Assistance for computorial impaired.

[guitlouie]

My very good friends, I have a problem which does not neatly fit into any of the fields over which I have mastery.  In other words this damn machine is pissing me off.  I recently purchased a Line 6 Toneport ux II, and followed all instructions on loading the software and what have you.  The device itself is very cool, I have spent a lot of time messing with the various amp and effect models and, and with my little M-Audio speakers hooked up to the machine in question, can get some seriously great/weird sounds.  This I love thus far.  Here is the problem; when I go from just messing with the Gear-Box stuff to trying to record on the included recording software, I get these really horrific, loud as hell, scratchy bursts of sound.  It doesn't happen right away, but as I play, there will just be this screech from hell every now and then.  My computer is fairly new, not more than a year old, and when purchasing it I was told that it would be decent for the application of recording.  I'm not looking to create a real studio or anything, just to make decent demos and stuff.  Not sure if I should upgrade the soundcard, or uninstall the software and try to load it again, or some other thing.  I'm just not that technically involved with my computer, just kinda like it when it works and hate it when it doesn't, so if any of you guys could help a brother out, that would be swell.  Sorry to be so long winded, my kids are out of town and the wifey is working all day, so I have only talked to the dog today, and he just isn't much of a conversationalist! 

 

[bpmorton777]

do you have two drives installed in the computer? If not, install a second HDD and only record on that one and dont store any other files on the drive.  This should fix the problem but not sure. you might want to keep the drives defragged all the time too.

Brian

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Dunno, the scratchy then howl sounds like a ground/feedback loop.  Something is not plugged in right if it is a loop.  Also the sound card can have a bunch of things to configure, but normally those are taken care of by the install.  The only thing I can suggest besides checking how everything is plugged in is to look at the FAQ/message boards that concern themselves with that piece of gear.

The second drive is a good idea if you are recording much.  It works out that most machines (Yes even Macs) have trouble keeping the OS running without looking for some widget on the drive or swap space.  When you are recording the sound info has to go onto the drive sooner or later.  Traffic jams with the OS and the recorded audio are bad news, generally for the audio.  If you multi track, it becomes more pronounced.  But, I doubt this is the problem that you are describing because most of the time the recording software puts an error dialog box up on the screen that tells you it crapped out.  Mind you this is always when you are playing the best you ever have in your existence.  The second drive allows the computer to record to that drive that doesn't have the OS so it can record while the OS is futzing around with other things on another part of another drive.  If you are just using the computer to put down some ideas, not recording the next Metallica album, you don't need to get another drive.  Mo' memory never hurts either...  Good luck with finding the gremlin.
Patrick

 

[dbw]

Well, I work with storage a lot, mostly high-end stuff on UNIX machines, but it seems like abysmally bad OS design to write junk to the disk when you run out of FS buffers.  And it seems like really bad software design to use direct I/O... will Windows even allow that?

Louie, close all your other programs, or better still, reboot. Then try recording again... if it still happens, try a lower bitrate... if it still happens I doubt it's a problem with the disk.