Elektron Musical Instruments

There is something wrong here. I don't use micpres, but I do have rme
hammerfall and record MD staright to it. Here are some observations:

1. My MD makes very little noise. Yeah, about 89 -dB. So it's
practically nothing. You can check this with digicheck, that came with
your fireface. So no noise from MD. 

2. MD is +4 dBu gear. You need to calibrate the firecafe to same
levels. I have my hammerfall at +4 dBu. MD puts out very good signal;
if I turn MD to full volume, I will hit exactly to 0 dB. So it can't
be that MD does not provide output hot enough.

3. Your problem might due the fact that mic-level is totally different
than +4dBu or -10 dBu. So you maybe feeding the micpre too much
signal, which will cause the noise. As with Andromeda, it might be -10
dBu gear, in which situation you are still playing with two different
signal levels, but not so much anymore. I would use the line
level-compressor for both machines. (as for +4 and -10 dBu thing; the
+4 is usually with progear and -10 is for consumer levels. +4 dBu
loses less signal on its way. Also in the states they usually do +4
gear, or something odd between.)

(4. in 24 bit domain, its not so freaking important to have as hot
signal as possible. Anyway it's recomemded to keep things below -6
anyway. In 16 bit world this was different. _but_ it's lot more
practical to start mixing things if you have tracks recorded nicely
and logically.)


I hope these help you a bit. :)

Toni. 


--- In elektron-users@...m, "lucinniega" <lucinniega@y...>
wrote:
>
> I just want to ask anybody who has recorded with a machine drum a 
> question. If you have never recordeed the machine drum then please do 
> not answer. In my studio I use a Demeter stereo tube direct into the 
> inputs of the RME fireface 800. I meter in Samplitude to make sure 
> that I go in as hot as possible to take full advantage of 24 bit 
> recording as much as possible. I've noticed something. No matter how 
> hot the sound coming out of the machine drum is, I always have noise. 
> If the sound that I happen to be recording is low coming out of the 
> machine drum the noise floor is even more apparent. I was wondering 
> if this was a factory defect or if this is just the way that the 
> machine is built. I've heard so many complaints on the net, but I 
> can't really trust anybody who has an opinion like " It doesn't sound 
> noisy to me.". I need to get an opinion from somebody who has done 
> some extensive recording with the machine drum through a direct box, 
> into a mic pre and into a DAW. I would only like to hear from you 
> people, so I will be able to formulate a better insight. Do any of 
> you people, with a similar setup to mine, experience the noise that 
> I've been writing about. I just seems to me that the noise is almost 
> unacceptable. I'm trying to determine if this problem is local to my 
> machine drum or if it is just a characteristic of all machine drums. 
> I am going to take my unit to a repair guy who is supposed to be 
> pretty good at stuff like this. I will definatley keep you posted. By 
> the way, Elektron was no help at all. They had the pass the buck 
> mentality. That really pissed me off. I just want to get my machine 
> fixed. I don't want to hear about who's responsability it is to get 
> my machine fixed. I want to able to record without this hiss coming 
> out of the outputs.
>