Best way to fix the clicky bits

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Best way to fix the clicky bits

Postby Cryptowen » Sun Mar 13, 2011 4:42 pm

Often when I record things through my computer I get these & they sound bad on most songs:

Image

What's the most unintrusive/fastest way to get them out of a track?
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Re: Best way to fix the clicky bits

Postby Christian LeBlanc » Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:18 pm

What I'd try for "quickest" would be to highlight from the middle of the peaks before and after and click Edit --> Silence. Since it's such a tiny section of time, and if there's enough other sounds playing in your track, you might be able to get away with it.

For a longer term solution, though, it looks like you're having latency issues with your soundcard. You're feeding it audio, and every once in a while, your soundcard can't keep up and drops part of the music it's trying to record. What are your computer specs, especially pertaining to RAM and processor speed? How about free space on your hard drive(s)? How old is it - run a defrag lately? You're not running any other programs in the background while you're trying to record, are you?
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Re: Best way to fix the clicky bits

Postby Cryptowen » Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:43 pm

^I've done that with some things like multi-layered synth pads & reverbed out stuff, but I find it too noticeable for a lot of things.

To answer your other questions - from the 90s, a bit, never done a defrag but I've been meaning to some time, quite a few actually.
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Re: Best way to fix the clicky bits

Postby gamblor » Sun Mar 13, 2011 6:40 pm

Cryptowen wrote:from the 90s, a bit, never done a defrag but I've been meaning to some time, quite a few actually.


I think you've just answered your question. You should prevent this from happening in the first place.
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Re: Best way to fix the clicky bits

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:46 pm

So this is showing up on tracks recorded? Anything specific about the stuff you're finding this on or just any and all? I notice the example you posted seems to be a "stereo" track, but actually mono.

As mentioned, the best solution is to find out why this is happening and avoid it. There are some processes/plugs that can help remove these type of artifacts, but they are not consistently going to fix 100% of the noticeable "click". As you already figured out, it depends on the material as to how noticeable these are.

Over tasking your CPU when tracking audio is a great way to guarantee these types of errors. Starting and stopping other processes or tweaking DAW settings during recording will do things like this as well.
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Re: Best way to fix the clicky bits

Postby gamblor » Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:30 pm

As a side note, this particular sound sample looks worrisome because of how it's about to fall below 0.0 and then sharply starts to rise again. This tells me that part of your take actually wasn't captured, and that everything beyond the click is slightly out of time with the rest of the song. It may only be by a fraction of a millisecond, but if this is happening consistently and on several tracks it can add up over the course of the song.
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Re: Best way to fix the clicky bits

Postby Cryptowen » Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:40 pm

Actually this picture is of a stereo track recorded on a standalone microphone that I cut some bits out of for demonstration purposes. The ones where the computer loses some of the take due to latency look similar, though. I don't think it causes tempo problems, because it usually happens when I'm recording synth parts with a sequencer, so it goes kind of like

-note triggers
-latency glitch starts, stopping recording & sequencer
-note keeps playing because synth isn't affected by latency
-latency stops, recording & sequence resume as if nothing happened, but a tiny fraction of that note is absent

The track doesn't go off-tempo, but once in a while you'll get this rough little digital click sound.

Probably I'll just do it on a case by case basis. Sometimes using a plugin, sometimes using silence, and on rare occasions when the clicks work leaving them in as happy accidents.
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Re: Best way to fix the clicky bits

Postby Christian LeBlanc » Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:40 am

If it's really bad, you can always try to copy and paste audio into the gap, and then cross-fade it into place (I don't know how to do that in Audigy) to hopefully reduce the abrasiveness.

Longer-term, I'd also be inclined to browse Kijiji for deals. I paid $150 for my current system off some kid on the East Side who frankensteins computer systems together, and, technology being what it is, is lightspeeds ahead of an expensive laptop I bought 4 years ago. Pfah.

Plus, if your older computer still does everything else you want it to (gaming, torrents, what have you), then you can dedicate your new PC for creative applications only (which I really should be doing for mine). And the reason I keep bugging you about the future is a) that's where all your music you record next will take place, and b) the rate that those clicks are appearing will only increase, if no measures are taken.
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Re: Best way to fix the clicky bits

Postby Cryptowen » Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:48 pm

^I've been thinking of getting a computer specifically for doing music on, but I might hold off a bit because after I finish my current project I think I might take a year or two to focus on noise/field type stuff which most likely wouldn't require much or any recording of synths & instruments.
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Re: Best way to fix the clicky bits

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:26 am

Whenever these "clicks" happen to me it's usually a syncing issue, because I'm trying to sync a bunch of digital audio devices together that don't want to play nice. As our system becomes more streamlined though, it happens less and less. I've never had a problem on the computer end because I've always used powerful enough computers that operate well within their comfort zone.

To get rid of them in Protools you just have to highlight the entire "click" and cut it. Then snap the two ends together. More often than not, the waveforms will line up perfectly so long as you were careful with your edit. The miniscule amount that you are actually cutting out doesn't really create any timing or phase issues that are noticeable (in case anyone was worried.)
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