Recording/Playback Issue - YIKES!

[AcousticMike]

Hey there-

I am completely stumped as to what is going on with my equipment.

I recently purchased and setup a Presonus Inspire 1394 firewire (2 mic inputs/2 guitar inputs) box..plus 2 MXL mics (990 & 991).

I also got Sonar 4 Producer, which I'm using to record.

The problem here is that half the time when I set up my mic, and test it before I record...it's completely distorted and crackling. So I'll close everything, restart my computer and sometimes it will be perfectly clear after that...that's the first thing I don't understand.

The second is, for example: yesterday my buddy recorded a track for guitar. During the pre-record time it sounded fine, very clear in my output headphones. We do the entire recording, and when i go to play it back, it's completely distorted again, with all the cracking. I burned it as an .mp3 file to cd just to play it in a regular cd player, to make sure it wasn't my headphones, but sure enough, SNAP CRACKLE POP

I'm very unclear as to what could cause this and I haven't found anything yet online to help me out.

Any suggestions?

Here is the .mp3 of the guitar track with the distorted sound:

Here is a screenshot of the track in producer (2 tracks, same recording):
www.mghstudios.com/recording/producer.png

Thanks a ton-
Mike

 

[soundchaser59]

I'm not familiar with your software stuff, but......

The recording sounds to me like there is an input level somewhere in your signal chain that is too hot. And sometimes you may not realize that you are hearing the raw input signal when you monitor before recording, but then when you play back you are hearing the signal after it has passed thru all the eq, fx, etc......

If you pre-fader solo your input and you know you are hearing nothing but the input gain on the mic (with no EQ, no fx, no compressor, no nothing else) and it sounds clean there, then the problem is not the mic or the first input level. Then just add the signal chain components back in one at a time until you start hearing the distortion again in the playback. You may have to do 5 or 10 short test recordings to eliminate all the good settings and find the one bad one. But your mp3 definitely sounds like an input to something is too hot. Is there an fx on it? (sounds like chorus or something??) maybe the input level to the fx is too hot? Some recorders are set up to monitor the input before you record, but to only give you the fx on playback.

Think along those lines and you will be able to deduce the problem.

 

[LeeRosario]

Wow man...I'm really starting to wonder.

I've been hearing so much shit about the firepod and the presonus 1394. The exact same problems too.

I don't personally use any of them, so I don't have an answer, but now I feel curious to find out what's going on here.

If I find anything, I'll let you know.

 

[AcousticMike]

thanks for the reply fellas..

Well chaser..there aren't any added effects on there. Just MXL 991 instrument mic, to the inspire box, to the program. 48v phantom power, gain and boost are being used through the box. In the program and in the inspire it doesn't even show any red lines..not clipping at all while playing. All I do afterwards is normalize it and that's all.

I'll run some tests and try it out. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrg. What I don't get is why it would already be crappy sounding sometimes before I even record..right when I turn everything on.

 

[dgatwood]

Hey there-

I am completely stumped as to what is going on with my equipment.

I recently purchased and setup a Presonus Inspire 1394 firewire (2 mic inputs/2 guitar inputs) box..plus 2 MXL mics (990 & 991).

I also got Sonar 4 Producer, which I'm using to record.

I'm guessing the pitch of the guitar isn't really wavering all over the place, right? It sounds like there's something very wrong with the sample clock. That would cause periodic pops whenever it gets far enough off to be off by one full iteration around the buffer, too.

My guess is you got a dud interface. Email that sample to Presonus and ask for their advice.

 

[AcousticMike]

How weird...

Just for the record in case somebody has the same problem in the future..

The Inspire hardware does not have gain/boost/etc on the actual hardware..it has it's own software gui control panel.

I was using 48v phantom power as needed by my mics, and also had the boost on. Then I was adjusting the volume in the control panel so I had a good volume on the display, making sure it wasn't clipping.

In Producer It would show the volume just about the same as the inspire panel, below red lines, and that was that...horrible sound.

I started going back and just working from scratch and found that when I took off the boost, the input volume display on the inspire panel dropped significantly..but it stayed the exact same in Producer as it had with the boost on. I recorded and it worked fine...how..very...random.

Thanks for your help fellas.
Take it easy-
Mike

 

[soundchaser59]

How weird...I started going back and just working from scratch and found that when I took off the boost......I recorded and it worked fine...how..very...random.

Again, I dont know your software, but I dont think this is weird at all. You turned off the "Boost" setting (a form of input gain at one of the stages in the signal path) and the strange noise disappeared. Still leads me to the conclusion that one of the input levels in the chain was overdriving. With a setup like that, the "red lights" on the meters do not always show you what each gain stage is doing.

Glad you figured it out.

 

[AcousticMike]

Again, I dont know your software, but I dont think this is weird at all. You turned off the "Boost" setting (a form of input gain at one of the stages in the signal path) and the strange noise disappeared. Still leads me to the conclusion that one of the input levels in the chain was overdriving. With a setup like that, the "red lights" on the meters do not always show you what each gain stage is doing.

Glad you figured it out.

Sorry..what I thought was weird about it was how when I took off the boost, none of the input level indicators changed volume levels from where they were before. That's why I was a little confused/stunned (still pretty new to all of this)

Thanks for the help.

 

[soundchaser59]

Yes, THAT IS weird!! Maybe there is a setting somewhere (control panel? Options? Preferences?) that lets you choose which stage the meters are showing??

 

[TheIllicitOne]

sometimes if your latency is set to low w/ the presonus products it will pop and crackle, etc...

 

[Nick98338]

I'm also using the Inspire 1394 and Sonar 4 SE. When I first installed the Inspire, without any adjustments to driver settings, I got some really wacko sounds. And, I got error messages when I tried to set audio to anything higher than 16/44100. I went into the driver settings, disabled the old sound hardware and driver, selected the ASIO driver for the Inspire (it's not the default), adjusted sampling rates and bit depth settings (must use ASIO to get 24/96). Did the "test" procedure. Once that was done (2 minutes) everything worked great. I don't use the "boost" on the input channels, but I do use the phantom power. The "gain" knobs are usually a bit less than the 3 o'clock position. Much above that and things start to get scratchy. So far, the max number of inputs I have used at once is 2. Both the XLR jacks. All is working well.

 

[Nick98338]

I just looked at the screen shot. Why is your output going to that SB Live! wav device?

 

[Nick98338]

And, I just listened to the mp3. That "wavy" kind of sound is exactly the kind of thing I was getting before I adjusted the settings in the driver for the Inspire. 'course my wavy sound was produced with a much better guitar. Once I adjusted the driver, no more wavy sound.

 

[AcousticMike]

I switched to to my sb live to hear it out of my other headphones at that point, to see if the ones hooked into the back of my inspire box were jacked.

And yes I'm sure you did have a better guitar. haha. I'm rolling on a $350 Yamaha FG735S..first guitar ever..wanted to learn first before I go all out

Take it easy

 

[cma]

I had the same problem with my Inspire 1394.
Try another firewire-input. I used the onboard firewire-input but then switched to the firewire-input of my soundcard (well it's weird - but it worked). If you don't have a second firewire-input buy a pci firewire-card - they're cheap.

cma