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Author Topic: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...  (Read 8825 times)

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Offline brianp

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What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« on: September 26, 2013, 12:15:07 AM »
I was taping a show tonight and my levels were fine for the first 20 minutes or so, and then eventually the right channel slowly petered out on me. I could give the right channel all the gain I had available and it still wouldn't match up with the left side.

I was running mk4v's > kcy > Sonosax SX-M2/LS 2 > M10. The Sonosax was powered by a fully charged tekkeon battery. It looks like it was losing power but that doesn't seem to be the case as the battery was still showing a full charge at the end of the night. Could this be anything other than a battery/power issue?

After spot checking the recording I don't hear anything weird, it just gets softer as the recording goes on. I've run this same combo for over a year now without any problems.

Thanks for any help.

Screen capture of the wave file is attached.
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Offline F.O.Bean

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2013, 01:32:48 AM »
Hmmm, def sounds like a battery issue?!?!?! I had this happen once before and once I replaced the battery it was all good! I don't trust Lithium batteries AT ALL!!! That's why I use AA/9v batteries and that's it!

DEF doesn't sound like caps/KCY so it's gotta be the preamp, which leads me to believe that it's the Tekkeon one way or another!
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Offline LikeASong

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2013, 07:11:10 AM »
There's that strage spot on the right channel near the 5 minutes mark, but that could be something that bumped against the R cap. The channel fading seems like a battery failure as Bean points out.
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Offline brianp

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2013, 08:49:34 AM »
That spike in the levels around the 5 min mark was pre-show setting up stuff. I had an 6-7 min of extra stuff at the beginning before the set started.

I guess I'll chalk this up to something weird going on with my Tekkeon. I'll have to run some test recordings at home tonight and see if I can duplicate it.

Thanks for the input so far, guys.
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Offline willndmb

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2013, 02:39:56 PM »
If it was a battery issue wouldn't it be I both channels?
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Offline LikeASong

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2013, 03:06:58 PM »
If it was a battery issue wouldn't it be I both channels?


I don't have the slightest clue as to how is the Sonosax wired, but at first (before reading Bean's post and posting my own one) I thought the same, but then I thought... What if the preamp somehow "divided" the battery current for each of the channels, and one of them was affected while the other was intact? It doesn't make much sense but then again I cannot honestly think of anything else that could cause this. If a resistor or something else had blown up in the preamp, I think there would be a total lack of one of the channels - not a proggressive fading... I could be totally wrong though.
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Offline page

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2013, 04:25:00 PM »
The sax is wonky with it's power implementation; the overload point varies by the voltage you feed it, but the output doesn't. However, I'd had mine die during a show due to lack of power (from a regulated supply) and it just dies, it doesn't fade out like this. The tekkeon is a regulated power supply, so you shouldn't see a sag in voltage like normal batteries, it's basically all or nothing.

I'm not sure I have an idea of what caused this...

edit: missing a phrase (now in italics).
« Last Edit: September 27, 2013, 09:53:54 AM by page »
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Offline kingkita

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2013, 04:54:11 PM »
The sax is wonky with it's power implementation; the overload point varies by the voltage you feed it, but the output doesn't. However, I'd had mine die during a show due to lack of power and it just dies, it doesn't fade out like this. The tekkeon is a regulated power supply, so you shouldn't see a sag in voltage like normal batteries, it's basically all or nothing.

I'm not sure I have an idea of what caused this...

Cable,Cap or interconnect page is right sax will just die not fade out like that.
« Last Edit: September 26, 2013, 04:57:02 PM by kingkita »

Offline LikeASong

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2013, 06:04:43 PM »
The tekkeon is a regulated power supply, so you shouldn't see a sag in voltage like normal batteries, it's basically all or nothing.

Good point.
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Offline ScoobieKW

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #9 on: September 26, 2013, 06:47:14 PM »
Fading our on one side? Check the capacitors. If one stopped taking input voltage, it could have a tail off as it discharged.
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Offline F.O.Bean

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #10 on: September 27, 2013, 01:39:01 AM »
The sax is wonky with it's power implementation; the overload point varies by the voltage you feed it, but the output doesn't. However, I'd had mine die during a show due to lack of power and it just dies, it doesn't fade out like this. The tekkeon is a regulated power supply, so you shouldn't see a sag in voltage like normal batteries, it's basically all or nothing.

