When I plug in my fuze to the boards I have at school, the volume is not quite high enough. I can turn it up, but eventually, I get this chopping and ticking within the music. It only happens on ONE of the two boards I have access to. The only literal difference is amount of amps and monitors (same amps and monitors in out portable system) and board brands. I am having this problem on our Yamaha GA32/12 Mixing Console. It works perfectly fine with the Mackie CR1604-VLZ 16 Channel Mic/Line Mixer.
The ‘clean’ one is the one I am having my issues with. It works fine with other NON-Sansa players at their max volume.
(Sorry for the horrible quality… blame my 1.3 mega pixel phone, as I had no access to a camera)
Oh and I can’t find a “pad” or “damper” option, button, or switch anywhere. I might not be looking in the right place, but I also don’t know what I am looking for.
OH MAN I ran that exact Mackie for years (minus the Safe “Relations” Sticker). Anyhow it was perhaps my favorite board ever. Im not incredably farmiliar with the Yamaha but will take a look at one and let ya know.
On the Yamaha, have you played with the Gain (The top nob on the channel)? What I would do is set my fuze at about 50% volume, set the fader about 25% of the way up the channel, then adjust the gain to about 50% (12 Noon ish), then slide the fader up, if you top it out, then take it back down and turn the gain up to about 65% and repeat, until you get a good sound. If you get the gain up to the max, and there is still poor sound then you can cut the gain back a but and turn up the fuze a bit. The key is to find the mix of volume on the three controllers so it doesnt over modulate.
How are you connecting the Fuze to the mixer? a 3.5mm to 1/4"?
What’s your gain control set at?
Also try to use the PFL to listen to the volume through the headphone monitor to see if it’s the mixer board’s problem (instead of other components).
Maybe I will try to plug in my fuze into the mixer board this weekend to see if I can replicate your problem.
Edit: Are you plugging your fuze in from channel 17 (the left most channel on the right hand side of the board)? If so, I see your gain is not turned up at all, that might be a problem. Also, is the -26db button (at the top, near the gain) pressed down? If so, that is the most likely cause of the problem.
FYI, when I plug in an iPod into the channel, I set the iPod to around half volume, gain at around 12-1 position with the gain cut (-26db pressed), and slider at 0 position.
Message Edited by icebird144 on 03-24-2009 12:57 AM
As they said in, what was it, 1975? In _Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “_That’s easy!!” was the proclaimation.
You can try tweaking the effective gain by using the custom EQ, or plug a headphone amplifier into the loop.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Bob, I thought about the headphone amp, but I am worried about the added out put power being too much for the channel to handle. It could burn the channel out. I suppose if th output volume of the amp is small enough it would be fine but I would try to mix the three together to get a good sound.
@deadcereal wrote:
Oh and I can’t find a “pad” or “damper” option, button, or switch anywhere. I might not be looking in the right place, but I also don’t know what I am looking for.
Dont worry about it neither of the two boards you listed have this nor do they need it.
Hmm… I never actually really played with the gain. I just thought (literally, this ran through my mind the first time this happened) ‘board work with ipod. Board not work with fuze. Fuze broke.’ And I never really played around with it. Oh well, I will give it a shot, CB.
Oh, and icebird, I have never plugged the fuze in to that channel. It normally goes into the 3.5mm to 1/4 chain of adapters in channel one or two, depending on how I am feeling that day.
I have been bringing my own cable (3.5mm to RCA plus a RCA->1/4, Mono) because we have been having major stereo playback problems with all of the 1/4 jacks on the board. You have to kinda leave 'em hanging half out for it to pick it up right. It outputs to a speaker cluster anyway, so I see no point in stereo.
Hopefully we get a new board, or at least get this one fixed up. (I just want a new board, I have played with a 16 channel digital board and… wow.)
I will see what I can tomorrow. We just can’t rock out with Mambo #5 not playing as loud as it needs to be (or clicking)!
Message Edited by deadcereal on 03-23-2009 10:47 PM
Hmm… I never actually really played with the gain. I just thought (literally, this ran through my mind the first time this happened) ‘board work with ipod. Board not work with fuze. Fuze broke.’ And I never really played around with it. Oh well, I will give it a shot, CB.
Oh, and icebird, I have never plugged the fuze in to that channel. It normally goes into the 3.5mm to 1/4 chain of adapters in channel one or two, depending on how I am feeling that day.
I have been bringing my own cable (3.5mm to RCA, Mono) because we have been having major stereo playback problems with all of the 1/4 jacks on the board. You have to kinda leave 'em hanging half out for it to pick it up right. It outputs to a speaker cluster anyway, so I see no point in stereo.
Hopefully we get a new board, or at least get this one fixed up. (I just want a new board, I have played with a 16 channel digital board and… wow.)
Let me tell ya the digi boards are nice at first… If you dont know what you are doing they can be a real PITA, this is a big deal when you are training new people. If you wanna stay on the analog, Check in to Mackies, or Allan & Heath, IMO these are heads and tails above the rest of the competition.
Oh, and icebird, I have never plugged the fuze in to that channel. It normally goes into the 3.5mm to 1/4 chain of adapters in channel one or two, depending on how I am feeling that day.
I have been bringing my own cable (3.5mm to RCA plus a RCA->1/4, Mono) because we have been having major stereo playback problems with all of the 1/4 jacks on the board. You have to kinda leave 'em hanging half out for it to pick it up right. It outputs to a speaker cluster anyway, so I see no point in stereo.
