Topic: Uhhhhh...WTF is this? Hiss / static pulses

[Brian Skalinder]

So I recorded my father's a cappella group again this past weekend.  Had a minor problem with my AKG C414B-ULS (cardioid, XY90º) > Transparent-PLUS UA5 > JB3 recording.  (BTW, I had the T+ UA5 gain almost completely cranked and *damn* but it's quiet - very little self noise (just listen to the sample besides what I mention next)).  Anyway...there are three hiss/static spikes in the middle of the recording, right channel only, and I can't for the life of me figure out what they are.  Any ideas?  I've attached an MP3 and here's the spectral view:  [fat finger edits]

[Ray76]

So I recorded my father's a cappella group again this past weekend.  Had a minor problem with my AKG C414B-ULS (cardioid, XY90º) > Transparent-PLUS UA5 > JB3 recording.  (BTW, I had the T+ UA5 gain almost completely cranked and *damn* but it's quiet - very little self noise (just listen to the sample besides what I mention next)).  Anyway...there are three hiss/static spikes in the middle of the recording, right channel only, and I can't for the life of me figure out what they are.  Any ideas?  I've attached an MP3 and here's the spectral view:  [fat finger edits]

Hey skalinder, what sort of music is it??Gospel??Pop??Barber shop??I am just wandering cuz I am a singer myself, and LOVE acapella music. Me and your pops may have something in common. Vocal music is a different beast, eh??

Ray

[Brian Skalinder]

sounds like your jb3 to me. Set up your rig at home and record something, then see if ithappens again.

Yeah, sorry...forgot to mention: ran the same setup the following day with no problems, and tested ~3 hrs worth at home...couldn't duplicate it.  FWIW, venue space was a church.

[Tim]

moshing?

[Brian Skalinder]

There's a possibility I moved my gear slightly, as the first night I did so periodically to make sure my JB3 was still running and levels looked okay...crappy level meters on the UA5 meant I wanted to keep an eye on the JB3 meters fairly regularly.

[Brian Skalinder]

Hey skalinder, what sort of music is it??Gospel??Pop??Barber shop??I am just wandering cuz I am a singer myself, and LOVE acapella music. Me and your pops may have something in common. Vocal music is a different beast, eh??

Totally different beast.  Here's the website for the group, Coriolis.  I'm incredibly impressed with the T+ UA5 on this outing...can't wait to run it more.

[Ray76]

Hey skalinder, what sort of music is it??Gospel??Pop??Barber shop??I am just wandering cuz I am a singer myself, and LOVE acapella music. Me and your pops may have something in common. Vocal music is a different beast, eh??

Totally different beast.  Here's the website for the group, Coriolis.  I'm incredibly impressed with the T+ UA5 on this outing...can't wait to run it more.

so hes lookin for a bass, eh??dude, i am a SICK bass, can vocalise down to within about 4 or so notes of the piano, a pedal point A. Been singing professionally (well not since been in the army) for 15 yrs. Anyway, I dont live in IL, but itd be cool to join a group. I had several in civilian times...Lookin for another singing gig at present for when i get out.

ANyway, sorry for the thread hijack. On a similar note, one of our singers in my old group would always do this weird thing with his braces and snap em, and it always showed up on the tape, so we chewed his ass, and he quit doing it. Im sure none of them wear braces though.

Ray

[shaggy]

Alex,

Do you have any ideas of what caused the forementioned aberrations in the recordings you worked on?  I know the NJB3 generally reliable, but I am beginning to wonder about reliablility issues recently.

ANDY

[Tim]

Alex,

Do you have any ideas of what caused the forementioned aberrations in the recordings you worked on? I know the NJB3 generally reliable, but I am beginning to wonder about reliablility issues recently.

ANDY

You know I've heard of a few issues lately and I'm wondering if we are seeing the slow death of some of the older JB3's... some of these machines have seen a few years of pretty intense usage and I wonder if they're at the end of the line.

I don't know how old Brian's jb3 is but this is something I've been thinking about for a few days, I could be totally wrong but I want to know what other people think.

[Brian Skalinder]

FWIW, I'm running digi-in and this is definitely different than the noise encountered running analog-in to the JB3.  As for age of the unit, this was the inaugural run for the JB3 in question - bought it a while (a year?) ago as a backup, but broke it out to run two simultaneous sets of gear this past weekend.  And yeah, it's possible I jostled the gear in the timeframe during which the noise occurs.  My immediate reaction was "someone's cell phone" or RF interference, but that wouldn't explain the pattern of the noise nor only occuring in a single channel on a single deck.  I don't think we're going to resolve this one anytime soon, so I'll just have to monitor my gear performance closely for a while to see if I can nail anything down.  All - thanks for the discussion and input, I'll drop a line if I encounter the problem again.

