Recording in short blips

[fintroller]

Trying to record a song today and S1 is only recording quick blips of audio. I haven't changed anything, in fact it's the same song I was recording two days ago and there were no problems. I've tried other tracks, different channels and different songs, but it's only recording little blips at a time. The track stays armed and continues recording.
I just updated and restarted my computer and still get the same problem. Switched cables and mics, switched interface from Scarlett to MacBook mic and get the same issue. I'm at a loss. Any ideas what it could be?

S1 7.2.3 (Oct 29 2025)
MacBook Pro M4 , Tahoe 26.1
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20

 

[John Vere]

When you switch to the Mac’s Mike did you disconnect the Audio Interface?
It sure seems like something going wrong with the driver.
Also you could try a different Daw or Wave editor that records audio.

 

[fintroller]

When you switch to the Mac’s Mike did you disconnect the Audio Interface?
It sure seems like something going wrong with the driver.
Also you could try a different Daw or Wave editor that records audio.

I did disconnect the interface. I updated the mac and reinstalled the Scarlett driver, still the same. I'll try another DAW....

No issues while recording on Garageband through the Scarlett interface

 

[OutrageProductions]

Do you maybe have an autopunch loop set? Show marker track.

 

[fintroller]

Do you maybe have an autopunch loop set? Show marker track.

No autopunch set. This occurs on different songs, I've tried recording on 3 different ones just to be sure. Also, it's not just the recording, as I'm picking my guitar I can see the db meter jump up green and then blank, then green and blank and so forth.

 

[Surf.Whammy]

There are several steps required to set the microphone you want to use for an Audio Track in Studio One on the Mac.

It's more stuff than one might imagine or desire.

[NOTE: These are the configuration steps when using the Built-In Microphone. If you are using a separate, standalone microphone, then the steps will be a bit different--but conceptually the same--where you need to let macOS and Studio One know you are using a separate, standalone microphone and its interface (USB, Bluetooth, external digital audio and MIDI interface, or however you connect it to your Mac.]

Make it look like these screen captures, where you begin by telling macOS in STEP 0 what you want to do using Audio MIDI Setup and specifying the Built-In Microphone and Built-In Output. Then do STEPS 1 to 3 in Studio One.

Perhaps this will help, at least if you are using the Built-In Microphone of your Mac. If it doesn't work, then perhaps I can create a set of screens for configuring a B.L.U.E. Snowball USB microphone, but not on any other way to connect.

I don't have a Bluetooth microphone, and using a MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid and a standard XLR microphone is not so practical at the moment. I could do it, but it requires cables and doing a bunch of stuff, plus the practical aspect is that it's basically the same as using the Built-In Microphone of your Mac. Doing it with the MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid and an XLR microphone conceptually is the same; but it requires a bit more configuring and another step or two.

Not much else comes to mind, although there a few guesses, (a) MacBook battery is low (unlikely and a wild guess), (b) standalone microphone battery is low, (c) standalone microphone is intermittent (broken), (d) microphone cable is intermittent (broken).

Let us know if this solves the problem . . .

P. S. Among other things, I write books on digital music production; so I practice and improve my skills by touch-typing and doing screen captures every day, where I edit the screen captures (a) in Graphic for Mac, which is my primary graphic editor, and (b) in Krita, which is my secondary editor for more advanced graphic editing and painting. For reference, this post took about 3 hours; so it's like golf. If you want to be good at playing golf, then you need to play golf every day for more than a few minutes, which is the same with instruments and singing.

 

[fintroller]

So I've been messing with it some more and have found that the interference is more like a noise gate somehow. I can speak into the microphone or sing and it picks it up fine. When I play my guitar into the mic (acoustic or electric) it will only catch the heavy hit parts but not the initial attack of the note, and then cuts out quickly. This is only on S1 mind you, garageband works fine either way

 

[Surf.Whammy]

So I've been messing with it some more and have found that the interference is more like a noise gate somehow. I can speak into the microphone or sing and it picks it up fine. When I play my guitar into the mic (acoustic or electric) it will only catch the heavy hit parts but not the initial attack of the note, and then cuts out quickly. This is only on S1 mind you, garageband works fine either way

Is this the Built-In Microphone, and did you do all the steps?

Or is it a standalone microphone? If it's a standalone microphone, does it have a battery? What model is the standalone microphone?

Either way, excluding a hidden noise gate somewhere, the microphone, its cable, or connecting method (Bluetooth, USB, and so forth)--or perhaps the MacBook Built-In Microphone--is broken.

It might be an artifact of running on a MacBook with the new Apple Silicon, new macOS, and the current version of Studio One having a bug; which certainly would be (a) not a surprise on the Apple side but (b) either way quite unlikely.

Try it with the Built-In Microphone and all the steps.

If using the MacBook Built-In Microphone works, then the standalone microphone, cord, or something is broken.

Let us know . . .

 

[Surf.Whammy]

I did a bit of research using Google AI, and this is what I found, along with the Michael Jackson song that comes to mine.

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[fintroller]

I did a bit of research using Google AI, and this is what I found, along with the Michael Jackson song that comes to mine.

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Hmm. Not sure about Michael, but I am using SM58's and also the MacBook built in mic. Also tried a large diaphragm condenser with 48v. No luck so far. :/

 

[Surf.Whammy]

Did you do all the steps for the experiment using the MacBook Built-In Microphone?

If the MacBook Built-In Microphone doesn't work when you do all the setup and configuration steps, then it's a puzzle.

Remember that all the steps are important, and it only requires one of the steps being different to cause problems. The worst was doing ReWire; and some of the steps were very subtle; so if only one step was not done, then nothing worked, which was vastly frustrating. The first time I tried to get ReWire working, it took me about three months. As I eventually discovered, it was just one step that should have been obvious but was not something I realized was important. It also required rebooting after making changes. The missing step was not documented in a clear way, and I found it by doing experiments. I think the various documentation (MOTU and Notion Music) presumed I knew stuff that I didn't know, which is one of the problems I have with Reference Manuals, User Guides, and all that stuff written by technical writers based on what software engineers tell them, which often results in skipped steps because, one only can guess, of the idea that "everybody knows this, so no need to tell them about it."

Stuff like this happens more often that one might like; and it's nearly always something simple, where the most recent example here in the sound isolation studio is selecting an electric guitar in SampleTank 4 (IK Multimedia) but no guitar sounds.

After trying to make sense of this for an hour or so, I decided to click on the specific electric guitar in SampleTank to load it.

I like to think I'm smart, but it didn't occur to me that I needed to load the samples for the guitar.

Once I loaded the samples in SampleTank, I heard electric guitar.

 

[Gerran]

Perhaps pretty obvious, but are the sample rates matched between all components? I'm not sure about MacOS, but on Windows, system sounds (if not set properly) can cause the sample rate to switch, causing widespread audio havoc.
Edit/=Added: And I suppose checking if there's a gate on the input ( >| icon in the console) is also a wise move, if you haven't already..