Distorted headphone mystery (help needed)

[Starship Krupa]

Oh, I think we have a winner. Way to go @RobertWS.

[Iron Keys]

On 6/21/2019 at 5:20 AM, RobertWS said:

That makes me think it might have something to do with this setting:

 

Nope, it's not this either. There's no discrepancy there. ?

Really appreciating the help, you lot! Really hope to figure this out.

I don't know what angers me more; the fact there's always got to be something wrong, or the fact it seems to make no logical sense.

[Iron Keys]

On 6/21/2019 at 4:22 AM, scook said:

The bit depth in the Transport Module refers to the Record Bit Depth not the Audio Driver Bit Depth. It means, all future recording in the project will be done at the bit depth shown in the Transport Module. A project may have clips at various bit depths. The Record Bit Depth may be changed at any time. Usually it is a good idea to set the Record Bit Depth the same as the Audio Driver Bit depth.

Yeah thanks I quickly realised this after posting and still poking around in the DAW.

 

On 6/21/2019 at 4:10 AM, scook said:

Try changing the "Buffer Size" under "Mixing Latency" in preferences. Start with a slightly more "Safe" value.

I don't think it will be this as it's happening in empty project vs not happening in a project with synths and verb all in. I'll check it again anyway.

[Iron Keys]

On 6/21/2019 at 3:55 AM, Starship Krupa said:

Man, this is an odd one. The only thing I can think of is that there might be a Realtek HD control panel somewhere that is doing some processing and getting in the way. Look in the system tray, poke around, search in Cortana for HD Audio, Realtek, etc. and if you find something like that, make sure that any processing is disabled. They especially love to enhance the bass, which is what you're having trouble with.

I'm starting to think that your best bet may be to create a template by deleting all the data from one of your existing projects that loads okay and just start your new projects from that!

BTW, I use the onboard sound in my Dell Inspiron notebook for monitoring both through headphones and through powered monitors, and as long as I'm using WASAPI or ASIO4ALL, it sounds fine. Perfectly suitable for DAW monitoring, and I am very picky about things like bit perfect audio playback. All you're doing is mixing, not recording, right?

The thing to avoid is getting the Windows resampling between your DAW and the chip, so WASAPI Exclusive or ASIO4ALL is the way to go. Windows resampling smears the transients like MP3 conversion.

 

When I checked the control panel for that stuff all of it was/is disabled.

The weird thing is, (well, the weird thing is the main issue) but what's also weird is I originally downloaded asio4all  because I assumed I'd need it for headphone use -- this has been true for all past DAW I used including Sonar. However, if I switch to ASIO4ALL driver the option for the "HD Audio Headphone [WaveRT]" doesn't show as an output option.

I will try see if I can get headphone up with those other driver modes, however it doesn't explain why it works fine in the existing projects.

 

Re saving exiting projects as a template... I had considered this (or simply considered deleting all the stuff and working from scratch each time at risk of saving over my project ?) 

However, I think you may have inadvertently (or deliberately) stumbled on am obvious troubleshoot step... I will try this and see if there is any difference... I'm expecting the problem to persist tho, as those existing ones are made from my templates.

 

Edited June 22, 2019 by Iron Keys

[Iron Keys]

Also note... When I plug the headphone in I get the diolague box saying the device has been disconnected would I like cakewalk to reroute these outputs.

Which I find weird as I'm connecting it. (I also get it on removal as well)

[Iron Keys]

On 6/21/2019 at 3:55 AM, Starship Krupa said:

I'm starting to think that your best bet may be to create a template by deleting all the data from one of your existing projects that loads okay and just start your new projects from that!

 All you're doing is mixing, not recording, right?

 

Didn't work ??

Erm, I'm using it gr8 protection/ composition. But ain't really "recording" anything at the moment other than midi.

[Iron Keys]

Tried using WASAPI and it didn't work at all.

Also note when I use asio4all drivers it says asio4all<name of my soundcard outputs> ??? Is that right? I thought asio4all was supposed to operate as like a fake soundcard... Not have it and play through my soundcard too??

I really don't get this at all ??

[Iron Keys]

 

You know what... I'ma try another possible work-around... ??

[Iron Keys]

7 minutes ago, Iron Keys said:

 

You know what... I'ma try another possible work-around... ??

