Tempo and tuning difference (resampling) in Sansa Clip

Hello

I have tried to use Sansa Clip to play backing tracks when practicing and recording violin. I then discovered that it plays the tracks at a slightly faster tempo and at a higher frequency. Like the music was resampled higher. I have tested this with many tracks that I know to have an A=440Hz tuning. This makes it impossible to play when tuned to A=440Hz, and the recorded tracks will not sync with the original backing tracks at my home computer.

Of course Sansa Clip is not a musicians device, but I would still presume that songs play at their original speed and frequency. Is there any way to fix this with a future firmware update? Or could this be just my unit?

Thank you in advance,

Santtu Hirvikorpi

Finland

I just did a test of voice recording on my 1GB Clip running v.20 firmware.  I recorded an A-440 tuning fork.  So far as I can tell, the playback from the Clip is the same frequency as the live tuning fork.  I also tried copying the .wav file over to my laptop and playing it there, and again it seemed the same as the live fork.

Both the Clip and your computer depend upon a crystal oscillator for their sense of time.  To the extent the actual frequency of a specific crystal varies from it’s nominal value, then you will see variations in pitch and recording time.  But I would expect any such variation would not normally produce a difference that would be audible in the short term.  So I don’t really have an explanation for what you describe.  Is it as far off as, say, a half-tone - A  playing back as B-flat?

I haven’t used the Sansa Clip for recording, just playback for backing tracks. I record with an M-Audio Microtrack II, which is not the problem as I have tested it too. It’s just that the recordings are dependable on the backing track’s tempo and frequency. The tuning problem is quite coarse, a note played back on the Sansa Clip is maybe a quarter note sharp. I haven’t measured it exactly, but its clearly “out of tune”.

I have to do some more testing I guess.