Audio glitches with Traktor Pro and Audio Kontrol 1
The unthinkable happened three times at my last gig, and now I’m afraid to ever get in the booth again.
In the dead middle of a set, the audio went completely distorted, not just a crackle or a dropout, I’m talking garbled, static, digital nightmare piercing to the eardrum.
The entire room was silent (except for the boos and jeering), as I had to fumble for my ipod backup and reboot the computer. It happened once more at the end of the night.
Anybody had this happen, and anybody know why it did? I’ve had the occasional 2 second audio dropout, but this was different, and it couldn’t be fixed without a reboot.
My setup is Traktor Pro 1.3, Audio Kontrol 1 with 2.0 driver, Windows 7 32 bit laptop 2.0 GHz dual pentium with 4 GB of RAM, Vestax VCI-100 controller, and WD Passport external drive.
I’ve used this same setup for quite a while with no issues until now. All visual effects in Windows 7 are turned off for performance, and I’ve always followed the Windows tuning tips to a tee from NI’s website. They claim full Windows 7 support.
I’ve experienced this problem. The few times it has happened to me I think were due to the AK1 not being grounded. My house can be pretty dry in the winter, and I build up some decent static charges, which end with me getting quick shocks when I touch metal. So I always try to touch something else metal to discharge before getting my hands near my AK1.
Not sure if this is what’s causing your situation, but the symptom you described sounds exactly like what I have dealt with.
I will say that I have been able to get sound running again by going into the settings in TPro, choosing my internal sound card, disconnecting, and then reconnecting my AK1, and then going back into the TPro settings and choosing my AK1. Hope this helps.
Thanks, this does help, if this works it will be much quicker than rebooting. The DJ Support Line at NI had no clue, they suggested I buy a Mac. Thanks a lot!
Hmm, good point. Could it be possible that my USB cable is no good or not grounding properly? I would order them from DJTT but I have two gigs this weekend.
This was definitely not just a momentary audio dropout or crackle, it was complete digital distortion/meltdown, but Traktor seemed to be running fine and nothing on the computer indicated a crash.
Anybody know of a reliable USB cable available via retail stores or computer store (Microcenter here in Cambridge, MA)
Yeah it could be the cable. Are you using an extraordinarily long cable?
Maybe the other poster meant the case is not grounded? Are you sure the cable stays inserted to the device and doesn’t slightly slide out? I get that sometimes and it causes pops.
Yes, I do mean the case is not grounded. If you look on the back of turntables, or the Audio 8, there are spots for you to connect some sort of ground. My laptop has only a two-prong electrical plug (no traditional 3rd prong for grounding). I am certainly no electrical engineer, so there very well could be something going on behind the scenes that I am not up to speed on. That being said, even if the usb design does have some sort of ground built into it, I’m not sure how it would be working if it wasn’t somehow connected to something that was working as a ground. I could certainly be off base here, but I know in my experience I have touched the case of the AK1, hear a pop, and next thing I know all my audio is extremely distorted.
Yup, this is why you always have CDs ready to go. Even though Traktor can help you with Beat Matching that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know how to do it if you need it. In the very least, you should have a CD with an extended mix on it so that you have time to restart and problem solve without a room full of people just staring at you in silence.
I’m not sure what situation the OP was in, but what if his Traktor/laptop set up was all he had to play tunes on? Once that soundcard fritzed out, he was dead in the water. At least he had his iPod as a back up plan.
I hear what you are saying, especially regarding beat matching. But what if he is just playing a house party, and doesn’t have the money to buy two different setups? (laptop/midicontroller/soundcard, and traditional mixer and vinyl or cd players.)
If you are looking at it from a professional dj standpoint, and talking about dj’s playing for money, and at places that they have easy access to other gear to play on, then yeah, learning the basics on traditional gear seems like something that would make you a more well rounded professional. But for some that is not an option.
My biggest complaint isn’t the silence or the break. I can hit my backup mix within 20 seconds, it’s the awful, screeching noise that the crowd hears when this glitch happens, and if I recall correctly, I wasn’t even near the AK1. It’s painful to the ears.
I added an additional 2 GB of memory so at least now Windows can use around 3GB (only a 32 bit operating system), will be replacing my USB cables, and crossing my fingers.
Are you talking about a sound that, once started, would not stop until a reboot? Or did you not wait long enough to find out? Occasionally I’ll get a weird sound after 30-60 minutes if my latency isn’t set right. Not the click/pop kind of thing, but more like a granular, time stretched kind of sound, like 30ms of sound is being stretched out to 2 seconds. I’ve heard this kind of sound is due to buffer over-run or something, and is definitely latency related.
Just as an aside, I’ve noticed that you can set a latency (at least with the AK1/TPro combo) that seems fine at first, but starts to act weird after 30-60 minutes, or sometimes even later. It’s disturbing, and makes it difficult to get latency dialed in.
Personally, the type of audio problem I have had, which sounded similar to the original problem mentioned, was more of a loud, squelchy, trebley noise all over the music. The noise is extremely up front, loud, and overpowers the music completely… the kind that makes your hand dart for the volume control as fast as possible.
Good question, here’s the best description I can give -
The sound was not in front of or on top of the actual song audio, it was the song audio, but terribly distorted, loud, and messed up. When I hit stop, and played a new song every song thereafter was the same problem.
The noise didn’t keep going once the song was stopped or Traktor was closed. I tried closing and re-opening Traktor, but still same problem.
Had to reboot twice to get rid of it, and it came back after about 45 minutes, at which point I threw in the towel for the night.
Can anybody suggest what to look for when I go to purchase new USB cables? Can’t wait for the shipping from DJTT.
Also - to your point on latency settings, I don’t know much about where to set these either. I had them around 9 ms, 2 ms USB buffer, and only got an occasional audio dropout (once per set at max), so never stepped it back.
Should I go longer? Anybody know of a good tutorial on setting the latency or have any suggestions?
Sounds like the same problem I have had. My description of “up front” was meant to suggest that it was extremely noticeable, not like some subtle background noise or latency pops. Honestly, I just ran into the same problem not 10 minutes ago downstairs mixing (forced air, dry heat, winter/cold lack of humidity causing static build ups). And it wouldn’t necessarily have to be the AK1 you touched to cause the problem… all of your gear is interconnected, so a shock you sent to any part of your gear could effect the AK1 I would think.
Again, someone who is more knowledgeable in electrical engineering or this sort of subject may be able to disprove my theory, but I can say that the symptom you gave me sounds identical to mine. From my experiences the common cause seemed to be me touching my gear when charged, and the fix I mentioned has worked multiple times for me. Does that mean this is the cause of your troubles, or that my fix will work, of course not. But, keep it in mind if you run into the problem again and see if it works for you.
This has happened to me as well! That is how I found this thread. I have the AK1 and was previously using Traktor 3 when it happened to me. Luckily I was able to catch it before I started my set but it has got me rethinking the AK1. I just upgraded to pro and have been setting it up for the past few nights and can reproduce the problem anytime I touch the AK1. This is unacceptable for the amount of money I have spent on my gear. Also I don’t remember it being a problem til I upgraded to Traktor 3.14? something and now on Pro its very reproducible. I don’t know about you but I can’t afford to NOT book in the winter!!
I’ve had this happen before randomly… it usually only happens when I’m doing something stupid like trying to run itunes, wmp, and traktor all at the same time, and I can always solve it by quickly closing down everything but traktor and de-selecting then re-selecting the ak1 as the audio interface in traktor.
Curiously, I’ve also had it happen when I was trying to run a firebox through one of those expresscard firewire thingees that wasn’t the right protocol. Weird.
