Hi my kick and snare are peaking on one side...

[lebouche]

Hi my kick and snare are peaking on one side...I've tried reversing the phase but that just makes it swap sides.
Any ideas anyone?
Thanks

[otek]

Could be any one out of a million things.

When you say they're "peaking on one side", do you mean the whole drum kit with all mics up are peaking on one side of the master bus? Or where?

What is your recording signal chain?

How many tracks are you using and what goes on each one?

Does the problem persist in mono?

[lebouche]

Just on the pic of the wave form there are some large spikes...I reduced them a little by bringing down the first in. I'm using 8 mics...the Kick and Snare are a 112 and a 57 going in to a focusrite liquid channel each then in to a metric halo 2882. The only ones that have the prob are the liquids...strangely if I reduce the input gain on the L's the prob gos away but I'm not getting a healthy green meter, when I do that which makes me wonder if the Pre amp is getting enough signal to do its magic. Does it matter how much signal the pre gets or will it still sound good?
Thanks

[otek]

Just on the pic of the wave form there are some large spikes...

Irregular waveforms can be caused by a preponderance of either odd- or even-order harmonics. In the case of drums, it's usually because the head has a greater excursion in one direction than the other. Remember, the waveform is analogous to the movement of the drum head.

But really, aside from the theoretical - how does it sound? If the sound is what you are looking for, who gives a crap about the waveform? The event of DAW recording has caused a whole generation of recordists to look and the sounds instead of listening to them. If you stop to think about this for a second, you'll realize that for the majority of recording history, looking at the visual representation of a sound after the fact, is a fairly new (mal)practice.

I reduced them a little by bringing down the first in.

When you say "the first in", are you referring to the input/mic gain?

You are saying you are not getting enough levels, could it be because you've set your preamp gain too hot and your output gain too low?

Your questions about this so far, lead me to wonder if you haven't chosen an unnecessarily complex (not to mention expensive!) front end for your needs - and I'm not saying this to be conceited or elitist. The Liquid Channel is designed to emulate a variety of different preamps and sonic characteristics by the manipulation of a number of control parameters. Are you sure you've gone through them all and know exactly what they're doing?

[lebouche]

Well the changes are subtle (preamp wise) but I listened before we started rolling takes...I kept the sounds the same for different tracks but changed the gain as some songs were very different dynamically. Yes I chose an expensive front end but I am loving the eq...loving the compressors and must admit still getting to know the pre's although they seem to add something I like. The reason I was worried was not due to asthetics but because these spikes were popping. I have clipped before directly in to the metric halo and heard no distortion.... I was just assuming that the visual provided a similar service to a phase analyser in that it might point to issues. The out from the liquids was quite low...the input I was suggesting was the input on them going in to the pre's.
I am aware of the common malpractise of editing and relying on visual aids rather than ears so I understand your concern.
It's the other thousand malpractises I'm prob doing without knowing that worry me! You don't sound elitist or conceited I appreciate very much your time.
Thanks ,

[lebouche]

Fuck its 6am and I start at 11!!! Bloody caffine!

[malice]

Have you checked your cables ?

This can be induced by short circuiting ground and Pin -, or inverting them, I don't remember.

Or are you staying symetrical in the all signal chain ?


maybe you should post some of these wave forms

malice

[otek]

Yes I chose an expensive front end but I am loving the eq...loving the compressors and must admit still getting to know the pre's although they seem to add something I like.

The reason I mentioned this was a purely practical one from a recording standpoint, given what you seem to be doing, i.e. recording bands, drum kits, etc.

For roughly the same amount of money, you could have 8 channels of API preamp AND, let's say, a Smart C2 compressor, which would give you a lot more front end options for tracking.

The reason I was worried was not due to asthetics but because these spikes were popping

Like Malice, I would love to see a pic of the waveform.... not suggesting I would make any calls about the sound from it :lol: (see previous thougts on the matter) but if you say the sound is affected somehow, it may be easier to determine what happens by looking at the waveform. Come to think of it, a sound clip of the track in question would be even better.

As for "the visual providing a similar service to a phase analyser", phase is about discrepancies in time, not about level problems.

[lebouche]

Cool thanks heres a pic...maybe I could have made a better buy.
Boys willl be boys! The pres on the metric halo are pretty good s will..its the fluff on the bottom of the wave.
Cheers,

[otek]

maybe I could have made a better buy.

It's not so much a question of "better" or "worse" in this case as, do you feel your gear is giving you the options to do everything you want it to (within reason). If you like the Liquid Channels, and find they are doing what you want them to, then God Speed. But since you seem to be recording bands - and budget doesn't seem to be a problem - did you take the time to really check out what your money could buy you? Did you review all the options available?

Be that as it may, I'm not here to tell you where to spend your cash. On to the problems at hand:

..its the fluff on the bottom of the wave

This level of magnification isn't really telling us anything, since we can't see the individual transients. You need to zoom in on the transient part of one specific snare/kick hit so we can see what the waveform looks like.

[lebouche]

Cool...youre really earning those cubana's.
I'll upload a zoomed photo
As for the gear...I could have probably made a more sensible buy but I met the chairman of Focusrite Phil, and he did me second hand prices so I couldnt resist.