Live Recording Distortion Question (w/audio example)

[symphy]

Hey all --

Don't have much experience recording out live, but in-studio I'm fairly handy. Anyhoo, my first attempt didn't go so well, for no matter what I did, the audio sounded like this:

symphy.com/Tester_One.mp3 <-- can't link directly for BBS-newbie reasons, so you'll have to copy/paste!

Has anyone ever heard that particular type of distortion? Levels/etc. looked good all around, but obviously this audio is unusable.

Thoughts? It's an EMU 0404, btw, though again it never sounds like that at home.

DC

 

[punkin]

That doesn't sound like over-driven mics or preamps. Sounds like some other connection or power related type of problem.

Without know more about the details, it's hard to say. Any chance you were plugged into a power source that was shared by something really ugly? The noise (that's what I'm calling it because it's not a-typical of distortion) doesn't modulate with signal inputs...so it seems at first listen. I'm more inclined to think you've got an interference sort of thing, utility problem or something along those lines.

In the future, if possible, take some sample recordings and listen back before the performance begins. Too bad...sounds like a nice gig.

 

[solo2racr]

Reminded me of neon or florescent light noise.

 

[symphy]

Hmm

The 0404 was sharing an adapter with my laptop, but of course everything was surrounded by a variety of DJ equipment and other goodies. It sounded bad in the direct monitor, though things always sound awful using the 0404 direct monitor (not sure why) -- unfortunately it was just too loud in there to tell if the playback was distorted with my headphones.

I just found out there are ground switches on the bottom of the 0404, which when I activated them at home, finally solved my little clicking problem with the midi in/out lights (whenever the lights would activate, i.e. with every note sent/received be the unit, there would be a little click which was especially apparently in soft recordings. With the grounds turned on, the click vanishes.)

 

[jmorris]

not distortion going on there,something else. Bad power? Bad cord?