Somewhat OT: Weird Midi/Audio Glitch

[BbAltered]

I am seeking help with a strange problem I am having in CakeWalk by BandLab (CWbBL or just CW). Any suggestions are welcome.

 

I am having a weird distortion problem in a project. The distortion appears in an audio clip in an audio track in a project that contains 8 audio tracks. The distortion occurs at one specific point in this audio clip that is 30-40 secs in length. The distortion occurs at meas. 96, beat 2.5 - there is no distortion anywhere else in that audio clip except at meas 96, beat 2.5. At that location, the CW meters show the audio to be more than 10 db below 0 dbFS (so the distortion is NOT due to audio clipping).

 

I created this audio clip by first recording a midi track to drive a sound module (Roland rd-2000). I then capture the audio output of the sound module on a separate audio track. This means I can monitor the audio output of the sound module and re-record the audio so it will always be exactly the same as the initial (same volume, etc.). When I monitor the audio output of the sound module at my hardware mixer, I hear no distortion of the audio. The meters of the hardware mixer receiving the audio output of the sound module are well below 0 dbFS - so the audio coming out of the sound module is NOT distorting the AD converter.

 

OK so here is where it gets weird. If I slide the midi track forward 20 measures or so (well beyond the location at meas 96, beat 2.5), and re-record the sound module, I get a audio clip that has NO distortion in it: it sounds great. Yet, if I then slide or copy/paste this audio clip that has no distortion in it to the location at meas 96, beat 2.5, this audio clip will now play back with the distortion, just like the previous clip.

 

So in sum: the audio output of the sound module itself is not distorted; the audio output of the sound module is not distorting the AD converter, and I can record the audio output of the sound module to CW without distortion as long as I am not recording at meas 96, beat 2.5.

 

All the other audio tracks except one play without distortion at meas. 96, beat 2.5. I am hearing a similar distortion in another audio clip on another audio track at the same meas. 96, beat 2.5. This other audio clip was also created by first recording a midi track and then using the midi track to drive the sound module.

 

Can anyone tell me why I am getting distortion at this one particular location (and not at any other location). Can anyone suggest a way to avoid or remove the distortion? Thanks.

[Jonathan Hughes]

I don't use CakeWalk so I can't point you to any specifics, but my guess is that there's some automation that either changing a level and causing distortion, or turning on a distortion effect at that point in the song. Have you tried recording the audio on a different track?

[BbAltered]

Thank you Mr. Hughes for your reply.

 

So one of the things I did to trouble shoot this problem is try recording on a new track at the same position in the song as the distorting track. So I created a new track, armed it for audio recording, and re-recorded the audio output of the sound module as it played back the midi passage. I got distortion at meas. 96, beat 2.5. I then tried recording some of my singing over the same song position (so using a different set of audio inputs when recording the audio output of the sound module). Again I hear distortion at meas. 96, beat 2.5.

 

So there is definitely something happening at meas. 96, beat 2.5. Because I will now have distortion at that location in the song with anything new I record.

 

I warned you that this is weird.

[Jonathan Hughes]

I would try copying and pasting each track into a new file.