Noise on First Note

[Glenn Polin]

When I use play EZKeys in my DAW, there is a little bit of noise just at the beginning of the first note of the first phrase.  It sounds a little bit like a record scratch.  This happens wherever the cursor is placed inside the song.

At first, I thought I had could defeat this by setting the cursor inside the EZKeys window to the same place as in my DAW.  For example, if I am playing the song starting from bar one, and I tell my DAW to back back to the start of the song,  I notice the cursor in the EZKeys window does not follow back to the beginning of the first bar.  It jumps there after I push play in the DAW.  I thought the noise might have something to do with a timing issue of having to move the cursor in EZKeys back to the correct bar when I hit Play in the DAW.

But even making sure that the two cursors are at the same spot when Play is pressed, there is still a crackling noise at startup.  This does not occur when I hit Play inside the EZKeys window, just when I hit Play in the DAW.

I have updated to the 1.30 version, 64 bit, and the behavior is unchanged.  (I was having this trouble and some other with a much older version, which is why I updated). I have an up to date version of Mixcraft Pro Studio 64 bit. Everything else about the App works fine.  I am hoping someone has seen this or heard this noise and knows a workaround.

(Yes, if I have to, I can copy out the MIDI to the DAW when I am done, and avoid using EZKEYS in the final version, but I like developing with it, and want to get rid of the noise during development.

Thank you for any help with this.

Glenn Polin

EZkeys version: 1.3.0
Operating system: Windows 10

Topic

[Billy 86]

I get the same thing. I think it’s supposed to be the sound of a pedal being engaged right before the first key(s) press, emulating the Mechanical sound of all a piano’s felt dampers being withdrawn from the strings before they’re struck by the hammers. It sounds like a light ‘clunk’ to me. I had an upright that sounded similar. Try adjusting the ‘noise’ or ‘pedal’ knob to minimize or eliminate it. Those are supposed to replicate the ambient mechanical sounds I think.

SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One

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Thanked by: Glenn Polin

[jazzmandan]

Wow, I have never seen an option in EZKeys to simulate mechanical sounds of piano?  I know this exists in some VST libraries, but did not know there was an option in EZKeys.  Is there really a “noise  or pedal knob”?  I don’t see it.

But I don’t think that is the issue here.  The work crackling in the OP’s message is key.

what is your hardware setup? (computer/laptop, audio interface…). When I hear “crackling” I think of things like USB bus issues, wifi card issues, video card driver problems.  And most important and likely, …using ASIO? This would mean that the mix buffers are very small and the CPU usage quite high. I expect that those factors could cause this sound problem….  Or does this happen on a fresh start?  or only over time.  A search at the Mixcraft forum reports “crackling” in old threads.  This may be a bit old, but may provide a hint to what is going on.

1

Thanked by: Glenn Polin

[Glenn Polin]

Thanks for these replies.  As for it being the sound of a pedal, I don’t think so.  It does not occur when I play it inside the EZKeys app, so I assume it is some interaction with the DAW.  Also, I have clicked on the Pedal; I hear that thud, it is a different sound.  What I hear sounds like a piece of static, or a scratch, for just an instant, whenever the music starts.

Glenn

[Glenn Polin]

Thanks for the thoughtful note and particularly the thought about the audio setup and the ASIO.  I have a Focusrite 6i6, the first generation, with the latest driver.  The preferences were set to Sample Size 44000, Buffer 256, and Latency 5.8.  This is a modern fast Windows 10 computer.

There was a box in the Preferences “Use Devices Preferred Settings.”  I tried checking that but it had no effect on the noise.

Mixcraft displays the CPU usage for both itself and the entire system in the lower right.  I watched it and neither number gets much higher when you hit Play.    I have had this problem in much more complex projects, but it happens right now in a project with only on EZKeys track playing piano, a vocal track  and a video track.  And I have muted the audio track to make sure it wasn’t there.

Even if it was ASIO, wouldn’t the same problem happen when just playing inside the EZKeys app?  There is no noise there; only when I play it from the DAW.

Glenn

[Glenn Polin]

With my simple project (EZKeys, one vocal track, and a video track), it occurred to me to try to hide the video preview, and lo and behold, the noise went away about 90%.  What is left might be the sound of a pedal, of maybe there is still some lack of coordination with Mixcraft and EZkeys.

Even more importantly, when I actually mix down to an MP3 or an MP4, the noise is no longer present.  I conclude this isn’t an EZKeys problem, and I thank everybody for their help.

Glenn

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