CA2600 clicking sound

[Yearofthegoat]

I've just today purchased the CA2600 softsynth and found that the preset 'Echo-Man' crackles like mad with each note played. It does this in Reaper, FL Studio, Cubase and the standalone softsynth.

If I disable the delay module, this clicking/crackling disappears. I tried altering the inputs to the delay module, but that didn't help*.

Is there anything that can be done to get rid of the crackling?

I should add that this on a Windows 10 PC, RME audio interface, buffer size 512samples, and the crackling occurs regardless of sample rate.

Thanks

Edit - done some more investigating and the delay module doesn't crackle when added to another preset.

*Missed one: setting 'Voltage Processors - Attenuator 3' to zero gets rid of the crackling too.

[UrbanCyborg]

Just for reference, doesn't do it on my setup. Windows 10 21H1 on Ryzen 7 3700 3.59 GHz, 64 GB RAM. Have you tried setting oversampling to different values? On a lesser machine, oversampling at a higher rate can excessively burden the CPU, resulting in a crackling kind of breakup.

Reid

[Yearofthegoat]

Hi, thanks - yes, it does it right up at 96k and down at 32k, and all stops in between. My machine is a Ryzen 5900X, 16GB RAM, DAW-specific PC. There are no issues with latency etc. on any other plugins or softsynths.

The clicking occurs with fast trills and seems to be triggered at the start of each keypress - it's not a constant thing that lasts while the note is held. Slowly playing notes doesn't cause it as much. Really slow playing doesn't do it at all. It's like the next note clips if the previous one is still sounding. A bit like zero-point crossing when playing with samples.

I'll see if I can attach an audio file, or a video - I think that will help illustrate the problem.

[Yearofthegoat]

I couldn't paste an audio file into the post but here's a dropbox link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/76r38cwbbg1wx ... e.wav?dl=0

Notice how at the start and end, when playing the same note, there's no crackling.

I tried a different audio interface and got the same result. I'm going to try a totally different machine next, just in case there's something odd going on with my main one.

[UrbanCyborg]

Just out of curiosity, does it do it when you bring the CA2600 up standalone and play it either from your MIDI controller, or from the QUERTY keyboard?

Reid

[Yearofthegoat]

It does it standalone and as a plugin. It does the same on an entirely different machine. It does it whether played via MIDI or by using the Qwerty keyboard option (both typed and mouse-clicked).

I've since noticed that the Drawbar presets do a very similar thing, but with them I can reduce it by raising the attack and release a little, although it changes the sound somewhat.

Given all the above, I don't think it's actually the delay module, that just makes it more obvious. It's to do with the sound generation itself. I found that if I used the S&H to trigger the notes, it produces the clicks in time with the red S&H light.

Unfortunately it makes those presets unusable as it corrupts the whole sound. Perhaps my expectations of a $25 softsynth are too high. It's a shame as I quite like it otherwise.

[Yearofthegoat]

I've edited (I think) the thread title (apols to the delay module).

I also just tried CA2600 on my Intel laptop - both the other machines I tried it on are Ryzen machines - but the Intel machine makes the same clicking/crackling sound

I bought Dreamsynth at the same time yesterday, I haven't checked that out yet but I hope it's not the same!

[Yearofthegoat]

Final bit of weirdness - clicking the 'Test' button (under Settings, Audio/MIDI) on and off produces the same click sound at the start of the test sound.

@UrbanCyborg - would you mind posting your settings/setup please? Since you don't get this issue, I wonder if there's something simple and common to all my PCs that I've got set differently? Thanks

[Steve W]

I tried Echo-Man in the standalone. I didn't get what I would call crackling. I am at 48K and tried 1x and 4x oversampling to test. I also looked using a software spectrum analyzer but didn't see crackling. That patch does have some special attack sounds. To me part of the intended effect is coming from the envelopes, part is coming from a glide/portamento effect, and part is coming from some sort of modulation that I haven't pinpointed by selectively removing patch cords one at a time.

With Drawbar 1 and 2 I do get a clipping-like sound with rapidly played keypresses on different notes. It almost seems like when one note ends and another one starts, the waveforms of each note don't drop to zero before a subsequent note starts. To my ear it's like when someone edits audio without paying attention to the amplitude of the end and beginning edit points (and is the reason why many of us do edits at zero-crossings). I've also heard that kind of "click" when the edit points of a sample loop are mismatched/not at zero-crossings.

For me, raising the release time of the AR Envelope Generator solved the Drawbar clicking issue, although as a monophonic patch rapidly played notes don't sound good to me. For drawbar sounds, I wouldn't use the CA 26000.

[Steve W]

Final bit of weirdness - clicking the 'Test' button (under Settings, Audio/MIDI) on and off produces the same click sound at the start of the test sound.

When I get clicking sounds from the test tone while it is being played, I tweak my audio settings. However, if you are getting a click when you play the test tone and then rapidly press test to restart the wave while it is playing, that doesn't surprise me. It never would have occurred to me to do that. I also get a click when I rapidly the test button, but it sounds very different from the Echo-Man and Drawbar patches to my ear (other than being a very short sound). Nothing weird about it to me.