Topic: could a bad cable / poorly seated miniplug do this?

[Will_S]

Taped a show at the absolute last minute this weekend and grabbed the first miniplug>minplug cable I could find to run between my Tinybox and DR2D.  I was getting levels on both channels for the whole show but listening at home it is apparent that starting a few minutes in, and then for the next hour or so, the sound switches to what is essentially dual mono, but out of phase - i.e. there is signal in both left and right, but when added together they cancel each other out perfectly.  There's also some noise (buzz) and the balance of frequencies is a bit off, with kind of a tinny/AM radio sound (even after getting things back in phase).  Then all of a sudden the sound pops back into noise-free, rich stereo for the last half hour. 

The recorder got moved around a few times so I'm hoping this is just a case of the miniplug getting unseated and then popped back in place - but could that cause problems such as I describe?  Or could this be an issue with the recorder or preamp?

Of course I cannot reproduce this at home...   

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

Sounds like it wasn't plugged all the way in???

Terry

[doodee]

I'd agree with the pantless one.

[stevetoney]

My first thought was also the plug, because as I recall I've experienced on a recorder, if only one channel input channel is live, the output signal gets written onto both channels.  I don't really understand how that would cause phase cancellation of your two mono channels though.  The DR2D has an overdub feature on it...is it possible that got engaged somehow so that you were overdubbing at the same time as you were recording the initial channel and they cancelled each other out?  I'll admit though that I'm stretching with this response but curious to learn what happened since I also have a DR2D...the phase cancellation aspect of your experience is perplexing. 

[Will_S]

Yeah' the phase aspect is what has me confused as well...  And also that when it happens, both when it starts and when it fixes itself, it is not accompanied by the kind of static noises you'd expected from a jostled plug.