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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: stepeanut on March 26, 2012, 05:28:44 AM
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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.
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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...
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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:
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.
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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.
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Sorry to see this.
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...
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@ 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
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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.
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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 ;)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.