Topic: Very Strange R4 Noise - Sample Posted

[Patrick]

I found some really strange noises on a recording from the other night.  I was running modded nakamichi cm300's> samson pm4's> shorty xlr interconnect> Edirol R4 (24/44.1).

The noise is completely random (not signal dependent) and lasts anywhere from a short burst to 10 seconds of hissing, popping, and clicking.  It occurs in random places in the recording, but there are about 10-15 minutes between occurances.  I also have reason to believe that it only happens in the RIGHT channel of the recording.  I tried to troubleshoot and recreate the problem by wiggling all my connectors, etc but couldn't find the source of noise.  Then I realized that it could be a hard drive fragmentation issue, since the stereo image flips inside out whenever the noise happens.  It's almost like the channels swap for a second, and then go back to normal.  This obviously can't be a cabling issue.  I've also gotten into the bad habit of not formatting my drive often, and deleting files from the recorder itself.  This R4 gets used almost constantly and I really need to do better about keeping the drive clean.

I was hoping that someone could listen to the sample and let me know what you think.  Could this be a result of a "dirty" hard drive?  Thanks.

[kirk97132]

Sounds like bad cable or connection noise of somekind.

[andromedanwarmachine]

Hey Patrick,

yeah- I've got to say; that doesn't really sound like a "technology" noise to my ears...- especially as it's the right channel only- which is how it played back for me.

I think the best thing to do (if I was in your position) would be to entirely swap the leadset you are using to completely rule it out- I hear what you're saying about the test with wire waggling but there's no such thing as a standard wire fault really. You can have issues hidden which depend on any number of things...

I would just rule it out, first...

JimP

[Patrick]

Hey Patrick,

yeah- I've got to say; that doesn't really sound like a "technology" noise to my ears...- especially as it's the right channel only- which is how it played back for me.

I think the best thing to do (if I was in your position) would be to entirely swap the leadset you are using to completely rule it out- I hear what you're saying about the test with wire waggling but there's no such thing as a standard wire fault really. You can have issues hidden which depend on any number of things...

I would just rule it out, first...

JimP

Thanks for the reply.  I am just ultra confused because I never have rig issues so this is throwing me in a loop!

You're right -- the noise is coming just from the right channel but that still doesn't explain why the whole stereo image changes when the noise happens.  It's like the recording is out of phase.  If a wiring short were the case, I am pretty sure I would be able to recreate that by vigorously tugging on the connectors.  I am going to do more tests and see.  I still haven't formatted my drive which is going to be my first step before continuing.

Thanks again!