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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: Unitmonster on December 01, 2004, 08:43:26 AM

Title: 2 JB3 Questions...
Post by: Unitmonster on December 01, 2004, 08:43:26 AM
Taped Broken Social Scene Last night and discovered that the optical input jack on my JB3 is all wonky. It still works, but it's all loose and if you wiggle the cable, the signal cuts in and out.  Pissed me off.  Any idea if this is easily fixable by someone with little know-how, or what it might cost to have it done?

Also, I set my levels so that they peaked at the dotted "zero" line on the jb3 and now in playing back the file in Winamp the winamp monitor hardly shows any levels at all. The sound is great, but it seems quiet.  I can't check in any sound editing software yet, but I'm wondering if this is just a winamp issue, or if I'm misreading the levels on the jb3.  Any ideas?

Thanks!
Title: Re: 2 JB3 Questions...
Post by: Unitmonster on December 01, 2004, 10:05:39 AM
here's a sample of the recording. VERY happy with the results (AT853>PS-2>AD-20, 5th row centre) but my damn battery died on the AD20 on the 2nd last song!  Long Life my asss.

www.unitar.org/ccp/BSS 2004-11-30_AT853rx05.mp3

Feedback would be appreciated.
Title: Re: 2 JB3 Questions...
Post by: Ed. on December 01, 2004, 12:03:22 PM
Taped Broken Social Scene Last night and discovered that the optical input jack on my JB3 is all wonky. It still works, but it's all loose and if you wiggle the cable, the signal cuts in and out.  Pissed me off.  Any idea if this is easily fixable by someone with little know-how, or what it might cost to have it done?

I do believe to fix this you'll have to pull apart the jb3 and do some soldering to secure the connection.  It might also be beneficial to get a right angle optical cable which will allow for less wiggling of the input jack.

Also, I set my levels so that they peaked at the dotted "zero" line on the jb3 and now in playing back the file in Winamp the winamp monitor hardly shows any levels at all. The sound is great, but it seems quiet.  I can't check in any sound editing software yet, but I'm wondering if this is just a winamp issue, or if I'm misreading the levels on the jb3.  Any ideas?

The levels on the jb3 are hard to gauge, honestly i think the best thing you can do is go tape a bunch and try different things with the gain.  I've never ran that combo, but when i ran the ua-5 i'd have the peak light on that come on a few times for most shows.  not a lot, just a blink here and there and my levels on the jb3 were pretty consistent.  not many overs but a few here and there.  with the v3, i have better levels so i use that and don't even look at the jb3 anymore.  i doubt that helps, but seriously, once you get used to running the setup you'll be able to figure out where your levels should be in most instances.  looking at your recording in a wave editor will help you figure out if you need to turn up the gain too.

ed
Title: Re: 2 JB3 Questions...
Post by: macroint on December 01, 2004, 12:14:43 PM
Taped Broken Social Scene Last night and discovered that the optical input jack on my JB3 is all wonky. It still works, but it's all loose and if you wiggle the cable, the signal cuts in and out.  Pissed me off.  Any idea if this is easily fixable by someone with little know-how, or what it might cost to have it done?
I do believe to fix this you'll have to pull apart the jb3 and do some soldering to secure the connection.  It might also be beneficial to get a right angle optical cable which will allow for less wiggling of the input jack.

  Or if you're like me, and the only tools you feel comfortable using come in the shape of spoon and fork, you might keep the NJB3 from laying flat on its back. I had the same problem and everytime I put the NJB3 down, I lost the mics. My remedy was to re-design my set-up so that the NJB3 stands upright (foam surrounds it to keep it up). Maybe not a long term fix, but it's worked good in the short term.
Title: Re: 2 JB3 Questions...
Post by: Unitmonster on December 01, 2004, 12:32:18 PM
thanks guys! +t
Title: Re: 2 JB3 Questions...
Post by: pfife on December 01, 2004, 01:04:00 PM
weird that you don't have loud enough levels... when I used the same setup, my levels were way too loud, even with the AD-20 turned all the way down.

Granted, the other evening was some loud ass spl


Title: Re: 2 JB3 Questions...
Post by: Karl on December 02, 2004, 01:59:10 PM
The Winamp levels are screwy--if you're trying to watch in the spectrum analyzer mode, it does not show the whole audible frequency range--don't trust the winamp meters.  If you were pushing the top on the jb3 meters, then I'm sure you're ok.