too much gain when recording issue 1608

[chrisdski]

Hi all.  Recently I've experienced periods of excessive gain while recording.  I have an earlier 1608 running an iPad 3.  MF 4.  Clean boot of the iPad before using.  It is connected wirelessly using an airport express to an iPad 4.  I also use Tango for between set music. All is well PA wise during the gig. The recording level is at 0dBs (which I believe is default).  When I later check the audio files (recorded using the MF4's recording function) there is intermittent long periods of excessive gain (not white noise).  I have included a screen shot of the last 3 sets.  Interestingly, the first set had the "problem" start, and then resolve itself during the recording session, the second set didn't have any issue at all, the 3rd set "problem" started up and never ceased. I tried some trouble shooting at home- (with no router hooked up so wireless though connected to home wifi via iPad), I tried running tango, not running tango, phantom on and off, all mic gains down.  Interestingly I had one episode with tango playing music (recorded it), but then did it again to confirm and there was no issue.  So it seems pretty intermittent to me.  Could a component just be going bad?  Could bluetooth affect it? Any ideas to troubleshoot? Chris

[chrisdski]

OK, who has recorded gigs using the integrated MF4 recording feature, and did you have any issues with recording quality?

[CyberHippy]

I recently recorded a show with MF4 and didn't have that particular issue, but I did have the occasional click (when I zoomed in on them in Logic, they were a single bit of square wave, maximum peak) I used the editor to remove just the click and the recording is otherwise fine.

[gerenm63]

I did a lot of recording with my 1608 and MF2.x, but haven't had much call for it since. In those recordings, I got the very rare 1-sample pop, but otherwise, recordings were always clean. I only have one iPad capable of working with MF3 or MF4, and I'm usually using it for mixing. I'll try to do some recording with MF4 on my next gig once I get set up (I'll mix with an iPhone).

[chrisdski]

I recorded with MF3 and had no problem with the same set up, so this is new to me with MF4.  At first I thought it was a setting somewhere (hope it still is), but after the second gig and I was getting it again I knew something was wrong.  The thing that gets me is it's intermittent, it comes and goes regardless of live mixing.  The wave files shown above are one hour sets  squished down for display.  The quiet zones between songs are when talking was going on between songs and shown in the wave forms above.  Its definitely an excessive gain issue, not white noise. I could just have a component going bad, or something set funny to produce the excessive gain.  As a test, people could just run the iPad music channel and record it for an hour with MF4, and give it a quick listen thru MF4 see if you get anything similar - you can just bounce every minute or three while listening as it hangs around if it starts.  I did it twice as a test- first time recording for an hour I had a problem, and then I redid it to confirm- and no problem.

[robmcl]

This past weekend I had an entire 3 hr rehearsal recording with the same overdriven results.   Definitely not white noise just over gained.   I've recorded on MF4 with no problem.   Next day I went back to troubleshoot and the problem is gone.   Now I'm concerned about when it might come back.
Dl1608, recording with Voice Recorder Pro

[WK154]

Well with two different programs and certainly two different DL1608's and iPads it pretty well points to the Dl1608 MF4 Firmware.