Sound distorting

[Keekster]

Hi, rookie here. I have tried though! I’ve watched the excellent videos on you tube, I really have. Okay I picked up a dp32, in unused condition. Trying to record some guitar. If I use the sd card with the demo song, if I assign the input h to track 8, pull up the trim it all works as it should. I press record button I can hear the guitar on my head phones set up effects etc. great!
However when I install my new Sd card which I have formatted, set the inputs as before, I can barely hear the guitar on my head phones. If I turn up the monitor level it’s very distorted! The input is not clipping. The fader is not set any higher, I can’t see it clipping on the master output. What’s going on? Why will it work with the origin sd card but not the new one. The signal to the bus must be overloading but I don’t see anyway of monitoring it or reducing it. If I pull back the fader I can’t hear the guitar, the level is too low, so how can it be distorted. Totally baffled!
Oh, I have tried initialise as well on the new song but that hasn’t worked either.
Help

 

[Mark Richards]

assign the input h to track...pull up the trim...all works...press record...hear the guitar on headphones, set up effects etc. great!

...install new [formatted] card, set the inputs as before...barely hear the guitar on head phones...turn up the monitor level...very distorted...input not clipping...fader not any higher... can’t see it clipping on the master output...initialise as well on the new song...What’s going on?

Welcome to the 2488, DP-24/32 forum.

Hard to say what's going on, but highly unlikely a defective SD card issue.

I suggest that if you start trouble shooting by going to the "Equipment Related Tips" sticky pinned at the top of this forum, and review the tips in posts 5, 7 and 27 (listed under "INPUT/OUTPUT SIGNAL FLOW"), you'll very likely discover and correct the cause of your issue.

It's very important to master how signals move through the DP-24/32/SD, so I also suggest becoming familiar with the Block Diagram found in your owner manual. Phil Tipping's tutorial videos (also listed in the sticky section) make extensive use of the Block Diagram in explaining how signals move through the DP-24/32/SD.

Lastly, I highly recommend reading the "New Members" sticky to help familiarize yourself with tips and tricks, as well as avoidable pitfalls, associated with using these multi-track recorders effectively.

 

[Keekster]

Thanks I had a look at the posts but still had no luck but I found a work around. I deleted the songs on the new sd card and copied the demo song on to it from the old sd card. Then I loaded the demo song first, then created a new song. Whatever setting was wrong was overwritten getting rid of the distortion.
The only niggle is the pan. I’ve set the h input (guitar), to track 8. If the pan pot is off centre you hear the guitar and the signal gets louder in the headphone the more you pan it but there is no change side to side but the master signal shows it panning increasingly to the side . Which is odd. If you pan dead centre you CANT hear the guitar signal at all! Even though it shows on the two meters! That makes no sense.

 

[Phil Tipping]

When you create your song after loading the demo, it inherits all the settings from the demo song - EQ, Pan, FX, assignments etc. Unless you understand which of these settings is 'fixing' your problem, it might be better to start with a clean slate to avoid confusion. The video tutorial #2 shows how to make a 'reset' template which will help in future. Failing that, do a factory initialise, and then start investigating what is causing your problem. You have to be methodical, e.g. start with the simplest path from input direct to stereo output and see if the problem still occurs. Then assign the input to a track and repeat. If you take it step by step, you'll be able to narrow down the cause. As Mark says, there's plenty of advice in the other threads.

 

[Keekster]

Hi Phil
I have watched your videos they are excellent. Ive just updated the firmware. I’ve also now created a new test song and pressed initialise to get rid of the previous settings. But the pan issue remains. If the track the input signal is sent to has the pan set dead centre you can’t hear the signal at all, but can see it on the meters. If you pan it off centre you can hear it in both headphones, and the more you pan it the louder the signal gets. That shouldn’t happen, surely. This problem applies during recording or playback. I’ve tried various mono tracks and they are all the same (not a surprise as they share the same knob). If you pan it by l or two increments it attempts to pan it (can hear in headphones just) but beyond that it just increases the volume on both sides evenly. Note, the master meter correctly shows the signal being panned. I’ve tested the eq pots, and the effect send and master pots and they seem to be working okay.
Aha, just read this! Headphones may be be problem.
https://www.tascamforums.com/threads/dp24sd-pan-issues.5490/

 

[Phil Tipping]

There you go If you're methodical and check the signal path section by section, you can pinpoint the culprit. Let us know if the headphones (or headphone adaptor) was the cause (a classic problem is using a mono adaptor instead of a stereo one, but even correct adaptors have been known to be faulty).

 

[Keekster]

Happy days! All sorted now.Thanks to all concerned for the advice. And thanks again for the videos Phil, they are very helpful.

The problem is my beats headphones are designed with a microphone in the cable (3 connections rather than 2 for stereo). That doesn’t work with the adapter. Once I plugged in my sennheiser headphones it all worked perfectly. Doh. So obvious when I think about it. Given the machine only cost me £200 and was unused I’m rather chuffed. It was a bit of a gamble because it didn’t come with a power pack.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Great news! Thanks for the follow-up, and good luck with your recordings. Sounds like you got a bargain there

 

[-mjk-]

Audio disappearing when both Left/Right channel amplitudes match is a dead giveaway for a polarity reversal somewhere in the chain.

 

[Keekster]

Yeah, it’s a bit frustrating the phones still worked as I would have spotted the problem faster. Not quite sure how the lead end causes the polar reversal, two contact points hitting the same contact maybe.

 

[-mjk-]

two contact points hitting the same contact maybe.

That is in fact, what happens. And when the amplitudes of both signals are equal (i.e. dead center pan) they cancel. Since the guitar is a mono source and comes in on a single input and presumably onto a single track, there isn't any opportunity for a polarity cancellation on the mono signal path. The only logical place would be in the headphone lead. This happens a lot and I have also experienced it when using an improperly designed extension cable; I also had a bad 6.5mm/3.5mm adaptor plug that collapsed the stereo into mono.

It's always a good idea to check the sound on external monitors to see what's happening.

The problem is my beats headphones are designed with a microphone in the cable (3 connections rather than 2 for stereo)

Mobile phone earbuds can cause many monitoring headaches because of the TRRS plug going into a TRS jack, not to mention the non industry-standard wiring of the earbuds (e.g. Apple vs: Android).

Glad you got it worked out. That issue isn't going to get you ever again!

 

[Keekster]

I’m beginning to think the distortion I was getting initially was down to the headphones. I’m not doing anything different with the signal path than I was at the beginning. There was no clipping on the meters when I got the distortion. Anyway well happy now.