Troubleshooting Playback or Recording Problems

When playing files from my SCSI drive, why does the sound have a warbling effect?

When playing files from a SCSI drive that is connected to a SCSI controller that utilizes a DMA channel (such as an older ISA controller) you may experience a warbling effect in the sound playback. This can occur if your sound card uses DMA and its DMA channel is set to a higher number than your SCSI controller.

To fix this problem, set the DMA channel used by your sound card to a lower number than that used by your SCSI controller. For example, if your SCSI controller is set to DMA channel 5 and your sound card is set to DMA channel 7, try reconfiguring them so the sound card uses DMA channel 5 and your SCSI controller uses DMA channel 7.

When I start Sound Forge my Play and/or Record buttons are unavailable. Why can't I play or record?

When Sound Forge starts, it checks to see if you have a wave playback and record device installed in your system. If you don’t, it makes the appropriate operations unavailable.

If you are sure that you have a sound card installed in your system, check the Wave tab in the Preferences dialog. The settings in the Playback and Record drop-down lists determine the playback and record devices Sound Forge will use. By default, Sound Forge uses the Wave Mapper (it may also be called the Sound Mapper) device which should automatically pick an appropriate device for use by Sound Forge. If the playback or recording device is set to (None), Sound Forge can not execute the corresponding operation.

I have sound files that won't play on my system. Sound Forge loads the files; why won't it play them?

Sound Forge allows you to load many different types of sound files, including those that your system may not be capable of playing. There are a variety of reasons that your sound card may not be capable of playing a file:

Why is it when I play my sound files the play pointer that Sound Forge displays doesn't match what I am hearing?

Sound Forge relies on your sound card’s driver to provide the correct cursor position. Sound Forge provides a way to compensate for this by setting the play and record position bias in the Wave tab in the Preferences dialog.

Why doesn't Sound Forge respond to levels from my microphone or my CD Player?

Most sound cards come with multiple inputs from which you can record sound. These may include microphone, CD, auxiliary, MIDI, and line inputs. Although some cards record from all of these inputs at the same time, many cards require you to choose a recording device (also known as the input source). These cards come with software that allows you to pick which device is the input source. Please refer to your sound card manual to determine how to set the input source.

Most sound cards also come with some kind of application that controls the input level of the recording device. You may need to increase the level of your input sources in order to record from them. Again, please refer to your sound card manual to learn how to adjust these levels.

When I record or play files, I hear small clicks in the sound.

When Sound Forge is recording or playing audio data, it moves large amounts of data between your hard drive and your sound card. If Sound Forge can’t move the data fast enough, you will hear small gaps between blocks of data that typically sound like clicks or puttering. Please see Optimizing Sound Forge for information about reducing the overhead during the time Sound Forge is moving sound data.

When I record (or play) data at high sample rates, I can't stop playback by clicking the Stop Button.

Sound Forge works to prevent gaps during recording and playback. As a result, there may be delays between the time that you click the Stop button and the time that Sound Forge actually stops. Note that you can always press and hold the Escape key to stop record or playback no matter how bad the situation is. Just be a little patient and wait a few seconds. These delays are usually only observed when one or more components of your system can not keep up with the data rate. Typical faults are:

If at all possible, use the fastest uncompressed storage device available with Sound Forge. For more information on configuring your system, see see Optimizing Sound Forge.

When playing sound files with sample rates above 44,100 Hz on my Turtle Beach Multisound or Tahiti, my system crashes.

This is caused by a bug in the Turtle Beach Multisound and Tahiti sound card drivers. Contact Turtle Beach for updated drivers.

When playing sound files at 8,000 Hz on my Turtle Beach Multisound, the play pointer moves but I don't hear any output.

This is caused by a bug in the Turtle Beach Multisound driver. Contact Turtle Beach for updated drivers.

When playing sound files at rates other than 11,025 Hz, 22,050 Hz, or 44,100 Hz, the pitch is wrong.

Some sound drivers incorrectly play sounds with sample rates that are not supported by the sound card hardware. For example, a sound that is supposed to play at 13,000 Hz might be played at 11,025 Hz instead. This will cause the pitch to be lower and the playback time to be slower than it should be.

Contact your sound card manufacturer for updated drivers.

When playing sound files sometimes when the sound starts I hear a blip, drop-out, or click.

Some sound drivers do not deal correctly with the preload buffer option of Sound Forge. If you have set your preload size in the Wave tab of the Preferences dialog to a value greater than 0, try setting it back to 0. If this solves the problem, contact your sound card manufacturer for updated drivers.