Any one experiencing (intermittent) 2 second sync delay?

[Roger Jeynes]

We're occasionally encountering a worrying problem with a simple voice-over recording where the vocal recording is sometimes a whole 2 seconds out of sync with the previously recorded music track. Yet in other takes it's right on time.

Vocal record is starting at Time 0 to align with an existing music track, but on playback the recorded vocal file is about 2 seconds late. Looking at the WAV that's been created, there is about 2 seconds of silence added to the start of the track, throwing it  a constant 2 seconds out of sync.

Unfortunately I can't reliably reproduce the problem, but it's happened several times in the last 2 weeks. We've tried altering Snap, but no luck. It seems much too long to be Plug-in delay compensation, and there's very little plug-in in this config (just a compressor and limiter on the master bus, ProChannel compressor on the music track (side chained from the vocal).

There is a 1 measure (4 beat) record count-in set in the Metronome settings - which happens to be about 2 seconds at 120bpm. 

Has any one got any ideas?

 

I encountered a similar problem several years ago with either X1 or SPLAT on a different PC config and different sound card, but it hasn't appeared since then until very recently.  We're on 2019.12. Using Allen & Heath Qu24 ASIO drivers v4.67.0

Other system info: Windows 10 Version 1903. Intel Core i7-9700K CPU, 16GB, M.2 PCIe SSD: 500GB Samsung 970 EVO PLUS,  AMD Radeon RX 570, Gigabyte Z390 AORUS ELITE Motherboard. 

[Jim Fogle]

Timing and sync issues are sometimes caused by audio setting mismatch.  For example recording at 44.1K while the prerecorded music tracks are at 48K.  An example is a project audio setting differs from  computer operating system audio setting.

Verify project recording sample rate = project playback sample rate = Windows Control Panel audio setting.

[David Baay]

It's the count-in. Others have periodicaly reported this issue. It's rare enough that it seems to be platform/hardware-specific. I've never encountered it, myself. Usually it's an all or nothing problem. If you're seeing it intermittently with count-in enabled, and can figure out the sequence of events or preference configuration that triggers it, that would be great.

Your Allen and Heath mixer-interface is a bit off the beaten path so may be a factor.

You might try changing audio driver modes or enabling/disabling UseHardwareSamplePosition= parameter (affects ASIO-only) in AUD.INI (Preferences > Audio > Configuration File). I believe it's enabled by default.

Edited January 28, 2020 by David Baay

[Roger Jeynes]

On 1/28/2020 at 4:09 PM, David Baay said:

It's the count-in. Others have periodicaly reported this issue. It's rare enough that it seems to be platform/hardware-specific. I've never encountered it, myself. Usually it's an all or nothing problem. If you're seeing it intermittently with count-in enabled, and can figure out the sequence of events or preference configuration that triggers it, that would be great.

Your Allen and Heath mixer-interface is a bit off the beaten path so may be a factor.

You might try changing audio driver modes or enabling/disabling UseHardwareSamplePosition= parameter (affects ASIO-only) in AUD.INI (Preferences > Audio > Configuration File). I believe it's enabled by default.

Thanks for the ideas, David - we'll give them a try. We may also try the A+H WDM drivers instead of ASIO, although it's happened with our MOTU interface, too

[David Baay]

Which MOTU?  I run a 2408 mkii with a PCIE-424, and have not seen this.

You might also try resetting the config file completely, using the Reset button in Preferences.

A backup is made automatically so you can restore if the reset doesn't help, or compare old and new files if it does.

Could also be something about the specific project or template from which is was created. 

 

[JL]

it has happened to me before, no idea why. recording vocals into a punched region with no count in enabled had some sync-ing issue, i think its gotta to do with the delay compensation. usually ill just need to restart cakewalk and it works normally again. 

this also always happens when im reamp-ing or recording my axe fx-3 via AES, the first take of that session is always off sync, seems like a clocking issue thing, but subsequent takes will be alright

[Roger Jeynes]

Thanks again for all you suggestions.

It may be coincidence, but now we're getting an occasional 'lost clip': a short overdub recording is drawn during recording, but on stop it just disappears! Given the intermittent nature I'm sure this must be a driver / Windows interface problem rather than a Cakewalk bug - but really strange to appear after all these years of problem-free running with the same setup. We still can't reproduce the problems on demand - they only occur when we're doing something important with a client, of course!