The trouble with Tribbles

[bkbannon3]

Ok, here we go again!!! I am still getting a distorted playback from recordings. As soon as I arm the channel, it distorts. I completely took everything apart last night and separated audio cables from electrical cables to make sure there was positively no interference. I reloaded os on d8b and hdr. still have the same problem. I have been recording the same way for over a year, (not that that makes a difference) but suddenly, I have this problem. I checked all the routing, but here is a question. When ever I start a new session on the D8b, it automatically assigns channels 1-24 to the L/R and also channels 25-48 to the L/R. I have never had a phasing, feedback, distorted sound, ever. I removed the word card, adat cards, fx cards, every card and reseated all of them. Even tried it without fx cards, same result. I am currently running OS 3.0 and was thinking of upgrading, but if I am having this issue, what is the point. Or is it possibly a bug in OS3. I downloaded a fresh copy for install and the installation worked perfectly. I have had to cancel several sessions now and it starting to hurt my pocket. I worked over 8 hours thru the night completely unhooking my entire system and started from scratch. Helped my setup, preamps all in one rack, patchbays closer to each other, cd recorder and mixdown processors all closer and easier to use, but it did not fix my issue. I thought about calling mackie, but there doesn't really seem to be anybody there who knows these boards like this forum. Surely somebody has had this issue, or similar before. If it is a routing issue, then my screen is not showing what the board is actually doing. I checked all the auxes, busses, everything from top to bottom. Could it possibly be on the HDR, since it only happens when I arm the track? Any thoughts, please anybody, I will try anything at this point. Brian

[Crash]

I checked all the routing, but here is a question. When ever I start a new session on the D8b, it automatically assigns channels 1-24 to the L/R and also channels 25-48 to the L/R. I have never had a phasing, feedback, distorted sound, ever.
Brian

Sorry you are still having issue. The L/R assignment is the usual way on an umodified start up file or when you create a new session. You can trash your start up file if you think there is the possibility it might be corrupt. The console will create a new factory startup upon the next boot up. I don't think this is your issue though... Could it be the HDR... sure, it could be.

So, you can get a signal clean through a mic pre and you can get a signal to play back clean from the HDR? Everything goes in the ditch when you arm a track?

[Crash]

PM sent your way Brian....

[bkbannon3]

Yes everything is clean until I arm the track. I tried recording just monitoring the the recording signal, sounded great until playback. Then it is distorted. Not sure what to try next, other than changing the internal hard drive on the HDR. I have extras as I have lost a couple in the past, and usually pick them up when I see them on ebay. Thanks again Crash. I appreciate your time and patience. Brian

[Crash]

I don't think your issue is a hardrive. If you have an AIO.8 card and a 25 pin dsub you can test your routing without the HDR in the picture to see what that gets you. You hook the output to the input of the AIO.8 card with the dsub and route as if the HDR is there. Make sense? If you still get distorted audio, then your console is doing something whacky. If not, you might look at the HDR.

[bkbannon3]

http://soundcloud.com/bkbannon3/gmtp-phasing

Hey everyone, please take a listen to this and see if you can figure out what is going on. Thanks Brian

[synthjoe]

If you have an AIO.8 card and a 25 pin dsub you can test your routing without the HDR in the picture to see what that gets you. You hook the output to the input of the AIO.8 card with the dsub and route as if the HDR is there.

Loopback test is a great idea! You could also do that with lightpipe, just plug both ends of the fiber into the same opt card's two ports. Then arm the track and see what happens. I suggest disonnecting BNC and all other Toslink cables to the HDR.

Good luck!

[Crash]

If you have an AIO.8 card and a 25 pin dsub you can test your routing without the HDR in the picture to see what that gets you. You hook the output to the input of the AIO.8 card with the dsub and route as if the HDR is there.

Loopback test is a great idea! You could also do that with lightpipe, just plug both ends of the fiber into the same opt card's two ports. Then arm the track and see what happens. I suggest disonnecting BNC and all other Toslink cables to the HDR.

Good luck!

Doh! Of course you could do it with light pipe. I just teleported back to days of testing these things which we did with analog cards.