However, I had clipping at the mics for Xavier Rudd and Jim Weider Band. Volume was way up for their sets, I noticed the clipping light on the UA-5 and turn it down to 11 o'clock from 1 o'clock at the beginining of Rudd. However, I still had clipping throughout the recording of those 2 bands.
I'm confused. Just to clarify:
- After you turned the UA5 gain down from 01:00 to 11:00, the UA5 "over" light didn't come on for the rest of the set?
- What does the "clipping" sound like - is it the harsh clicky sorta sound of digital clipping, or the softer analog distortion sort of overload?
- What does the waveform look like?
I think the combination of the 414s and the Bumblebees display what a noisy box a Digi-mod UA-5 is. If the Deneckes sound better, I may put the UA5 on the shelf until I can get it modded. Its not an Oade. Or sell it and pickup someone else's Oade and have it modded to a "T-Plus".
Yeah, the straight digi-mod is a little noisy if you turn the gain up a ways. I ran AKG C414B-ULS with a T+ UA5 in an unamplified setting (a cappella group, church setting) and I can tell you the T+ is quiet. I had the gain turned almost all the way up...we're talking 4:30, 5:00 or so, and I don't notice any noise from the UA5.
Excellent questions Brian.
I went over the WAV files for all the sets with Adobe tonight. As confirmed, the UA-5 peak light was correct, I was over at the beginning of Rudd. But, the good news, it was not pure brickwalling. UA-5 must be configured to blink when the recording is close to brickwalling. The WAV file was not cut off. I guess that damn light is good for something.
The culprit seems to be the damn Toslink cable. Schnizzle!
I have no idea if it got kinked or not when I first did the initial set up. I thought I made sure everything was tucked clean under the UA-5 before I hit the record. Checked 3 times. Must be when I was pulling the JB3 in and out between sets to hit save, it corrected itself.
The Toslink issue showed a Noise Spike every 10 seconds in both Rudd and Weider sets. A chirping noise. Sometimes can be confused as brickwalling. Or at least in my case, a panic at the beginning of Rudd.
I realized the problem just before I went downtown tonight. I was SO EMBARRASSED, that I grabbed my rig to tape something, anything. Luckily, there was a local act, the Nighthawks, playing outside in Hanover Square. They play Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hendrix, The Blues, and such. There was a Polish festival at Clinton Square playing Polka music about a block away. Thank god for the Nighthawks. I needed to tape tonight. But not, "Roll Out the Barrel".
I'm definitely thinking of switching from Toslink to Coax. Any suggestions? I hate making a mistake once. As Scotty from Star Trek once said, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. "
Digi-mod UA-5 definitely doesn't cut it when you jump to the higher end mics. Most leechers would dig my recordings, but they don't stack up, sound wise, with what I have done the AT853RX and the Deneckes. That combo is like a swiss watch. Gotta get a T-PLUS mod, for sure.
Sorry about the false alarm, guys.
I'll shoot myself on this one. I'll toss up the Randolph set in Kickdown so you guys can have a taste of the 414s.
