what the hell is that noise? (mr-8)

  • Thread starter Thread starter groucho
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groucho

groucho

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Hey folks:

I just traded in a Boss 4-track for the mr-8, since it was the only one I could find for under $500 that recorded in uncompressed audio.

Everything seems dandy, except that there is this constant, skittering, static-like noise that will not go away when recording. I'm satisfied it's not the mic, the cables, anything in my room ,etc. (I've done a hellofa lot of testing).

NOTHING I do makes this noise go away. Is this normal? Has anyone experienced it? I mean, it's a VERY noticable stuttering kinda static noise that renders the thing completely useless. Did I just get a dud, or what?

thanks in advance for any input,
Chris
 
Well, that's what I get for not searching first - it's just that this site has gotten so damn slow it takes forever to search nowadays.

Anyway, I answered my own question - thanks to some past folks with the same problem. Oddly enough, it's not a problem with the actual recording, it's some kinda bug with the headphone jack, because once I get the tracks onto the computer, it plays fine.

Weird little machine, this mr8. It's put together really cheaply, looks like some kinda fisher-price toy, but the sound quality blows the roland/boss products out of the water. I mean, this cheap, red little thing sounds fantastic!

Just not through the headphones.:)

Chris
 
Thanks Dave. You're right. I've also noticed that it seems to help if I plug in the headphones *after* powering up the machine, though why that would help is beyond me.

thanks,
Chris
 
Just a gues, but I wonder if there's some static electicity build-up grounding issue thing going on... Turning it off and then on again might clear the build-up?
 
I confess I don't really know enough about electrical matters to suss this out on too technical a level. I do know that it makes no difference where it is in my house - same thing: each time I power up for the *first* time I get the noise.

I turn it off, turn it on, *then* plug in the headphones and it works fine most of the time.

An odd little bug but definitely not impossible to work around.

And hey, the thing's only $300!

I'm still amazed that if, like me, you're just looking for a bare-bones machine to simply record in uncompressed data (I transfer everything to the computer for mixing, so I have no need of onboard effects, nor do I need more than a few tracks), the MR-8 is virtually the ONLY option under like, $800!

I mean, there's a wide-open market waiting to be cracked here for all the people who want to spend under $400 but don't want the crappy compressed audio of the Roland and Zoom recorders.

Anyway...
Chris
 
groucho said:

Weird little machine, this mr8. It's put together really cheaply, looks like some kinda fisher-price toy, but the sound quality blows the roland/boss products out of the water. I mean, this cheap, red little thing sounds fantastic!

Chris
Click to expand...

I almost didn't buy it because of the god-awful ugly bright ass color! I still hate that damned color and anything colored similar, reminds me of some eighties hair bands' leather pants...

Maybe I'll spray paint mine... hmmm...
 
Turning it off then back on helps. I have also changed from one headphone jack to the other and the noise went away. ????
 
Yeah, I also noticed switching headphone jacks helps. But the bottom line is that none of that noise ends up on the actual track - it's just a monitoring issue - so, while it's a little irritating, it's not the end of the world for me.

And yeah, the color of the thing put me off for awhile too. I assumed that anything that looked so "fisher-price" couldn't possibly sound good. But I'm still amazed at the sound quality of the mr-8. I just recorded a little basic "acoustic guitar and vox" tune to test it out, and playing it next to similar tunes I recorded with the Boss Br-532 says it all: the Boss tunes sound boxy, compressed,... basically they sound like home recordings. The new tune sounds a million times better.

So for that I can put up with the color.:)

Chris
 
I've found that I've been able to make this annoying little quirk noise go away by pushing play and let it play a few seconds and then try recording. I only hear it in the left channel, it's sort of a ring-like distortion or something but after I press play, stop, return to zero and start recording, then I don't hear it. And I agree with the comments about the fantastic sound quality of the MR-8, I did a lot of recording with it over the holidays and was blown away by the quality of sound - one track sounded almost professional with the exception of my vocals!! But, I can hardly wait to acquire a keyboard, bass guitar, and a Telecaster to fill out the tracks alongside my Takamine acoustic. this is one "toy" I just love, man. In addition, I think this is a wonderful little starter unit for someone to learn the bare bones basics of multi-tracking, panning, proper micing, adding effects, overdubbing, mixdown, etc. This is very easily a "gateway" instrument that should whet your recording appetite for bigger and better things, but for now, I'm very happy with it.
 
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