Cubase Elements 11 - recording issue

Cubase
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1

Hello,

I just recorded our latest podcast, and in places the audio sounds terrible. This soundcloud clip is an example - SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds

I’m trying to diagnose what the issue was as this has never happened before.

The studio setup uses Rode NT1-A mics into Focusrite scarlett 18i8. That records into Cubase on a MacBook air. At the time I was only recording two microphones. In cubase the ASIO driver was set to an aggregate device, and in the ‘audio setup’ each mic was going to its own mono bus that was then being recorded on a mono audio track. The record format is set to 48kHz, 32bit float. The MacBook hard drive has around 80Gb available, was was plenty.

This is the same setup I always use, with one exception. I don’t always use the aggregate device as the ASIO driver, sometimes I just have it set directly to the 18i8. I didn’t this time because earlier in the day I was recording a Cleanfeed call which involved using the scarlett & BlackHole. I didn’t see the need to change it after that for the next session. All the scarlett inputs were acessable via the aggregate device. The recording of that call was fine as far as I can tell.

At the time I monitored the audio input directly via the scarlett as did the pod hosts (via a different output) and this issue wasn’t present. So i think its reasonable to assume the issue isn’t with the scarlett or the input signal itself, rather its something happening with the audio routing or within cubase.

That might make it seem obvious that it is the aggregate device causing problems, however I can’t see any reason it should be. I’m by no means an expert at that though. I’m also sure that i’ve recorded with this set up a couple of times with no issues. To complicate mattes more some of the recordings were fine, and some weren’t. Even within an individual recording there could be 10 mins that is fine then 10 that sounds like the clip!

I also noticed when I re-opened the session that the input latency in the ‘Audio System’ menu had become massive. Around 1100ms. For context when I normally record with this set up it’s around 23ms.

Have you experienced anything similar? Any help on what might have happened here would be great as i’m really not sure.

Thanks :slight_smile:

2

There is something wrong with the connection between the hardware and the software… it sounds like a USB connection that is not stable… or a driver having difficulties to work proper with the device… maybe a restart of the device could help…

3

Yeah that’s a good shout. Hopefully it was just a one off event.

My concern is that because it’s happening after the point I’m monitoring the input signal it was impossible to detect. That means it could easily happen again without us knowing.

I guess I could listen via an output from cubase rather than the audio interface but that would add a ton of latency so I’d rather avoid it if possible.

4

I tried a test recording again with this set up and it seemed fine except for one part which also had the previous issue.

I’m recording a podcast again tonight using that set up, so I will make sure that I have a seperate backup recording as well. BUT… If anyone has any ideas where i’m going wrong with the setup please let me know, because I really can’t figure it out.

I thought it might have been an issue with having descript open in the background but I now don’t think that was the cause. :man_shrugging: