HDR Drop out/Glitch Noise on Playback

[Bruce Graham]

Hi Guys;

Need some help and advice please.

The problem is, when playing back a recording, I get a drop out or glitch sound on all tracks, at the same time code. In a song that was 3 1/2 minuets I had 10 drop outs. They didn’t appear to be spaced equally apart but close to equal.

I changed hard drives, no changed.

I started the d8b first and made sure it was up and running before turning on the HDR.

There are no “ * ” or “ ? “ flashing on the d8b. The d8b and HDR appear to be locked.

My setup is a d8b and an HDR with AES cards as I/O and AES Multi cable. All signals flow as intended.

I do not have sync or word clock running between then as all info I read states that when using AES it is not required. AES is "self clocking", they say. Any thoughts there? I may try connecting word clock that just to see.

Other than that it is nothing fancy, No other digital boxes at all anywhere.

Thanks for any help.

Cheers
Bruce

[arjepsen]

Hey.
It might be clock related.
I actually have an apogee clock card in my d8b, and I've still had some funky glitches... though in my case, I uploaded some files to the HDR and then tried to play them....
You don't have the apogee card?

[Bruce Graham]

Hi arjepsen;

I forgot to mention that I had a a Apogee card.

As it turns out Sync is required. I miss read the AES/EBU self clocking info. the d8b & HDR must be synchronised.

Long story short, I think I have resolved my issue. Mike Rivers suggested that the HDR be used as the Master, and the d8b is the slave, as the output voltage level of the Apogee's Word Clock is questionable.

So I used the HDR as the Master and it seems to be working fine. I have done some test recording from a CD (Analog through the d8b) and it seems fine.

Now, there where some noises (digital pops and clicks) but I believe it is on the CD. It is a Dianne Krall track and I thought there was "no way" that it would sound like that, BUT... it appears there are. Lesson here for for me is know your source material. So to make sure all was well, I used tone (iK, 10K and 40Hz), and the glitches that where there before are gone. This was fixed by making the HDR the Master. I recorded 1K for a minute and then went back and punched in and out with the other tones at various points on all 24 tracks during the test. All seems well. No glitches it appears.

You could try the same and see if you hear a difference. A note is that the Apogee Word Clock In is Terminated and adding an addition termination reduces the signal to a point that it has trouble locking. Fussy things!

Cheers and thanks for your post.

Bruce

[arjepsen]

Hey.
Just curious whether your problem went away for good?

Because maybe they jumped to me....
I have an HDR connected to my d8b, and I am experiencing some trouble with noises and glitches on playback.
Sometimes it seems like the playback will skip around between the times of the recordings.
I'm not sure the d8b is the problem, 'cause I also have some trouble when I play back to my MOTU ultralight avb through adat.
Any help??

[Bruce Graham]

Hi all;

Yes the problem was Clocking. I miss interrupted the AES/EBU notes on "Clocking". AES/EBU does need to be referenced (Clocked), just like any other Digital Signal.

To solve the problam (big thanks to Mike Rivers), I used the HDR as Master and Slaved the d8b to it. Same Sample Freq, Same Bit Depth. Worked like a charm. No issue since.

Reason for HDR being the Master is the voltage level output of the HDR Clock is higher than that of the Apogee Clock Card. Also, for those whom are interested, RG6 cable works just fine, and the HDR's BNC connector is 75 Ohms.

Hope that helps others.

Cheers
Bruce

[arjepsen]

Yeah, I think I've tried every concievable combination...
I've been in contact with Mike Rivers, who again affirmed that it's best to have the d8b slave to the HDR, and boot the d8b first.
He suggested I tried the old bios, so I had to dig out the old harddrive (right now I have a 120 gb laptop harddrive in there).
I tried the old HD first, without changing the bios, and it actually seemed like it worked fine...???? no unwanted noises.
I've tested the 120gb drive, and couldn't find any bad sectors on it, so I think it works fine.

But I'm thinking about moving to an ssd instead.
And this gets me thinking.... I've heard and read a lot of bad things about the reliability of yesteryears ssd's.
However, I've read in here, that it should only work with an sata2 ssd.
Is this true for the drive itself, or is it more about the ide to sata adapter??

[Bruce Graham]

Hie arjepsen;

I am no expert regarding SSD when it comes down to it. I did as an experiment make 1- 32 gb SSD. What I paid attention to was 2 things.

#1, the SSD and the SATA adaptor (converter) where SATA I, or SATA II (not SATA III). This was emphasised several times to me by the very knowledgeable people here in this forum.

#2, the speed, or seek (read / write) time at which the above operate. As long as they are slow as what the HDR/MDR/SDR need as a minimum you should be good to go. Faster is OK.

I did this and in my test drive I have had no issues. I did a full 24 track record for 1 hour and had no issues punching in on all 24 tracks, other than, the same issues that you have using the standard hard drives. It takes a bit for the screen to catch up to what the drives is doing.

The problem I had was finding SATA II adaptors that would fit into the caddies with the drives attached using a 2 1/2" frame for a 3 1/2 drive. The SATA II adaptor that worked best has been discontinued and I have yet to find one that suits the bill. I get other to work I just can't find ones that fit together properly and can be mount into the caddy.

I live in Canada so getting parts is much more difficult than living in the USA.

Other may have found specific adaptors that will fit in the caddies.

I noticed that you said to start the d8b first. My experience has always been to start the Master first, then once fully booted to then start any slaves one has connected. Now, I know the d8b likes to be started first (whether it is the Master or Slave), but I have not had an issue starting it after the HDR. Just some thoughts.

Post back if you have any other questions.

Good luck and cheers.
Bruce