a weirdness on spdif

apparently, my port replicator on my laptop doesn't send 44.100 16 bit wav. it's sending something else. whenever i go to record the main outs while i have input thru on digital from my laptop, i end up getting something really weird - the entire song pitches down a little more than a semitone (not a perfect semitone).

this is a real pain - anyone have any ideas? can i change the sample rate my laptop is sending thru spdif? the port replicator doesn't have any particular software for it...

does the laptop have an S/PDIF out, or is this port replicator a USB to S/PDIF affair?

i wish the laptop had spdif out.

nah it's not even usb - it sits down into the port replicator (wholly different type of connection, proprietary to dell) and the spdif is in the actual replicator.

so where's it getting the audio from? is it comverting from the line outs on the laptop? also, do you have a part number/link?

nah not the line outs - fk an integrated sound card!

here's a pic and a link:

http://www.portablecomponents.com/produ ... Ggodt2d7bg


basically you set the laptop down on the middle part, and all the usb etc ports become active, including the spdif. just sends the audio straight out via spdif - crystal clean.

I had the same problem with my PC, only it was pitched up a bit. It was because my sound card was outputting 48khz by default, but when I changed it to 44.1 everything was a-okay.

I guess your laptop must be outputting something below 44.1khz maybe?

It's a nasty issue though, cause once you sample something into the MPC at the wrong sample-rate it will fvck up all your sequences and samples and whatnot and make them out-of-time -- at least for me it did.

If you can't get your laptop dongle thinger to output at 44.1 then you may be sh!t out of luck.

Interesting... I know you said that thee is no particular software for your audio interface, but there must be a setting buried somewhere... did you look in your BIOS? There might be a setting there...

i have no idea how to do that but i am eager to learn - got any places for me to start?

depends on the computer, but usually to get into BIOS you press either F2 or the DELETE key while booting up... watch the screen... you have to press it at the right time... right before you see any windows screen (as in "LOADING WINDOWS"). I you see LOADING WINDOWS then you are too late... re-boot and press it earlier. If you are having trouble, press ESC during the very first stages of BOOT up and you should see some messages telling you what the computer is doing (ie, memory check, etc.)

Oh yeah, and don;t change any settings in BIOS unless you are sure of what they are for... you can mess up your computer if you change the wrong thing in there... it's cool to look around in there though... look for something having to do with a sound device...


Also... you could check in your control panel---> system ---> hardware tab ----> device manager ----> sound, video, and game controllers ----> then (whatever your sound device is called) there might be some settings in there too.

Good luck with that... though I sorta doubt there's a BIOS setting for sample rate output, especially on a Dell. If it has anything it would be more likely an additional configuration dialog that you would reach from the Winblowz audio mixer.

I also have an older Dell laptop (vintage 1999) with a docking station that includes a s/pidf output. When it still had Winblowz on it (that output only works in Winblowz) I used to run it to the MPC input. I remember it mostly worked but it had some flakeyness... Most files played through it OK but I remember I couldn't play back compact disks directly from the drive without screwing up the signal. They sounded more or less normal from the (cruddy) laptop analog output.

Antonym wrote:nah not the line outs - fk an integrated sound card!

basically you set the laptop down on the middle part, and all the usb etc ports become active, including the spdif. just sends the audio straight out via spdif - crystal clean.

so how does the replicator connect to the laptop? if the s/pdif is straight through, there must be an s/pdif out on the laptop, if not, and it's not converting from the analog outs, the laptop must recognise it as a connected piec of hardware, and you should be able to alter the settings on it.

click start, rightclick on 'My Computer', click properties. then click on the 'Hardware' tab, then click 'Device Manager'. do this when the replicator is connected. now look in sound video and game controllers, and tell us what you see. screenshot if possible. thanks

Mr modnaR wrote:so how does the replicator connect to the laptop? if the s/pdif is straight through, there must be an s/pdif out on the laptop, if not, and it's not converting from the analog outs, the laptop must recognise it as a connected piec of hardware, and you should be able to alter the settings on it.

looks from the picture as if the laptop sits on top of this hardware dongle which connects through some sort of serial port on the laptop

There are a few things to check. In the Control Panel there's Sounds and Audio Devices, there are two different Advanced properties, click on the Speaker Settings - Advanced, Click Performance and check the Hardware acceleration and Sample Rate Conversion to be FULL and BEST. Not sure which OS you are on though... might not be that but worth a check.

From what I've read, Windows will sometimes 'adapt' its sample rate to whatever sounds you are playing. So, if you have Windows sounds enabled (like the Startup sounds) your soundcard will get locked to a samplerate besides the default, because those Windows sounds are rarely 44.1KHz.

In addition to B18C1Turbo's suggestions, try disabling all Windows sounds in Control Panel / Sound and Audio Devices / Sounds, then cold boot your machine.