Strange recording artifact; help with the source?

Greetings,
 
I use Sonar Artist -- the most recent version -- and have been working on a couple of projects. I'm pretty new to recording.  I have had a strange artifact that has occurred a few different times when I'm recording.  It is intermittent, and I thought I had figured out the source (thinking it was bleed from monitors feedback into the microphone while recording).
 
Anyway, this is a sort of a chirping sound that only occurs while I'm actually making sound.  I have exported a small sample of the audio.  I mention a chord name on the guitar and play the chord.  My voice is being mic'ed with a condenser; the acoustic guitar is being picked up, but not directly mic'ed.  The recording itself was just to record an early demo of a song I'm working on.
 
Anyway, this has occurred when I am trying to track something "real", so I'm trying to figure this out.  
 
I'm hoping that somebody will hear it and know what the problem is.  Any ideas?
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0hvg1z5b7rxwt3m/Artifact-Track%202.mp3
 
Thanks in advance,
Robert

Thanks for the ideas. 
 
The signal chain is: 
 

• Studio Projects C1 microphone
• Hosa PDR-369 Patchbay
• ART PRO MPA-II Preamp
• Samon S-Patch Plus Patchbay
• MOTU AVB Ultralight (interface)
• Sonar Artist 2017.09

 
I can switch out some of this gear and eliminate patchbays, but what I really need to figure out is how to cause it to happen reliably.  The intermittency makes the "swap out until it goes away" strategy challenging to say the least.
 
There should be no guitar pickup involved; though I do leave a guitar plugged into a direct box, fed into the MOTU.  Hypothetically string vibration from my voice could get into the MOTU (maybe)?  But then that would imply some bleed across channels there.
 
Also, I should point out that the MOTU has a mixer built in; I feed the mic back into the headphones for live monitoring -- not necessary with what I was recording -- but I didn't hear that artifact.  This implies to me that it is either in the MOTU (downstream of the send back to the headphones) or actually in Sonar.

Thanks for your input; I didn't realize one would have to login to Dropbox, so I have posted the sample here: https://soundcloud.com/user-839393163/artifact-track-2
 
Certainly the components are low end; the patch bays are to keep my studio office a bit cleaner.  Removing these items from the signal path as a test certainly makes sense, though the intermittency of the problem makes it hard for any of that to be conclusive, of course without time.  I likely won't have another choice, I suppose the simplest thing will be for me to go straight to the MOTU and see if the problem resurfaces and then at some point go from there.
 
Thanks again.
 
 

Do you wear a wrist watch?
 
It sounds like a recording of a wrist watch through a compressor.
 
Just my first impression,
Paul
 

rwandering
Thanks for your input; I didn't realize one would have to login to Dropbox, so I have posted the sample

Its all good here. I didn't have to log on to hear your sample.
 
I would follow Johnny's idea by removing everything from the signal path and completing tests one by one after adding in gear as you go.
Surely this wont be feasible to record like this but it will help you isolate the offending problem.
Once that is established you can dissect more in to what the root of the problem is. Example: A bad cord, a poor connection, a bad tube in a mic pre amp (Or even a gate shuttering to quickly) possibly a power surge.

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but one source of chirping is USB devices, wireless mice, etc., especially if they have a wireless receiver. Some receivers are sensitive to cell phones and will "chirp" when they send signals to check email, etc. Think about anything wireless in the vicinity (typically a few feet) of a receiver, as well as shutting off BT on the computer when in DAW mode.

Just an update, for those interested.
 
I wasn't able to reproduce the problem until today.  I had been recording vocals for about an hour without a problem. This was using the same signal chain listed earlier in the thread.   I then began recording a bass guitar direct into the MOTU interface.  It worked without a problem for 20 minutes or so.  I was recording, replaying, recording, etc.  Then the artifact started again.
 

• I recorded again, and it still occurred.
• Restarted SONAR, recorded again, still there.
• Restarted the computer, started SONAR, recorded again, still there.
• Finally, I restarted the MOTU and the problem went away.

 
Interestingly I would have expected it to be a driver / computer problem.  I'm surprised it is the MOTU.
 
It certainly wasn't the cables, the patch panels, or even the low-end gear (well, other than the MOTU).
 
Now I have to decide if I replace my interface.  I really like its browser-based mixing capabilities and ability to name the I/O ports.

No, no wireless.  It did occur to me it could be a power surge of some kind, but it has been plugged into a conditioning UPS this whole time.  I'm reaching out to MOTU to see if they can help.  

I heard back from MOTU on Monday (about a week after posting in their tech forum).  I produced a much better example.  Their answer: the X99 chipset on my motherboard.  I figured I had ruled out my computer with the steps I took, but perhaps not.
 
To test that out, I ran a test on a difference computer (a laptop), and after 8 hours, it was working perfectly.  Last night I repurposed another computer I happened to have that is better suited for a DAW and so far it seems like its OK.
 
The good news is I don't have to spend any money.  The bad news is that I already bought the new (and better) MOTU 828es, but will probably send it back!