Help! Overhead track goes out of phase

[Ozterkvlt]

Hey, I record my overheads into my Zoom H4 portable recording device and my snare + kick into my M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface (2 mic inputs), which goes into my computer. The problem is that when I align the overhead tracks with the snare and kick tracks, the overhead track is slightly longer, resulting in the sound going out of phase. Anyone know why this happens? Could it have something to do with recording using different specifications (like one interface records to mp3 and the other to wav)?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Machinated]

different sample rates?

 

[Fox Mulder]

^ Yup, that definitely sounds like a sample-rate issue. Otherwise the snare and kick may have been mistakenly time-stretched or time-compressed in your DAW.

Edit: Just to make myself clear, make sure both the Zoom and the DAW are set to a sample-rate of 44.1khz.

When importing the zoom tracks to the DAW import only at 44.1khz.

 

[Ozterkvlt]

^ Yup, that definitely sounds like a sample-rate issue. Otherwise the snare and kick may have been mistakenly time-stretched or time-compressed in your DAW.

Edit: Just to make myself clear, make sure both the Zoom and the DAW are set to a sample-rate of 44.1khz.

When importing the zoom tracks to the DAW import only at 44.1khz.

Allright, I'm gonna try that. I'll report if any problems occur.

 

[Uladyne]

I used to be able to run my old firepod and my super old c-port whatever it was called together for a total of 16 inputs and it would do the same thing, regardless of the sample rate settings. I only ever had one project where I needed that many inputs though, so I just made sure all the elements that had any bleed (overheads and drum mics) were on the firepod, and ran the kick trigger and scratch guitars to the other one. The time difference was only a few milliseconds by the end of any certain song so the discrepancy wasn't noticeable as long as there wasn't any bleed. It doesn't sound like this is an option for you however.

If the sample rate settings don't help perhaps try quantizing the kick and snare to your overhead tracks and replacing them with samples.

 

[Trevoire520]

This isn't necessarily a sample rate issue. The two devices are not using the same clock, so are never going to sync up properly when used separately.

Cheaper electronics tend to use cheap crystals for their clocks which don't necessarily run at a perfect 44.1/48kHz. I had this problem back when I had my Alesis HD24. I printed guide guitar tracks to a track on the HD 24 and then recorded drums. On importing them back into the session it was impossible to line them up. If I had recorded the guide track in digitally then things would have worked out, but because I did an analogue recording there was a pretty significant amount of drift.

 

[Ozterkvlt]

I tried putting everything to 44.1kHz and wav, but it still goes out of phase. Seems like I need to buy myself an interface with more inputs then.

 

[::XeS::]

I don't understand why someone would align the snare in the OH with the actual Snare track.... I mean, the snare bleed into the OH's is of course delayed than the "right" hit. If you align the snare in every track you will have the OH's hits before where they should be....
It's like aligning the Ambient "snare" with the snare track.....this avoid the natural reverb you get with the ambient mics

 

[egan.]

If you recorded on two separate devices w/o any sort of sync during the recording you really have no guarantees that the time won't float around between the two sets of recordings. The potential for this would be greatly exacerbated by format differences.

 

[Uladyne]

Is there a way to set the DAW as the master clock or would that even make a difference? I've never really messed with clocks so I might be way off on this.

 

[Trevoire520]

Hey, I record my overheads into my Zoom H4 portable recording device and my snare + kick into my M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface (2 mic inputs), which goes into my computer. The problem is that when I align the overhead tracks with the snare and kick tracks, the overhead track is slightly longer, resulting in the sound going out of phase. Anyone know why this happens? Could it have something to do with recording using different specifications (like one interface records to mp3 and the other to wav)?
Thanks in advance.

Why why why would you be recording to mp3?

 

[Ozterkvlt]

Why why why would you be recording to mp3?

Because of space limitations on my Zoom H4 (couldn't be arsed to delete files off the SD card). I wasn't recording anything important anyway, it was more of a test.