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 Kyma Forum
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 Noise with Apogee Duet
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| Author | Topic: Noise with Apogee Duet |
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martin1981 Member |
posted 26 October 2009 10:08
 
I'm mainly using my Pacarana in the studio with Konnekt 48 interface, however I was looking into using it with an Apogee duet as a more convenient way to use Kyma live. I've had the Apogee duet for a while but never tried it with Kyma before until last night. I'm getting loads of noise and interference through the Duet when it's hooked up to the Pacarana so it is completely useless at the moment. I'm not using the Duet for monitoring, just to pass audio into and out of Kyma via the effects send/return on an amplifier (Clarus 2R Series III) which then goes to a Marshall guitar cab (the instrument is an electric cello). I've seen other threads regarding the Duet and noise, but up until now my Duet has been fine, and I haven't seen a solution to the problem on any forums so far. I've even used it in the same room (so exactly the same electrical setup) and with the same Macbook Pro for location recordings, it's always been pristine and quiet. The noise is much worse when the charger is not plugged into the Macbook Pro, but still very bad when charger is plugged in. At the moment it looks like I'll definitely have to take my Konnekt 48 if I want to use Kyma live, which is a bit of a pain as the Duet is a lot more convenient. Please let me know if there's a solution? IP: Logged |
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SSC Administrator |
posted 26 October 2009 14:15
It could be a question of output and input levels. Have you tried attenuating the input and output using the Volume knob on the Duet? Can you do a test to determine whether the noise is present at the inputs or whether it is only present at the outputs of the Duet? What is the output of the electric cello (is it line level? mic level?) Have you tried recording the electric cello through the Duet directly on the Mac (without the Pacarana)? IP: Logged |
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martin1981 Member |
posted 27 October 2009 04:49
I will try and test these things tonight and will post back again... But firstly, sorry if I didn't explain the problem very well, the actual input level is fine and I have been varying it to get a healthy level going into Kyma. The processing in Kyma is working great the signal going in and out is strong. I'm getting a nice kyma-processed signal coming through the guitar cab, but the noise is always there on top of that, which is the problem. I'm not plugging the cello directly into the duet, it does not have a built in preamp so the signal is going into the Clarus 2R Series III amp head, which pre-amplifies the signal. Then I use the effects loop on the Clarus which I assume is line level, which is a send and return jack. So I've set the inputs/outputs on the Duet to line level, and seem to be getting a healthy signal in and out of Kyma so I assume this is correct. I will try to test just using the instrument input on the Duet tonight, taking the Pacarana out of the equation. I didn't think of that before, I've always had pristine audio from the Duet with the Macbook Pro, but I've only recorded mics before, NOT instruments. So it's possibly and issue with the instrument inputs in combination with Macbook Pro. I'll do more thorough tests and post back, thanks for your support.
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martin1981 Member |
posted 27 October 2009 09:23
I can't test it now but just thought of something else, the noise sounds very similar to a noise/interference I used to hear coming out of my old Mac G5 tower (which I don't use any more), but amplified to a higher level. The solution there was to download CHUD tools and go to "processor" in the System Preferences and disable "allow nap". This completely eliminated that noise. I didn't have the Apogee Duet or Kyma then, so haven't tested it with those. Do CHUD tools even work with Macbook Pros as opposed to PPC machines, and is disabling "allow nap" still an option? IP: Logged |
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SSC Administrator |
posted 27 October 2009 11:07
There are a lot of analog devices and cables in the signal chain that could be adding noise, amplifying noise, or acting like antennae for electromagnetic noise. Ideally, would be best to test one stage at a time to try to hear where the noise is getting introduced. IP: Logged |
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LoopyC Member |
posted 02 November 2009 00:16
My Duet (and I have seen this repeated elsewhere) will GENERATE a buzzing distortion if anything is added/subtracted to/from the Firewire busses and on my system (Mac Pro 8 Core Nehalem) hard drives are on the second (front) pair of Firewire busses and the Duet and Paca are using the two rear pair. Sometimes reseting the Duet (hold down volume rotary for several seconds) will alleviate, other times a complete restart is required. So, any hard drives and other devices need to be on BEFORE computer start up to insure it doesn't happen...not sure but Apogee must be aware by now as there are several incidences easily found via Google to be found (I should report but haven't). IP: Logged |
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martin1981 Member |
posted 12 November 2009 10:43
Sorry I haven't followed up on this, because I'm using a Macbook Pro I don't have many options for swapping FW devices around, which means troubleshooting the issue could be tricky. I'd also heard it was a known issue though... However the main reason I was actually trying to use the Duet was because my Konnekt 48 broke down. I was expecting a long wait for it to be repaired (it was the known issue with the gain pots, anyone else had that??), but in fact the service centre was great and repaired it within two days! I'm inherently lazy so now my system is back as normal it might take me a while to get around to testing the Duet again with Kyma now! However it would be handy to be able to use the Duet live, as it's more portable, so when I do test it I'll post back here with the results in case that's of any use to anyone else. Thanks! IP: Logged |
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photonal Member |
posted 20 November 2009 03:25
My G5 Dual suffers from this problem sometimes too; it's quite interesting to listen to the 'vocabulary' of the G5 cpus working away - it makes different noises according to whether clicking the mouse, scrolling a window etc ;-)) *Actually it is annoying!!!* I find it comes and goes; yesterday it was quite pronounced. There seemed to be a reduction in noises when I changed from inputting analog audio to using digital inputs (via AVC firewire). Here's a support article relating to this problem: IP: Logged |
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martin1981 Member |
posted 20 November 2009 07:03
I used a dual G5 (2.5 Ghz, 2GB RAM) for years, the machine was made in 2003 I think. I sometimes had exactly the same noise you're describing, but it always went away by unchecking the "allow nap" option on the "processor" tab using the CHUD tools. However it would never remember this option so I had to do it each time the computer booted up. Also I think it had to be an older version of CHUD tools, either the latest version 3 or 4.01, but no later (otherwise the allow nap option isn't there). That might work? Still haven't tested this noise issue with Macbook Pro/Duet yet, as my Konnekt 48 is now working fine. IP: Logged |
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