Loop clicks and zero points

[AudioBoyMA]

Hi folks!

I've been using SCS for stage theater and live radio drama for about 6 years now and I've sung praises of its versatility and low cost to everyone who will listen. But there's one issue that I've never been able to fix to my satisfaction: looping.

It seems like no matter what I do, no matter what computer I use, no matter what interface I use, I can rarely ever get things to loop smoothly. There's always a click or a volume dip at the point of looping. Now I always make sure my files loop smoothly in Audition before I pull them into SCS. I've even take shorter loop files and joined several of them together to make a larger file and then looped that (take a 3 second loop, for example, and paste together 10 of them to make a 30 second loops file) in case it was a matter of the sound file getting "settled in" or something. But I still get the click or dip. In the end, I usually end up making a file that's long enough to cover the whole scene so I don't have to use looping.

In some cases, crossfade looping will work, but even that causes problems - especially with sounds that have a pattern to them - as it causes a noticeable dip in volume at the loop point (or the pattern is disturbed).

Is there a reason why the loop can't be smoother, even though I've made sure the ends are at zero points? Are there buffer settings or a mixture of internal or hardware mixer that will fix this?

Otherwise I'm an absolutely devoted SCS fan!

-N

[Mike Daniell]

This is where cue points or markers may come to your rescue in SCS 11. I haven't checked "Audition" but I expect with this software you can set cue points or markers where you want a loop to start and end. If your audio file is saved as a 16-bit uncompressed WAV file then SCS 11 will be able to read these cue points - assuming Audition saves them as cue points. SCS 11 can provide sample-accurate cue point processing. See Audio File Cues and also Audio File Cue Points and Markers in the SCS 11 Documentation. If you find that SCS 11 is not able to detect the cue points then let me know. I will probably need you to email me, or upload to my FTP area, a sample WAV file, together with a list of the cue points or markers you have set up in Audition.

When SCS 11 is formally released you will require a Professional Plus license to use cue points and markers, but with the beta versions you can test this with a Professional license.

Regarding zero points, you probably already know this but if you have a stereo file then a zero point in one track may not be a zero point in the other track.

[Mike Daniell]

Since posting the above reply, Eric Snodgrass has emailed me test WAV files with markers created by Adobe Audition CS5.5 and also by version 3.0.1. The files were 100Hz sine waves with markers at exactly 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 seconds, and were therefore at zero crossing points.

SCS 11 found all 3 markers in both files, and plays loops seamlessly - no clicks.

Many thanks for the files, Eric.

[AudioBoyMA]

This is good to know. Thanks! I'm looking forward to SCS 11!

-N