Hi Dominique,
I have experienced such clicks too. There seem to exist a few USB host
controller chips (located on the motherboard of the computer) that don't work
reliably under certain circumstances. For instance, when I record directly onto
my SONY Vaio mini-laptop CV1E via an external USB audio interface, I get
random clicks as long as I have selected a reduced processor clock speed (300
MHz
instead of 600 MHz). Interestingly, the clicks also disappear when I use an
extra PCMCIA-based USB host controller card instead of the integrated USB
ports.
So, before you buy another computer, you might try to install an additional
USB host controller card (there are both PCI-bus and PCMCIA models). The
PCMCIA card I used successfully is the model 'ADVANCE PERIPHERALS USB 2.0
CardBus'. It employs a 'NEC USB Open Host Controller'.
As you already mentioned, it could also be important to reduce the overall
processor load as much as possible. Several USB audio interface manufacturers
recommend to activate the DMA mode option for the harddisk.
Regards,
Raimund
> Hi,
>
> I recently noticed the addition of clicks in recordings transferred from
> Portadisc to PC through the USB port. The clicks are clearly audible,
> they appear in the sonogram as vertical bands, and they seem to
> correspond to a few milliseconds of data loss. They appear randomly but,
> sometimes, up to 10 of them within 10 of 15 seconds. Transferring the
> same track several times, I eventually could transfer most tracks
> without clicks. But that is not really practical !
>
> I only noticed these clicks recently, while transferring the recording
> of a band concert to a PC for editing. Each track was several minutes
> long (3-5 min). I never noticed them in previous transfers, but my
> nature recordings are usually much shorter (around 1 min).
>
> I tried my 2 portadiscs, 3 PCs (all 3 under XP Pro, I must admit) and
> both CoolEdit 2000 and Audition... Same results. I tried on desktop PCs
> built around P3 at 450 MHz, with 384 Mb RAM, and plenty of disk space. I
> also tried on a laptop at 2.5 GHz with 512 Mb RAM... even tried on both
> systems using a RAM disk for store temp files, in order to eliminate
> disk access speed problems.
>
> While transferring, I also stopped MacAfee anti-virus, as well as all
> services that are not critical... I still have clicks.
>
> Anyone having faced that problem before ? Any suggestion beside buying a
> new computer ???
> Paul, is that something other Portadisc users (like journalists) have
> noticed before ?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dominique Laloux
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "Microphones are not ears,
> Loudspeakers are not birds,
> A listening room is not nature."
> Klas Strandberg
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
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________________________________________________________________________
"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
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