My friend is running Cubase Artist 10 on a Windows 10 equipped PC. He’s using a Behringer XR16 as the audio interface. A few musicians & I get together at his place to jam, & we usually record everything. I have a project template setup at 44.1 kHz, & that is the sample rate that we usually record at. Before that last jam, the Behringer was set to 48 kHz without my knowing & we recorded quite a few things.
Whenever we try to export a mixdown at either sample rate, the resulting file is slower in tempo & lower in pitch. Cubase thinks the sample rate is 44.1, but it was coming in at 48. I tried converting the project files to 48kHz, & the results are slower & lower than the original tracks, like the mixdown.
Also, the external clock box was not checked in Cubase settings & perhaps, if checked, this wouldn’t have happened.
Lesson learned, always double check the settings on the Behringer before recording.
Is there a way to salvage the tracks to play at the proper speed? I thought about speeding the whole thing up 108.84% (if possible), then converting the sample rate to 48kHz. That percentage is the difference between 48 & 44.1.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
That is what the problem is, they don’t match. In the Pool Window in Cubase, all tracks are listed as 44.1kHz.
The Behringer XR16 is the audio interface. When set to 48kHz, the tracks play at proper speed (in Cubase only, not in Wavelab).
When the XR16 is set to 44.1kHz, the playback in Cubase & Wavelab is slower & lower in pitch.
Martin, I’m not at my friend’s place right now, but I’m pretty sure that in the Project Setup Dialog, the record file format was set to 44,100kHz, 24 bit, wave file. I’ll ask him to verify later on.
I wouldn’t worry about project sample rates, or even bother with cubase at this point. Your theory is that the audio file is marked with the wrong sample rate? If so, the first thing I would do is confirm that by playing the audio file with something other than cubase and check if it plays back properly.
If that’s indeed the problem, you can either use a binary editor to change the sample rate on the audio file, or change the pitch/time to counteract the wrong sample rate.
If instead it does play back properly in something other than cubase, then you don’t need to salvage anything: simply create a new project and import the audio. Cubase should resample, if necessary, when you do this import.
If the problem is only while playing back the file in other player, make sure the player is set to 48kHz, when your Audio Device is set to 48kHz. The player and the Audio Device Sample Rate has to always been in sync.
Thanks, Glenn & Martin. Those are both good things to try. I never tried playing one of the individual wave files in another program, I only tried playing the exported stereo mix.
Okay, I found out that individual wave files play back slower in other programs when compared to Cubase. Binary edit or time/pitch change? Which is easier?
Sorry if I wasn’t clear, slower means incorrect. When playing the tracks in Cubase with the interface set to 48kHz, everything is the correct speed & pitch. Even though the project is set to 44.1kHz.
Playing one of the wave files in media player results in slower tempo & lower pitch.
Thanks for the link. That’ll take some time to digest.
Steve
Install the Wavelab (elements is fine) trial, import audio, in audio properties select the correct rate.
Save as and set the correct rate and bit depth in the save dialogue.
I had this issue once. Audio interface clock source was set to something different to Cubase project setup. (because “clock source” was wrong). Recorded file played fine in Cubase but mixed down at wrong speed. File conversions did not help because the file was reporting the wrong attributes. In the end, I played the project real-time out of Cubase and recorded it to another device at the correct sample rate. For multiple channels I guess you’d have to do that for each channel solo’ed.
I like the comment above about editing the file header, to correct the reported sample rate. That would be clever.
A regular sample rate conversion of the file would not help, I think, because the file is reporting the wrong rate going in.
Thanks Grim, that’s definitely worth a try, WaveLab Elements is already installed on my friend’s PC.
I tried something similar using an old version of Adobe Audition, then imported the tracks into a new project in Cubase. That seemed to fix things for a small portion that I had copied to experiment with.
See the posts above for a possible solution.