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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: Gordon on March 07, 2006, 10:38:10 PM

Title: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Gordon on March 07, 2006, 10:38:10 PM
so I got some static etc on my rose hill drive from the other night.  nothing has changed in my rig.  same cables (xlr and opti) etc.  the jb3 had just been formated and disc clean up.  now from spot checking the opener I don't hear any static.  however it's all over the rose hill drive.  the only thing different is that I changed from hypers to cards between sets.  I haven't ran the cards in months but last time they were fine.  here's the thing that worries me.  I don't think I turned off the v3 when I changed caps.  is that bad?  I'm now thinking yea.  no idea why I didn't.  brain fart I guess.  thoughts??  I'm gonna set everythig up at the house tomorrow and run some test.  here's a short mp3 sample.

Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Teen Wolf Blitzer on March 07, 2006, 11:39:43 PM
Technically it's bad but I would imagine only if you do it a bunch.  Maybe one of the caps wasn't on all the way?  I dunno.  Is it both channels or one? 


NOTE: Well I guess I could listen myself to your sample.   ;D
Yikes!  That's pretty bad.  Sounds like a connection type thingy.  I'd say run some tests at home.  Good luck bro.
+t for your troubles.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Gordon on March 07, 2006, 11:42:42 PM
well I thought I made sure they were both in all the way.  but I was talking and buzzed.  so far I've only listened on the jb3 and the laptop so it's hard to tell if it's in both channles.  I'll check the jb3 again.  the wave file looks fine btw.

edit:  it's both channles.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Gordon on March 08, 2006, 12:26:18 PM
so 55 views and 6 folks have heard the mp3 and only one reply.  I was hopeing one of ya'll would have a idea what caused this.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Roving Sign on March 08, 2006, 12:45:11 PM
Sounds like either cell phone interference, or an improperly seated or defective optical cable...
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Gordon on March 08, 2006, 12:54:29 PM
if it was from a cell it happened the whole show.  so I doubt that's it.  I'll check out the opti cable.  thanks for the reply.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Roving Sign on March 08, 2006, 12:58:34 PM
Not sure if cell phones only transmit during a call - or if they are always connected to a network - even when there isnt an actual call happening...?
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Gordon on March 08, 2006, 01:05:01 PM
I leave mine on with the ringer and vibrate off (it's not connected to the internet or anything) and have never ahd any issues.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: sygdwm on March 08, 2006, 01:07:07 PM
i'd suspect the optical cable as the culprit. try a known good one.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: keepongoin on March 08, 2006, 01:23:26 PM
i'd suspect the optical cable as the culprit. try a known good one.

that's been my number 1 culprit with JB3 problems... can cause static, pops, etc... can make shows unlistenable pretty easily, too.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: kindms on March 08, 2006, 05:49:55 PM
I leave mine on with the ringer and vibrate off (it's not connected to the internet or anything) and have never ahd any issues.

My experinece is that if it is a nextel then it will cause issues. I have 1 I always turn it off when taping. It causes weird noise when around speakers and in the car etc. It always does this when it is finding the network etc.


Edited to add:

It really sounds like cell phone static to me almost exactly what my nextel does when close to speakers etc
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: hammerhorror on March 08, 2006, 07:34:23 PM
This is NOT Nextel phone interference. It is similar sounding, but definitely not it. I do ENG audio work for both film and video and deal with Nextels all of the time.

Don't know what it is, but it is not a cell phone.

-John 
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: SparkE! on March 08, 2006, 09:23:18 PM
At first listen, it sounds like a kinked optical cable or a dirty optical cable end, but I don't see the jump discontinuities in the waveform that would result from something like that.  Maybe the discontinuities are not there because you've encoded it to MP3?  Have you looked at the original wav files to see what the static looks like in the original waveform?
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Gordon on March 09, 2006, 09:49:17 PM
doing test at home I was unable to reproduce the noise.  I even messed with the optical cable while recording ie moving it around,  pulling it out slightly while still getting a signal etc.  no fucking clue now.  if it were only on one channle I'd guess the xlr was loose or something.  hope everything goes ok at the black crowes saturday.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Roving Sign on March 09, 2006, 09:51:25 PM
How about a weak battery for the V3? - I think my friend has had similar noises when his UA5 is low on battery...
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Gordon on March 09, 2006, 09:58:07 PM
full charged walmart battery.   

SparkE!

waveform looked fine.  I'll check it out again.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Gordon on March 09, 2006, 10:11:30 PM
wavform.  highlighted noise.  looks fine zoomed in as well. the print screen of the zoom was way to blurry to post.

Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: SparkE! on March 09, 2006, 10:16:41 PM
full charged walmart battery.   

SparkE!

waveform looked fine.  I'll check it out again.

I was talking about when you zoom in close enough to see individual samples.  Are there any jump discontinuities or repeated samples in the waveform when you look at it that closely?
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: CHURCH-AUDIO on March 09, 2006, 11:03:29 PM
I think this noise could be in the front end of your chain. Like the mic caps being lose as was already being mentioned or a bad mic cable. But the problem is as you can see from this wavform of your sample that its broad band there are a few spikes. If it was a lose capsule it would be broad band like this but this can also be a cable issue. I would try using Deoxit on all your connections even the back of the capsule but make sure its a very very small amount. Get the gold stuff 100% the small tube is about $15.00 and it works great. Try that first it could also be a dirty pot on a preamp.

Chris Church



so I got some static etc on my rose hill drive from the other night.  nothing has changed in my rig.  same cables (xlr and opti) etc.  the jb3 had just been formated and disc clean up.  now from spot checking the opener I don't hear any static.  however it's all over the rose hill drive.  the only thing different is that I changed from hypers to cards between sets.  I haven't ran the cards in months but last time they were fine.  here's the thing that worries me.  I don't think I turned off the v3 when I changed caps.  is that bad?  I'm now thinking yea.  no idea why I didn't.  brain fart I guess.  thoughts??  I'm gonna set everythig up at the house tomorrow and run some test.  here's a short mp3 sample.


Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Gordon on March 09, 2006, 11:11:10 PM
can you get that stuff anywhere?
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: CHURCH-AUDIO on March 09, 2006, 11:23:28 PM
Here is the URL hope this helps.
http://www.caig.com/
Chris Church


can you get that stuff anywhere?
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Dutchman1101 on June 26, 2006, 10:16:08 PM
What ever came of this situation? Did the noise happen again? I swithced my caps today with the phantom power on and want to know if that might have caused the noise or if the mics or caps had to be serviced.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: leehookem on June 26, 2006, 10:53:53 PM
This sounds like what happened to my Les Claypool recording last Wednesday.  It happened a little during Topaz on Thursday, but not Guy Forsyth on Saturday, nor Topaz on Sunday.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Gordon on June 26, 2006, 11:00:50 PM
I was never able to reproduce it.  must have been changing the caps but everything works fine.

edit:  oh and If it was the opti, I  cleaned all the cables (just wiped them off good, free of any lint etc) and never have had any issues since.
Title: Re: noise on tape sunday night. help!
Post by: Dutchman1101 on June 26, 2006, 11:15:51 PM
Cool, thanks for the info.