Newbie questions - sorry!

[tintin au platine]

hi every body and welcome back mister 606

about this noise problem man i have the same but that noise move around!!!

i mean sometimes he is there other time not there and i realise that if i start the sp first the noise might not be there!!!

and if i unplug the laptop, meaning that i run on battery , there is no noise at all!!!

anyway i hope i gave some informations to help solve these noisy problems:)

props sp-forum!!!!!

[606man]

Oh yeah I forgot about the laptop-on-batteries solution! Of course it means you only get a couple of hours at a time - but that's how long mixing should take anyway to avoid ear fatigue.

[PHeMoX]

Yeah, I thought that too, until I changed PC's and the noise just vanished! With my old PC (an Acer, if that matters) it didn't matter which soundcard was plugged in, there was always this 'electronic speaking' noise underlying everything. It didn't actually get recorded into anything, but it made monitoring a pain in the arse. In fact I didn't even know there was a problem until I got my monitors! HiFi speakers are great in some respects - they hide noise...hehe.

So, I thought it must have been a soundcard issue, as the UA20 I use a lot only has RCA/1/8" outs to monitor with. So I set up the 606 as a soundcard, as it has 'proper' connections. No better. So I tried a mate's expensive MOTU interface. Still the same problem. I gave up.

Then, as a matter of course, I got a new PC. Suddenly the noise was no longer there. At all. With any soundcard. So, it was definitely a PC issue. When this was being discussed on this board earlier, one of the PC experts (maybe iG9?) said it was a common PC problem, and one reason why Macs are preferred by a lot of pros.

Moral of the story? take a soundcard (and some headphones) with you if you are intending to stick with PC's. If there's a noisy mother board you will hear it loud and clear.

Thanks for explaining, it indeed seems to have been a motherboard issue then.

[tokenwelshman]

Wow, just back from a few days away from home - my newbie questions have been answered, and 606man is back on the scene too!

Thanks to PHeMoX, 606man and all the others who have replied - I'll be trying your suggestions later today, I'll let you know how I get on. Pattern Copy - that's what I wanted!

Re the use of different tracks - when I recorded my original drum pattern, I deliberately put snare and kick on one track, hihat on another, "wood" sounds on another, etc - I thought this was the best way to approach recording a pattern. What surprised me was that the SP-606 seemed to move all the drum parts onto a single track, without any direction from me. As I said in my first post - no idea how it happened, but I'm not complaining - if it can make my use of tracks more efficient, that's great.

[PHeMoX]

Yeah, the SP-606 chosen the first track automatically if you don't select a different track more or less right before or during actual recording.

In my humble opinion using different tracks can be pretty powerful.

Anyways, have fun!

[tokenwelshman]

You CAN, in fact, record your patterns to your computer through USB. It's actually really simple.

1 - make sure your USB audio mode is set to MIX [in the menu].

2 - make sure your audio editor is set to record.

3 - make sure the cable is plugged in.

4 - press play on the 606.

done. digital recording through USB!

Oh I LIKE this! Got digital recording through USB working - I can record my patterns, mess around with them in Audacity, load them back into the SP-606, do more things, record them back into Audacity, oh yes!! Thank you 606man, you're a lifesaver.

Going back to the noise issue, I have a new USB cable, it has improved the noise very slightly but not much. So, I assume my soundcard is the problem. Such is life, I can live with this.

Next trick is to work out how to upload patterns from Kinetic to the SP-606...

[606man]

...EXT SEQ SAMPLING....