Crickets in my system!

[Jeff Hodges]

I am getting 'cricket chirping' sounds, as my hard drives scan, through some new speakers I recently hooked up. Like, every second or so. This is digital glitchery, not a true insect BTW.

...chirp.......chirp......chirp.

Anyone familiar? Shielding to the new amp etc maybe?

[Mark Haliday]

Sounds like a grounding problem, and the fact is that computers haven't made grounding problems easy to solve ! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

What your post doesn't say is what system (and what interfaces) you are using, and how your speakers are connected to it.

First check the quality of your grounding, then try powering all your gear from the same AC (and grounding) source (providing it can take the power needs)
If you are going from PT to amp with a balanced connection, try disconnecting the ground in the audio cable (not the ac cable)on the interface side.
The principle behind this is to have the receiving machine be the one that supplies the audio grounding. (the AC grounding should not be disconnected on any machine)
Caution : this will NOT work with unbalanced connections !
In the end if don't feel confortable with these issues, then maybe you should get a qualified technician to avoid any safety hazards [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[jjgaravito]

I have also experienced the "crickets in my system" phenomenon. This issue does NOT appear to be related to the hard drive(s) as you state. It is definitely coming from my 192. I am able to stop the effect if I go to the Setups - Hardware Setup... menu. If I set the system to 176.4 or 192k it appears, but with any of the lesser settings it goes away. Any help or suggestions on removing this unwanted gremlin would be much appreciated.

[Chris Lambrechts]

agree with MH .... definately sounds like a grounding problem

[Jeff Hodges]

Mark, the setup is Mac G4 Mix+24, drives are three digi 'quiet drives' 18g/10K off a digi/atto scsi card. Procontrol is sending the signal from the 888 to amps.

I don't have the problem when running through my self-powered Dynaudio Acoustics usually (actually I have heard them, when running alot of audio tracks in the most quiet quiet sections...can they be recorded? yikes...).

The main problem yesterday was when running through a new amp/speaker set (Tannoys/crown amp)...so I'll move some plugs around. The room is grounded with two isolated circuits. I'll try the amp on the other circuit as you suggested.

jj, maybe the higher resolution is revealing the grasshoppers (grounding prob)...I'll let you know what happens on this end tho.

The crickets definetely chirp in time with the lights on the hard drives.

[daniel_c]

I've come across this problem before. It doesn't affect every system , just a select few [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

I thought it was an earthing problem and I spent hours trying to plug power round the studio , turning off drives , earth lifting this that and the other. And you know what fixed it?

reinstalling Pro Tools!!!

Just put the Pro Tools CD in and run the installer. that's it. you don't loose any plugin authorisations.

The problem reappeared last week and that's what fixed it the second time round.

D

[Jeff Hodges]

Daniel - whoaaah...thats kinda scary. Are you on mac, what version. I've been lazy and haven't installed the upgrade for 5.1.1, I'm on just plain 5.1.

I wonder if Digidesign will weigh in on that - have they heard of the problem and does reinstalling provide the fix.

I'll go scan the answerbase...

[Jeff Hodges]

From Answerbase:

"When recording or monitoring from the RCA analog out of the Audiomedia III Card, you can hear electrical pulses through the monitoring system each time the drive head accesses the drive.

Internal grounding problem with CPU and/or SCSI/ATA bus.
Power, SCSI and Audio cables should not run parallel with one anther. Either isolate the cables from one another or have them cross at right angles to minimize/eliminate inductance between cables. The same goes for a wall plug that could have a unconnected ground pin. You can buy a $5 device that will tell you whether your wall socket is properly grounded or not. "

...i don't have the exact same gear but definetely sounds like a similar thing. Daniel, I'm gonna try this before I do the reinstall...

JJ-you should try this let us know. I'm upgrading to HD soon and wanna know...the problem would seem to get worse at the higher res. I'm trying later today.

[daniel_c]

Install the 5.1.1 upgrade. It's more or less the same as reinstalling Pro Tools.

The system in question is a G4 (3x PCI slot with the green power button) , Mix + , ! x 888/24 , 2 x 882/20 , Dual ATTO SCSI card , 2 x external SCSI Drives. Plugged through a Neve 8024 console , Pereaux power amp , yamaha NS-10M , (or) KRK V8.

An install on a mac is piss easy. It's not like a PC at all [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Like I said , you don't loose any authorisations. You can even do a complete Mac OS reinstallation in a similar way and all your applications are still there.

Also , you should beep out all your leads connecting your interfaces to your monitoring to see if they have been damaged i.e. some earths have come off , a hot or cold her or there may have come off.

D

[daniel_c]

oh yeah , we had 5.1 the first time , then 5.1.1

And the noise was more and more niticeable at higher track counts until we did the reinstall

D