blinking red leds in 11R

[musicman691]

Got my 11R hooked up as interface to PT. Tried it with the demo project that comes with PT10 and got sound out the main outs to my mixer which feeds monitor speakers. So that much is okay.

What I'm wondering about are the two blinking red leds in side the unit as looking at the left side of the chassis down through the top. I don't have any digital stuff hooked up save for the USB interface cable to my iMac from the 11R. What do these leds mean? Searched here and only found one thread that mentioned blinking red leds but that user also had no audio out (2010 era thread). I have audio out.

Haven't tried any recording or such at the moment.

27" iMac refurb
3.4GHz I7 quad core cpu
8 gig ram (waiting on ram from OWC)
2tb main drive (waiting on external drives)
PT10.3.2
OSX 10.8.2 (that's what came with the machine)
MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV USB MIDI interface

edit: nevermind (I hope). Using site search only turned up one thread but when I went to Google I found other threads where it talked about the blinking leds. This one for example: http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=293839

[Benoni]

if you want to see exactly where the LED's are, and see them without the top of the Eleven Rack on, watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOBDjSuuDqA

and to see pictures of the inside of the unit, go to my blog site:
http://elevenrackusers.blogspot.com/...even-rack.html

[musicman691]

Thanks for the look inside. Being a techie (retired EE) I always like to know and see what's going on. That being said red generally means something not good and I'm surprised Avid didn't use another color led if these are indeed indicators the chip(s) are functioning. Learn something new every day.

[AvidEditor]

While I understand the versatility of using a mixer with 11R (I've used my Mackie extensively with 11R in different configurations) in a mixing scenario I would not wire 11R > mixer > monitors. I want to trust the output of Pro Tools and I do not want a mixer potentially coloring my sound.

As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure I 100% trust the Eleven Rack to give transparent monitoring. I recall a year ago finding effects in the chain that changed the tone even in bypass. I don't remember with effects they were. There is a guy out there that does a mod to clean up Eleven Rack circuitry, maybe this is what he cleans up.

Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and use 11R to record my band's CD, I trust it that much - but once again I wouldn't put a mixer in front of reference monitors.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by AvidEditor

While I understand the versatility of using a mixer with 11R (I've used my Mackie extensively with 11R in different configurations) in a mixing scenario I would not wire 11R > mixer > monitors. I want to trust the output of Pro Tools and I do not want a mixer potentially coloring my sound.

As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure I 100% trust the Eleven Rack to give transparent monitoring. I recall a year ago finding effects in the chain that changed the tone even in bypass. I don't remember with effects they were. There is a guy out there that does a mod to clean up Eleven Rack circuitry, maybe this is what he cleans up.

Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and use 11R to record my band's CD, I trust it that much - but once again I wouldn't put a mixer in front of reference monitors.

This mixer I trust and have used it for years so I know the sound.

Maybe some of the effects you're talking about are modeling a little too closely from their hardware counterparts. Not all hardware effects, especially those of yore, were true bypass. Some would only bypass the output meanwhile keeping the input circuitry of the effect part connected to the guitar input. EH used to be famous for that. That way you'd still have the loading of the effect input circuitry in parallel with the signal going around the effect circuitry.

[AvidEditor]

Originally Posted by musicman691

This mixer I trust and have used it for years so I know the sound.

Maybe some of the effects you're talking about are modeling a little too closely from their hardware counterparts. Not all hardware effects, especially those of yore, were true bypass. Some would only bypass the output meanwhile keeping the input circuitry of the effect part connected to the guitar input. EH used to be famous for that. That way you'd still have the loading of the effect input circuitry in parallel with the signal going around the effect circuitry.

True bypass has always been significantly important to me. When I complained to a fellow guitarist I really respect about this potential 11R bypass issue he laughed and made a joke that Avid is really going all out to deliver an accurate product lol. Anyway, even if there is an issue it's so slight that it doesn't warrant my concern.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by AvidEditor

True bypass has always been significantly important to me. When I complained to a fellow guitarist I really respect about this potential 11R bypass issue he laughed and made a joke that Avid is really going all out to deliver an accurate product lol. Anyway, even if there is an issue it's so slight that it doesn't warrant my concern.

The problem with hardware units and true bypass is not everyone uses 4 pole double throw footswitches. They use only double pole double throw which only bypasses the output and both in and out of the effect circuitry like a 4pdt (4 pole double throw).