Topic: First run with MT 24/96 a disaster

[vwmule]

Well, at least I tried.

Brought the unit to Junior Brown on Friday and had all the right switches deployed on the UA5. Levels were a bit to master but I finally got it figured out. Then, for no reason, the peak meters on the MT flashed on and remained that way for some time. It happened several times. Looking at the wave file confirms that the levels were blown out. I have no idea what caused this other than perhaps the slighted movement of the digi cable cause the problem. It was a snug fitting cable, so I'm not sure. Any ideas?

Also, I created and burned an .iso file with the 24 bit recording, but play back is in ultra slow gear. The speed is way off. Do I need to do something?

[Patrick]

Sounds like it was an improperly seated digital cable.  If your sampling rate during recording was messed up, this could be due to a badly seated cable, which carries the sampling rate impulse to the MT as well as the actual audio signal.  If the cable was not properly plugged in, the MT could not "lock" on a certain bit/sampling rate and that could explain why you were getting errors.

[vwmule]

thanks. The cable fit quite snug. But perhaps it was not the right cable. Is there a difference between straight up coax and S/PDIF?

[Brian Skalinder]

One question to start, which will determine the next set of questions:

• What, exactly, do you mean by "levels blown out"?  Does the music sound fine, just very loud and/or clipped in places?  Or is there static or other artifacts present?  Can you post a pic of the waveform both zoomed out and zoomed in?  And an MP3 sample?

As for the speed being off, it's likely a mismatch between the WAV header that the MT wrote and the actual sample rate of the data.  This seems a fairly common occurrence on a lot of recorders.  Easy to fix.  More info here.

[vwmule]

I'll try to be more clear. Levels blown out -- the red peak lights on MT flashed on and stayed that way. The wave form (I'll post pictures after work) shows a big block of grey and it sounds like white noise. Not unlike the  5.1 audiio files that you can burn to regular CD. The only thing I can think of is the cable.

[Brian Skalinder]

I'll try to be more clear. Levels blown out -- the red peak lights on MT flashed on and stayed that way. The wave form (I'll post pictures after work) shows a big block of grey and it sounds like white noise. Not unlike the  5.1 audiio files that you can burn to regular CD. The only thing I can think of is the cable.

Thanks for the follow-up.  I agree, sounds like a bad cable.  The reason for the questions mainly was to determine whether the problem lay in the analog or digital domain.  Based on your comments above, sounds like it's a digital domain issue.  I've experienced the exact same symptoms - big blocks of noise - due to a faulty cable.  Please let us know if a known-good cable resolves the problem.  Good luck!

[vwmule]

thanks, Brian. I just ordered a S/PDIF from Nick's Picks. Will be here Wednesday and I'll bring with me on my trip to Apsen Jazz.