Why are my speakers and headphones crackling?

[Sunny]

I just bought Logic Pro, 8 core Mac Pro, Rosetta 800 with Firewire, Neve 1073 DPD Pre-amp, a Pre-Sonus Central Station, Dynaaudio powered speakers (also have Yamaha NS 10's going through Macke 32 channel board, amp) Mikes are Neumann 47 tube or AKG 414.

 

No matter which way I configure it to hear, I get random pops and crackles on instrumental parts and vocal parts. If I burn it to CD and go to my car, it's clean, so it's not being recorded, but it's driving me nuts. I've never recorded "in the box" before, always on ADAT's and external synths, so the latency and the pops are a bummer.

 

I also have an insane amount of what sounds like wind noise through any of the mikes or monitoring configurations. Sounds like an air conditioner is on in the room, even in the sound booth room. (neg. 32 random wind-like noise) I've had that problem forever with the old system, too, and thought the new gear would get rid of it. Thought it was a ghost in my Mackie, but bypassing the Mackie and amp, it's still there. Could that be an electrical thing or what? I had a whole new circuit put in. Many thanks for your thoughts

[sonikmusic]

sounds like a clocking issue, or bad cables....or maybe your board? Did you try bypassing everything? It could be electrical.... I have had some strange electrical issues in the past.

[Sunny]

Thanks for your reply. My cables are brand new Mogami's and Monster. What would I do to fix a clocking issue? I have everything in Logic and the Apogee and Neve set to 24 bit and 44.1 sample rate, by the way.

 

As far as electrical, I have a new circuit dedicated to the studio and a Furman power conditioner. Here's a random thought. If I carry a transistor radio downstairs into my studio, it goes nuts, no ballgames down here, lots of static, like what happens when you drive under one of those huge power towers by the side of the road. Could there be a weird city power grid bizarre thing going on?

[sonikmusic]

Have you organzed your cables? It's very important to make sure your audio cables are not touching or near your power cables. Also try not to have different types of cables touching each-other. Also try plugging your monitors and other analogue gear into different outlets than your computer and comuputer screens. Separate as much stuff as you can cable and outlet wise. Do you have good power conditioners such as the Monster PRO 2500?

As far as the clocking issue... the only thing that can solve that is a clocking devise such as the Apogee Big Ben or the Antelope Isochrone OSX. Even if you do not have a clocking issue and are operating digital gear a clocking devise will improve your quality of sound.

 

hope this helps!

[tonelab]

In reference to the random pops and crackles:

 

This may be too obvious but did you check the level of your master fader in the track mixer? I don't mean to patronize at all. Sometimes the problem might be as simple as that.

[Sunny]

Thanks so much for your replys! I talked to someone at Apogee and he steered me to a great download for the Rosetta 800 that's not listed under Rosetta 800, but listed under the particular card I have installed in it. That download took care of the latency problem totally, which is awesome. I turned off all the effects and that got rid of the pops and crackles while recording, but when I put them back on, not sure if there'll come back. Sounds great in the car, though, track-wise. The cable thing is such a challenge, since there's no uniform side for the power cables on all these machines. They come out of the back of the rack all over each other, with some power cables on the left, and some on the right side. There oughta be a law Even with everything organized, though, I still get the random wind type noise through the microphone, which is my main problem now. I can't do a piano vocal here. It ends up on the mix and you can hear it in the car. The noise is negative 32 to 36, fluctuating randomly. I had this same problem with my other set-up too, with totally different speakers, computers, cables, mikes. My cycle hums and buzzes are gone, though, which is great. I have the computer and monitor in a different wall socket, plugged into a backup battery/surge protector. The converter, preamp, Central Station, etc. are plugged into a Furman PM8 power conditioner which is plugged into a different wall than the computer.