Members neverendinggig Posted September 1, 2012 Members Share Posted September 1, 2012 Hi all. Im new to the forum and have been lurking a while without joining in so i thought i would introduce myself and jump straight in with a request for help ive been doing solo/duo gigs for more years than i like to think about and have a nagging problem for the last few that is in danger of frying my brain! My tracks have a tendancy to run slow maybe fifty % of the time and i have no idea why!! This has been happening since i started using md......then a laptop.......then a dj mp3 unit.....and now ipod touch. I thought the ipod would sort it seeing as it runs from batt but apparently not! Its driving me nuts!!!!!! Any of you have any ideas? Many thanks in advance....Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Potts Posted September 1, 2012 Members Share Posted September 1, 2012 Hey Dave! Welcome to the forum. I have no idea. I've never heard of such a thing across so many platforms. There has to be something wrong with your tracks. Have you noticed this with newer tracks or just old ones? (I know this seems obvious but just trying to talk it out) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members neverendinggig Posted September 1, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 1, 2012 Hi Potts thanks for the welcome :-) It's a complete mystery. when we started using md we considered all sorts of things......something to do with buffering......power supply? I actually spoke to tascam service dept and explained what was happening and the guy told me I was imagining it! twat. I know that one's mind can play trick but it really is quite obvious when it happens. there is no change in pitch, just tempo. we have redone the tracks several times over the years in several different ways. we take the midi....edit it.....use whatever sound module/source we have at the time......record the tracks individually into cakewalk.....mix....master....convert and save. for the life of me I can't work out what we are doing wrong! It's not like it does it all the time either....its intermittent! we decided that the most logical thing was some kind of power issue.....so depending on the venue's power supply it would be fine or not.....and we have kind of lived with it. but now we have moved to using the ipod (which is a revelation!) it of course runs on its own power and so is not connected to anything other than the audio out so logically it can't be the power! as you say it seems it must be something to do with the tracks.......but im buggered if i can work out what it is!! I wonder if there is some we need to do at the mastering stage that we simply dont know about.....some kind of 'tempo lock' or something? but no amount of google fu has thrown up an answer. as you say over so many media formats it must be the tracks...but....! the funny thing is I could probably live with it to a degree but the mystery of it is really starting to niggle at me! it just shouldn't happen.....but it definitely does. we have tested the tempo's when it does so we know we aren't imaging it. I swear I really miss my canvas/brush combo which never caused me any problems and sounded awsome! so much for progress i guess, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MusicalSchizo Posted September 2, 2012 Members Share Posted September 2, 2012 I welcome you as well, and not to be a jerk, but I'm leaning toward what the Tascam service guy said. I think it's in your head at this point. There is NO REASON why a piece of recorded digital audio would play back slower on multiple formats intermittently...it simply wouldn't play if there was something wrong with the media or power...or it might skip. It's not like an old cassette player when the batteries run down and it slows down. The only thing i can think of is if your iPod's playback or the laptop's playback accidentally got set to half speed. But that doesn't explain the issues with the Minidisc, which doesn't have that feature. It's a mystery... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members leftyjay Posted September 2, 2012 Members Share Posted September 2, 2012 if you were to record/video it as it was acting up, then someone would probably have an answer. i've delt with mini disc, dat tapes, midi sequencers, and all kinds of mp3 players, and never had a speed issue. it either played or it didnt. there shouldnt be a grey area where it plays, but the wrong tempo. have you tried loading a regular mp3 off of a cd of your favorite artist to see if it acts up? i've heard of midi sequences staggering in speed because of lack of ram on the laptop causing it to buffer while playing. but that was quite a few years ago when 512mb ram was a lot. now laptops come with at least 3gb and usually 6gb ram and shouldnt have any sluggishness playing tracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bob Dey Posted September 2, 2012 Members Share Posted September 2, 2012 The only time I've ever had tempo fluctuate was when I used cassettes. But the pitch also changed, which is the only thing that made it obvious. But there are some MIDI tracks that I didn't get the tempos set like the original, because I didn't have the original recording. So now if I hear Sultans of Swing on the radio, I can tell that it's a little faster than my version. So what are you comparing your track to? Did you set the bpm the same as original recordings initially? Low voltage will not cause digital audio to slow down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Voltan Posted September 2, 2012 Members Share Posted September 2, 2012 was there whiskey in your water? sugar in your tea? whats all these crazy questions theyre asking me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members neverendinggig Posted September 2, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 2, 2012 Thanks for the responses guys. mystery....definitely. I agree that th most likely answer is that it's in our heads.....but the delay times on the guitar effects prove the point sometimes. If nobody here has come across this then I gues I'll just have to live with the wierdness. maybe I'll start keeping a gig diary for a month or so and check the bpms regularly and keep a note. again many thanks chaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members skybluegary Posted September 2, 2012 Members Share Posted September 2, 2012 Thanks for the responses guys. mystery....definitely. I agree that th most likely answer is that it's in our heads.....but the delay times on the guitar effects prove the point sometimes. If nobody here has come across this then I gues I'll just have to live with the wierdness. maybe I'll start keeping a gig diary for a month or so and check the bpms regularly and keep a note. again many thanks chaps. Have you tried it without the guitar f/x? It could be the delay that's throwing you off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members neverendinggig Posted September 2, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 2, 2012 It's happens over different songs.....not necessarily the same ones every time....... and with regards to the delay, we do Country Boy and have the delays set up in the same way Albert Lee does for the end solo and when the tempo is out it screws with that somewhat :-P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shaster Posted September 3, 2012 Members Share Posted September 3, 2012 neverendinggig - If you were just using Midi tracks I would say that you've got some errant tempo change messages and you only notice them sometimes, but then again you say it doesn't happen all the time. I would suggest you try recording a couple of nights to see if you can catch the gremlins in the act. Case in point... Once in a while I work with a drummer who's normally very good but on George Benson's version of On Broadway, I swear my drummer always slows down. Now everytime I think this, I say to myself "no he's too good to slow down, I must be rushing". But on Friday I videotaped a performance which included On Broadway. Sure enough he slowed way down. I think he has a different opinion of where the song should be and reigns it in after a while. Incidentally, my tempo is the right one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bob Dey Posted September 3, 2012 Members Share Posted September 3, 2012 On a computer, one thing that can cause skipping in audio playback is wireless internet. This also causes the song to slow down a bit. What happens is the wireless card is trying to find a hot spot, and every time it sends a search it somehow causes a glitch in audio playback. Turn off or disable your wireless card. That may be the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Terry Allan Hall Posted September 3, 2012 Members Share Posted September 3, 2012 Thanks for the responses guys. mystery....definitely. I agree that th most likely answer is that it's in our heads.....but the delay times on the guitar effects prove the point sometimes. If nobody here has come across this then I gues I'll just have to live with the wierdness. maybe I'll start keeping a gig diary for a month or so and check the bpms regularly and keep a note. again many thanks chaps. Good idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Notes_Norton Posted September 3, 2012 Members Share Posted September 3, 2012 What are you using to make your mp3 files? Could it be a problem in the ripper? Just a guess. Notes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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