[SparkE!]

Brian,  I've got to ask if you tried re-transferring the file from the JB3 to verify that you get the same errors in the same places?

[dklein]

I would think that whatever it is, it occured in the analog domain.  Digital stuff generally does stranger things to the wave form and does not isolate one channel.
My vote is for a temporary interruption to the phantom supply - cable related.  Time will tell!

[Brian Skalinder]

Brian, I've got to ask if you tried re-transferring the file from the JB3 to verify that you get the same errors in the same places?

Duh, can't believe I didn't check.  The master recording on the JB3 also includes the artifacts.  I'll check all my cables and monitor recordings ongoing and let everyone know if I'm able to nail down the problem. Thanks, all!

[SparkE!]

Something else to check is if there is any dust bunnies or Cheetoh dust in the 1/8" optical input to the JB3.  You can clean it with a round toothpick whose end is cut off square, covered with a couple of swatches cut from some nylon hose and dipped in rubbing alcohol.  You just need something that is round, sturdy, non-abrasive, non-shedding and which can hold a little alcohol to dissolve common contaminants that may have been inserted into that receptacle on the end of the optical cable.  Just a little foreign material in that receptacle can cause bit errors.

I cleaned one of my JB3's optical input (no, it wasn't my hosiery that I used ) and it made a huge difference.

This may not be your problem, though, since you only had a few booboos in the whole recording...

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

So I recorded my father's a cappella group again this past weekend.  Had a minor problem with my AKG C414B-ULS (cardioid, XY90º) > Transparent-PLUS UA5 > JB3 recording.  (BTW, I had the T+ UA5 gain almost completely cranked and *damn* but it's quiet - very little self noise (just listen to the sample besides what I mention next)).  Anyway...there are three hiss/static spikes in the middle of the recording, right channel only, and I can't for the life of me figure out what they are.  Any ideas?  I've attached an MP3 and here's the spectral view:  [fat finger edits]

A new pair of AKG C414's: $2500

T-modded UA-5 from Oade: $700

Naming a clip of a recording of your father's church's a cappella group recorded with said gear wtf.mp3... Priceless 

[BJ]

So I recorded my father's a cappella group again this past weekend.  Had a minor problem with my AKG C414B-ULS (cardioid, XY90º) > Transparent-PLUS UA5 > JB3 recording.  (BTW, I had the T+ UA5 gain almost completely cranked and *damn* but it's quiet - very little self noise (just listen to the sample besides what I mention next)).  Anyway...there are three hiss/static spikes in the middle of the recording, right channel only, and I can't for the life of me figure out what they are.  Any ideas?  I've attached an MP3 and here's the spectral view:  [fat finger edits]

A new pair of AKG C414's: $2500

T-modded UA-5 from Oade: $700

Naming a clip of a recording of your father's church's a cappella group recorded with said gear wtf.mp3... Priceless 

    a round of +t's for that one!

[Genghis Cougar Mellen Khan]

FWIW, I'm running digi-in and this is definitely different than the noise encountered running analog-in to the JB3.  As for age of the unit, this was the inaugural run for the JB3 in question - bought it a while (a year?) ago as a backup, but broke it out to run two simultaneous sets of gear this past weekend.  And yeah, it's possible I jostled the gear in the timeframe during which the noise occurs.  My immediate reaction was "someone's cell phone" or RF interference, but that wouldn't explain the pattern of the noise nor only occuring in a single channel on a single deck.  I don't think we're going to resolve this one anytime soon, so I'll just have to monitor my gear performance closely for a while to see if I can nail anything down.  All - thanks for the discussion and input, I'll drop a line if I encounter the problem again.

I'd say it's entirely possible that the noise was induced, because it's one channel could have been how one particular cable was coiled, where it was etc. I did car stereo installs for quite some years, and tel-com work now, you'd be suprised how many factors can contribute to induction on a conductor. Who knows, it might even be something simple that occured in the UA-5 itself or the JB3 capturing and writing the dig signal. 

Maybe some day we'll nail it down, but I'm guessing you'd be just as happy if it was just a one time anomaly.