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Jace · Posts: 13

Hello :-) I have noticed a rumble that seems to get transfered to my CD-R from my Harddrive on the PC..
I was hoping my new Harddrive update maybe would make this noise go away,because of the faster RPM's.. Nope it didn't
So I am now wondering if my Yamaha DS-XG Audio Codec sound card is considered better for PC Games, versus recording music.. I haven't really found any specs on that Model Sound Card,, so any feedback would be much appreciated .

Graeme · Member Location: Spain Posts: 4663

Mmmm... I'm not sure what your problem is - but I do know it is not the hard drive. Whatever you are hearing (are you sure you mean 'rumble' - that's a pretty specific low frequency noise, usually associated with turntables) it's not likely to be coming from any hard drive.

I can't really comment on the card - not one I am familiar with - but cards usually have problems at the top end, rather than the bottom.

Have you tried creating and transferring a silent file and having a listen to what's there when it's played?

Edited by - Graeme on 03/30/2001 4:17:53 PM

Jace · Posts: 13

Thank you Graeme for replying to my qustion.. Yes I have recorded a silent file and it pretty much sounds just like the rumble between tracks on a CD-R.. A friend of mine suggested that it might be the power supply on the CPU... He didn't think it was the cooling fan.. So at this point I am not sure what to think.

Graeme · Member Location: Spain Posts: 4663

"Rumble between tracks on a CDR" - what!!

There shouldn't be any such thing.

I suggest that you ask someone else to have a listen to a bit of this to see if they can determine what the problem mught be. I'd normally offer to do this myself, but I'm just about to go offline for a couple of weeks as we move house. However, I'm sure there will be some other helpful person out there who can do this for you.

It's not going to be the cooling fan or the power supply - someone is grasping at straws.

Syntrillium M.D. · Location: USA Posts: 5124

Hi Jace. Graeme is right on the money. Particularly, when speaking of the silence 'between' the tracks....you shouldn't hear anything at all. It could be bad alignment on your CDRW drive, or simply that the noise floor on the card itself is very high...even still though, between tracks (where you go from #1 to #2 to #3 and so on) there should be total silence.

And just as a thought...I will say (opinion only) that Yamaha makes some great gear. Their DSP2416 card is quite good, and has nice 20-bit converters. The other line of cards (much like the one you have) are really suited more for games and 'multimedia'. If it's hi-fi audio you're after, I'd first figure out your specific needs, and then decide where to go from there.

An inexpensive (and potentially less-noisy) alternative is the Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI card. It's 16-bit, and it's noise floor measures around -57dB, but it's very inexpensive and is a good all-around card.

Just a thought.

---Syntrillium Support

Edited by - syntrillium support on 04/02/2001 3:10:43 PM

Jace · Posts: 13

Thank you very much for replying to my question that I posted Syntrillium Staff. :-)
Ok I am starting to lean towards the sound card scenerio, versus my CD-R writer..
If I turn my little monitoring speakers up I can faintly hear the pink noise in the background which has a fairly rythmatic sound to it (sort of reminds me of the baseball card on the bike spokes) Feeling old here lol... This is the type of noise I hear when I record 30 seconds of silence in Cool Edit.. Which I believe is always there,, not something that Cool Edit is producing.. It becomes more evident on the finished CD-R's cause I can play them on a larger system... At one point I had a remote CD burner,, thinking maybe the CPU was transfering noise into the mix,, Nope didnt make any diffrence.
Today I even hooked up a diffrent set of speakers up to the pc, and I could still hear the faint rythmic noise underneath the pink noise .. So I am leaning towards a new sound card... I am just hoping that if I do put in a new sound card that it cures the problem.. Right now I am have put my clients on hold for recording thier CD's cause I feel the added noise to thier CD's is unacceptable..

Graeme · Member Location: Spain Posts: 4663

While you might put the problem down to the soundcard - and swapping it out is well worth a try - it sounds as though you could be experiencing some sort of inductive breakthrough from something else in the computer (AGP cards are particularly suspect in this department).

Have you tried re-locating the soundcard in another slot, preferably as remote s possible from anything else. If not, try it and see if it makes any difference to the sound you are hearing.

As a side issue, I'm a little concerned that, in the one breath you talk about your "little monitoring speakers" and in another your "clients". If you are running a business doing this type of work, then I would suggext that you invest some serious money in both a decent audio card and monitoring system. This is not the sort of work which can be undertaken on the cheap.