. Try raising it as high as possible, and see if it helps - then you can lower the size and see at which point it starts to crackle.
 
Don't know anyone who would let me use their gear...

and after optimizing my Windows 7 for audio, making sure my XLR cable and USB cables aren't touching eachother or anythphoneing else, taking my phone out of my room, trying buffer sizes at their highest, lowest etc absolutely nothing works. I'm going to get a powered USB hub. Maybe that's the problem
 
well, good news I think...

I'll do some more tests, but for right now it seems the problem was something to do wtih the USB port I plugged the audiobox 96 into originally. I did try multiple times to plug it into different usb ports. My laptop has 4, but when I installed it it into a different one, it messed with all my audio programs and crashed them all every time without fail.

I bought a USB powered USB hub (yeah, I should've gone for a wall powered one, but I got a little desperate and I was already at Target for something else so I picked one up since they didn't have any wall powered ones), but it seems this USB powered USB hub did the trick. My voice has no more crackles. My last few test recordings were crisp and clear. There's some hiss, but I can remove that easily on Wavepad.

I hope this nightmare is finally over and I can get back to making instrumentals.

Thanks for the help. The USB powered thing I bought was a Targus, 4 port, 2.0 USB hub. About 14 bucks.
 
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