Static Noise When Recording

[Ryota Sato]

Hello I am new to all of this recording thing and I just got the Focus Scarlet 4i4 to record my guitar. My setup right now is my guitar directly into the interface, then in to my pc(I am running windows 10). I recorded with the driver mode as WASAPI shared and there is this static noise. Same when I record with WASAPI exclusive and ASIO. But when I record with MME 32 bit, the static noise disapears. To make sure, I tried recording with other softwares such as Audacity and there was no static noise. Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

[Promidi]

First of all, you might want to stay with ASIO for recording if your audio interface comes with native ASIO drivers.

Second. are you absolutely sure that no other program (even Windows itself) is accessing your audio interface while you're recording? 

One thing you might want to confirm is that every program that uses the card is set to the same sample rate as you're using in Cakewalk.

What sample rate, bit depth and buffer size are you using?  Preferences | Audio | driver settings > under "Mixing Latency". 

I have mine at 48Khz 24bit and 256 samples. I have a total round trip of 23.6ms

I do not have any static while recording audio via my audio interface's audio inputs.

This is on a Focusrite 2i2 2nd gen with the Beta drivers version 4.64.15.598  (according to device manager).

[Ryota Sato]

Okay I changed the sample rate to 48000 and made sure the setting on the focusrite was also 48000. I changed the driver mode to ASIO and there is no static noise!! Yey!! One more question is what is buffer size? My setting right now is 64 samples. Is it ok with that setting? It saids the total round trip was 7.7 msec and 368 samples.

[Promidi]

1 hour ago, Ryota Sato said:

Okay I changed the sample rate to 48000 and made sure the setting on the focusrite was also 48000. I changed the driver mode to ASIO and there is no static noise!! Yey!! One more question is what is buffer size? My setting right now is 64 samples. Is it ok with that setting? It saids the total round trip was 7.7 msec and 368 samples.

Excellent news on the static.  - reminds me of the song FM (No Static At All) by Steely Dan

Think of buffer size as latency.  It's the number of samples your system temporarily stores before passing them on to there destination.  The lower the number, the more CPU your sound subsystem utilises.

If your system can handle it, then yes, 64 samples is ok.   Some people have a low value with tracking.  And increase it when they are mastering.  It really depends on your workflow.

If you have many tracks in your projects, then you might want to bump it up a bit - but only if you notice audible artefacts while tracking.   It's a compromise between audible artefacts and latency (unintended delay)

If you play VSTi plugins live with your Keyboard controller, you would not want it much higher then 512.  As mentioned, mine is 256 which, for me, is ok for live playing of VSTi plugins.