Okay...things are getting very weird.

First off,

Yes, it's on DV tape, and being captured over 1394.
It sounds fine through the camera, TV, and VidCap.

Now...here's what I just discovered. The clip that I captured with WMM sounds perfectly fine when I play it in WMP or WMM. However, when I drop it on the Vegas timeline, the breathing sound appears.

The clips that I capture with VidCap have the breathing sound present BOTH in WMP and Vegas.

Man, I am so confused! Ha!

Oh and glennchan-
I tried your suggestion and the noise isn't coming from the sound card or computer. It's something build into the audio.

Thanks so much for your help everyone.

Get the "Satanic-File" and try the various "Right Click" audio options for Combine, Swap and Left or Right Channel.

See if you can manipulate the output . .. might be a clue there. I was thinking that if you don't get the breathing in WMM then the volume-phasing is either being ignored or flattened and BUT hearing it in V6 maybe that Vegas is more "sensitive" - interesting, none the less!

Hmmm...

Grazie

...Get the "Satanic-File"...

Great name Grazie, great name!

Tried the various audio options- nothing. Oh BTW I'm using V5 not 6.

Thanks!

I gotta agree, this is a very confusing problem. No matter what you use to capture all you're doing is a straight data copy from the tape to the AVI file.
And what is even more confusing is you say you cannot see anything in the waveform that looks like this sound, very odd indeed.
And if you render it out and put it on a DVD you can hear it.

Well I don't know just how much more I can offer, any chance you could render out a second or two of this 'sound' to a wav file, keep it the same sample rate and bit depth and email it to me, I'll have a look at it in SF, this MAY give us a clue. Email address is in my details.

Bob.

I'm not sure if this is relevant, it could be a complete red herring, but I notice that (a) the mp3 you've posted is at 44.1kHz and (b) according to your system specs you're using a SoundBlasterLive card.

(The SBLive cards are all based on an audio chip that only runs at 48kHz and all other sampling rates must be converted to and from 48kHz on the fly when using this series of cards, something that in engineering terms is less than ideal.)

So I'm wondering whether you have your Vegas project properties set to 44.1kHz, and whether the numerous sampling rate conversions to and from 48kHz that this would entail, both within Vegas and within the SBLive drivers, might be giving rise to the effect you are hearing.

If I'm right, just changing the Vegas project properties audio sampling rate to 48000Hz (where it should be for video work anyway) should fix the problem. (If it's already set to 48000Hz, then just ignore this message as the problem must be somewhere else.)

Mark

It's a good theory but the effect it would seem is in the captured and rendered file and your sound card doesn't enter into that.
Bob.

What might be related is on my system with Intel 875 board with over 2 gig of ram installed the first thing that happens is the sound goes totally bananas when playing the timeline in V5,V6. This is an equipment problem and memory problem and sound card problem. The memory configuration when over 2 gig is inserted (3 or 4 gig) totally destabilizes the board. Don't know why and Intel ain't saying. In your case the problem might be something with incompatible memory. It somehow involves the built in sound on the motherboard. Maybe even a loaded down power supply. You don't say what brand of board you are using in your equipment info. If I was betting on it I would say it was an equipment problem. Maybe even a marginal cable or ground loop.

JJK

JJK

Are you sure there are no fx plugins on the audio track? Vegas defaults to inserting three fx on any new audio track, does it not?

ie track noise gate, track eq and track compressor.

What you describe sounds a lot like the compressor pumping to me.

gb

If that's the case, just press the green FX button on the audio track, then select the compressor, and 'uncheck' it. Maybe you somehow engaged a preset and never realized it.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Mark, the Sample Rate was set at 48,000 Hz the whole time.

It doesn't make a difference whether the FX are on the track or not. Even when I remove them the sound is still present.

The thing is that I used to use the built in sound to my motherboard, and the same problem existed. Then I upgraded to the SB and it's still there. What gives me doubt that it's an equipment problem is the fact that it did capture fine with Windows Movie Maker. But when I drop the file into Vegas, the sound appears again. However not when playing it in WMM or WMP.

Do you think reinstalling Vegas is worth a try?

If this were my problem I would be changing the motherboard and/or memory. Are all the updates and latest bios installed on the board?

JJK

Well, I've done a few tests with different capture programs.

When captured with Vegas, the audio has the background noise when played in any program (including Vegas.)

When captured with Windows Movie Maker, the audio has the background noise only when played in Vegas. Not in WMM or WMP.

When captured with Arcsoft Showbiz (some program that came with my computer), the audio only has the background noise when played in Vegas. It plays perfectly in Showbiz and WMP.

With Scenalyzer, the audio didn't have the background noise in any of the programs (including Vegas.)

Some random things I'm noticing that may not have anything to do with anything:

The audio captured with WMM and Showbiz is 32,000 Hz, 12 bit. The audio captured with Vegas and Scenalyzer is 32,000 Hz, 16 bit.

So it seems as though Vegas is the only program that captures with the background noise there (when I play it in any program, it's there.) It also seems to add the sound to audio that originally didn't have it, but not with the Scenalyzer clip.

This is all very confusing, and I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks so much.

Just one other thing to check re: FX in Vegas - have any FX been inserted and forgotten about on the master mixer channels (ie not at the track level) or on any bus mixes you might have set up?

gb

Nope, no FX anywhere.

I just tried my former editing software, Pinnacle Studio, and it captured perfectly and there is no background breathing noise when played in Vegas.

I guess I'll use that to capture and just import those clips to Vegas for now.

32,000 Hz is an odd rate to capture at. Most people using Vegas will capture at 48,000 or 44,100.

Is there a way to adjust the rate setting for capture?

If this is a DV capture, the rate is determined by the settings on the videocam. If it is in 12-bit/32KHz mode, then the data transferred via 1394 will also be at 32KHz. I wonder if Vegas is carrying out a sample rate conversion to 48KHz with low quality settings, and this is producing a beating effect??? What are the project audio Resample settings?

Richard Hunter

The resample quality is set at Good (I've tried it with Best as well), and I have the rate at 48 KHz in properties.

I just went through the menu on my camera and noticed that it's in 12-bit mode. Is there a need to change it to 16-bit?

Thanks for the help everyone.

Now we're maybe getting somewhere. 12 bit is a lower quality audio format, and if it's low audio that you're having to pump...you could be hearing anomolies.
Keep in mind that capture in DV, is merely a direct transfer of media from the camera to the hard drive. NOTHING takes place in this process that could possibly affect audio or audio levels.
What I"m wondering about the other apps where you don't hear it, is whether the level is there, or the way the audio is being accessed or processed is simply not revealing the truth behind the media's problems.
FWIW, MovieMaker is doing something to the media levels on playback, I just dropped a 1k tone @ -10dB into both Vegas and MovieMaker, and the levels on output are different. I didn't look into the why, just the "what."

I tried changing the Camera to 16-bit, and although not quite as noticable, the breathing noise was still there.

Spot, I see what you're saying about perhaps the other applications "hiding" the media's problems. However I've turned the volume all the way up on two televisions, and on my computer in VidCap (before recording), and the breathing sound simply is not there.

Thanks for the help.

Just for a laugh 'cos I know it's not relevant but I had a similar problem capturing in analogue via my DC10 card.

Turned out to be my webcam that was picking up my breathing and mixing it with the sound track off the camera. HAH!