Odd digital distortion

[SoundtrackArcade]

hey all -
I just mixed a track and put my WAVES Mastering Limiter across the buss and am getting a bizzare digital distortion coming out of my left speaker (and on all speakers that I switch to) . Nothing is even close to overloading. I have tried trashing prefs, transfering the session into a brand new session, tried different compressors across the master buss and I get the same incredibly frustrating distortion. This has never happened before and I work in here 10 hours a day. Any insight here would be greatly appreciated as I am on a tight deadline and pulling my hair out. thx!

PT 8
Mac Snow Leopard
8 core tower.

[MC272]

Hey SoundtrackArcade I have just recently started to experience the exact same problem, I too use Pro Tools for long hours every day (version 7.4 on a PC though) and out of nowhere I started experiencing that odd distortion in the left speaker (doesn't sound like your typical digital distortion you get from overloading the master, sounds like a bad speaker almost, but it's not because I've checked in both headphones and speakers and the problem is the same in both). It only occurs when the volume is closing in on clipping the master (which is why you might not notice it until you put a limiter on the master and bring up the level). If I bring the master fader down the distortion goes away, and like you said I am getting that distortion in only the left output when I get the sound to a certain level with the master fader, and there is nothing clipping. All my old sessions, sessions that were completed projects that never distored, are now all of a sudden distorting in the left speaker. Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?? Any help would be very much appreciated!!

Jon

[KMcK]

You guys both need to provide more info about your setups.

What interface? How is it connected to your speakers? What are your playback engine settings?

[MC272]

Hey KMcK thanks so much for the fast response, I already figured it out though, user error hard core. I had a Y-cable plugged into the main L 1 output (was jerry rigging an extra monitoring situation with a mixer and that y cable, left it in the output and forgot about it). That somehow caused the left monitor and headphone outputs to distort before any channels ever showed clipping in Pro Tools. Removed the cable and all is working again. Very odd, but very glad it was that easy of a fix.