ProControl Monitoring Problems ?

[douglas stringer]

Oh no... there have been problems with the PC analog section all along. Some find the cue system unusable.

http://www.digidesign.com/ubb/Forum18/HTML/001135.html

[This message has been edited by douglas stringer (edited 11-01-99).]

[Will Russell]

FWIW- I have no real problems with the audio section of the PC. Certainly no phasing problems with my Genelec 1031As. I had my Dsub harnesses made by HAVE, and the cables are the same config as the harness for DA88s. My guess is maybe you should start from scratch with your cabling between the PC and the Gennies. I do have the problem with the image shift with the monitor pots, but I know that it is very difficult to produce a more linear pot for a budget price. So use the dim switch. There is a quiet pop sometimes when switching within the audio section also, but again, no big deal. I find the audio section of the PC totally usable.

[George Cumbee]

I will be the first to admit that I was disappointed with the analog section of the PC but agreed with it for what it was. We use PT mainly for mixing, editing, mastering so cue is not an important thing now. We have a large control room, console and studio for that. We are building a new PT room with vocal area, so later it will be, but the analog section will not play a role in that. We'll just set up a cue mix on an aux and send it out the 888 to the cue system, prob. active. I use the Mix to Aux button and output to feed analog to a DAT machine. That has worked fine. The dubbing out feeds a cassette deck. I would have liked more features in that section, but......... I do plan to install a patch bay later to help out this problem.

I have never noticed the mon. pot problem either. Maybe I have just missed it. I don't think so. Ours, again, seems OK. Maybe we got lucky. The way this unit appears to be a cookie-cutter design, one would think they would all be just alike.

Please let all of us know what you discover on this problem...

George
Classic Recording, Franklin, TN
www.classicrecording.com

[kevinmac]

George, Will, I completely agree with both of you--believe me, I would love for this to be my fault. But the testing I'm doing is on the ProControl itself, straight out of the box, not even plugged in.... if I test the d-sub output connector on the PC, I'm getting ohm values between every single pin. The input d-sub connectors are fine, they test normally (+ and - are separate, and ground pins show continuity). I wish it could be my cable harness, but that tests fine. It's the PC itself, JUST the analog output d-sub. I have worked through every single thing it could be, and it comes down to the fact that when I test the PC right out of the box without it even being plugged in, I'm getting these results. Something is wired incorrectly in the output d-sub, the pins are getting combined somehow, and it's affecting everything I plug the output to.

I've even had custom harnesses made at my own expense to make ABSOLUTELY sure it wasn't anything from my end, and I got the same results. Again, I want to keep the PC because it is a wonderful piece besides these problems... it's worth every penny I spent on it. I was designing these new studios around the PC being the analog monitoring controller, though, and that's not working out...

Also, I'm sure my tone was a little harsh on my first post.. sorry about that. This type of problem is not something you would ever normally expect, and I would certainly put the user at fault first if approached with something like this... at this point, though, I have been troubleshooting it down to the smallest details, and it comes back to the fact the PC test this way by itself, with nothing else plugged in. So I'm looking to Digi to see if they can check this out and we can come up with a solution... all someone has to do is take a simple ohm tester and check any pins of the output connector, by itself with no harness plugged in... if they test fine and are completely discrete, SEND THAT UNIT TO ME. If they show ohm values between the pins where there shouldn't be any, then at least the problem has been discovered.

I'm rigged up a different way to record in the meantime, so I'm not out any work... it would be a dream to have this system running perfectly the way you guys have it going, though--I'm very excited to be able to have all my monitoring being run through the PC.

--kevinmac

[George Cumbee]

Kevin:

Who is your dealer and why are they not helping you on this. That is their job.

What scale on your meter are you using and what are the actual test values?

I assure you that I have never heard of this before and I think you may just have a problem unit. Please continue to work with your dealer and Digi to solve this.

George
Classic Recording, Franklin, TN
www.classicrecording.com

[Borgbilly]

Kevin, it would be helpful if you could publish your meter readings to this thread. Digi is very hush hush about the design of the analog section of the PC, but I will bet a dollar to a dime that the analog outputs are not discrete components. This type of design is not generally found in products in the PC's price range. It is more likely that the output section L and R outs are on the same op amp chip. If this is in fact the case, then resistance readings between channels of around 100K ohms would be perfectly acceptable, assuming an output impedance of less than 4K.

Hey Borgie!

Now we are getting somewhere!



Jules

"Chateau Pro Control" opens in London soon!

[Techsupt2]

kevinmac

We're currently looking into your situation and someone will be contacting you to explain your findings.

Brad

[Techsupt2]

Hello,

As a result of some of the posts here regarding polarity when monitoring with the ProControl monitor section, we’ve performed tests on the AUDIO OUTPUT connector to determine if a problem exists. We have discovered a reverse polarity condition that affects the Control Room Out left/right, Slate/Dub Out left/right and Control Room ALT Out left/right connections. The (+) and (-) pin locations for these outputs on the AUDIO OUTPUT D-sub connector are reversed from what is shown in the ProControl User Guide.

Using a stereo monitoring setup as an example, if your monitor amp, powered monitors etc. inputs are wired as pin 2 hot (+) and pin 3 cold (-), the corresponding pinouts on the ProControl AUDIO OUTPUT connector (Control Room, Out left/right, for example) would be sending these signals as pin 3 hot and pin 2 cold. The simple "fix" for this is to reverse the pin 2/pin 3 locations at the XLR’s of your cable assembly. There are also commercial turn-arounds available for this purpose from companies like Switchcraft and Whirlwind. If your cable harness fans out to *" TRS phone plugs, reverse the tip and ring points.

We apologize if this has caused any inconvenience. To ensure all ProControl users know about this, we will be sending out a letter to all registered users in the near future.

Digidesign Product Management

[industryho]

hmm,i guess this means the guys who said their pro-controls sounded great need to get their ears checked(hate to be mixing at your studio)i knew mine sounded funny just couldnt figure it out.thanks digi ,keep up the good work