Newbie suffering distortion and sync problems

[Clueless]

Hi, my first post here and apologies in advance if any of the following has been covered a million times before.

I've had Mixcraft for a few years now and am currently running version 8.1. Until very recently, however, I had put off actually using it because it was easier to stick with my tried and tested AW1600. Old dog, new tricks, etc...

Being under lock-down seemed to be the opportunity to confront my fears, so I bought a USB interface and dived in. It was going reasonably well initially; I got my keyboard to communicate with Mixcraft and sounds were coming out of the Beringer UMC404HD.

But today! I tried recording acoustic guitar (mic'd up via the 404) and sound tests seemed okay. I recorded a few bars, played it back and the level was reasonable, quality was okay, for a first attempt, anyway.

However, when I recorded the whole song's worth (about 3-4 minutes), the playback of the guitar was out of sync (started before the other tracks, which are internal Mixcraft instruments and imported drum loops) and also distorted. The levels were not clipping on the Behringer, not did they seem to be on Mixcraft.

I tried the process a few times with (unsurprisingly) the same result.

I am still at the beginning of this particular learning curve and this particular area has me stumped.

Your help would be very much appreciated.

[jlouvar]

Hi, my first post here and apologies in advance if any of the following has been covered a million times before.

I've had Mixcraft for a few years now and am currently running version 8.1. Until very recently, however, I had put off actually using it because it was easier to stick with my tried and tested AW1600. Old dog, new tricks, etc...

Being under lock-down seemed to be the opportunity to confront my fears, so I bought a USB interface and dived in. It was going reasonably well initially; I got my keyboard to communicate with Mixcraft and sounds were coming out of the Beringer UMC404HD.

But today! I tried recording acoustic guitar (mic'd up via the 404) and sound tests seemed okay. I recorded a few bars, played it back and the level was reasonable, quality was okay, for a first attempt, anyway.

However, when I recorded the whole song's worth (about 3-4 minutes), the playback of the guitar was out of sync (started before the other tracks, which are internal Mixcraft instruments and imported drum loops) and also distorted. The levels were not clipping on the Behringer, not did they seem to be on Mixcraft.

I tried the process a few times with (unsurprisingly) the same result.

I am still at the beginning of this particular learning curve and this particular area has me stumped.

Your help would be very much appreciated.

Hello and welcome to the MIxcraft forum.

Maybe this thread will help: https://forums.acoustica.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24566
If not you probably should contact Acoustica Support: https://acoustica.kayako.com/conversation/new

[Clueless]

Thanks for the welcome and the links.

[Mark Bliss]

It can be very hard to diagnose this kind of thing without seeing/hearing the problem.

You seem to describe two different problems?

On the sync problem, how are you monitoring?
You describe the guitar recording as coming before the other tracks, which seems odd. Most common problems in my experience are the other way around- recording late.
Theres some clue missing here, but I am betting its fairly basic.
What are your sound device settings? Etc.

Distortion. Maybe you could describe it or post an example.
Most common problem is computer buffering which often presents as a "stuttering" or "broken up" audio. If so, you need to find the buffer/latency settings that best suit your specific gear.
Excessive levels can cause another kind of distortion. But thats pretty easy to diagnose and resolve. Lower your recording level to start with. Many people record at much higher levels than necessary.

Let us know what you find, lets get you sorted!