I'm not sure I have an idea of what caused this...

Cable,Cap or interconnect page is right sax will just die not fade out like that.

Not 100% true CK. I had that same exact thing happen with my old Lemosax and it slowly started to fade. I was using 9v batteries that weren't full. Is that my old Lemosax ??? Maybe the same thing happened again ???
Schoeps MK 4V & MK 41V ->
Schoeps 250|0 KCY's (x2) ->
Naiant +60v|Low Noise PFA's (x2) ->
DarkTrain Right Angle Stubby XLR's (x3) ->
Sound Devices MixPre-6 & MixPre-3

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Offline brianp

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #11 on: September 27, 2013, 09:03:12 AM »
I set up everything at home last night and couldn't recreate it after about 15 minutes of recording. Not sure what's going on. I've got a show to tape tomorrow night, I'll report back if this happens again. If not, I'll just write it off to something weird happening. I hope that's all it was.
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Offline page

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #12 on: September 27, 2013, 09:53:16 AM »
The sax is wonky with it's power implementation; the overload point varies by the voltage you feed it, but the output doesn't. However, I'd had mine die during a show due to lack of power and it just dies, it doesn't fade out like this. The tekkeon is a regulated power supply, so you shouldn't see a sag in voltage like normal batteries, it's basically all or nothing.

I'm not sure I have an idea of what caused this...

Cable,Cap or interconnect page is right sax will just die not fade out like that.

Not 100% true CK. I had that same exact thing happen with my old Lemosax and it slowly started to fade. I was using 9v batteries that weren't full. Is that my old Lemosax ??? Maybe the same thing happened again ???

Go back to my first bit, it's a regulated power supply; it's puting out X volts or nothing. I did update my post to clarify the statement. Internal 9v or batteries that don't regulate the voltage (and have a curve to them on discharge) may exhibit something different, but the regulated ones are an on/off within a few fractional volts of the target.
"This is a common practice we have on the bus; debating facts that we could easily find through printed material. It's like, how far is it today? I think it's four hours, and someone else comes in at 11 hours, and well, then we'll... just... talk about it..." - Jeb Puryear

"Nostalgia ain't what it used to be." - Jim Williams

Offline F.O.Bean

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #13 on: September 27, 2013, 02:10:29 PM »
The sax is wonky with it's power implementation; the overload point varies by the voltage you feed it, but the output doesn't. However, I'd had mine die during a show due to lack of power and it just dies, it doesn't fade out like this. The tekkeon is a regulated power supply, so you shouldn't see a sag in voltage like normal batteries, it's basically all or nothing.

I'm not sure I have an idea of what caused this...

Cable,Cap or interconnect page is right sax will just die not fade out like that.

Not 100% true CK. I had that same exact thing happen with my old Lemosax and it slowly started to fade. I was using 9v batteries that weren't full. Is that my old Lemosax ??? Maybe the same thing happened again ???

Go back to my first bit, it's a regulated power supply; it's puting out X volts or nothing. I did update my post to clarify the statement. Internal 9v or batteries that don't regulate the voltage (and have a curve to them on discharge) may exhibit something different, but the regulated ones are an on/off within a few fractional volts of the target.

Chalk mine up to something weird then ;)
Schoeps MK 4V & MK 41V ->
Schoeps 250|0 KCY's (x2) ->
Naiant +60v|Low Noise PFA's (x2) ->
DarkTrain Right Angle Stubby XLR's (x3) ->
Sound Devices MixPre-6 & MixPre-3

http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/diskobean
http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/Bean420
http://bt.etree.org/mytorrents.php
http://www.mediafire.com/folder/j9eu80jpuaubz/Recordings

Offline datbrad

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Re: What causes this to happen? Right channel slowly tapers off...
« Reply #14 on: September 28, 2013, 01:47:19 PM »
Was the show outside?
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