Topic: Panic - levels very low - 4 hours until my virgin taping

[mjlauf]

totally brand new rig:  SP-CMC-4 > SP-SPSB-6 (w/level control and bass rolloff) > JB3

fresh batteries in the batt-box, batt box leveller turned up, going line-in on the JB3, gain +12 db

i know i'm only experimenting in front of my stereo, but it's barely registering on the level meters

and when i transfer the wav to my computer and look at the WAV in CDWave, it's virtually a flat line

HELP!

[Tim]

clap in front of the mics and see if your levels spike up... if they do I wouldn't worry about it.

if they're still really low I would try different batteries, sometimes even brand new batts will just go bad.

also, is your bass rolloff on? switch it off and see if that helps.

[mjlauf]

clap in front of the mics and see if your levels spike up... if they do I wouldn't worry about it.

if they're still really low I would try different batteries, sometimes even brand new batts will just go bad.

also, is your bass rolloff on? switch it off and see if that helps.

thanks, but.....

when i clap, the level pops up from just below the bottom, but doesn't even pass the midpoint.

tried different batteries, same thing.

none of the bass rolloff settings are open, so i'm under the impression that it's off

[bmr]

I was in the same position as you once...and right now, you're thinking everything's weak and broken and won't work...yet unless you're really looking to piss off the neighbors, you won't be able to duplicate (or even come close) the decibel level of the venue you'll tape in. When you get there, you'll magically realize your JB3's showing levels, and you may have to drop the JB3 from +12 dB.

Test it on the venue's pre-band music...that'll be somewhere around 50-75% of the band's volume, at least in my experiences. Chances are that music alone will register higher than your speakers at home, and should be a good indicator of where you need everything to be at when the band you want to tape comes on.

[mjlauf]

I was in the same position as you once...and right now, you're thinking everything's weak and broken and won't work...yet unless you're really looking to piss off the neighbors, you won't be able to duplicate (or even come close) the decibel level of the venue you'll tape in. When you get there, you'll magically realize your JB3's showing levels, and you may have to drop the JB3 from +12 dB.

Test it on the venue's pre-band music...that'll be somewhere around 50-75% of the band's volume, at least in my experiences. Chances are that music alone will register higher than your speakers at home, and should be a good indicator of where you need everything to be at when the band you want to tape comes on.

thank you for your reassurance...i feel a little better now...

[Brian]

not to be negative, but if you have a large enough playback system you should EASILY be able to get volumes beyond 100 or so dB which loud enough to do a good test.

now grant it, a loud rock concert can get to upwards of 110-115db....sometimes louder, but you should still be able to test your gear and get proper levels on a large enough playback system.

if your clapping didn't get loud levels i'd say you have a problem somewhere with your gear.

[Weazel]

let us know how it went.

[mjlauf]

let us know how it went.

I ran line-in with +12db on the JB3,  fresh battery and level control max on the batt-box

sound at this small venue was robust but no one went home with their ears ringing

meter levels on the JB3 were about halfway up most of the time

on playback it sounds pretty reasonable

looking at it in Audacity, the peaks are at about -12 db, the general level about -20 db

would we guess the equipments OK and things went about as they should??

[Brian]

if you peaked at -12dB with all of your gain settings on your batt box and jb3 up all the way, i'd say you have problem still.  at 16bit you should be trying to peak somewhere between -2 and 0 dB.

what does the recording sound like?  any noticable noise?  how's the signal to noise?

[mjlauf]

if you peaked at -12dB with all of your gain settings on your batt box and jb3 up all the way, i'd say you have problem still.  at 16bit you should be trying to peak somewhere between -2 and 0 dB.

what does the recording sound like?  any noticable noise?  how's the signal to noise?

it sounds pretty reasonable and not noticeably noisy, it's just the levels are low.

this is all brand new stuff (well, the jb3 is refurbished) how do i troubleshoot this???

[Brian]

brand new huh?  damn.  since i'm guessing your levels are the same on both channels you can pretty much rule out the microphones, but that's about it at this point.  faulty batt box?  faulty line amp on the jb3?

you have to go through it one piece at a time swapping out all of the variables

[Brian]

also if the stuff is brand new i'd call SP and see if they'll check out the mics>batt box for free.   they should at least if they are any kind of good business

[jcrab66]

the only time i ran with the gain that high i got alot of noise, i wont go above +4 or maybe 5 for stealthing now, for open i go at 0 and use the UA5 to tweak the input levels..............

[zhianosatch]

ahhhhhhh, now wait a minute, nothing is fucked here. ["nothing is fucked? the god-damned plane has crashed into the mountain!"] what about the levels on your jb3? you said you pushed the battery box's levels to the max - what about the jb3's?

[momule]

ahhhhhhh, now wait a minute, what about the levels on your jb3? you said you pushed the battery box's levels to the max - what about the jb3's?

read again, he said he had the Jb3 maxed at +12db gain , which as someone else pointed out, becomes very noisy to my ears..

Nick