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Yamaha 01V96i Distortion Problem


TomBoisseau

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I purchased an 01V96i a couple months ago and I recently noticed that there is some rather noticable distortion on the main outputs whenever the level reaches about -6db or higher.

I was doubting myself so I took my 01V96i over to a "sound mixer's" friend's house who has an 01V96II. He also has a good ear and is very good techically. We set up both console exactly the same using a COS11 on Lectrosonics SMv wireless and a SRv receiver. On his console, no distortion. On mine, clearly a problem. It seems to be on every input (or maybe I should say on the output), and in fact we routed the main L&R to omni's 1&2, and the problem was still there. NOWHERE in any part of the gain stage was there any meter or "light" indication of clipping!

I should also mention that I have the Dugan card installed, however our testing was done with the inserts OFF and so theoretically the card was bypassed.

Has anyone else here had this problem? I haven't used my 01V96i much, plus I was running my outputs "lower" before, so that's likely why I didn't notice it until recently. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Tom

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I have been using the 01V96 since 2004 and I've never had that kind of an issue. There are so many routing possibilities, so when you say "main outputs" are you referring to the routing through the Dugan card even though you say it's defeated?

Have you tried the Analog Stereo Outs or the Digital outs or the ADAT outs, or the 16 I/O through the USB in the 01V96i?

If you have saved your settings to a file in Studio Manager, you could always email it to me and I could take a look at your setup - maybe spot the problem?

Message me for my email address.

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Ricahrd,

Thanks for your responce. I was refering to the main left and right XLR outputs, but we also tried routing the left and right out on omnis 1 & 2 and still heard the distortion there. I've checked and the distortion is present on the spdif output as well.

Regarding the Dugan card, it is in the console, but we completely turned off all routing to it (which I had set up using channel post fader inserts) by turning off the inserts. I probably should try to physically remove the card completely.

I may well take you up on your offer to look at the file, although right now I'm so busy it may take some time to sit down, connect everything and save it to Studio Manager. I will tell you this, we tried multiple sceens, including #0 (intitial data) and they ALL had distortion problems.

I think I'll try calling Yamaha today.

Thanks again,

Tom

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Hi Tom,

a number of years ago, I had 2 original Yamaha Promix 01's. One works perfectly to this day and the other would regularly blow it's input ic's. Never, of course, in a way that would take the channel right out, but one would slowly notice that high volume levels would distort some channels slightly. Once all the IC's were changed, things were fine.

Not saying that this is your problem, but encouraging you to talk to a Yamaha Tech, 'cause strange and subtle problems can definitely exist in these digital boards... and you may go crazy trying to figure them out yourself...

cheers,

Brent C,

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I purchased an 01V96i a couple months ago and I recently noticed that there is some rather noticable distortion on the main outputs whenever the level reaches about -6db or higher.

What happens with the headphone output on the 01V96 itself? Same distortion? Any limiters or compressors in line (inputs or busses)?

I used the 03D and the later DM1000 for years, and never had a problem. In one case, I remember Yamaha sent us some new software for the latter, and we had some momentary burps. A complete factory reset restored everything back to normal, though I had to rebuild all the preset setups.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I'm trying to trouble shot this distortion problem again today.

So far I have:

Removed the Dugan card - no change.

Tried a wired mic into different channels - no change.

Checked for addition gain "boost" in all the menus I can find - they all appear to be at unity (0).

Sent the signal direct to the L/R outputs using NO inserts or subgroups - no change.

Tried even more channels including the TRS line inputs on channel 13-16 - no change.

All of today's testing was done using Yamaha's default scene #0, "Initial Data", and with all channel eq gains set to 0.

Channel PFL's have no distortion.

I called Yamaha. They said they had never heard of any distortion problem with the 01V96i. The distortion begins being noticable at between -12 to -9dB on the main L/R output meters. I'll continue looking and trying the things you guys suggested here.

Thanks,

Tom

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Well... this is VERY interesting. There's a very good chance it could be a software glitch!

Here's why I think so. I tried everything mentioned above. I spent probably a total of 4 hours by myself and another 2 hours with a fellow 01V96II owner, he and I couldn't find a thing in any of the menus that might be causing the distortion.

I saved all my settings/scenes to Studio Manager. I then did a FACTORY RESET, which deleted all my scenes, and then reloaded all my scenes from Studio Manager. That did it! All the distortion is gone, even with my old scenes restored.

It sure sounds like a software glitch to me. Any other thoughts?

Tom

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That's good news that the distortion goes away with a factory reset. What happens if you then rebuild your presets from scratch?

This is not the first time I've seen an audio or video device go nuts and require what the engineers call a "First Birthday Reboot." It's a drag to rebuilt all your presets, but (as a wise man once said) "crap happens."

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I don't think it's a software glitch. That mixer is very deep, and the likely answer is that you had a setting somewhere that was overloading the summing circuits. You solved the issue in an intelligent way-- good for you. I would now program the mixer to your usual operating params for the various sorts of work you do, then SAVE those setups as scenes you can recall, and back them all up on some media OFF the mixer. Now you'll be able to recall a "known good" setup if that problem happens again.

phil p

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I agree with Phil. I've also seen situations where a purpose-built device like a mixer (or a video switcher or other components) crashed with some kind of a glitch, and one or more settings got set to an illegal value. This was enough to cause some kind of weird distortion to the signal path. A total reset blew out the bad settings and got it back to normal.

With the 10 Yamaha 03D's and the 1 DM1000 in our various rooms at Technicolor/Hollywood, I made a "cheat sheet" with a half-dozen of the most often-used setups, signal paths, routing assignments, delays, and limiters in the signal path. At least that way, if we did have a problem, we could rebuild the standard set up fairly quickly. I also had a "Silencio" setting just to kill all inputs and outputs and drop all faders to 0, when the session was finished. Way too often in post, we wind up with empty control rooms blaring 1K tone at about 100dB at 3 in the morning, because the operator forgot to kill the mixer outs. Very unpleasant.

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