Shiii  well that just made it worse.

What I tried: I tried starting a new project, saving it, then opening it and seeing if it behaved as other existing projects.

Result: no cigar... the distortion persists.

But what's worse: now existing projects are also distorting on playback.

[Iron Keys]

4 minutes ago, Iron Keys said:

Shiii  well that just made it worse.

What I tried: I tried starting a new project, saving it, then opening it and seeing if it behaved as other existing projects.

Result: no cigar... the distortion persists.

But what's worse: now existing projects are also distorting on playback.

Well... in my existing project with distortion, I increased buffer... Fixed sound... reduced buffer back. Sound stayed find.

So, tried it in the new saved project... distortion stayed, HOWEVER... what is interesting is increasing the buffer affects the way the distortion sounds... it kinda dragss it out more, if I really increase the buffer (on a bassdrum) the bassdrum sound almost completely disappears. The more I increase The buffer the lower pitch the distorted sounds become.

So perhaps there is some relevance??? Does anyone know what else deals with buffer related things?? 

[Iron Keys]

 

Can it be something to do with the update??

All my existing projects were created in 2018... I updated Cakewalk last week (so it would let me use it), has there been any weird update that could cause This?

(Not sure how that would work seeing as my initial template was 2018 too...)

[Starship Krupa]

I doubt it's an incompatibility with the update, as there are hundreds of notebooks with Realtek HD chips that function perfectly with CbB, including mine, running the latest version. The forum would be exploding with this issue. It's not out of the question for an update to expose another issue in your configuration, but then that's what we're looking for anyway.

My only thoughts at this point is that you really need to load up a project that works and go into Preferences and comb through every setting, no matter how trivial it may seem, especially on the drivers and devices and MIDI pages, and note any discrepancies between what you find there and what appears when you start a new project. Look for the slightest difference in nomenclature, like "Headphone" instead of "Headphone HD" or anything.

You can even screen cap each one with the Windows Snipping Tool, just type Snip into your Search Bar and it will come up. Then you can call them up side-by-side for comparison.

It could be that you have some audio in your old projects that is setting the chip to a friendly rate/depth, I don't know.

Also, make sure that you're testing using the most vanilla of synths! Fire up TTS-1 and blorp around on it, or the SI-Bass or String Section or Electric Piano or something absolutely known to work with CbB. Don't load up a Reaktor ensemble or Massive or something.

BTW, if you can figure out how to do it, it's friendly etiquette to post your system specs in your sig, look down at mine for an example. That way you don't have to keep answering questions about how much RAM, what processor, version of Windows,, etc.

Edited June 23, 2019 by Starship Krupa

[Iron Keys]

On 6/23/2019 at 2:46 AM, Starship Krupa said:

I doubt it's an incompatibility with the update, as there are hundreds of notebooks with Realtek HD chips that function perfectly with CbB, including mine, running the latest version. The forum would be exploding with this issue. It's not out of the question for an update to expose another issue in your configuration, but then that's what we're looking for anyway.

My only thoughts at this point is that you really need to load up a project that works and go into Preferences and comb through every setting, no matter how trivial it may seem, especially on the drivers and devices and MIDI pages, and note any discrepancies between what you find there and what appears when you start a new project. Look for the slightest difference in nomenclature, like "Headphone" instead of "Headphone HD" or anything.

You can even screen cap each one with the Windows Snipping Tool, just type Snip into your Search Bar and it will come up. Then you can call them up side-by-side for comparison.

It could be that you have some audio in your old projects that is setting the chip to a friendly rate/depth, I don't know.

Also, make sure that you're testing using the most vanilla of synths! Fire up TTS-1 and blorp around on it, or the SI-Bass or String Section or Electric Piano or something absolutely known to work with CbB. Don't load up a Reaktor ensemble or Massive or something.

BTW, if you can figure out how to do it, it's friendly etiquette to post your system specs in your sig, look down at mine for an example. That way you don't have to keep answering questions about how much RAM, what processor, version of Windows,, etc.

Still can't find any differences at all.

And Yeah I'm doing it using basic vsts or whatever.

 

Ah, as for sig and specs I'll try get round to that at some point (I don't see an option for it yet as I've just joined... And also I don't see anyone's sig at all either)