updated sound issue

[rbcyouthdude]

I have spent hours over at the church and here is what I have come up with. the crackling sound I posted about and placed a sample on this thread
Crackling

We have a Crate Pro Audio csm8 24 channel console mixer.
I have isolated the sound to channel 9.
I plugged computer speakers into the headphone jack unplugged every other cable except power of course and when I turn on the pfl button for ch 9 the sound is there. No other channel does it and it will do it with the amp crate pro audio spa-1400/1400c and mixer crate pro ls3-231 unplugged and turned off.

any way to bypass this channel?

I think it has a bad channel in the board. What do you guys think. You are way better at this than me.

thanks
Michael

[tedanderson]

Pull up all of your assignment buttons for that channel and turn down all of your aux knobs and the gain. And if that does not do it, stick a 1/4" plug into the insert jack of that channel.

[rbcyouthdude]

will the 1/4 with nothing on it kill the channel?

[cmchamp]

It will interrupt the signal path between the pre-amp and the rest of the channel strip. If the troubles you're experiencing are from bad wiring harness seating, bad capacitors, bad diodes, etc. on that channel strip, you may have to try opening it up and removing that channel from the "mother loom." This may not work at all and kill all channels between it and the main fader or groups.

[rbcyouthdude]

where is the best place to get this fixed? And what's the deal with crate pro audio, not finding much on the web. this board is only 5 years old.

[waynehoskins]

Crate made a console?

I know Crate for their guitar and keyboard amps .. in fact, one of their older solid-state crate-looking amps lives in my living room.

[rbcyouthdude]

yea, they don't have anything about them on their web site. must have been a passing thing. Maybe we need to get another one.

[daver2]

Michael,

Just to confirm... If you plug a different audio source into channel 9 does channel 9 still crackle? If you move the current audio input source from channel 9 to (say) channel 1 does the crackle stay on channel 9 or move to channel 1?

If it is the input strip, it could be a dirty connection on the input XLR or an insert point. Try a bit of contact cleaner spray on all of the connectors of the offending channel. You will have to spray a small amount of contact cleaner on a 1/4" jack and insert and remove it a few times to clean the insert point. Do this with the power off. Our old analogue mixer desk (circa 10 years old) started to suffer from crackling problems and is was the insert point every time. Most of the audio guys thought that if you didn't have anything plugged in that it shouldn't have been a problem - but the audio signal still goes through the insert contacts even if nothing is plugged in.

Do you have phantom power on channel 9? If you do - can you switch it off and see if that has any effect? If it is on the front end - it maybe that the additional voltage from the phantom circuit is causing things to break down - long shot but worth a try.

Dave

[pdc]

Phantom was global on those IIRC. If it were a phantom problem, it would be on all channels.

Ampeg, Crate and Audio Centron were part of the St Louis Music Company. When Loud bought the MI lines from St Louie Music, Loud chopped any comparable product to the Mackie line, allowing only the filler, low-end products to exist. Check Ebay and Craigslist if you want a direct replacement. You won't get any support for those mixers now.

Entry level mixers like the Crates, Tapco, Behringer, etc should be considered re-occurring purchases every three ot five years. If your mixer lasts longer than that, you are very fortunate.

[rbcyouthdude]

channel 9 makes the noise with nothing plugged in.

If we get a new one (which I am hoping to do) we will get a new ________ I like Mackie, what does everybody else use.

I am at work today ( 24 hour shift) and plan on going to the church when I get off in the morning. We are going to put in the old mixer we still have from the old church building.

Anybody on here sell mixers?

[tedanderson]

will the 1/4 with nothing on it kill the channel?

Yes.. and that is exactly what you want to do when you said that you wanted to bypass it, right?

[rbcyouthdude]

Yes, I'm gonna try that thanks