Topic: BIZARRE PROBLEM! HELP!!

[jmz93]

I hope this is the best place to post this.  I have no idea what part of my rig is causing this
aweful result. First, some samples of what I am going to describe are at:

http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/1ozdj2

I've never heard distortion like that in many years of recording! WTF??? 
The one music sample goes clean for a brief instant, providing a glimpse of what the recording could have been
like - i.e. spectacular! In an audio editor, nothing
shows as hitting 0DB. So what gives?  Where s that aweful clipping coming from then? 

There's nothing wrong with the wave files, according to the free fixwav.exe utility,
i.e. the file headers are fine.

Rig: SP-CMC-4's > Church Audio ST9100 preamp (on full) > Nickspicks silver cable >
R-09 line in, gain at 13/30(unity?), 24-bit/44.1KHZ wave. 
Fresh batteries in everything, clear SD card, all gear in pockets except for mics which were attached to
the shoulders of my sweater.

and yes, I was definitely plugged into line in, not mic in.
The show was loud but loud on jazz terms, nothing like rock levels.

All through the show I kept thinking "Oh man, this is going to be the best tape I've pulled in years ..." only
to discover 3GB of *THAT!

Any ideas folks? Believe me, once I find the ulprit piece of gear,
it's being replaced ASAP. I can't have things this unreliable for stealth...

(sick, frustrated, mad, time for a beer...)
Chris

[kskreider]

nevermind

[kskreider]

Damn double post.

Sounds more like a bad cable than anything.  Particularly because it goes in and out.  My guess is that when you move then the cable is shorting. 

[Will_S]

Either that (bad cable) or a minplug being jostled/pulled part way out of its jack.  Have you tested all the parts of your recording chain at home in an attempt to reproduce and isolate the problem?

Might also be an issue with the connection of the minijack to the R09's circuit board, several folks have had problems with that.

[Mr.Fantasy]

NEWBIE QUESTION-

How do you play those files?

I clicked on the link and downloaded the files...I see them there "dirt clean dirt" or whatever... .flac

I opened them in winamp and they look to be playing....but no sound...and the sound is on/I can play other stuff???

[kskreider]

He notes above that they are 24 bit and Winamp sometimes pukes on playing that bit depth.  Try Foobar.

[Belexes]

With +20 of gain on the 9100, are you certain you didn't overload the pre? I have done that before, but only at a loud rock concert.  My 9100 has a red LED that indicates if the levels are too hot.

[Professor chaos]

i'd bet money it's the jack on the r-09. i had the same thing happen to me last year. there have been many issues w/ the r-09 input jack. do a forum search and you'll see many folks here have had problems.

[kskreider]

I don't think that it is gain related as you can here it come in and out during the quiet passages too.  I am going with the input jack as well.  I seem to recall there being a persistent problem with those.

[stevetoney]

This is flat out digi-noise, not the random sounds of loose connection although I suppose a loose board connection could cause more than just a sort of random static type of sound.  This is definitely not the sound of mic clipping either.

I'm laying odds that you have a slow SD card...such as one of the cheap Transcends. 

What happens is that the SD card can't keep up with the needed write speed for 24 bit, since so much data needs to be written to the card in such a short time. 

You might try to record at 16 bit and 44.1 and see if the problem goes away.  If so, then it's the speed of your card.  For the R-09 running at 24 bit, you need the faster speed SD cards.

I had this problem with a lower speed 4 GB Transcend in an R-09 that I ran for a couple of shows, although the digi-noise was more pronounced and caused more distinct drop-outs than I'm hearing here.

[Belexes]

What version of firmware do you have installed in the R-09?

[Professor chaos]

thats a really good point about cheap sd cards, i never knew that. try to make a recording at 44.1 see if problem goes away. if not, open it up and check that jack. what you're saying sounds exactly like what happened to me. especially since the gear was in your pocket that when a jack could get broken. cable plugged into jack and stuffed into pocket move the wrong way and the thing breaks. was it a sraight or right angle connector? we found that right angle plugs work best for R-09. a straight connector can put alot of strain on jack if its bumping around inside a pocket. good luck

[Mr.Fantasy]

He notes above that they are 24 bit and Winamp sometimes pukes on playing that bit depth.  Try Foobar.

Thanks a bundle!

+T for taking the time to help me!!!

[jmz93]

Thanks for all the replies guys and the ideas. I haven't had time to run tests yet,
but I will. I didn't think of that with the SD card, I'm running firmware 1.30 and as far as I know, the card is an 8gb HC2.
Before firmware 1.30, I was running the same card with no problems, but with a few gigs of stuff pre-loaded,
so that it wouldn't encounter the bug of creating hundreds of tiny files when the autosplit point was reached. 

Anyway, I'll run some tests and get back to you.

[schoepsnbox]

If you find it to be the input jack problem as described, I can fix it for you and modify it so it does not break again...I've repaired over a dozen of those bad boys, design flaw IMO.  Do let us know what you find.