Mic Playback Distorted

[Voice Dude]

I have the latest edition of Adobe.  I have an Arrow audio interface with a Seneheiser MKH 416 P48 mic.  When voice is recorded on to Adobe Audition, the playback is distorted almost like a space alien underwater.  

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Edit>Preferences>Audio Hardware - increase the buffer/latency value until this stops.

[Voice Dude]

Adjusting Buffer/latency did not fix the problem.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Well, that was the obvious start point. I'm assuming that this is Thunderbolt, so a slightly different kettle of fish to usual. I get the impression that if you try to run this from a Thunderbolt 2 port without an external power supply that there might be some difficulties, but since I haven't the faintest idea of how you have this set up, or even if it's on a Mac or a PC, I can't make any more suggestions. Full disclosure might help... also please bear in mind that Audition is remarkably good at recording exactly what it's sent when the buffer size is correctly set for the machine it's running on, so this is almost bound to be an Arrow-related problem.

[Voice Dude]

It's a PC.  AZUS Zen Book Ultra.  Intel Core i7 Processor.  Thunderbolt 3 connection.  I agree with you on Adobe recording what it hears.  I have been using it for years as a broadcaster.  I get the feeling that the Arrows out outs aren't "speaking" correctly to Adobe.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Well... I'll report this to the developers, just in case. Because it's relatively new it might even avoid the usual vicious circle of developers blaming Arrow, and vice versa... however you look at it, somebody ought to sort this out.

[_durin_]

That is some crunchy noise.  I wouldn't want that, either.

Steve mentioned the first thing to check in Audition, buffer size.  Since a higher value there didn't help, the next thing I would check would be the sample rate settings within Audition and the device drivers.  If you're using an ASIO driver for this interface, it simplifies things a bit.  I would suggest:

• Opening the native audio driver software for the Arrow and ensuring the Sample Rate is set to 48,000 Hz.
• Open Audition Preferences > Audio Hardware and make sure the sample rate is set to 48,000 Hz there (and that the Driver Model is ASIO)
• Create a new waveform document and ensure it's also at 48,000 Hz.  (The goal is to make sure nothing is attempting to do any sample rate conversion and we're getting a straight feed.)

If you still hear noise, let's rule out a few possibilities:

• If you can, temporarily swap out the microphone AND the cable to make sure there's not an issue with either of those components.
• If the Arrow interface has a monitoring output, do you hear the noise there?  If not, then it's internal signal path is likely fine and the problem exists between the data streaming out and the capture.
• If you record to a different hard drive, is the noise still present?  

[Voice Dude]

I have not recorded to another hard drive but I can monitor from the interface and the signal sounds correct, even with another microphone.  When I select ASIO I can select the microphone but my only output to select from is the Arrow-and it sounds worse!  In all cases, sample rates are the same from Adobe and Arrow

[TheSmeech]

Hi Voice Dude,

wondering if you were able to resolve this?  I got the exact same 'alien underwater' effect this morning on a VO, and it is baffling me as I haven't made any changes to my set up.

running a Mac, recording 44100 at 24bit, Buffer 512