Mixer colour

Mister_D · Post by **Mister_D** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:32 am

I just got a second hand 2496 box. Thanks to people in the problem solving area, it is running well with my faithful old cubase 3.7 software.

Thought I'd have a good listen to the AD/DA circuits by connecting my cd player.

Hmmm. Very odd colouration of the sound. A bit saturated, with a hint of extra top end and a not-so-rounded bottom. Oh dear.

Felt disappointed. There is some pc hash leakage too. Something I've not had from the Luna's normal analogue outs before, but I'm working on a work-around that might even turn into a product! (you never know)...

Anyway - convinced there must be something fixable I racked my brains a bit more. It sounded like something was loaded in the mixer inserts. But what? Ok, so what if there is no mixer? Bingo.

Nice,transparent, quality converters. Phew! I wasn't ripped off on ebay after all.

I didn't like what the mixer was doing to the sound, but then again, I won't be using it to record a Coldplay CD. So maybe it will be a bonus.

Anyone else noticed the mixer colour?

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:51 pm

Have to say i haven't tested the mixer's transparancy, but i like the sound a whole lot better than the Cubase mixer. Also did you try it with the phase button on?

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:14 pm

On 2006-04-13 11:32, Mister_D wrote:
...Thought I'd have a good listen to the AD/DA circuits by connecting my cd player.

Hmmm. Very odd colouration of the sound. ...

a brilliant idea - what player is it ?

I cannot tell the difference between my Philips CD650 analog out (16-bit TDA1541), it's digital output converted by Pulsars 24-bit AKM converters, and the player 20/24 bit AD/DA converted on Pulsar.
Let alone the sh*t on some current CD releases (and I don't mean the 'musical' content this time)

would you mind to repeat your test with a decent vinyl player and some vintage records in mint condition ?

anyway - if that mixer 'colors sound' then there is something in the signal path most likely - an eq might still be active for example.
on the other hand I'd rather guess you made a digital connection between the CD player, as a bad cable (or sync/jitter) sounds pretty much like the symptoms you describe

cheers, Tom

Mister_D · Post by **Mister_D** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:27 am

On 2006-04-13 13:51, Mr Arkadin wrote:
Have to say i haven't tested the mixer's transparancy, but i like the sound a whole lot better than the Cubase mixer. Also did you try it with the phase button on?

Yes, tried the phase. Couldn't detect a difference except the phase changed!

Like I say, it shouldn't be a problem when actually recording a project. I'd adjust the mic's/eq to get the desired sound.

Cubase 3.7 mixer seems quite transparent to me.

Mister_D · Post by **Mister_D** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:34 am

On 2006-04-13 14:14, astroman wrote:

a brilliant idea - what player is it ?

Technics SL-PG420A (old faithful again!)

would you mind to repeat your test with a decent vinyl player and some vintage records in mint condition ?

I may do that one day, when I need to record some of my old LP's!

anyway - if that mixer 'colors sound' then there is something in the signal path most likely - an eq might still be active for example.
on the other hand I'd rather guess you made a digital connection between the CD player, as a bad cable (or sync/jitter) sounds pretty much like the symptoms you describe

I'm no expert, but there were no other objects loaded. I'm still playing with this set-up, so will check my cabling. The CD player was connected to the analogue inputs of the 2496 box.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 7:00 am

oops, I wasn't quite on the topic since you already verfied that the 'sound' is entirely depending on the mixer's presence.

could it be you have connected the player as 2 mono channels ?
both are panned center then and sound rather sh*tty

cheers, Tom

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2006-04-14 08:01 ]</font>