Pops - my work around.

Thomas Baker · Post by **Thomas Baker** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 2:41 am

OK, don't flame me if this info has been offered before...I'm a forum newbie.

Pops while Rendering in 5.0.x/Solutions

This is what I have observed on rendering in 5.0.x on windows based machine. Certain types of sound sources render cleanly while others don’t. Regardless of machine configuration and soundcard, pops still happen. I have rendered the same material on 3 different machines, all with 1gig of ram and plenty of disk space (defragged daily). Adjusting buffer sizes really has no effect. Using MME/DX drivers is usually a catastrophe, ASIO is slightly better. My main recording computer usually has the following turned off: Networking, Print Spooler, DNS Client, DHCP Client, Disk-keeper service, Automatic updates, Virus protection (and associated services) and a few others. Basically I’m running 23 services/processes before launching any software.
I have used the following soundcards: M-Audio Audiophile 2496, M-Audio Firewire Solo, Tascam US-224, MOTU 828 (MK1 – not the newer one). Of all these the Tascam usually gets the best results. The oddball thing is that full mixes render fine, but individual tracks to be used in other apps, like Pro Tools, are the ones that have pops. I have tried other solutions but I don’t want to author a book at the moment on what hasn’t worked, so I’ll just skip to what has.

An workable but cumbersome solution; Freeze the track you want exported. It is a wave file but in 32-bit float. If your’ other DAW app doesn’t support 32-bit float (i.e. Pro Tools LE/M-Powered/TDM – 6.x and 7.x) Then you need a way to convert the 32-bit float file to 24 or 16 bit Wave. I use Samplitude Producer 6.0. Once converted they can be used easily in almost all DAW applications. I do not know how many other applications can edit and export 32-float files into other formats, and how expensive they are. Perhaps other users can chime in here. Samplitude is on version 8.0 now but a few places still sell 6.0 Producer for about $200.00, a pittance considering it is a wonderful mastering/CD burning program with a multi-band compressor on the master buss.

A nice solution might be for Ableton to offer a small standalone application to convert 32-float freeze waves to 24 and/or 16 bit time-stamped wave or Aiff files. I personally would like it to be a standalone program and not add bloat to Live, but that’s
just my opinion.

Solution #2 (time consuming) Got a track that plays back fine but has pops when rendered and want to get it into pro-tools or some other rewire enabled app? Insert Live on a channel in pro-tools and send the outs to a pair of buses. Enable recording on another channels and record from the buses Live is feeding.

timothyallan · Post by **timothyallan** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 10:09 pm

or you could do what we all do already:

set a track to resample, record arm and press play.

It even works on songs that skip because they push your processor over 100%

Thomas Baker · Post by **Thomas Baker** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 2:02 pm

Hehe...I SO could've used that info 3 weeks ago...LOL.

Live and learn.

timothyallan · Post by **timothyallan** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:50 pm

LOL

I hear ya, at least now you know.

(your way was much more pro sounding than mine

)

pickney · Post by **pickney** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:34 am

came across your post. whenever i render my live sets i invariably get what i understand are 'artifacts' - pops, crackles, static, etc. even one of my snare hits sort off crapped out during playback in winamp and sounded like a quarter inch going into a jack.

i hope your resampling method provides the remedy! i'll give it a shot and post when i hear the result...