Audio is too fast

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jethro
  • Start date Start date
J

Jethro

I put a computer together from parts, and it has a problem I have
never encountered before. The audio (e.g. a singer's voice) is a
little fast similar to what would happen from playing a tape at too
fast a speed. Is there an adjustment somewhere for this? I sure
can't find it. Maybe the sound card is bad or not set up right?

I am running XP PRO SP2.

Thanks
 
Jethro said:
I put a computer together from parts, and it has a problem I have
never encountered before. The audio (e.g. a singer's voice) is a
little fast similar to what would happen from playing a tape at too
fast a speed. Is there an adjustment somewhere for this? I sure
can't find it. Maybe the sound card is bad or not set up right?
Click to expand...

Audio from *what* source?
 
Jethro said:
I put a computer together from parts, and it has a problem I have
never encountered before. The audio (e.g. a singer's voice) is a
little fast similar to what would happen from playing a tape at too
fast a speed. Is there an adjustment somewhere for this? I sure
can't find it. Maybe the sound card is bad or not set up right?

I am running XP PRO SP2.

Thanks
Click to expand...

When music is recorded, somewhere (like the header of the file) is
an indication of the sampling rate used.

On a CD, the sampling frequency might involve numbers like 22.05KHz
or 44.1KHz. Whereas, another popular rate on a sound chip would be
48KHz.

It is important, for the player application and the chip doing the
sound conversion, to operate at the same speed as the samples being
used. For example, imagine what would happen if 44.1KHz samples
were played at a 48KHz rate. Both the pitch of the singer's voice
would be higher, and the duration of the song playback would be
shorter than normal. (Time the duration of the song, and see if
it lasts shorter than normal, by the ratio of 44.1 to 48.)

It is up to the software involved, to use the proper rate for the
music being played. As Kony has suggested, it could be a player problem.
Or it could even be a driver problem (driver tells lies about
sampling rates used). If the sound driver has a control panel, with
its own "test sound", you might try that and see if the pitch is
correct or not. The sound chip also has to use something as a timing
reference, and if that timing reference is wrong, that could account
for a pitch shift.

Paul
 
Jethro said:
I put a computer together from parts, and it has a problem I have
never encountered before. The audio (e.g. a singer's voice) is a
little fast similar to what would happen from playing a tape at too
fast a speed. Is there an adjustment somewhere for this? I sure
can't find it. Maybe the sound card is bad or not set up right?

I am running XP PRO SP2.
Click to expand...

You already have a few good suggestions, so one last thing to try - Have you
tried running away from the PC at almost the speed of sound? That should
help.
 
Jethro said:
I put a computer together from parts, and it has a problem I have
never encountered before. The audio (e.g. a singer's voice) is a
little fast similar to what would happen from playing a tape at too
fast a speed. Is there an adjustment somewhere for this? I sure
can't find it. Maybe the sound card is bad or not set up right?

I am running XP PRO SP2.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I don't think the audio card can do that magical feature. I would guess
or suggest to try different Audio Player to see if it's something wrong with
the audio player you have. If other does the same then I would pay closer
look at the DRIVER.

Other than that I can't come up with anything at the moment.
 
Paul said:
When music is recorded, somewhere (like the header of the file) is
an indication of the sampling rate used.

On a CD, the sampling frequency might involve numbers like 22.05KHz
or 44.1KHz. Whereas, another popular rate on a sound chip would be
48KHz.

It is important, for the player application and the chip doing the
sound conversion, to operate at the same speed as the samples being
used. For example, imagine what would happen if 44.1KHz samples
were played at a 48KHz rate. Both the pitch of the singer's voice
would be higher, and the duration of the song playback would be
shorter than normal. (Time the duration of the song, and see if
it lasts shorter than normal, by the ratio of 44.1 to 48.)

It is up to the software involved, to use the proper rate for the
music being played. As Kony has suggested, it could be a player problem.
Or it could even be a driver problem (driver tells lies about
sampling rates used). If the sound driver has a control panel, with
its own "test sound", you might try that and see if the pitch is
correct or not. The sound chip also has to use something as a timing
reference, and if that timing reference is wrong, that could account
for a pitch shift.

Paul
Click to expand...

From the info you give, I guess indeed that a wrong sample rate could be the
most probable reason for the problem. Is this is the case, you could try
some rate conversions with the excellent and free audio conversion program
dB poweramp: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm
 
Back
Top