Tracking Mpc, Synth, Mbox 2, 1/4" Cable Noise!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony_Tone
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Tony_Tone

Tony_Tone

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Ok here's the problem, I have the MBox 2, and I'm trying to track down my beats into Pro Tools, I havent had an issue recording into Pro Tools with my mic, but when I hook my MPC up to my MBOX 2 from my mixer, I get a light high pitched hum, airy crackly (white) noise sound.


So I have came to the conclusion that the noise is coming from MY ¼” CABLES??

There is some sort of interference between them, my mixer and the MBOX 2, because I don’t hear this noise in any of my equipment, without the use of my MBOX 2



What could be causing this? Should I use S/PDIF instead?

How would I be able to track down the Synths in my beats, with out that noise?


MY SETUP:

The TRS cable (used for my krk monitors)

image001.jpg


I usually have them coming directly from each one of my krk monitors, going into my 1/4" Male Stereo to Two 1/4" Female Stereo Adapter


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Wich goes into the PHONE INPUT of my Behringer XENY 502 MIXER


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I have one end of Dual MIDI Cables coming from the MIDI OUT of my KEYBOARD going to the MIDI IN 1 of my MPC.

And the other end of Dual MIDI Cables coming from the MIDI OUT A of my MPC to the MIDI IN of my KEYBOARD.

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junog2.jpg


I have one end of Dual 1/4”-1/4” Cables coming from the stero outs of my mpc 2500 going into inputs 2/3 on my mixer, and I have another set of Dual 1/4”-1/4” Cables coming from the output A (MIX) of my juno G, going into inputs 4/5 of my mixer.

I have both of the Balance knobs turned to “BAL” on each channel, and both of the Level knobs turned to “LEVEL” on each channel as well.


And I have one last set of Dual 1/4”-1/4” Cables coming from the MAIN OUT of the mixer, going into 1 and 2 LINE (TRS) inputs on the MBOX 2


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(I notice that when I take my monitors out, and plug headphones into my mixer, that I havde to set the “BAL” to the middle in order to hear out of both speakers in my headphones??)



My midi was set up, and recorded properly in each device, and I followed these instructions from an archived post on how to sync my mpc with pro tools. The MPC described in the instructions is a MPC 2000XL, and the interface is a DIGI001.



But I set it up similar, here are the instructions:



follow these directions and know that this DOES work, can be replicated, and is a great way to save you hours and hours of studio time.

MPC2000XL

1. You only need 1 cable to make this sync trick work. Start by plugging a MIDI cable from the MIDI OUT port of your DIGI001.
2. Plug the other end into the MIDI IN port of your MPC. Either 1 or 2 is fine.
3. Hit Shift+9 on your MPC, bringing up the MIDI/Sync page.
4. On the left side is Sync In, set the (In:1) to correspond to the port you plugged in from step 2.
5. Next, Mode should be set to MIDI Clock.
6. Shift Early can be left at 0.
7. Receive MMC should be set to ON.

Your MPC is now ready to receive MIDI sync commands from Pro Tools. Hit the MAIN SCREEN button to return to the main MPC window. If you don't, you won't hear your sequences when triggered. I don't know why, but if you leave it on the MIDI/Sync page, it screws things up.

Pro Tools LE

1. Click Setups>Peripherals menu, then click the Synchronization tab
2. Set Device drop down to Generic MMC Reader
3. Set Port to DIGIDESIGN DIGI001
4. Minimum Sync Delay is set at 30, but this is irrelevant
5. UNCHECK the "Enable Control of Pro Tools LE via MMC" checkbox (if it was checked)
6. Click the Machine Control tab
7. UNCHECK the ENABLE box (if it was checked)
8. The other two tabs are not necessary in our example
9. Click OK to exit the Peripherals dialog box.
10. Using the Pro Tools transport window, click the Clock icon, (or use the menu Operations>Online, or hit CTRL J)
11. The Clock icon now flashes.
12. Click the MIDI menu, then click Change Tempo.
13. Match Pro Tools tempo with your MPC sequence tempo. If your sequence is all MIDI notes or is a loop that can
be tempo adjusted without gap or spacing problems, you can change the tempo right in Pro Tools, and it will change it on the MPC all in real-time. This is very slick!

