Question about digital distortion (using Massey L2007)

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solo-bration
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Question about digital distortion (using Massey L2007)

Post by solo-bration » Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:58 am

Lately, when I run the Massey L2007 Mastering/Limiting plug-in on my master track, I'm getting some noticeable distortion during playback. When "bouncing" the track to file, it's sounds over-blown (the more compression the more distortion) during the bounce, but the end result (the wav) file sounds fine/clean. This never used to happen when using this plug-in. Perhaps I switched a setting in my playback prefs. Any ideas why this might be happening?

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Post by Al_Huero » Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:59 am

Odd that it distorts on playback and bounce, but not in the final wav file. That doesn't make much sense to me. I've gotten distortion using it before, but it always translated across everything, including the final audio file. Could just be that whatever you're playing the final mix back through is masking the issue, which may not be true in all cases or playback systems. You may just need to dial back the amount of limiting you're doing.

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infopimpster
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Post by infopimpster » Sat Oct 25, 2008 7:53 am

Could you post your settings - or a screenshot?

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Post by markitzero » Sun Oct 26, 2008 8:50 am

Correct me if I'm wrong, but plugins on the Master track in ProTools are post fader. So if you keep jacking up the master fader, you're effecting all your plugins on the master. You should try bussing everything to a master aux track, doing all you processing there, and then run that into the master with no plugs on it.

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Post by solo-bration » Mon May 25, 2009 6:33 am

This is a follow-up post answering my question (to help people in the future).

It wasn't the Massey plug causing the distortion. Basically, any mastered (ie. loud) audio played in Protools would cause this problem. I found another forum where someone had the same problem using PT and the Digi002R, and they solved it. For some reason if you have the "Monitor Output" and the "Main Output" jacks both occupied on the back of the Digi002R, it causes this distortion/clipping.

I use the Monitor outputs to send to my monitors, and I just had the "main outputs" sending to my patchbay (as an option). After disconnecting the cables from the "main outs" the clipping was gone. Not sure why this happens with the Digi002R, but I'm glad I finally found out what was causing it!

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Post by leigh » Mon May 25, 2009 12:26 pm

solo-bration wrote:I found another forum where someone had the same problem using PT and the Digi002R, and they solved it. For some reason if you have the "Monitor Output" and the "Main Output" jacks both occupied on the back of the Digi002R, it causes this distortion/clipping.

I use the Monitor outputs to send to my monitors, and I just had the "main outputs" sending to my patchbay (as an option). After disconnecting the cables from the "main outs" the clipping was gone. Not sure why this happens with the Digi002R, but I'm glad I finally found out what was causing it!
Sweet! More awesome hardware design from Digidesign! I mean Avid! Because a corporate name change makes all the difference!

When you had both monitor and main outputs connected, were the main outs actually driving anything (through the patchbay)? Or were those patch points left open, and not normalled to any gear?

Leigh

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Post by solo-bration » Tue May 26, 2009 3:39 am

the main output's were plugged into the patchbay (just open points, not normalled to anything).

I'm so glad I figured this issue out. It sucks working in an environment where you know something is "a little off", but not sure what exactly.

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Post by leigh » Tue May 26, 2009 10:13 am

solo-bration wrote:the main output's were plugged into the patchbay (just open points, not normalled to anything).
Wow, that's worse than I thought - that would mean that it's not even a question of loading down the output circuitry or the power supply (since the main outs weren't actually driving a load). Instead it's some kind of internal switching going on in the unit when it detects that there's something plugged into the main outs... ??

So now, if you crank up a mix, and then pop a cable end into the main outputs, it immediately distorts? Or is the effect more subtle and intermittent? (I'm sure you have better things to do than sit around and induce distortion in your playback, but I'm wondering if this effect is easily repeatable and demonstrable.)

Leigh

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