Last night, I taped Spiritualized at Manchester Academy. I used my normal rig (CA-14s > ugly battery box > M10), ran line-in as usual, recording in manual mode at gain level four. This usually gives me plenty of headroom in post.
I'm a set-it-and-forget-it kinda guy, but something has happened 30 minutes into taping, before the band even came on, when I was just chatting with my friend. Take a look at this screengrab from Audacity and you can see the dramatic rise at around the 30-minute mark of what was at that point in the evening low-level chat and background noise:
http://i39.tinypic.com/30mr6za.png (http://i39.tinypic.com/30mr6za.png)
As a result of this dramatic jump in volume, the rest of my recording is completely overcooked. Obviously, I'm gutted. But I'd like to know what went wrong, so I can prevent this from happening in the future. My first thought is that maybe I'd hit the level switch to auto, but no.
Any help would be gratefully received.
Aw, Steve, I'm gutted to hear about this...
To my mind, the most obvious things that could cause this would be: bumping the levels on a pre-amp (which you weren't using), knocking the mic-in switch to 'high' (but you were going line-in) or nudging the level wheel on the M10 itself.
Did you check that it was still set at 4 when you came out?
Another thing occurs to me - the first time I used my M10 I couldn't figure out why my levels were constantly peaking despite turning the pre-amp down to almost zero. It turned out that the mics weren't fully plugged into the line-in socket and so the M10 had defaulted to the internal mics, which are far more sensitive. I wonder if your BB's output could have been tugged slightly out of the socket.
What does the file actually sound like at the point were the levels increase - any clicks or even a momentary silence? And does the quality of the sound alter or is it purely an increase in volume?
Really feeling sorry for you here - I hate that feeling of discovering a spoiled recording...
Thanks for your kind words, Yousef. The show was plagued by talkers, but I'm still upset at losing what, potentially, could have been a very nice tape of a cracking performance.
The gain wheel was fine after the show. I'm pretty careful when placing the M10 in my shirt pocket, and I always make a point of checking it afterwards.
It's hard to say whether there is a quality difference at the quiet/loud boundary, but there certainly isn't a gap or pop.
I think you may have hit the nail on the head with this:
Quote from: yousef on March 26, 2012, 06:34:09 AM
It turned out that the mics weren't fully plugged into the line-in socket and so the M10 had defaulted to the internal mics, which are far more sensitive. I wonder if your BB's output could have been tugged slightly out of the socket.
The jack on the battery box isn't nearly so snug a fit as with the R09-HR. I've been a bit worried that it might come loose on previous occasions. I'm guessing that this time it did.
I have a new battery box on order, so, hopefully, that will be a tighter fit with the M10 line input than the one I've been using.
Check that the switch (REC LEVEL) on the back of the unit just below the wheel wasn't knocked to the auto position, I had exactly the same thing happen when I taped Health, the support was fine then after health I checked the recording and voila....Overcooked.
It took me some time to figure it out!!! Now it's taped into the MANUAL position...
David.
Sorry to see this.
Quote from: whiskybob on March 26, 2012, 10:07:31 AM
Now it's taped into the MANUAL position...
Taping any switches you don't routinely change into the correct locked position is always a good idea. Some even tape the connectors in...
@ David,
No, it's definitely not the record-level switch. I checked it post-show.
I really think it might be that wobbly UBB jack, which just isn't as tight as I would like it to be with the M10. It is fine with the R-09HR.
Steve
Sorry to hear about your issue. Spiritualized puts on a great show, I'm sure the tape would have been nice.
This is one reason I could never be a "set it and forget it person". I kind of wish I could, so I could just kick back and enjoy the show. But it's hard to relax unless I know I everything is rolling right.
Sounds like a bad cable connection :( I hate when shit like that happens, but live and learn, right?
And on both of my M10s, I have the back buttons taped so I dont accidentally set them in the wrong position ;)
The mic cable was tugged out and the m10 switched to the internal mics that were in your pocket. Happened to me once and my waveform looked quite similar.
Thanks for your input, everybody.
I ran the same rig, but with a new CA-UBB, the other night. The connection on the new battery box is much tighter than the old one, and my recording came out fine.
Maybe battery in the Ugly was beginning to die? Have same experience as the one you describe and in my case it was a bad battery in the batterybox that caused the "overcooked" recording.
It wasn't the battery itself. I think we've pretty much nailed the source of the problem here: the loose UBB jack. Thanks for your input.
Probably time to lock this thread down. Cheers.