New tics and burps in Home Studio 2 XL

[Bambi Busboom]

Oy mates,

I'm having terrible luck with recording!

I recently changed computers- Dell 8400, 3Ghz, 1.5Ghz RAM, 80 and 120GB HDs and installed the M-Audio 2496 from my Dell P750 and Home Studio 2 XL. My HS2 is the one that needed the patch fro the "beta trial expired" message.

The recording chain:

Oktava MC012s > Peavey VMP-2 all-tube mic pre > M-Sudio 2496 > HD > HS2 XL

Playback:

M-Audio 2496 > Audio Research SP-10 all-tube preamp > Audio Research D-130 solid state amplifier > Spectrum 208A speakers . Interconnects are Audioquest King Cobra

I'm doing the absolute simplest thing- straight two track recordings of piano.

The thing is, suddenly I'm getting dramatic spiky tics- very loud. Naturally, these are intermittent and I can't find a relationship to anything else except possibly that this happens more on very long tracks. Tracks can be up to 30 minutes. On a couple of occasions there were longer electrical sounding burps- like a static discharge- that are too long to edit out. This reminds me of the time I had a Lexicon Core 2 card that had similar tics every 8 seconds and I couldn't get rid of them.

I'm considering whether these tics and burps are from the Peavey in some way- but I've used tube gear for 20 years and I've never heard a tube make this kind of noise. The intermmitent aspect is frustrating too. I suppose I could try substituting my old Audio Buddy preamp to eliminate the VMP-2 as the source.

Any ideas? Could it be a setup problem with the new computer -latency, buffers?

I'm really discouraged with this one and as I've been frustrated with some aspects of HS2, I'm thinking of chucking the whole pile and going back to a cassette deck and dynamic mic.

Thanks!

Cheers,

Bambi Busboom

 

[Toki987]

I had a problem in Sonar 2.0 xl that is similar. Here goes, it might be relative yours or not.

After building a drum track and selecting say 8 measures as a loop point, I could load a DXI or VST synth, Piano primarily, and begin to play along with the loop. At really odd times a ghost chord that I had played a measure or two before would suddenly play stuccatto like a 16 note. It would not happen for days or weeks sometimes, then all of a sudden it would do it once or twice. Never happened when the measures in the loop were beyond 16. After I upgraded to 2.2 it has never happened again.

 

[acidrock]

I would apply any patches as Toki987 suggested and if that doesn't do the trick check out your sound card drivers,with M-audio the newest drivers aren't always the best.

Also have you shown any clipping on your software meters?
Tube distortion=good
Digital distortion=bad

 

[Bambi Busboom]

Possible extremely silly explanation!

Friends,

I have to admit, I think the problem with tics and burps in my recordings may be due to a silly thing I did.

The recording computer, the Peavey preamp, and the Audio Research playback stuff are all on stand- one very crowded stand. And when I put in the new computer, the M-Audio 2496 is in a slot far lower than when installed in the previous Dell P750. That meant the distance betwee the Peavey and the M-Audio was about 2" further. I didn't pay attention to this.

Earlier, I mentioned the tics and burs were like static discharge- a very electrical sound rather than a digital artifact or suffering tube . Also, I discovered that these events happen strictly in one channel and they can alternate one side to the other. That was more of a puzzle. This track had events at 8:30 , 8:49, and 10:10- very odd.

But, I think they really are static discharge.

It's possible that the extra distance meant that when I had plugged everything in, the interconnects (1m RCA Audioquest Diamondbacks),into the Audiophile- the tension actually bent the RCA jacks skywards until they are making a poor contact with the computer slot. Those slots are very narrow on the 8400- I don't know why- and the clearance around the jacks is so minimal the symbols on the Audiophile are covered. So, periodically there was a miniscule spark from the inputs from the Peavey preamp- I suppose even only 3V can have it's day in the Sun! The little sparks must have alternated or repeated from the left or right input jacks according to which jack built up a large enough charge.

So, I'll take out the computer, straighten the jacks, and put it back with 1.5m AQ King Cobras- the only long interconnects I have, and see if this does not solve it.

But, I'm still guessing as usual, and I'll see if my fancy Sherlock-job is the ticket or hollow theory- only based on feeling how bent up those jacks are and seeing the side of the IC jack touching the edge of the slot .

I'll feel very silly if I've bent up my soundcard. I've never done violence to a soundcard before- though most of them deserved it! If I also abraided and scratched the plug on a new $125 interconnect I'll have lifelong regrets.

Ont the other hand, if that's indeed what happened, I can feel too clever by half just for bodging it back anyway.

That's me- study, study, study- and then hit it with a hammer back to where it started!

I didn't want anyone to worry.

Cheers,

Bambi Busboom

 

[Toki987]

If you got sparks and everything still works inside your machine, you are a very lucky guy.