First Aid: The Soundloop is not smooth

  • When creating loop sounds the loop appears to make a "crackling noise" when the loop starts again. This article shows why and how to fix it.

    The crackling sound appears when the sound doesn't start or end at volume 0.


    The following sound would lead to the crackling noise:



    This is the reason why the sound should always begin and end at the volume 0:



    In this case the graph of the sound ascends at the begin and the end, which is the best practice for a good sound.


    The difficulty is now to set both sound channels in a stereo sample at begin and end to zero. If one of the channel isn't set to zero, the crackling noise remains.


    Some programs to edit sounds have a special snap function. GoldWave has this at "Edit" => "Marker" => "Snap To Zero-Crossing". This function can work if the zoom is not that high.