Topic: Help! Ruined SBD recording, what might have went wrong?

[t4oo6l]

Hello everyone, I've only been actively taping since may 2005 but i've gotten a good amount of shows under my belt and have never messed anything up (knock on wood), that said, I was a bit dissapointed when my first soundboard patch from last night was completely ruined.  Let me explain in as much detail as I can.

I met the soundguy and we chatted for a bit, he then gave me a 1/8" rca stereo cable with wich to plug into my Nomad Jukebox 3.  I saw him plug the two other ends of the cable in and he pushed quite hard, so i'm pretty sure the cables were in all the way.  Oh, my nomad jukebox 3 was plugged in to an outlet directly behind the SBD.

When the first band began to soundcheck I noticed that my levels were extremely high, while those on his board were only average to high, but i thought this was probably due to the difference in recording mediums, so I recorded at -5 db.  Things seemed to be ok from then on as the levels fluctuated with what I was hearing. 

Ok, now hear comes the problem.

When I got home and listened to each of the 4 bands I recorded almost all that was audible was a loud buzzing.  The kind of sound a guitar amp makes when its volume is cranked up and you unplug your guitar from it and the end of the chord touches something metal or electronic.  But this sound went on during all of the recordings save the first 25 seconds of the very first band to play, woo hoo!

A friend of mine that is familiar with using the jb3 for sbd and whatnot asked me if there were a lot of wires coming out of the back of the sbd, and if so were they touching the wires connected to my jb3.  The answer is yes.  So, could the problem be as simple as bad shielded wires interfering with my recording?

Maybe bad sbd outputs, or a bad cable on his part, I dunno.

Just as a point of reference too - the stereo rca cables he showed me were male do I need to use female instead?  I'm not sure.

Well, I think that about wraps most of it up, hopefully someone out there can give me some advice.  I'm going back on Thursday to try again, this time i'll have my own cable (I had femalie xlr cables but he didnt want to use them) and i'll keep my wires way away from his.


Thanks

[todd e]

i think (stress think) that you were getting too 'hot' of a signal. 
you can get in-line attenuators that allow for better results with SBD patches.

anyone else?

[tapinfool]

this happened to me as well...a couple times. and w/ my 1st taping experience w/ the jb3

you didn't have the line plugged into the jb3 all the way.

trust me...try a trial run right now and see if i'm right.

if it's not really pushed in you get a horrible buzz. there was actually a post where the guy on here...,ts,
cut away a little of the jb3 housing to make sure of a snug fit. i would NOT reccomend this.
bean and i tried it w/ my 1st jb3...the line in became loose in the housing and when we reparied it...
well we didn't repair it. so, i had to buy another one.

i taped an entire day at a festie and had the same thing happen.

i ALWAYS double check to see if that sucker is PLUGGED IN!!! just a little extra push to make sure it's in there.

hope this helps...good luck in the future.

[BC]

i think (stress think) that you were getting too 'hot' of a signal. 
you can get in-line attenuators that allow for better results with SBD patches.

anyone else?

I don't think this was the problem, I would guess if you are getting too hot a signal then the music would still be audible but with lots of distortion and clipping mixed in there. The fact that you are only hearing buzzing makes me doubt that just a hot signal was the problem.

Not really sure what might have gone wrong though, he might have plugged you out of the wrong connections?? Might want to double check what you are coming out of next time.

[cyfan]

Did you get any clipping/brickwalling on the recording besides the buzz?
It's been my experience with sbd feeds to the JB3 that if you are too hot at 0db and adjust the JB3 meters down, say 4-5 db, you still get the brickwalling (it's just that everything is 4-5db low when you transfer).

I have an adjustable line attenuator headed my way in the mail as I write.

Otherwise, it could have just been the outputs from the board that were buzzing. Happens sometimes.

tim

[Ray76]

Did you get any clipping/brickwalling on the recording besides the buzz?
It's been my experience with sbd feeds to the JB3 that if you are too hot at 0db and adjust the JB3 meters down, say 4-5 db, you still get the brickwalling (it's just that everything is 4-5db low when you transfer).

I have an adjustable line attenuator headed my way in the mail as I write.

Otherwise, it could have just been the outputs from the board that were buzzing. Happens sometimes.

tim

Dear God Tim, that damn AVI makes me spit out coffee every time i see it. +T

 

[kfrinkle]

I have had the misfortune of not plugging the 1/8" male part of a RCA Y-stero cable into the soundboard, and what I ended up getting was only 1/2 the instruments or so... it was really strange, happened 2X to me.. I didnt encounter any buzzing or anything like that...

