I am also have this problem recording thru firewire. I don't have this problem when using Windows Movie Maker or Arcsoft Showbiz to capture video. The problem seems to have occured around the time that SP2 was installed. There was a link on the support pages to a fix relating to video capture at microsoft, referring to a MS driver, but the link was outdated. I've sent an email to support. I'll post their response, assuming it is something of value.

Good luck!

Rob

RobAscential, any updates?

Btw, I tried Windows Movie Maker too and I had the same problem :(

Thanks for the help.

It's pretty easy to see if your audio is clipped in Vegas. Just find the place on the TL where you hear the clicks and see if the waveform there has flat tops.
If the clicks are pretty constant are there doesn't seem to be any clipping then perhaps what you're hearing are sample rate errors.
For example I think if you've managed somehow to capture audio at 12/32K but it's flagged as 16/48K then Vegas will not know it needs resampling and you'll get an almost constant 'click, click, click' in the audio even during quiet passages. Clipping on the other hand just sounds like really bad distortion.

It'd be good to know just what your problem is, the two issues are very different. If someone whose got this problem want to email me a short sample I can tell you straight away what's wrong.
Bob.

Yeah, the clicking is constant, so it may be a sample error. How would I fix that?

Can you email me a small piece of the captured audio with the clicks in it?
It needs to be the source, once you render it out the sample rate is changed and the clicks are there forever.

farssAToptusnesDOTcomDOTau

I'm good for around 2MB attachments.
Bob.

I uploaded the file to my website. The url is www.gamexplain.com/test.wav

Upon review, it sounds like it may be clipping again since the pace of the clicking varies. But I've recorded from other sources of similar volume levels with no problem, which is weird.

Thanks for the help!

This is a strange one. It's certainly not clipped. The waveform goes flat for short periods with just a little spike during that period. Worse still the zero crossing directions don't match. This probably explains the thumps as well as the clicks. I've tried changing the sample rate in SF7 but that doesn't seem to help at all.
What did you use to record this?
The only other possibility is something in the analogue audio going into your recorder is at a very high level for just a few milliseconds and that causes the preamp to latch up briefly. Whatever it is it sure sounds bad!
Bob.

"What did you use to record this?"

I'm using an ADVC 1394 analog card, with Vegas doing the capturing (though it happens in Windows Movie Maker too).

Thanks for the help :)

Wow,
that's really ODD, Vegas and SF7 think the sample rate is 44.1KHz and I'm pretty certain the ADVC 1394 wouldn't sample at that rate, did you by any chance have the audio set to 44.1KHz when you were capturing in Vegas?

Did you do this using VidCap or did you try to do an audio only recording by arming a track etc? If you did the latter then Vegas tries to get the 'sound card' to sample at the project bit rate and depth which if it was 16/44.1K and the 1394 card didn't support it could explain how the wheels have fallen off. I know you don't have a 'sound card' as such, just that you're using the 1394 maybe like it was a sound card.

Bob.

What sound card is being used? The settings for the Vegas project won't matter at capture, but if you've got one of the weird Audigy's, it might account for it. With DV, you can only capture 32k or 48k, nothing else, unless you're capturing audio as farss mentions, via recording a track for your audio and not just transferring the data from cam to HDD.

DSE,
the audio shows sample rate as 44.1KHz, go figure!
It looks and sounds like sample rate errors.
Big question is HOW!
Bob.

"did you by any chance have the audio set to 44.1KHz when you were capturing in Vegas?"

How would I check? I couldn't find any options to adjust it.

As for your other question, I recorded the audio via VidCap (the audio was part of a vdeo).

DSE/Spot, how do I check what audio card I have?

Thanks again guys.

This is how you check on Vegas Video 4. On the very upper left side of your viewing window, you'll see an Icon that says (when you hover your mouse) "Video Project Properties". In there, is an Audio tab that let's you set the audio rate. This properties thing, has been known to change on me, without my knowledge. So check it, from time to time.

It looks like it's set to 44,1000hz, 16 bit depth and "Good" resample quality.

Well that matches the audio that you have, this shouldn't matter but change it to 16/48KHz and recapture the video. The video was captured via firewire from a DV camera or deck?

It's definately sample rate errors, I was capturing a DVCAM tape last night that's 12/32K and because Vidcap doesn't resample for the monitor during capture you get to hear the audio with sample rate errors, sounded just like your audio!

PS Once I dropped my AVI on the T/L of course all is fine, still don't understand how yours has got screwed up.


Bob.

Well, I'm actually capturing straight from a video game console (SNES) via stero cables. My newer consoles though (Xbox, GameCube) do not have this problem, despite using the exact same method of capturing.

I'll try your suggestion though.

I tried the 16/48KHz idea, but I have the exact same problem.

If it helps, I can hear the clicking even before I capture through the audio preview of VidCap.

It's possible perhaps that something on the outpur of the console is cauing some sort of aliasing problem with the A->D converters, this may have even been a deliberate attempt to stop you doing what you're doing. By impossing a supersonic high level tone on the outputs you could perhaps screw up an audio A->D converter that didn't have a low pass filter on it's imput.

First thing you could try is either attenuating the signal from the box into the recorder, or else record the signal form the box via an analogie device such as a mixer with analogue Eq, that's let you control the levels and knock down any high frequency nasties. Another approach might be even to record to say VHS or cassette and get a clean recording on that, then capture that the way you;re doing it now.

I suspect you don't have a big budget for this, so I'm trying to think of things you have at hand you could try. Hope one of these ideas works out for you.

Bob.

Interesting theory about the consoles preventing me from recording, but I'd think that would apply to the newer ones as well.

Well anyways, those sound like some good ideas, I'll give them a shot and pray they work ;)

Thanks so much for the help.