The Official Computer Tech Support Thread

[VEGANGELICA]

Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

If it's only happening when you export, you should maybe look at your export settings. I don't know about Acid, but with Sonar I can change the type of export to either slow (accurate) or fast.
Also, try exporting as a WAV and see if you get the same problem. I'd use an third-party conversion program anyway, as the built in converters are notoriously bad in lower-end software.

As far as Acid Pro freezing up, there could be a bug in the program itself. You can kinda narrow it down by turning off EVERYTHING you don't need at the moment, like background processes that aren't essential, Antivirus program, firewall, and anything else that may be running in your taskbar that isn't necessary.

Thanks for all the advice, Freebase.

I pulled an all-nighter to try get to the bottom of the problem with my audio tracks playing out of sync in the mp3. After around 9 hours of trying all sorts of things (which certainly taught me a lot), like defragmenting the hard drive, turning off background processes, uninstalling and reinstalling the audio recording program (twice!) and audio interface drivers and firmware updates...I finally tried disabling all plug-in effects from the tracks within a song.

And presto. Disabling the ACID effects plug-ins on the tracks caused the tracks to play in sync in the rendered mp3 or wav file. If I allowed effects just on the two tracks that contain clips of the same vocals (the same recording), then those tracks played like an out-of-sync duet rather than one voice, but all the other tracks (instrumentals) played fine and in sync with each other. As a further test, I removed the effects on two songs, and both then played fine as mp3s. So, I'm confident the ACID effects are the culprit.

This leaves me with several questions:

(1) What effects Plug-ins that are downloadable (ideally for free) off the net might you recommend? I remember you said that the effects that come with Sony Acid audio recording programs are probably crap. I'd been meaning to find new ones. Now I guess I have to, unless the Sony Tech support people have a solution to my problem. In case the plug-ins provided by Sony don't work well, it would be nice to know some good options.

Side comment: do you de-essing manually by making some little volume reduction areas around the ssss sounds, rather than using a de-esser plug-in to cut the frequencies?

(2) Why did the ACID FX effects plug-ins, which came with the program, suddenly go bad after around 6 months of giving me no problems and having no impact on the speed with which tracks play? Could it have been that when I downloaded the newer, spiffier Acid Pro 7 program, the older Music Studio 7.0 program's effects plug-ins somehow got corrupted?

(3) Why does my Acid Pro 7 audio recording program crash so easily, even with the newest updates? Perhaps this is related to the effects that are being used in songs I made with Music Studio 7 but opened with Acid Pro 7? I didn't read many reports online about Acid Pro 7 freezing up, so I don't think the program is the problem (although its plug-ins may be). I'll work with Sony Tech support (hopefully) to try to figure this out, and do some more experimenting on my own.

Thanks again for your help and for answering my desperate pleas, FD! My ripped-out hair is starting to grow back.