Quote:
Originally Posted by ulysses  What happens if you use your polarity-flipping adapters on the output of the 002? If this does NOT cause the polarity to become inverted, then the simple and obvious problem is that your polarity-flipping adapters are not polarity-flipping.
If the adapters DO flip the polarity on the 002, then they aren't the problem.
Based on everything you've told us here, I'm confident there are only two possible explanations:
1. Both Mytek and Calrad sold you equipment that is wired with polarity that's different from what it's supposed to be.
2. Operator error. That's you. It sounds like you know what you're doing, but there's just no other legitimate possibility based on the info you've provided us.
3. The third hypothetical which is NOT a legitimate possibility is that the Mytek manages to produce a different polarity when you use the Calrad adapters than it does when you don't use the adapters.
Besides using the adapters to route the 002's outputs back into an ADC, the other thing you can do to get to the bottom of this is to use a multimeter to check the connections on your polarity adapters. Look carefully to be sure you're connecting your test probes to the pins you think you're connecting them to at each end of the adapter. Use the "continuity" setting of the meter for an easy "Go/No-Go" beep. Or just open them up and look inside.
Seems odd that Calrec would miswire two adatpers and ship them both to the same guy who got a miswired Mytek converter.
Also seems odd that Mytek would build a converter with connectors installed with wire, the only possible way to get an accidental inversion on one unit. If that's the case, an assembler would have had to miswire both channels. More likely would be that they used PC-mount XLR connectors, which cannot be accidentally miswired. It would have to be a design flaw, one that surely would have been noticed by other users of the same product sometime in the past 5 years.
It kind of sounds like I'm piling on and saying this has to be your error, but I'm really just trying to help you work through the variables. Believe me, I've made far sillier mistakes than this.
But while I'm being pedantic and thorough, I have to say that I doubt your assertions that you've heard adapter cables color your audio, or that you can identify an absolute polarity inversion by ear. Relative polarity inversion (such as right-vs-left or two mikes on a single source) is very easy to hear. Absolute inversion (everything flipped together) is nearly impossible on a very few sources under ideal conditions, and totally impossible on everything else. |
I kind of just had to walk away from this mess for a couple days. It was going to give me a serious complex if I don't have one already. I ordered the CT100 cable tester and I'm waiting for that just to make absolutely sure it's not something weird with my cables.
"Seems odd that Calrec would miswire two adatpers and ship them both to the same guy who got a miswired Mytek converter." Indeed my friend, it does. I don't know what to tell you. I wouldn't post on this forum if I'd tried absolutely everything I could think of because I know y'all would rip me a new one and say I'm a lunatic. But, that's just the price I pay to having access to this great resource of people with experience far beyond my years and having the opportunity to get feedback from a high end forum.
The calrads, although not flipping the polarity on the mytek, didn't impart any color or change in sound that I noticed. But with all do respect, I have found that anything you place in the line of a signal has the potential to change ("color") the sound. I have noticed this with other adapters, namely TRS to XLR adapters. I am not an electrician, but I would assume from my knowledge it's simply due to the fact that different metals have different conductivity, for the same reason a lot of people prefer gold plated terminals on their cables, etc.
In terms of being able to hear absolute polarity, I also don't know what to tell you. Maybe it's just as much a systemic reaction to music as it is an audible one. Inverted polarity doesn't sound/feel natural to me. Maybe I'm nuts. But I can tell you I've been hired for many a project simply based on the fact that I seem to be able to hear things that other people don't. I think I'm better at just hearing things and pinpointing what I hear than I am at mixing material. I seriously don't even like saying any of this because I'm a very humble person and believe that humility is very important in life and that no one is ever always right. But I can just tell you that I've learned to trust my ears (and systemic reactions to music), in most scenarios, over the years.
Obviously the polarity issue got by me for a while, because I've had this unit for a while. I could just tell something was sounding/feeling weird and it wasn't until I realized that anything I sent out of Pro Tools for outboard processing came back in upside down that I was able to soon pinpoint the issue. I went on to discover that because of this, stuff I had been working on had certain things flipped, other things not flipped, so drums were inverted, synths not, etc, it was a mess.
But in my defense, I went from doing all my editing and mixing on an MBox, where these variables were never an issue, to buying some decent outboard gear to up my game a bit. When I was working with the MBox, I was able to do some really solid work. But when working with this updated gear, I kept noticing something didn't feel right, and couldn't figure out what the heck it was, because SO many things had been improved with the updates...I mean, c'mon, mytek conversion compared to MBox conversion? LA-610 with NOS tubes compared to the generation 1 mbox focusrite pres? There's no f-ing comparison. Anyway, there were several other issues I had to resolve, but once those were out of the way, I was able to pinpoint the polarity issue.
I appreciate all your input and if this is truly error on my behalf I apologize for wasting your time with this thread. I will try using the polarity flippers on the 002 and maybe my 610 just to see if they flip the signal in those applications. I'm also going to wait for the cable tester to make sure there is nothing weird going on with my cables. They were all made by the same guy with a good track record, so I would find it weird if there was an issue, but it definitely is a good thing to check. Right now, I'm sick and I need to rest. I'll report back after I've tried these things. Take care.