Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Support and feedback for Acoustica's Mixcraft audio mixing software.

Moderators: Acoustica Greg, Acoustica Eric, Acoustica Dan, rsaintjohn

Post Reply
User avatar
outteh
Posts: 3767
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:23 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX

Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by outteh »

OK! I know this has been discussed in the past but I'm looking for a better answer then what has been posted. I mix down a project into 16 bit 44100 wav. When i play it back using windows media player through by m-audio c600 interface (the same interface I used to create the project) it plays back fine. When I switch to the onboard realtek audio interface and play it back through the same windows media player it is slow in tempo and the pitch is lowered. I have adjusted everything I can and even mixed down the project with no vst's or other enhancements. If I set mixcraft preferences to the realtek audio interface and set it to use wav, the mixcraft itself on playback is slowed down. What is the audi interface reading or interpreting to decide the playback speed? There must be some electrical or audio reason for the difference. Is there an audio engineer type out there that can explain the anomoly? :( :?
User avatar
Acoustica Greg
Posts: 24555
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:30 pm
Location: California
Contact:

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

Are you using ASIO mode in Mixcraft's Sound Device preferences? If so, try turning off the option called "Use Device's Preferred Settings."

Greg
Mixcraft - The Musician's DAW
Check out our tutorial videos on YouTube: Mixcraft 10 University 101
User avatar
outteh
Posts: 3767
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:23 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by outteh »

Did all those "hints" from previous posts about this issue. I think something is being interpreted differently between audio devices but I'm not audio engineer enough to figure it out. The bulk of my projects work just fine between the two audio devices, it seems to impact only occasionally. Maybe it's an interpretation of a midi file mixed with audio files. I've removed vst's from the project and mixed down the file and it still changes pitch between the audio devices. So, here we sit! :D
User avatar
Acoustica Greg
Posts: 24555
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:30 pm
Location: California
Contact:

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

How many different sample rates are involved here? What sample rate is the C600 using? What sample rate is Windows using with the Realtek? (Windows Sound settings > Sound Control Panel > Properties for the playback device > Advanced).


Greg
Mixcraft - The Musician's DAW
Check out our tutorial videos on YouTube: Mixcraft 10 University 101
User avatar
outteh
Posts: 3767
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:23 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by outteh »

Both devices set to 16 bit, 44100. The m-audio interface uses ASIO and the realtek uses wav or core-audio both set to 16 bit, 44100. Any audio enhancements are turned off and I don't use device preferred settings. Really strange! :D
User avatar
Acoustica Greg
Posts: 24555
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:30 pm
Location: California
Contact:

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

And this is just with Windows Media Player? Are you restarting Windows Media Player when you change sound devices?

Greg
Mixcraft - The Musician's DAW
Check out our tutorial videos on YouTube: Mixcraft 10 University 101
User avatar
outteh
Posts: 3767
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:23 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by outteh »

I don't restart the media player, i just pause the playback, change my device in windows and play the file. It's the old standard windows media player not that new one. :D
User avatar
outteh
Posts: 3767
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:23 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by outteh »

Oh, by the way the project when played in Mixcraft also slows down which changes the pitch when I change audio devices in preferences. :D (This should raise some eybrows :roll: )
And this happens with just normal playback of the project. See if any of your engineer/developers have any thoughts. I'm beginning to suspect it's midi related.
User avatar
Acoustica Greg
Posts: 24555
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:30 pm
Location: California
Contact:

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

What if you restart Windows Media Player and/or Mixcraft between device changes?

Greg
Mixcraft - The Musician's DAW
Check out our tutorial videos on YouTube: Mixcraft 10 University 101
User avatar
outteh
Posts: 3767
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:23 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by outteh »

I could try that and I'm also thinking of mixing the midi tracks to audio and mixdown the project with no midi files using both audio interfaces and see what happens. :?:
User avatar
Acoustica Greg
Posts: 24555
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:30 pm
Location: California
Contact:

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

Once it's audio, it doesn't matter whether it started out as MIDI. An audio file is an audio file. It doesn't know it used to be MIDI.

Greg
Mixcraft - The Musician's DAW
Check out our tutorial videos on YouTube: Mixcraft 10 University 101
User avatar
outteh
Posts: 3767
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:23 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by outteh »

Good point! :mrgreen: Back to the drawing board. So how does the audio device interpret the audio stream and change the tempo?
User avatar
outteh
Posts: 3767
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:23 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by outteh »

Acoustica Greg wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:39 pm Hi,

Once it's audio, it doesn't matter whether it started out as MIDI. An audio file is an audio file. It doesn't know it used to be MIDI.

Greg
Did some more research and mismatch of frequency is the cause of pitch and tempo changes as you have stated many times before. So I double checked everything, made sure all the interfaces were set to the same frequency, no sound effects or enhancers were enabled, no exclusive mode or preferred device settings enabled. Guess what, the project mixes down the same now, no pitch or tempo change when switching audio devices. Who knows what I had checked that I didn't see. :D :mrgreen:
User avatar
Acoustica Greg
Posts: 24555
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:30 pm
Location: California
Contact:

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

Yeah, sample rate mismatches can cause all sorts of issues. It can also make it seem like you're in exclusive mode, even if you're not (Mixcraft has audio, but nothing else does). So it's good to pay attention to which sample rate the default Windows playback is using, along with the various programs and sound devices when you run into stuff like this.

Thanks for coming back and letting us know what it turned out to be!

Greg
Mixcraft - The Musician's DAW
Check out our tutorial videos on YouTube: Mixcraft 10 University 101
cactus-head
Posts: 996
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2017 3:09 pm

Re: Pitch and tempo change between sound devices

Post by cactus-head »

Just a heads up, on the realtek interface, there should be something that identifies the playback quality. This is completely separate from any settings that have to do with ones independent audio interface.

On my realtek interface, the sample rate and bit depth is on the tab called Default Format.

realtek.JPG
realtek.JPG (31.14 KiB) Viewed 1361 times
Post Reply