Audio Sample rate issue

[Robby]

Ok, so I have a strange problem that appeared after I reinstalled everything on my PC after the HDD pooped one day. I managed to reset my system to its old standards, FRAPS and Camtasia Studio 8.3 set up. I reconfigured everything to the way it was before everything went down, but now there's this little issue and I can't seem to fix it no matter what I do.

Now, first things first, my speakers and mic have their sample rate programmed to 48khz or 48000Hz. The issue I have though disregards the 16-bit and 24-bit depths my speakers support (by the way, when I say speakers, I'm talking of headphones, my system classifies it as such).

Now, there's my DV-camera (Toshiba Camileo P10 1080p) that I always use for facecams. It always records 30fps, at 48khz audio sample rate.

But here comes the funny bit. Normally the gameplay and the facecam synchronize rather well, and I noticed a desyncing (facecam usually hurries) after about 20 minutes, but it's nothing bad when its audio is muted). However, now it hurries almost 1 minute after the point where it's synced up properly. And it gets progressively worse. Even though the sample rates are the same, they don't sync up like before.

Now here are some of the things I tried.

1) I recorded my mic with Audacity, which exported at 44.1khz (44100Hz) for some reason, but it syncs up perfectly with the camera's footage (which is 48khz) but then the gameplay goes off, and I made sure to sync it properly.

2) Converted both the gameplay and facecam to matching sample rates, but I get the exact same result as always. I even did a test where I used the original (48khz) facecam and the converted (44.1khz) facecam files, and they both synced up, and showed the exact same sync drift with the gameplay.

3) I changed both mic and speaker sample rate to 44.1khz, but it exhibited the same result as always. I know if you set the mic or speaker sample rate differently, then the gameplay's mic goes off-sync, but this is not the case.

4) Tried to speed up camera's audio so that it syncs up, but even a 1% shift causes it to rush ahead after a while.

5) Tried to manually edit the audio malfunction, but something odder shows up. Even though the audio waveforms "match" or "sync up", they still sound off-sync. Potentially.

I've spent at least 20 hours looking into this bug, or whatever this is, and it still baffles me. I'm using exact same settings/drivers as before, but this buggy-bug shows up. Anyone have any ideas other than the above ones? Feedback/suggestions much appreciated!

[Yuhaney]

I'd say your HDD is not fast enough for both FRAPS and audio recording at the same time, since FRAPS records with its own lossless codec. I would recommend entirely scrapping FRAPS and trying another software which compresses on-the-fly. I personally loved FRAPS and praised it for many years, but now I have changed my mind.

If you have NVIDIA GPU, I would recommend ShadowPlay (free).
If any other GPU: Afterburner (free), and use x264 codec to compress the recorded video on-the-fly.

[Robby]

I'd say your HDD is not fast enough for both FRAPS and audio recording at the same time, since FRAPS records with its own lossless codec.

Before the HDD crashed and made me reinstall everything, FRAPS is how I made all my recordings (OBS for Amnesia) and it worked ok until the crash. The HDD runs at 7200RPM, 320GB (currently 200+ free). I did a speed test and everything is just as before. It reads almost 60-80MB/s, writes at about 40-70MB/s, dependant in some cases. I've had crashes where data corrupted, this time it was a bit "bigger" and reinstall was only option.

And while I could use OBS to record, it tends to be a pain with me.

I would recommend entirely scrapping FRAPS and trying another software which compresses on-the-fly.

Let's just say that my dual-core CPU might not be able to keep up, even if it's overclocked to 3.6GHz.

[Yuhaney]

For that slow HDD, I would do as I recommended and change the recording software to something that isn't using lossless codec. I can personally record 1080p @ 60 fps (still waiting for YouTube to do the 60 fps update) without any problems, as long as the GPU can handle the game at constant framerate...

[Robby]

For that slow HDD, I would do as I recommended and change the recording software to something that isn't using lossless codec. I can personally record 1080p @ 60 fps (still waiting for YouTube to do the 60 fps update) without any problems, as long as the GPU can handle the game at constant framerate...