Message Edited by deadcereal on 03-23-2009 10:47 PM
I had a quick look at the manual and channels 1 & 2 are mono. The 1/4" jack input is a balanced line input. If your chain of adapters ends in a stereo jack with left & right connected to the tip & ring, it won’t work - the input is expecting hot & cold on the tip & ring. Maybe that’s why you have to have the jack pushed part way in.
The correct way to do it is to split L & R to 2 separate mono jacks and put one in channel 1 and the other in channel 2.
The stereo inputs (13 & 14) also need mono jacks, so you need the split the L & R signals which ever way you connect.
If the adapter you built yourself combines L+R into a mono signal by shorting L to R, you might get distortion because the L headphone amp can end up fighting the R headphone amp, and overload protection can kill the output, especially when the volume is turned up high on the player. I had this on an MP3 player I was using to feed a signal into a mono amp. It wasn’t a Sansa, so I don’t know if Fuzes do the same, 'cos I’ve stopped being so mean to my players!
Message Edited by daytona955 on 03-24-2009 12:52 AM
Indeed, it’s bad mojo to attempt connecting two discrete outputs together for mono. Not the best situation for the output of your Sansa. At the minimum, you should add decoupling capacitors to the two output + signals, effectively isolating any DC between them.
It’s a shame you can’t simply pick up a center tap audio transformer, and feed the isolated secondary to the jack. Ah, the days of pocket transistor radios and high impedance speakers…
Oh, and icebird, I have never plugged the fuze in to that channel. It normally goes into the 3.5mm to 1/4 chain of adapters in channel one or two, depending on how I am feeling that day.
I have been bringing my own cable (3.5mm to RCA plus a RCA->1/4, Mono) because we have been having major stereo playback problems with all of the 1/4 jacks on the board. You have to kinda leave 'em hanging half out for it to pick it up right. It outputs to a speaker cluster anyway, so I see no point in stereo.
Message Edited by deadcereal on 03-23-2009 10:47 PM
I had a quick look at the manual and channels 1 & 2 are mono. The 1/4" jack input is a balanced line input. If your chain of adapters ends in a stereo jack with left & right connected to the tip & ring, it won’t work - the input is expecting hot & cold on the tip & ring. Maybe that’s why you have to have the jack pushed part way in.
Oh… my… gawd… I wish I was around when this thing was purchased… That might have just solved all of my problems. I am not sure if we still have the manual for this thing, but when I have access to it today, I will test that. Channel 3+ should be stereo, correct?
It works when we split the signal on two different channels… sometimes. And it ends up choppy with everything instead of just my fuze.
EDIT: Ok, I just tracked down an online manual, and it says ALL of the channels are mono. There are two channels with one slider control though (stereo w/ two mono inputs)
Message Edited by deadcereal on 03-24-2009 11:54 AM
Didn’t make the LINK TO THE MANUAL very obvious in my first post :smileyvery-happy: Sorry you had to track it down all over again! Generally stuff that is underlined in the posts in this forum is a link.
Generally most mixing desks have all mono channels except for a couple which can be used as stereo. You can make two mono inputs into a stereo mix by panning them (the knob directly above the slider). Or you can use one of the stereo channels.
Looks from the manual that if you press the ST button, channels feed directly to the main L & R out, which is probably what you want.
Make sure that if you are using 2 mono channels, that the PAD and PHASE switches are set the same, and that the GAIN & EQ knobs are set the same, on both channels.
Make sure that when you plug into the 1/4" jack input socket you use MONO jack plugs. The mono channels have balanced inputs, but if you use a mono plug, the ‘cold’ side will be shorted to ground, and the input will act like a normal unbalanced line in.
Yeah, ok. I was thinking about it and today, I just put my stereo plugs in two different channels.
And I could pan, but the output is a six monitor cluster hung in the middle of the stage. No point in the board outputting in stereo in our case.
Oh, and will just plugging in a two pin (and by that I mean mono, NOT stereo) plug into my fuze damage it? Or my lappy? And reversely, will plugging in a stereo 1/4" into my mixer damage that? I would rather be safe than sorry…
Back to the original point: I did actually play with the gain a bit and got it loud enough. I suppose that works for now.
Yeah, ok. I was thinking about it and today, I just put my stereo plugs in two different channels.
And I could pan, but the output is a six monitor cluster hung in the middle of the stage. No point in the board outputting in stereo in our case.
Oh, and will just plugging in a two pin (and by that I mean mono, NOT stereo) plug into my fuze damage it? Or my lappy? And reversely, will plugging in a stereo 1/4" into my mixer damage that? I would rather be safe than sorry…
Back to the original point: I did actually play with the gain a bit and got it loud enough. I suppose that works for now.
On the gain thing - have you set Settings->System Settings->Volume to HIGH on the Fuze? I often use my Fuze into a GL2400 desk on line level inputs, and with this setting and the volume all the way up, the desk is happy. It’s slightly below a proper line level signal, but it’s easily good enough.
Agreed - no point in trying to do a stereo mix to a single speaker cluster
Yes - plugging a mono 3.5mm jack into your Fuze could damage it - you are shorting one headphone amp to ground :((
Apart from which you loose 1/2 the music, and 1/2 the signal level.
I actually had enough play time to mess with all of the dials today and I got it more than loud enough (on channels 31/32, stereo, not mono) and everything was up higher than it would have been with anyother DAP, but I could have gotten it loud enough to damage our equipment (if not our ears!) without clipping!
And no more mono for me! Mono bad! Mono evil! Stereo Good!
