Pops and clicks with some guys Digimax

The StabbinCabin

The StabbinCabin

Member
Sep 19, 2008
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Sacramento, CA
www.soundheartcollective.com
Met a dude on Craigslist that was selling a Digimax LT from 05-06 for $390. The thing LOOKs mint and seemed fine, but when I went to hook it up with the adat cable I was getting pops and clicks with most of the channels. I had the clocks synch'd and even grabbed a bnc cable and still had the same issue. Even switched the cables. I realized almost immediately that it could be the fact that I haven't updated my drivers since 08. Fail:yuk: Which I returned home and went to the Presonus site and grabbed the update for my Firestudio. The thing is is that this dudes studio is a pain in the ass to drive to and bring all my shit and hook it up even with my mobile rig thingy I have going on... And I usually end up answering my own questions here, but would this be a poor buy? Potentially? It's hard to know the actual condition of the insides of used electronics are- and I know I can get a b-stock Digimax FS for close to the same price and that's with a factory warranty...

What do you guys think? He wants me to either come over to his place and try again tomorrow or the next day

Think it was just the drivers but COULD it be his Digimax LT? The guys place was clean and he didn't smoke or look like he didn't take care of his stuff. He actually came out of his giant house in a kimono LOL looking like a 60 year old Moby... Anyhow would I be better going with Musicians Friend and just getting an FS? Or would I be missing out on a huge fidelity difference in pre's by doing that?

Anyone make that "jump" and notice anything? Is that even a jump?

Thanks guys
 
The pops and clicks definitely seem like a clocking issue. You made sure the Digimax sample rate matched the session, and that the Firestudio/DAW was clocked to the Digimax (not the other way around), yes? I had a similar setup with a Digimax/002, and the Digimax had to be set as the clock source for it to work properly.
 
Yeah the guy said the same thing with his 002 and I switched it around. The clocks were matched too I went switching both from master to slave and all clocks in between- Pops or nothing... I went through the Presonus software and switched everything around- when the Firestudio was slaved it wouldn't even connect with my pc at first until I deactivated "terminate bnc" but then NOTHING was coming in on either software even when (I'm pretty sure) everything was routed correctly. That was trying two different adat cables and bnc cable...

I feel like an idiot because I should have this shit down already and it's fucking simple I just don't know if this is me being a tard or what...

I'm going to update my drivers and try again this week I guess- but with the gas I'm using I might as well cough up the extra $ and get a refurbished FS... I don't know, this is just way frustrating

Opinions on buying a B-stock item, like getting a FS compared to an LT though?

Thanks for the advice Cory
 
I have a Digimax FS (for over a year now), haven't had any issues with it, solid, 8 decent pre's that I use for recording triggers or live concert multitracks... it does what I need it to do. Good starter stuff, but I'd get at least one really nice pre (preferably 2) to go along with them.
 
I'm pretty set on going with RME down the road and have my eye on the ISA 8, but I think Presonus might be in my price range right now. That's going to be some time too... I'll give the guys LT another shot and see how it goes I suppose. If not I'll probably go ahead and get an FS. I haven't had anything bad with Presonus knock on wood- but I haven't had the opportunity to work with anything else other than 002, 003, and ada8000 which I disliked the most. Everything I've heard with Apogee and RME an PTHD just blow my mind. It would be cool to intern somewhere that had stuff like that... Getting off topic

I appreciate your guys' input
 
Hi, i've been lurking so long and this is my first post in the forums :D

I don't have any experiences with Digimax LT yet, but I do have experiences with their Digimax FS and various Firestudio varians for live recording purpose. Their Digimax FS is pretty rock solid, I think. From about 10 Digimax I use, there's one channel that is faulty. I connect them to my Fireface 800 through ADAT. Their Lightpipe is one of the best solutions for live recording, offering simultaneous 32 i/o. But not so cool on their Firestudio. I've got several Firestudio unable to connect to my PC. And looks like their forum is also overwhelmed with frustated customers. But thats another story.

Gabriel
 
ahjteam said:
You don't wanna go the "buy twice" road. Which is ironical that when I googled "buy cheap buy twice" on google, the second result was an article about Presonus Firebox. :devil: But anyway, if a product is cheap even at twice the price (like the Digimax D8), I would stay away from it.
Click to expand...

What would you recommend then? I hate being limited to 8 channels I can't stand not being able to mix room mics when I actually get the opportunity to- plus the hassle with unplugging everything afterward to get the amps of vocal mics ready... Really not trying to be a pain in the ass either I know you guys understand balancing a budget of your passion and having to survive. I'm really just collecting paycheck to paycheck and as it accumulates I grow more and more eager on what and or how to spend it.

I need funds for school and transportation- wasn't graced with a family that would or could help me out with any luxury like a shitty used car. And that's far from sarcastic.

I'm running everything off a Dell Dimension 4800- and to be honest I don't even know what my processing speed is compared to how much it SHOULD be. It's shit. I can hardly even zoom in and out of Nuendo without the pc locking up. So right now my focus is really on investing in building a barebone pc dedicated to recording. That's why I'm on the fence with everything...

I would like to pull my drunk card and excuse myself for the rambling...
 
The StabbinCabin said:
What would you recommend then?
Click to expand...

Aim for something that you can't afford in a while, save some money and get that. The 8 channel Focusrite ISA is a good example (I think it's ~$2000'ish with the ADAT expansion). If you are in dire need of some quick expansion, buy the Behringer ADA8000 for temporary solution and use that on some less important tracks (like triggers and toms).
 
Is everything terminated properly? I chased issues like that down for a while, only to figure out in the end that I needed a $1 BNC terminator.
 
omfg this computer is pissing me the fuck off sorry I just responded and something randomly logged me off. I understand it absorbs signal so not to let reflecting signals interfere... but I can't seem to find a good diagram of how that is hooked up on google images since google made their shit all weird. Sorry if this is all a hassle to you but would you please explain

I'm guessing that is just placed at the end of the BNC cable going into the slave interface? I had the bnc cable hooked up in addition to the adat and played with different settings
 
Nah you place the terminator on the unit directly, on the unused BNC connector. I can take a pic of the rear of my setup if that will help.
 
Here ya go-
43790a4c.jpg

Firestudio is set as master. I placed a BNC terminator on the 'in' connector on the firestudio. 'out' on firestudio goes to 'in' on digimax. 'out' on digimax gets a bnc terminator.

Make sure that in the Presonus control that 'terminate bnc' is not selected, and also the switch on the digimax for termination is not pushed in.

This works great for me. I think the problem is with something in the Universal control software that doesn't terminate the bnc properly. When I went with the analog bnc terminators, everything worked fine. No more pops and clicks. Technically you don't need the terminator on the firestudio since it is the master, but I put it there for piece of mind.
 
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