PLEASE DIGI! Digital distortion and glitches HD!

[brianjanthony]

I am running a G5 PT HD3 TDM system. PT version is most recent before Tiger. I have a 192 IO with 2 analog in cards. I have a 1622 Legacy device. I am clocking off of Apogee Big Ben.

My studio is having serious issues with the PT setup. More and more, digital distortion seems to be creeping into tracks when recording vocals. It seems to be during record monitoring. For example, client overdubbing voiceover, all of a sudden it sounds like we hit the scrub wheel on a DAT machine and the person's voice disintegrates. It seems to affect playback only (the waveform appears ok).

Whats worse, digital glitches starting appearing on actual tracks! Not pops and clicks. More Max Headroom type noises. It sounds like we're punching in in middle of words when we're not, almost a "doubled" sound.

All DigiTests come back normal. All drives defragged. And it happens whether they are internal or external. And this never used to happen. But its becoming more and more chronic. I called Digi and was told I'd have to drop $3 per minute to talk to someone. Or wait for an hour on hold like last time.

Anyone having these types of probs?

Brian
www.brianjanthony.com

[minister]

i experience a similar problem when recording simple voice overs. i record a few takes and then hit record again and get that digital fuzz. i stop and rgo back into record. i wonder if it is a crad to cpu connection. i tried removing and re-seating my cards. problem is still there.

mac dual 2.5, hd|2, pt 6.9, lucd a/d into 192AES.

[brianjanthony]

I tried reseating and cleaning everything to no avail as well. I just wish I knew what's going on. 4x in 4 sessions this is becoming more frequent. And clients have gone from the "what the heck was that" to the "geez buddy is your gear as good as you think? This is annoying" In my little pond, that could be lethal.

[Lee Blaske]

The first thing I would try would be to get rid of the Big Ben external clock, and just go with the internal clock in your 192 (which, IMHO, is better engineered, and certainly way better integrated into the PT HD system than any external clock could be integrated). To me, this really sounds like a clock problem. If that doesn't do it, for testing, I'd also try removing the 1622. If that doesn't do it, borrow a different 192 to see if the 192 might be the problem. Do you have spare clock cables to be able to test to see if a flaky cable might be at fault? The key to troubleshooting is to pare things down to the bare essentials. If the most basic system works, add in other pieces until you find the problem.

I think it's more than a coincidence that both of you are using additional third party external devices that impact clocking.

Lee Blaske

[minister]

lee, that is interesting. i have an external lucid sync generator for clocking. but...i did not have this problem with mix plus and the same clock. i had the same problem before i got the sync i/o and continue to have it after i got it. yet, my occurences are not as bad as his. and people are using these clocks all the time. you can't do post properly without a clock.

[Drive d]

We are having the same issue here - We use 2 192's with the Digi Sync as the clock. I found that when I first notice the noise coming on, I can stop record and then change the buffer size and then continue. I can change the buffer either way, larger or smaller and it fixes the noise for awhile.... It seems the warmer it is the control room the more it happens, Please try to get a fix, Digi, my clients will thank you.

[brianjanthony]

Hhhhhmmmmmm. Heat.

Guys who are experiencing this. Do you notice the same problem (the warmer the environment, the worse the glitches). I ask because I know the CR here is an oven. and moreso now that summer is coming. It's happening more now than before. And its also getting warmer around here.

I'll try to remove Ben from the chain. It'd be a real bummer if it was the culprit because I think it's helped out a bit. And it helps when other clients bring in their devices too.

Unfortunately I cannot duplicate the dang noise all the time. Otherwise I'd try to set up a more controlled test.

But for now, anyone else have their 192 and clock in hot quarters and notice this stuff??? Maybe heat is the issue?

brian

[minister]

it's not heat here. both my control room and equipment room are climate controlled.

[Drive d]

This is exactly what I'be been trying tell Digi for the past few months.... I am SO glad I am not the only one with this problem... I was begining to think I was cursed or something. I've actually lost a few clients because of this problem. We need to get this resolved soon. With summer coming on I know it's going to an oven in my control room. It was great in the winter, But.
Anyway PLEASE - PLEASE Digi take a peek and help us out. I cannot duplicate the problem when I have tech support on the phone. It only happens when we don't want it to. Good luck everyone!

[Lee Blaske]

With summer coming on I know it's going to an oven in my control room.

In any of these cases where heat seems to be a contributing factor, is the 192 in an iso box that could be even hotter than the control room? That could lead to problems. Also, is the 192 in a rack that has ample side to side clearance. The 192 vents on the side, so it needs airspace there. If the rack walls were too close, cooling would be compromised.

Also, here's another thought: We're at a point now where 192s have been out in the world for some time. They've got fans that move a lot of air at higher speeds, and by this time, some of them (especially if the control room air isn't particularly filtered) could have sucked in a LOT of dirt. It's amazing how dusty the insides of computer devices can get. At any rate, in some environments, the amount of dirt sucked in could now have reached the point where it's significantly compromising the 192's ability to keep its internal components cool and running at a reasonable temperature. I could imagine this definitely causing problems and possibly total failures. Maybe it's time to take these units out of the rack, open them up, and blow all the dust out. My favorite tool for doing this is to use an electric leaf blower (best to do it outside, too). It's possible that these problems are, in fact, being caused by cooling difficulties.

Lee Blaske