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]

Did the same same signal chain work OK with the 424???

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.