When you hit play (or rec+play) in Pro Tools, your MPC tempo should display (EXT) where the Tempo once was, but only during play. Also, you can use Pro Tools transport to FF or REW and it will move the time code display in the MPC.

What's also amazing is that if you set your Pro Tools session to bars|beats, and then click the FF or REW buttons, they play head will jog forward a bar or back a bar, and even show this right on the MPC. This is sync, baby!

These steps are not foolproof, there is often SOMETHING that can go wrong, but these are the steps I used to get it working, and my setup is basic and this step alone is now saving me hours and headaches not having to hand-edit the tracks that are off because I recorded them at-will in Pro Tools.

This is how things are supposed to be!

Enjoy, and happy MIDI synching.

Shawn Flint
Seattle, WA




THE SYNC WORKED FINE, AND I WAS ABLE TO TRACK EACH TRACK PERFECTLY NORMAL

But , I can hear a light high pitched hum, airy crackly (white) noise when I track down my beats into Pro Tools!

Also when I’m transferring data, or moving my mouse.

The noise isn’t heard, when I record Vocals,

(with the Dual ¼” cables removed).

Am I doing ANYTHING Wrong?
 
Ok if the trs cables going to your monitors from your mixer have 2 rings on the tip you need to replace them with single ring tips. even better on your outs to your mixer get a ring tip spliter where tip=left monitor ring=right and you'll get a stereo mix to your monitors for once. Second the bal nobs should be in the middle hence ballance, 3 your mixer sucks too much to turn the level up the the level mark turn that thing down dude it's too loud I should know I have the exact same mixer. That mixer can also be noisy plug headphones into your mbox headphone jack and monitor the inputs to see if you hear the noise in there also.
 
Optyx_Productions said:
Ok if the trs cables going to your monitors from your mixer have 2 rings on the tip you need to replace them with single ring tips. even better on your outs to your mixer get a ring tip spliter where tip=left monitor ring=right and you'll get a stereo mix to your monitors for once. Second the bal nobs should be in the middle hence ballance, 3 your mixer sucks too much to turn the level up the the level mark turn that thing down dude it's too loud I should know I have the exact same mixer. That mixer can also be noisy plug headphones into your mbox headphone jack and monitor the inputs to see if you hear the noise in there also.
Click to expand...

Optyx_Productions said:
even better on your outs to your mixer get a ring tip spliter where tip=left monitor ring=right and you'll get a stereo mix to your monitors for once.
Click to expand...


huh? dude, I dont know the differnece between balanced/ unbalanced, TRS/TS CABLES....

BUT THE DUDE @ GUITAR CENTER SWEAR HE TOLD ME HOW TO HOOK IT UP RIGHT..

& those cables in the picture look exactly like the ones I have hooked up to my monitor.

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I dont understand, is balanced stero and unbalanced mono? and are TRS cables the metal ones, and TS cables the plastic ones? dont i have that same splitter already?

THE MANUAL IN THE MBOX SAYS....

Or I NEED TO HOOK TRS CABLES INTO THE LINE INPUT 1 AND 2

IT ALSO SAYS IF MIXER/KEYBOARD IS STEREO

CONNECT LEFT (WHITE) TO INPUT 1 AND RIGHT (RED) TO INPUT 2

IF YOUR KEYBOARD HAS UNBALANCED OUTPUTS USE THE DI INPUTS.


MY MONITORS CAN BE HOOKED UP BY EITHER XLR (3-pin), RCA, and 1/4" TRS - 10k ohm balanced/unbalanced cables...

AND MY MPC HAS STEREO OUTS....

SO WHAT SHOULD I DO?


