Topic: Overcooked recording: what went wrong?

[stepeanut]

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

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.

[yousef]

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...

[stepeanut]

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.

[whiskybob]

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.

[bombdiggity]

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... 

[stepeanut]

@ 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

[yltfan]

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.

[F.O.Bean]

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

[M]

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.

[stepeanut]

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.

[Jofa]

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.

[stepeanut]

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.