Track Distortion?

[Bold-mere]

First of all, a little about me.

I am 72 years young and I don't have a great deal of knowledge about mixing and sampling etc.

My equipment consists of a Soundcraft 8fx interface and Mixcraft9 DAW.

I have been using the above for about 6 months now.

I have been getting good results and have been pleased with my progress.

A problem has occurred that I cannot resolve.

If I record my voice onto say track 1, no problem and then record my ukulele on track 2, no problem.
The problem occurs when I record both voice and ukulele on two separate tracks at the same time.
I usually arm two tracks, one for voice and one for guitar, record and play with no problem.
The last couple of weeks a problem has occurred and it is getting worse.

The problem I have is recording two track at the same time. The recording appears to be ok but when I play it back I get lots of distortion and crossover noise, something I never had before.

The problem is getting worse because now I can't record ukulele/guitar or voice alongside a backing track from the library without getting lots of distortion.

Thanks in anticipation.

[TrevsAudio]

Hi and welcome to the forums!
You beat me in age, but only by a year, so I understand your frustrations! In fact, may I take this opportunity of welcoming you into the highly esteemed Mixcraft Old Farts Club!
Difficult to anticipate what the problem may be, but my immediate thought was recording levels? You could get individual tracks sounding good and distortion free, but together, their levels may push the master track too hard.
A guide would be to keep individual voice or instrument tracks to around -18 and -12 db. But keep an eye on what the mater track is doing: ie, that it is not going into the red with all tracks playing...

[Bold-mere]

Thanks Trevlyns

I think I will have to go back to basics and as you say, check all my levels (again) and basic setup.

This is what we need in times of 'Covid' lock down. Hours or even days trying to overcome another fault on the computer.

Regards

[Bold-mere]

Update to my findings.

Went back to basics in setup etc. happy with those.

After experimenting, I have found that if I start recording (a single track)from the first bar of an acoustic track, everything is o.k

If I record two tracks (Guitar and voice on separate tracks) from bar ONE I get distortion on both tracks.

If I record two tracks (Guitar and voice on separate tracks) from bar FOUR I get a perfect recording.

Why is this. Is there a setting/adjustment for bars 1 to 3?

Thanks for your time.

[Rolling Estonian]

What specs is your pc? Seems like if it's okay with one track and not two you may not have a powerful enough system to handle 2 tracks simultaneously.

M

[Bold-mere]

Further update.

I think I may have found the problem.

I removed my interface and its leads, checked them all for damage etc, nothing found.

I then had a light bulb moment. I connected my interface as usual with the (Digital) USB lead but I connected the sound input and outputs using the analogue connections. Whereas before I relied solely on the single USB lead (worked O.K), I now use the analogue microphone and speaker input/outputs from the computer to the interface.

Everything works as it should.

I think the USB lead may be damaged internally. I will replace it.

Thanks for your time and comments.