Pops and clicks in audio recording - no trouble before :(

[Deathbliss]

Well I've been doing video tutorials for a while now using the Open Source version of Cam Studio. My audio recording has always been nice and clear - no issues at all. I use the XVid codec for encoding video, and the MPEG Layer 3 for audio (nothing else works). I recently tried the Ogg Vorbis for audio but the issue was there too, although I admit it wasn't as bad.

What's happening is this... Every once and a while a weird pop or click will be audible in my recordings. Like I said it never did this before - same settings as I'm using now and I have a couple hundred megs of tuts to prove it. But that isn't all - when I try to load something like UnrealED (an editing program for UT and UT 2003/2004) my voice will speed up and get out of sync with the recording. Again this has never happened before - I had Max, UnrealED, and Camstudio running all at once in some tuts and never had an issue. I even went back to an old image (I use Norton Ghost to back up my OS) and the issue is still there. However if I select PCM audio encoding, or check the MCI box - I get no problems at all. Conversly I get no audio compression. And no, I don't want to spend 8 hours in Virtual Dub re-compressing the file - I'd rather drink molten lava.

I'm running Windows XP and have a Turtle Beach Catalina soundcard. My mic is a Logitech headset/mic. My processor runs around 3 gigs, I'm getting no hard drive errors, and I have 512 or a gig of matched ram plus 512 megs of virtual memory assigned. This thing has really got me stumped, and I hope someone can help me here, or point me to where I could get help. I also wouldn't mind non Creative Labs brand crap hardware advice for a soundcard that perhaps would help me avoid audio problems. Obviously the Catalina is getting up there in years, so I'm open to suggestions. I'm also curious about an ASIO enabled card - whatever that is and whatever that means. But I heard about this and was wondering if there was any advantage to using one.

Please take a moment to help me out - I'd very much appreciate it -
:( Deathbliss

[Deathbliss]

No help at all after 4 months? I can't be the only one having this issue!
- Deathbliss

[ursamtl]

Sorry to hear you haven't had a response so far. It does happen on all forums that people sometimes post messages that just slip by without being noticed--just a simple case of lousy timing. :)

It really does sound like it might be a driver problem. As for ASIO, that's a driver architecture for input/output. It's popular because the performance is generally better, especially when it comes to latency (how long it takes the data to get through).

There is a free ASIO driver called ASIO4ALL that you might try (http://www.asio4all.com/). This driver sits on top of the internal Windows driver to provide ASIO-like performance. It might not solve your problem, but it's free and worth a try.

You should also look around the net for tips on optimizing your PC for audio and/or video work. There are things that help, such as setting up a fixed size Windows paging ("swap") file instead of letting Windows determine the size. A lot of information is out there.

Let us know how this works.

[setarip_old]

Hi!However if I select PCM audio encoding, or check the MCI box - I get no problems at all. Conversly I get no audio compression. And no, I don't want to spend 8 hours in Virtual Dub re-compressing the file - I'd rather drink molten lava.If you're talking about loading an XviD-compressed .AVI with PCM audio into VirtualDub in order to convert the audiostream to .MP3, this is a procedure that only takes a matter of a few MINUTES.

1) Load the .AVI into VirtualDub

2) From the "Video" dropdown menu, select "Direct Stream Copy"

3) From the "Audio" dropdown menu, select "Full Processing Mode", then select "Compression", and then select the "MPEG-1 Layer 3 (.MP3) settings that you desire (You may have to put a checkmark next to "Show all formats")

4) Save with a new filename

[ursamtl]

Good catch, yes, it doesn't take long.

[Deathbliss]

I'll give that a try - thank you. I wonder if there are any tuts out there that get down into the gooey business of getting a computer set up properly for screen recording...
- Deathblis