Computers are great for recording, but...

Like most people now days, I record with my computer. Usually everything is good, but every now and then all the input volumes will change. Suddenly tracks are self limiting, or distorting, or just to low to work in a mix.

It takes me hours to get everything right again. I have to adjust the Aux2 and Master Ins, fiddle with my master and line volumes on my mixer, get my synth levels right again, etc..

I use my computer for lots of things, so it could be anything doing it. Plus my wife uses it. I probably should get a dedicated computer just for recording.

Anyone else experience similar problema and, hopefully, find a solution?

weird.

never heard of that problem. i use my computer for work as well as tracking and i've never come across your issue. could it be software related?

Shes probably does not like you not spending quality time with your family soo probably she puts virus on it or something :poke:

There's a company in Cupertino, California that makes computers. Perhaps they can help.

I think it's a program, like a video player, doing it. My wife often watches Japanese TV programs on the computer, and I really have no idea what software they use to run. I'm fairly sure it's proprietary and knocking everything else out of whack. Luckily it doesn't happen often, only occasionally.

I was making a demo song the other day and realized that all my individual tracks clipped. Last night I recorded a track from my MKS-70, and it was limiting - the waves looked like thin stripes with flat tops and bottoms. The MKS-70 is usually one of the easiest synths to record as it has such a huge sound.

No one but me touches my music production PC's or Macs. It's the only way. Also, those particular computers are dedicated to music production (they have internet connection but no games, business software, attached printers, scanners, etc.).

As you are discovering, it's a very good idea to have a separate computer dedicated to music production. That way you never install anything to it besides what's needed for that purpose. You can get the same benefits with removable harddrives on one computer system so that you can have one harddrive dedicated to music. Most problems are software-related, not hardware. It helps to practice safe computing. If you have three or four removable harddrives, you can use one of them to try out any untrustworthy software. Never install software from an unreliable source on any system that you depend upon.

Good gracious, my wife would destroy my computer. I have to work pretty hard to keep hers free from spyware and viruses. All she really cares about is surfing the net, music, and email, so she has a cheaper Dell in the family room. The kids use that, too and believe me they can be tough on it (especially the three-year old). I use my "old" laptop for connecting up to work and have Matlab and MS office and whatnot on that, but not on my main.

I do mix games with audio, though. I have even used the mLan card on my XS6 as the sound card for games - works fine and sounds awesome! My interest in gaming has waned to about zero since Thanksgiving, though. I lost interest in EQ2 and now have lost interest in Warhammer. The only stuff I have played lately has been on the Wii with the kids.

You may want to consider building a seperate computer only for audio. A few months back for about $500 I built a dual-core 2.6ghz 2U rackmount computer for running softsynths. It would be plenty powerful as a DAW as well.

Tweak the OS for audio apps and then don't install anything else besides your DAW software.

Is there a setting like "disable application use of audio mixer" or something? I used to get that all the time with my onboard sound and soundblasters and crap, but my maudio has that in the asio settings.

Well, no. But...

Why don't you tell us what brand and type of audio interface you use? Your descriptions are going to be pretty much useless otherwise. If you now go - good .