Optyx_Productions said:
Second the bal nobs should be in the middle hence ballance,[/QUOTE ]

WHATS THE MIDDLE? SHOULD IT BE ON "BAL" OR LINED UP LIKE IN THE PICTURE?

Optyx_Productions said:
That mixer can also be noisy plug headphones into your mbox headphone jack and monitor the inputs to see if you hear the noise in there also.
Click to expand...

THATS WHERE I'VE BEEN HEARING THE NOISE, I WASNT USING MY MONITORS WHEN I HEARD THE NOISE.

ANY MORE IDEAS?
Click to expand...
 
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use the RCA outs for your monitors the tape out on your deck that way you get the stereo mix the way your currently doing it your not getting the output on your monitors that you should. the bal knob should be in the middle of the total values not left not right center pointing straight towards the top of the mixer that's balanced. And why are you not just pluggin in the monitors to the freaking mbox and just using the hardware monitoring to hear whats going on from your mixer that would seem more logical.
 
ok.. lemmie get this str8.

1st off.. I THOUGHT RCA & S/PDIF. were different.. my monitors and mixer both use RCA? my mixer deff uses it, but my moitors RCA are colored black like the ones on my MPC. the ones on MY MBOX look like the ones on my mixer, but the mbox says S/PDIF on it.

and plug my monitors to the mbox & "just" what?

using the hardware monitoring to hear whats going on from your mixer

using which hardware monitoring? the mixers, the mboxs? I think you made a typo or something.
 
well if you use the main outs from the inbox with unbal trs plugs to your monitors you'd be good. the RCA jacks on the back of the monitors are regular RCA analog input not s/pdif. if you plug the main outs of the mixer into the line inputs on the mbox you can use the hardware monitoring on the mbox to hear what you have plugged into it from your monitors.
 
alright, I can try that wen I get home, but this thread was originally about noise in my mbox.. I probably got the wrong cords going into my line of the mbox or something.. anyway, i'l holla when I get home

does anyone on here have a durn MPC, MIXER, MBOX 2 AND SOME MONITORS???? what cords are you guys using?? AND WHAT CORDS ARE YOU USING TO TRACK YOUR STUFF DOWN IN PRO TOOLS??

THERES GOTTA BE SOMEBODY MANN!!

I figured it out (no thanks to FP) you guts are the greatest! turns out Optyx knows nothing about what hes talking.. only good advice he gave is "the bal knob should be in the middle of the total values not left not right center pointing straight towards the top of the mixer that's balanced." Everything else was WRONG! except the fact that the RCA jacks on the back of my monitors ARE infact REGULAR RCA jacks.

But I told him that! Anyway, The problem was that I had unbalanced cables instead of balanced comming from my mixer's main out going into my mbox 2's input 1 and 2.

I fixed that (as of now) by bypassing my mixer completely & running my mpc's stereo out's directly into my mbox 2's input 1 and 2.

no more crackle! (But I still need to either get balanced TRS cables or S/PDIF cables for the mpc and mbox 2, but of course imma go with the S/PDIF cables. I'm still gunna have to solo each track out from the mpc as usual, but I will have to take my mpc input 1 and 2's out from the mbox 2, and change it to my keyboards into my mbox 2's 1 and 2.

but I still have 1 problem :(

my durn motif es 6's output directly into my mbox 2's input 1 and 2 with a TS cable STILL HAS STATIC!!!!

BUT WHEN I USE THE SAME CABLE WITH MY JUNO-G THE SAME WAY, I HAVE NO PROBLEMS!!!! WHATS UP WITH THIS??

CAN ANYONE.... ANSWER THIS?
 
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I am having a similar issue, when I track from my mpc 2500 8 outs into my motu there is a low level white crackly noise coming from my mpc 8 outs. I went to a friends, same issue, changed the cables, same issue, what do I do this problem is killing my mixes. The noise is so annoying please help FP!

Dj MuTT
 
Can anyone help me out?? Some of the outputs in my 8 outs are making this horrible noise it is killing me!!!! Can I have the 8 outs replaced, fixed anything?????

Dj Mutt
 
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