Haunted mixers

[joeq]

Having just "lost my lease", I brought my board from my 'outside' studio back to my 'home' studio. (Its a Soundtracs Solo MIDI) I was planning on using this to replace my POS Mackie and its endless ribbon cable problems

The Soundtracs mixer was working perfectly when I pulled it out. I moved it myself, kept it covered, never dropped or banged it. Get it home and it starts acting up with the same kind of problems as the Mackie.

inputs will crackle and cut out and then come back on when the trim or fader is "exercised" - turn it way up and back down and suddenly it is OK (for a while) as if the signal "burned through", and once having done so can keep on flowing.

Kind of like unclogging a drain.

a mono signal panned to the right will be between 3 and 6 dB louder than if it is panned to the left, and then it will be OK for a while and then not OK.

I am currently running 1k tones into the groups, they are continually fluctuating up and down, up and down, and no two group faders are at the same position to get them to zero. And then they change or even cut out completely.

The problems exist regardless of what input is being used or what cables.

Currently with the tones, nothing at all is connected to the board, yet the group faders look like a cross section of the Himalyas

this would not be driving me so CRAZY, if it wasn't the EXACT same crap the Smackie pulled on me earlier. Since there nothing plugged into the mixer, I can't see the connection. Just two mixers f-ing up in the same way. Haunted.

I was hoping someone could give me a good reason NOT to throw this thing out tonight (friday evening) - saturday morning is big trash pickup!

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by joeq

Just two mixers f-ing up in the same way. Haunted.

How's your electricity at home?


Any brownouts in the area?


Any voltage drops?


Is true 120v?


How is your ground?


These are places to check.

[joeq]

Originally Posted by thethrillfactor

How's your electricity at home?

Any brownouts in the area?

Any voltage drops?

Is true 120v?

How is your ground?

These are places to check.

well my house was completely gutted and renovated about 10 years ago by the former owner who was an electrician. He did everything right to the max. The house is in a commercial zone and he brought everything up to commercial spec so the house could be used as a store or business or whatever.

I don't think there have been any brownouts in my area, certainly have not noticed anything with the lights or appliances.

I will have to check the voltage - I don't know how I can test my ground, but none of my other equipment shows any problems, any hums or buzzes etc. These boards don't hum or buzz either, just get intermittent on an indeterminate, unrepeatable basis.

I have been running tones into the groups for the last 4 hours and the levels seem to be "settling". The meters and the fader positions are getting closer together- though still not quite level, and they are not flickering or cutting out.

[brianroth]

Hmmm...the description sure sounds like "connector-itis" to me.

As in..some internal connections (motherboard? ribbon cable?) were disturbed during the move.

Bri

[joeq]

Originally Posted by brianroth

Hmmm...the description sure sounds like "connector-itis" to me.

As in..some internal connections (motherboard? ribbon cable?) were disturbed during the move.

Bri

OK, I pulled off the cover and popped every ribbon cable, sprayed it with contact cleaner and pushed it back in and triple checked it for tightness and fit.

I ran tones into the groups all night. When I went to bed channel 2 was low, and channel 3 was hot.

When I got up 2 and 3 were fine, 6 was low and channel 8 stopped working altogether.

There were 2 ribbon cables that went under a circuit board and I did not pop or spray those ends. I guess I will have to open it again...

The board has a rackmounted external power supply with a big fat multipin cable to the mixer. I guess I should double-check that cable.

[djui5]

pots?

[joeq]

Originally Posted by djui5

pots?

I think it has something to do with the busses- When I ran a cd into each input the left channel master was lower when the pan pot was turned to the left. When turned to the right the right channel master was higher. even at 12:00 the right side is a tad higher.

another clue: no crackling or uneven levels in solo.

[djui5]

if it's fine in solo, then I'd say clean your master fader and see if that helps. Also, check the master volume pot for kicks.

If that don't work, it's something with your buss like you said, and you'll need a techie to come out and tear things apart.....or get the schematic and do it yourself.

[vince @ speck]

It could be any number of things. First thing I think of are insert jacks, in particular the insert jacks that are globlal to the mix and group busses.

If the insert jacks were being used for a long period of time, then unpluged and not used again, the jacks' normaling terminals don't make a solid connection and the signal can be somewhere between flakey to non-existant.

[csilt]

First thing I can think of is a problem with your flux capacitor. Beyond that I would check on the name of the unit and make sure it doesn't say Mackie, they suck hardcore...

[KingDaddyO]

Originally Posted by joeq

Having just "lost my lease", I brought my board from my 'outside' studio back to my 'home' studio.
....
this would not be driving me so CRAZY, if it wasn't the EXACT same crap the Smackie pulled on me earlier. Since there nothing plugged into the mixer, I can't see the connection. Just two mixers f-ing up in the same way. Haunted.

I was hoping someone could give me a good reason NOT to throw this thing out tonight (friday evening) - saturday morning is big trash pickup!

So was the Smackie also in your home studio when it started 'acting out'?
If you answered 'Yes', then in all seriousness I have to ask if you've checked the county property records thoroughly. Maybe you ARE living on top of a sacred burial ground or some similar type of mind***karoonie.

So, apart from checking whatever ribbon cables are left, reseating any heat-cycled migrating chips, thoroughly cleaning any dirty pots & switches, and testing all inserts & patch points, no - I can't think of a good reason why you wouldn't make the trash man work for his quarterly fee.

-Thom