[neognosis]

I've had the buzzing thing happen while plugged into the headphone jack on a board, definitely not touching any other wires since there were none around, so I don't think it had anything to do with other wires in the vicinity.

I've learned to gauge the person running the board before asking for a patch.  Does he look like he knows what he's doing?  If so, go for the patch.  If not, stick with mics.

[t4oo6l]

Thanks guys, looks like i've got a few things to look into to make sure i get it done right next time. 

No, tapinfool, that was not the problem, I was completely plugged into the jb3, trust me, i'm aware of that stupid extra bit of plastic they decided to add on to it.  right angle 1/8 plugs were used and were constantly checked to make sure they were plugged in correctly. 

I also don't think the board was running hot because as BC stated there would have still been some listenable music with distortion and brickwalling from clipping.  However, there was none. 

The soundguy was pretty cool, he was pretty knowledgeable about stuff that I asked him and before I started recording he told me what he gave me to plug into my jb3 with.  I'm not blaming anyone, i'll just have to be a bit more careful next time and ask him more questions.

I don't think I was plugged into the headphone jack, unless there are more than one?  He was using headphones at certain points and they were not plugged in anywhere near where the rca cable i was hooked into was plugged.

Like I said i"m gonna give it another go tomorrow with my own rca cable and see how things go from there.  Maybe i'll not plug the jb3 in and just use the battery power?  Could that have been a possible cause of the proiblem too?  Should I always use plug in power when recording from the SBD or does that not really matter either?

Thanks again everyone for your input, it's appreciated!

[cyfan]

Like I said i"m gonna give it another go tomorrow with my own rca cable and see how things go from there.  Maybe i'll not plug the jb3 in and just use the battery power?  Could that have been a possible cause of the proiblem too?  Should I always use plug in power when recording from the SBD or does that not really matter either?

I've recorded using the batteries and plugged into an outlet. Never noticed a diff.

[sml42]

When I got home and listened to each of the 4 bands I recorded almost all that was audible was a loud buzzing.  The kind of sound a guitar amp makes when its volume is cranked up and you unplug your guitar from it and the end of the chord touches something metal or electronic.  But this sound went on during all of the recordings save the first 25 seconds of the very first band to play, woo hoo!

You mean mains hum? Do the first 25 second sound OK? Can you still record using your jb3... I mean, please confirm you haven't fried it! Mains hum means either a ground loop, or a floating (unconnected) input somewhere acting as an antenna. If you had a ground loop, running the jb3 off batteries will fix this. Did something happen at the 25second mark? I mean, when the first band came on the soundguy would start tweaking knobs and pushing buttons... any chance of a foulup there?

If you take a pair of headphones, you can hear what the jb3 is actually recording (although admittedly it will be hard to hear with the band playing).

best regards,
stephen

[BC]

if assuming where you were plugged out from last time should have been correct, maybe next time you can try taking a different out, maybe another headphone out or maybe there is some kind of matrix out you can grab.

I think for a matrix out you will need cables that let you take an XLR into your JB3.

Good luck tomorrow!
Ben

[t4oo6l]

thanks for the advice sml42, I thnk I'll be bringing my headphones with me next time.  I wasn't sure if i could use them at the same time as I recording, but that would definitely prevent that buzzing problem again.

No the jb3 isn't fried, it still works fine, i'll just have to try different things out next time i hook up with this soundguy.  I'm gonna make it work!

Thanks again everyone!

[dklein]

  Maybe i'll not plug the jb3 in and just use the battery power? 

That gets my vote for the problem.  I have experienced this with my laptop on AC (mains).  Your first 25 seconds might have been clean until the offensive lighting was in use (notorious noise generators those lighting controls!)

You should post a little mp3 sample where it goes from clean to noisy. 

But what were your JB3 levels showing while the show was going on?  Were they moving around with the music?

[t4oo6l]

Yep, the levels were moving with the music, although they were running a bit high in the beginning, so i loweverd by 5 db i think, i forget now.  Since they were fluctuating with the music I thought things were ok. 

Sml42 - what did you mean by a ground loop could potentially fix the buzzing problem?

Yes, the sound guys were playing around a bit with a lighting fixture with all kinds of buttons on it, and a few wires from that set up were near my jb3 wires.  Again, any number of things could have caused the problem as well as the extension power outlet that I was plugged into.

I've got a pair of good studio ear covering headphones that I'll be bringing with me next time.  I wasn't sure if you could use them at the same time while recording, apparently you can.  This will be very helpful.