Topic: god. damn. it.

[F.O.Bean]

hehe, you woke sparge up

anyway, good luck armen, thats another reason i ditched dat man, i was having soo many head problems

[zhianosatch]

fuck me.
after listening (probably for too long) to:

master DAT > headphones   (DA-20 MKII > Sony MDR-7506s)

master DAT > receiver   (DA-20 MKII > 20' Radio Shack coax > Denon AVR-1603 > Sony MDR-7506s and B&W DM302s)

transferred version   (DA-20 MKII > 20' Radio Shack coax > Waveterminal 2496 > Wavelab and Sound Forge > wav > Waveterminal 2496 1/4" outs > Denon AVR-1603 > Sony MDR-7506s and B&W DM302s)

master DAT > sound card > receiver   (DA-20 MKII > 20' Radio Shack coax > Waveterminal 2496 (analog out mixer set to DIGITAL IN only, -10 dBv > Denon AVR-1603 > Sony MDR-7506s and B&W DM302s)

of the same shows, SOAD 04-24-05 (sparge's modSBM-1) and the aforementioned local band (my modSBM-1), i have to say that there is, without a doubt, a serious problem with the digital in of my sound card. no doubt about it. believe it or not, everything sounds flawless (or ALMOST flawless - i might be imagining some crackling still in the SOAD tape, but the local band show - using MY sbm-1 - sounds fine... unbelievable) without the sound card. the difference between the Waveterminal sources and non-Waveterminal was distinctly and immediately audible.
well, blow me down. how fucking retarded do i look now?
while looking at the Waveterminal 2496 mixer, i noticed one more test i need to conduct: changing the clock source from INTERNAL to DIGITAL IN. could this, of all things, be the cause? we'll see in a minute...
there's one flaw in this theory, though. the soil tape i retransferred last week sounds clean. if the sound card is being screwy, then that tape, too, should have demonstrated the crackling noise...

[Brian]

when transferring tapes witha  bit-perfect soundcard you ALWAYS have to set the clock for digi in.

looks like we are getting to the bottom of this!

[sml42]

i can't very well blow away all the loser european stealthers (sorry guys, i have never heard a decent stealth audience tape come out of your continent besides tool 06-23-01 and that's not without its gaping flaws - you all need to get with the program, ditch your shitty sony ECMs, minidisc recorders, and poor technique and make your german, austrian, and danish mic manufacturers proud)

UK-based DPA4060 stealther here. Respectfully disagree with your statement I've made some sweet sweet tapes with these mics... PM me if you'd like samples!

(fluff: I love my DPAs!)

best regards,
stephen

[Brian]

i love how all the europe guys are so nice to just send armen samples of their goods instead of starting a flame war.

nice job guys!

[jhirte]

DEFINETLY use digi clock sync.  Prolly nailed it right there! SOAD sounds pretty good too.
FYI: Rat shack digi cable - might wanna ditch that. I used one for over a year and the end FELL OFF. crazy. Get a HOSA

[zhianosatch]

quick update while i'm re-transferring... the clock source setting seems to have mitigated the problem nicely. that was it. i can't believe how stupid i was. thank you all and i'll have a full update soon
-arm

[Brian]

great to hear!

[deadhoarse]

when transferring tapes witha  bit-perfect soundcard you ALWAYS have to set the clock for digi in.

I transfer with a Zoltrix Nightingale Pro...I never saw an option to set a clock.  Does anyone know how to verify this with this card?

[zhianosatch]

digital in. freakin' a.
well, everyone, thanks very much for the replies and the help. i now need to get to retransferring all those old tapes and killing all the old versions!
again, mucho, mucho obligado. +Ts to all.
armen