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  • 10th June 2017 at 06:39 #28471
    Andy
    Participant

    Hi All,

    I have has a Utrack 32 for over a year now, and initially it started off great.

    Lately, and I mean the last 4 or 5 times I have used it, the recordings have been worthless because there is distortion in the tracks. Not all the tracks, just some.

    I have attached a small grab to let you listen.

    To remedy this I have tried:

    Reformatting the drive I use,
    Cleaning the inputs of the X32 Rack that I use (Front of house sounds great – no distortion.
    Cleaning all the contacts on the leads.

    The file I attached is one of 2 channels out of 12 on the night that distorted.

    Any ideas?

    It’s not letting me upload the file so here is a link to it: https://www.dropbox.com/pri/get/Cymatic/Cymatic.m4a?_subject_uid=164723607&w=AABvf-_zRKroMB-bjfDorQqvvckU0j0vGJwk8Iwy6XK9IA

    Cheers,

    Andy

    11th June 2017 at 21:12 #28473
    Gabriel A Pass
    Participant

    Sorry wolfbass, your audio file is not shared on Dropbox. I tried to download it to take a look and can’t.

    12th June 2017 at 05:40 #28474
    Andy
    Participant

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/vzn1q1xjpc1zqe3/Cymatic.m4a?dl=0

    Try this one!

    12th June 2017 at 08:05 #28476
    Gabriel A Pass
    Participant

    Yeah that’s bad. At first I was going to say I think it’s a digital to analogue converter clipping somewhere in your signal path.
    It sounded like that to me at first, but I look in Audition’s spectral analyzer… Clearly not ordinary clipping.

    The distortion sounded like clipping because it goes up and down with the signal amplitude, but the it never goes away.
    Even when the signal is almost silent distortion continues. Also the frequency of the distortion is perfectly regular.
    There is a pulse approximately every 30 milliseconds.

    I am still wondering if you don’t have some sort of electrical disturbance. Alternating current in the US is 60 cycles / sec. That’s 16.7 milliseconds. So the pulse you are encountering could be occurring every second electrical cycle.
    If any of this means something to the Cymatic staff, great. Otherwise I would experiment with recording with some power protection on all your equipment. Not surge protection, but actual line filtering to produce a smooth sign wave.
    A device like the Furman PL-PLUS DMC Power Conditioner also has a Voltmeter/Ammeter that might give you some more insight into weather or not something is going on electrically.

    I bought one of those after I saw a colleague solve problems with a sound system picking up noise from an electric generator. A lower end power conditioner did nothing, but connecting the board & digital snakes to the PL-Plus silenced everything. That was definitely audible, but nothing like what you’re experiencing.

    Hope this helps.

    12th June 2017 at 08:15 #28477
    Andy
    Participant

    Hi Gapmedia,

    Thanks for your insights. Maybe Cymatic will have a look.

    Further info,

    I’m in Australia, where it’s 240 Volt 10 amp circuitry.

    I use a Furman power conditioner for EVERYTHING we use in the PA.

    Furthermore it was working fine for a year and it’s only just started happening.

    I have emailed Cymatic to see if they can help.

    Thanks again,

    Andy

    12th June 2017 at 09:47 #28478
    Laszlo
    Keymaster

    Hi Andy,

    This is sounds bad.

    Is this happening on the same channels?
    How about if you change the routing of the console? (Routing/Card Out) Is that same instrument or the same channel has a problem?

    12th June 2017 at 10:46 #28481
    Andy
    Participant

    Hi Laszio,

    It happens on different channels, at different times.

    This particular recording, it happened on 2 different channels, getting worse over time.

    Initially it wasn’t there at all,

    By the 3rd set (each set was approx 60 minutes long, it sounded like this.

    Andy

    12th June 2017 at 11:12 #28482
    Laszlo
    Keymaster

    Hi Andy,

    Thank you for your quick response.

    Are you sure the distortion caused by the card? I mean as the uTrack-X32 card has no DAC inside it takes the input digital signal then record in digital way it very unlikely is that distortion caused by the card. I don’t say it is not possible but very strange. We have never received any similar feedback from the users.

    Do you you have enough headroom on the input gain of the console?

    Could you please try to reproduce this if you have a really safe input headroom on each channels?

    12th June 2017 at 11:27 #28483
    Andy
    Participant

    No I’m not sure it’s the card, however over the course of the gig it got worse.

    I have tested the card at home, and there is no distortion on any channels, for diet recordings.

    Could it be the hard drive?

    I have continuously reformatted the hard drive.

    Should I take the card out off the X32 and reinstall?

    Andy

    12th June 2017 at 11:29 #28484
    Andy
    Participant

    ALSO THE GAIN QUESTION:

    The gain doesn’t change over the course of the night. I may play a little harder but the singer (the other channel on this occasion) certainly has plenty of headroom and it happened on her channel too. At other gigs it’s happened on the guitar channel and there is massive head room on that channel.

    Andy

    12th June 2017 at 14:57 #28485
    Laszlo
    Keymaster

    I don’t think is this problem related on the HDD.

    What is the firmware version on the card?
    To be honest really difficult to say anything. It can be the card but it can be the console as well.
    You could try to ask your distributor (the place where you bought the card) to ask a replacement card.

    12th June 2017 at 15:00 #28486
    Andy
    Participant

    Unfortunately I am in australia and purchased the card I the USA.

    Is there any way you can organise a replacement via an Australian distributor?

    12th June 2017 at 15:30 #28487
    Laszlo
    Keymaster

    First of all we need to make sure is that this problem caused by the card somehow.
    That would be difficult as you said the problem randomly happening.

    12th June 2017 at 16:12 #28489
    Andy
    Participant

    No, I didn’t say it was randomly happening, I said it was happening every recording, on random channels, but consistantly on channel 16.

    12th June 2017 at 16:22 #28492
    Andy
    Participant

    I went and had another listen. It’s on all channels.

    It gets worse the longer into the night we go.

    12th June 2017 at 16:24 #28493
    Laszlo
    Keymaster

    “but consistantly on channel 16” that’s great.
    Please do a following:

    Test1:
    Leave the console physical connection as you using today. Go to the settings/routing/Card out and swap the CH1-8 with the CH9-16 so Card out 1-8 should be CH9-16 and card out 9-16 should be CH1-8
    Please tell me which channel(s) has issues in the recording

    Test2
    Connect the cable from CH16 then connect to the CH17. In the mixing console settings copy every single parameters from CH16 to CH17. Make sure the gain set to the same level like on CH16.
    Please tell me does the CH17 has distortion?

    13th June 2017 at 16:44 #28500
    Gabriel A Pass
    Participant

    Another surefire way to test it would be to try it in another x32.

    If you don’t know anyone who owns another one, Here are 2 companies in Australia that will rent you one:

    If it ended up being the X32 with the problem, Behringer’s 3 year warranty coverage is outstanding. You’d have to ship it to a local repair facility, but I’ve found them to be quite fast. In the US at least.

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