Well, there's OBS, but it doesn't handle more than 30fps on 1024x768. But of course, it's a bit too complex with all its bitrate settings and frequently screws up if I don't align it well. My bud had the same issue sometimes. But at least it recorded my Amnesia vids in like 200MBs/30 mins. I know FRAPS causes MASSIVE stuttering on Amnesia regardless of framerate, and corrupts the footage, but this audio glitch is something a bit new to me.

I'll take a look, maybe take OBS for a test drive, but if that shows the same audio desync, then there's more involved. I'll get back on that when I test it.

[Robby]

I know I'm doubleposting here, but editing a post doesn't really make it update the thread.

I've done some testing with OBS, but irrelevant. It's too harsh on my CPU to get an affordable quality without it dropping almost 47 frames every 3 seconds on 24fps.

I'll keep messing around with other software, might try what was suggested, but I might as well say it: The sync drift I'm experiencing is the facecam's audio "falling behind" the gameplay's mic/audio. Which I find odd. And OBS doesn't react to my mic for some reason. Before you ask, audio drivers have been updated since I reinstalled my PC softwares.

[Yuhaney]

What you are trying right now is recording 3 different things on one slow HDD.

1) You are trying to record gameplay (as I've said, FRAPS is using their own lossless codec and it also uses 2 cores out of your CPU, and that leaves basically nothing left for the game itself).

2) Then you are recording your web cam, probably 720p / 1080p.

3) And on top of all this, you are recording audio separately on Audacity.

Now, calculate all that together and split it down per second. We are talking about data rate so high that your single HDD cannot keep up, not to mention FRAPS eating up both of your CPU cores.

EDIT: Oh, and if you have only one HDD where you are doing EVERYTHING, Windows, games + all the stuff mentioned above... No wonder it's giving errors.

[Robby]

If you read post #1 a bit more, you'd see I'm using a DV-camera (Which is not a webcam in any way). So that is being recorded separately.

And I know for a fact that my system worked before the reinstall very well, my CPU never went above 100% completely. It mostly stood at a nice 80-90%, but never at 100%. Audacity recording was just a test.

I wouldn't consider the HDD that slow. How do you explain that it worked so smoothly before it crashed? And disk speed testing showed that it's running with (pretty much) the same speed as it did before, if not a couple MB faster. Something else is off here, clearly not the HDD, or it would be stuttering my system. I've had that happen to me when I recorded on 1280x720 before. And I always record at 1024x768.

EDIT: Audacity was for testing purposes. How I found outcome #1.

[Yuhaney]

Yeah, indeed. Then you can count off the web cam. Sorry about that.
If you are recording in 1024x768, then I guess it should work.

If it's not a combination of HDD / CPU, then I have no idea...
Either way, I would still lower the data amount by using ShadowPlay, if you have NVIDIA GPU which supports the software. For YouTube, that is in my opinion currently the best recorder. I now use FRAPS only when ShadowPlay cannot record. If either of them won't record, as a last try I give a go for Afterburner.

Also came to my mind, but I am not sure about this one and absolutely have no idea. Also it sounds a bit stupid, but anyway: If the DV recorder is set to different framerate (say 23,97), could that affect the final video's audio when mixed up with gameplay which has different framerate (29,97 / 30)?

[Robby]

Well, framerate regardless anyway, it still does it.

And I just tested Afterburner (didn't even reduce my framerates during recording) , and for some reason the audio issue is gone. So I have a conclusion.

Spoiler below!

FRAPS HATES ME NAO!

Alright then, feel free to close the thread. I have no idea why it hates me after the reinstall, but this is just ridiculously funny. Alright then, Afterburner it is, for me. A little bit clunky at first sight, but after that it seems very easy to use for me. I recorded 20 mins, it turned up on mkv (for some reason) at a nice 1.3GB. And quality's reasonable.