Trying to solve the mystery of clicking/popping on the Tracker

Bug
,
1

Bug Description

Clicking or popping noises occur when performing certain actions on the Tracker. Examples of actions that cause this issue are playing different samples on the same track lane (which I will refer to as “Sample Clipping”) and panning using Track FX or Panning LFO. This issue is distinct from attack/decay transients not lining up on a single sample.

“Work Arounds”

  • Use CUT with precise Micro-Move timing but this might only help if the cause is related to Sample Clipping.

  • Move every other sample to a separate lane (demonstrated in Pattern 2), allowing you more time to allow the sample to fully die out and attempt to use FAD’s and CUT’s before each new sample plays. However this does not solve the issues related to Panning.

  • Expanding the pattern resolution could potentially work by applying fades, but this was not successful in my testing.

  • Adjusting the attack and decay time of the samples might help, but this may affect the desired effect in the song.

  • For panning, no effective workarounds have been found. In the included project I have the sample it’s self panned left at -32 and control the panning via lane FX, this results in clicking. In Pattern 5 I expanded the resolution and tried panning incrementally from right to left but this results in clicking for every step.

These workarounds can drastically slow and limit the Tracker’s workflow, especially when expanding resolution, which limits patterns to at most 64 steps. In addition, longer songs with multiple 128 pattern lengths become difficult to program.

Hardware and Version

I’m currently on version 1.6 on the “mk2” Tracker

Attachments

Click Test.zip (3.6 MB)

I’m including a project file that coincides with the patterns mentioned above, in case the clicks are not reproducible I’ve included the stem export from my tracker as well.

The patterns not mentioned are:
Pattern 1 - This is the default uncompensated pattern
Pattern 3 - 2 lane increased resolution test
Pattern 4 - This is a test of trying out each sample individually for clicks

Personal Aside

While I love using the Tracker to create songs, this issue is driving me and other users away from using it. It would be great to get insight into why this is happening and how it can be remedied.

7 Likes
4

Hi @liminaleris, thank you for the thorough bug report with such level of details. We are sorry you’re having problems. We had this issue on the radar and already announced improvements in this area with 1.7 update (please see in Announcements on Backstage). The update will bring considerable improvements in audio path in general as we are trying to resolve all of the issues of clicking and popping, so please check back when the next release is out. We’ll ping you when it’s ready. Thanks for your patience and we really appreciate your time put into reporting the bug.
Best regards

6 Likes
6

Hi,
Just to return on this topic of the crackle and this might be one for the team to know more but it could be that the samples are playing too loud and clipping? Im really not sure. I often find that auditioning the samples in the library they can be too loud and there is no way to turn them down to hear how they fit with the song being written. Might be one to post in the wishlist.

7

I would add that another thing you can do to avoid various clicks is, when, in the same track, all the steps are occupied by a sample (very often the samples played at continuous 1/16 tend to click on the cut tail) use the step FX micromove solves the problem, and sometimes (but this depends on the used sample) it can have the result of widening the stereophony perceived on that specific track :slight_smile:

8

Interesting - i will try this. I know what you mean and to my thought this happens due to the time required is short between triggering samples.

1 Like
9

yes, it’s for this exact reason. :slight_smile: