Pitch and Rhythm Drop

[Terrence Reilly]

I just recently started using templates.  I created the latest one using a previous recording session - 8 track, input assignments made, and effects applied from the previous session.  The recording seemed to progress slowly, with the later songs taking minutes to complete recording, after the song was actually complete.  Playback was not possible without exiting and restarting the program due to the audio driver dropping audio.

Playback was amazingly awful.  Each song would start out ok, but drop pitch and tempo as the song progressed.  I'm talking whole tone(s) drops with an associated drop in tempo.  I never expected this from a digital recording, it actually behaved like an analog recording on a machine with bound up drive motors.

I think the problem might have been caused by the way I created the template, I will experiment with that later on today.  I'm more interested in trying to save the existing recording.  I've added buffers, enabled cache, de-fragmented the drive and also bundled the session to de-fragment it.   I also cancelled all effects in the hope of reducing system latency.  Nothing worked.

Is there any hope of restoring this awful sounding session?

[Base 57]

What interface are you using and what are your computer specs? 

This is likely a hardware issue. When a digital audio file changes speed unexpectedly it is usually because the reference clock has changed.

[Terrence Reilly]

System Specs:  Intel 17-8700 @3.2Ghz, 32 GB RAM, Nvidia High Def Audio, Soundcraft signature series 12 MTK, running Windows 10 Pro.  I tried to create a template today, without using any effects from a "virgin" set of tracks, and all is well.  That does not help me to recover the "bogus" recording though.  Is that even possible?

[Terrence Reilly]

This is strictly an analog 8 track recording, no MIDI.

[slartabartfast]

The problem sounds like a classic sample mismatch problem except that you say the audio changes pitch and speed while playing. If this is a gradually progressive change, then I can not imagine any etiology of the gradual change in sample rate. But if there is an abrupt change to a slower speed and pitch, that would suggest that you recorded different parts of the song at different times and not all at the same sample rate. Was all of the recording done at one time using the same interface?

[bvideo]

Maybe the Soundcraft signature series 12 MTK is only capable of 48KHz recording. What sample rate is your project set at? What sample rate does Cakewalk think the Soundcraft can do? Are you using a soundcraft driver? ASIO? Asio4All?

[Terrence Reilly]

I did all the recording at once, using the same settings.  The pitch and temp drop gradually.  Am using the Soundcraft driver.  This is the only recording  where I've had this problem, it's not shown up on any other sessions.