Overloading my 488mkII

[cadzen]

OK, I've recently gone from an old 424 to a 488mkII. So far, I've only done a couple of guitar tracks with my new 8 track but when I play the tapes back, I notice that I've apparently overloaded the tape (or the recorder) because it sounds quite distorted at the peak levels. Not sure why because I was pretty carefull about trying to get just the right sound, here's what I did....I've mic'd my guitar cabinet with a 57, going straight to the 1st channel on the 488. I've got an Alesis EQ and an Alesis Compressor plugged into the channel one insertion point to process the sound a little. I thought I had my levels all tweaked just right - going into the red once in a while but averaging out to zero. Sounded great through the headphones during recording, but on playback obvious distortion was present from overloading. I just can't determine the source. The amp wasn't that loud, and my levels seemed to be fine. Any ideas out there?

Thanks,
Carl

[cadzen]

Well, after reading some posts from another forum, I think I may have found the answer to my dilemma. It turns out that the compressor I was using (Alesis 3630!) is not a popular piece of equipment around here. Could it have been my compressor? I've used it before without a problem (with my 424) - yeah I know it's a cheap compressor, but I was on a budget what can I say. I thought I could at least use it as a peak limiter. I've heard some people using it as just a noise gate - well all I can say is that I can't stand noise gates including this one. Being a guitar player myself, noise gates do nothing more than rob guitar tone - i.e. cutting off your sustaining notes at the end of a phrase or quiet passages - it's impossible to dial in a setting that doesn't do this to some extent (at least in my opinion).

So, what should I do? Use my 3630 as an anchor? I find it hard to believe that this was the source of all of that nasty sounding overloading. Any other thoughts?

[A Reel Person]

The signal levels should be roughly the same, between the 424 and 488mkII. Any signal chain that sounds good on a 424 should sound ok on a 488mkII.

Try simplifying the signal chain, yes, starting with the in-line compressor, which common sense would tell you would be the most likely cause of inadvertent overdrive in the signal chain.