protools quiet click and pos

[pie55]

hi all


have a question about sync with syncing 3 pieces of gear. (lynx aurora 16, 96 i/o and an asp 880 mic pre) time is ticking as i have a audio book session Tue.



Im recording a quiet vocal audio book and no matter my settings I['m getting really quiet ( and some times ) not so quiet crackles.


hoping someone can chime in on how I have everything synced.


my gear mac pro 8 core , 3.1 mac os 10.6.8.
Protools hd 8.1.1 hd accel 3.. hard ware Aurora 16, 96 i/o and an Asp 880 8 channel preamp.


I've just started recording audio books, where noise floor is supper important.


For the last 20 years I've been recording bands, so the quiet click wouldn't be noticable. never noticed them before.



am i right to think making the Aurora the master (internal clock) be the way to go?.
I've tried every combination, trying the wordclock "loop" vrs just the in and out workdclock. when using the in and out, the "digi light" is iluminated.
really hopeing some one could chime in as to how to sync this stuff.


.


Over the years I've gone through a few computers. hoping I can get a few more out of my current system, though I'm in the works of upgrating to Prtools Sudio.
really looking for a second opinion as to the best way to sync it all


many thanks

[pie55]

if helpful i can attach some of the clicks im hearing.

[pie55]

so I swapped my 4050 for my other one and recorded 10 min with no crackle.
think i have it figured out, but im still curious about how I have everything synced..






tks

[pie55]

forgot to mention, the other day there were a bunch of clicks and pops. restarting seemed to fix that, then the new noise I think was from the mic itself. though i didn't consider that....

[Darryl Ramm]

Are the clicks in your recorded audio (can you see them in waveforms?) or happening during playback?

Make sure ignore errors during playback/record is *not* checked.

Especially if clicks are happening during playback disconnect everything except the interface you are monitoring though, disconnect all other Digilink boxes and sync cables and confirm you no longer hear clicks.

To be perfectly clear do you have an Aurora 16 or an Aurora (n) 16? If Aurora 16 what firmware is on the LT-HD card. Are LT-HD still limited to being loop sync master? Product documentation/latest firmware doc should tell you.

You are more giving us a list of equipment that saying what exactly is connected to what exactly how. e.g. We cannot guess if you are using the ASP0880 into analog inputs on the other boxes or into ADAT or what. Andd we cannot guess what interfaces you are actually recording or playing back through.

If the Lynx box is limited to being loop master then do that, but read their doc carefully. And then you need to get clock the ASP880. I would be running WC out of the 96/IO to the WC in on the ASP880. Check all boxes are showing the expected clock operation mode and clock is showing synced.

[pie55]

thanks for the reply!
the clicks are during recording. you can visually see them in the wave file. and at the same place when played back.


I noticed I had 2 different anomalies. one is a clock issue, which is fixed by resetting the clock, and the other a faulty transistor or resister (something like that) that has a different click sound



Its the silver aurora 16.


I'm sending my Neve and Api pre clones along with my Toft atb 16 mic pres to the aurora 1-16, then I have talk back and room mics pres feeding the 96 i/o and the ASP 880 adat out to the 96 i/o adat in



the Aurora is master, the 96 i/o has wordclock in the loop connectors and wordclock sent from the 96 i/o into the ASP 880.


all the sync lights seem right



to make things confusing I also had a cable that went bad. working one day and not the next.
I'm starting a thread on gearspace about cable testers. my tester says the cable works, but in reality it doesn't. slightly wiggling the connector shorts it out. even thoug its Canarree with neutric connectors. must be re soldered



soon im ditching my tdm system and using 2 Lynx aes cards with Protools studio

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by pie55

thanks for the reply!
the clicks are during recording. you can visually see them in the wave file. and at the same place when played back.

I noticed I had 2 different anomalies. one is a clock issue, which is fixed by resetting the clock, and the other a faulty transistor or resister (something like that) that has a different click sound

Its the silver aurora 16.

I'm sending my Neve and Api pre clones along with my Toft atb 16 mic pres to the aurora 1-16, then I have talk back and room mics pres feeding the 96 i/o and the ASP 880 adat out to the 96 i/o adat in

the Aurora is master, the 96 i/o has wordclock in the loop connectors and wordclock sent from the 96 i/o into the ASP 880.

all the sync lights seem right

So sounds like you did what I'd do. If the problem is not solved then I'd break the system down, or move to the Lynx AES card and use one interface with a simple setup and only and see if the problem still exists.

Make sure ignore errors is *not* checked (I think that was an option in HD8/TDM?? Can't remember for sure. )

to make things confusing I also had a cable that went bad. working one day and not the next.
I'm starting a thread on gearspace about cable testers. my tester says the cable works, but in reality it doesn't. slightly wiggling the connector shorts it out. even thoug its Canarree with neutric connectors. must be re soldered

Solder is a frequent cause or problems, it's good to avoid solder joints in wires and cables, and go for high-quality cables with crimp connectors. Which should be made with the exact correct crimp connector for the cable, sometimes they are very subtly different. A good crimp connection actually cold welds onto the wire, and needs a ratchet or hydraulic crimp tool and proper dies to get sufficient crimp pressure. And no solder pre-tinning of wires or soldering over the crimp... solder drawing up a multi-stranded wire and making it stiff/brittle is one failure mode.

And while clock signals can often be sent over anything, you should ideally make sure your word clock and loop sync cables are 75 ohm and use proper matching (to the cable) 75 ohm BNC connectors. My own bias for high-quality digital cables is Belden 1505. Higher spec than is needed for clock, but the same cables can run MADI and SDI etc. Blue Jeans Cables custom makes those cables with the proper Canare crimp on connectors at a good price. https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store...bles/index.htm The proper crimp connectors (specific to the Belden 1505 cable in this case) and well made crimps are all about having a stronger cable that will survive handling. I've spent too long in a research lab making exotic microwave coax cables, including incredibly thin exotic coax for use in cryogenic devices, connections to superconducting devices, etc. I am more than happy to have somebody else make these.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by pie55

soon im ditching my tdm system and using 2 Lynx aes cards with Protools studio

Be careful, you will need to aggregate those separate AES16e cards together with CoreAudio aggregation. I'd try to avoid that if at all possible. e.g. if sticking with Lynx a more modern Aurora(n) 32 with Thunderbolt 3 (but that would need a more recent computer?). Or in my cases I have RME ADAT AND AES/EBU to MADI boxes and a MADI interface and so could hang Auroa 16 and ASP-880 boxes off those RME boxes.

[pie55]

thanks for that.


I have 2 lynx aes cads.

one card is being fixed by Lynx.
I have a thunderbolt chassis for both cards and are internally clocked.
Then for the other 16 channels available on the 2nd Lynx card, 8 of them will be from the ASP 880 aes db 9 to aes cable.


the one card seems stable with protools Ultimate. recorded 32 channels with tons of plugins for a few hours with no glitch

[pie55]

so after 2 weeks of the computer working 95% now its crackling every 4 or 5 min. attached is a sound of the clicking....


again I've tried every combo of sync. and for years it worked perfectly




heres a link of the error https://soundcloud.com/audio-empire/...social_sharing