Topic: what is up with this?>

[jeromejello]

alright... first set seems to be alright.  i open the second set and the wav file looks different... not normal... i go and open the file that is the intermission, just to see the wav.  about 10 minutes into the recording, it gets wierd.  i have attached a screen shot from sf... you can see the left channel is nowhere near the same as the right.  there are actually drop outs in the wav on the second set.  obviously there is no saving this, but i wanted to know if this is something i did.  i will probably run a couple more tests (switch caps on bodies and what not), but i just was wondering if anyone here has any idea what could this be... fwiw, both bodies and caps had just got back from akg and got a checkup.  it is not the mic that had the board replaced.... if i had to speculate... it is the cap... the question is why and how?

[jeromejello]

hell, maybe i just bumped the imput on the jb3 after the set ended and it wasnt seated right... i definately need to try some testing out.

[fozzy]

Bad or improperly seated optical cable 

[jeromejello]

Bad or improperly seated optical cable 

that is kinda what my thoughts are this morning... last night i was just so pissed and tired that i wanted to blaim the mic first.  i hope the cable isnt bad... it is fairly new, only used out about 3 times...

[Chuck]

Try recording your stereo with your rig and duplicating the problem by moving, twisting the optical cable. Let us know what you find if you can reproduce the problem.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

There really isn't any way that a problem with an optical cable could affect only one channel.  It's interleaved data so you would see both channels drop out.  Also, the optical cable has nothing to do with signal levels.   You either get a lock to the serial bit stream or you don't.

How does the waveform appear when you zoom in close enough to see the values?  Is it a contiguous wave with just really high gain compared to the other channel?  If so, I would be checking the preamp to see if there is some issue with the gain controls.  Is there an attenuator switch that may be flakey?

If the signal is a bunch of values that jump all over the place, and do not represent a contiguous wave form, I would suspect a firmware problem with the ADC or the recorder.  But I think the likely culprit is a bad gain control.

edit:  or it could be a ground problem.  I've seen wierd signal issues when ground was absent or intermittent.

[jeromejello]

update... i couldnt really replicate the problem at home last night.  the only thing i am thinking now is a low battery issue... but that doesnt seem like it was the sole reason.  it may be the gain pots kicking noise... eh... i will try again tonight and see what happens.