MOTUnation.com

Hello, long time no post. After much back and forth with Apogee they determined I needed to replace my ONE audio interface and had me send in $100 to replace it with a refurbished unit/cables. It turns out I have the same issue with the new ONE, which would make me think it is my computer. (current apogee firmware/ tested alone with not other devices connected to iMac)

Does anyone recognize this type of sound? The same sound occurs when in record mode with both DP and Ableton, on multiple mics tested, internal mic, and no mic cable at all. It does get recorded in the audio signal which is a problem on quiet mixes and is noticeable enough to be annoying. It will vary in volume and at times fade in or out.
Here is a link, the volume level is constant and there are no spikes so it is OK to turn up the volume:

http://yourlisten.com/Julia123/tapping-apogee-one

This can be really hard to track down (as is evidenced by Apogee's bad call).

What outputs are you using from the ONE? Optical, digital, analog?

Gravity Jim wrote:This can be really hard to track down (as is evidenced by Apogee's bad call).

What outputs are you using from the ONE? Optical, digital, analog?

There's a low level hum, too.

Does it make this noise constantly? Occasionally? If you move the unit, does anything change?

Gravity Jim wrote:This can be really hard to track down (as is evidenced by Apogee's bad call).

What outputs are you using from the ONE? Optical, digital, analog?

It is USB direct from the ONE to my iMac using the cable that came with the ONE. They say it is a different cable than the first one I sent in as standard procedure for replacements. (I personally can't tell if it is different.) It has a unique connection into the ONE so I can't try other usb cables.

mikehalloran wrote:
There's a low level hum, too.

Does it make this noise constantly? Occasionally? If you move the unit, does anything change?

There is always clicking. Moving it does make the clicking either louder or softer at times, though with no pattern that I can tell. Sometimes I can get the volume down on it by moving it but then the level of the clicking will slowly get louder again on it's own with no movement.

Is the studio power on an isolated circuit from everything else in the building?
It could be interference from something not even in the studio.

Yeah, that's why this "motorboating" is so hard to diagnose. It could be power noise leaking into an amp, it could be digital hash... with a USB connection, bad digital transmission would be the first thing I would rule out.

Does the ONE have another audio output you can try to see if it's a problem with USB connection? Some USB chipsets don't treat digital audio with respect.

Is it a problem with the way the clock source is set? If no other devices are being used it should probably be set in AudioMIDI setup.

Gravity Jim wrote:Yeah, that's why this "motorboating" is so hard to diagnose.

Motorboating. There's a term I haven't heard in a long time. You're dating yourself, Jim.

Phil

I've heard similar sounds in studios when there was a cell phone in the same room. I'm not saying that's what it is, but I just wanted to throw it into the mix.

Thanks! After checking back here you guys got me thinking---- Even though I changed my studio room and circuit, I am still using my same APC Battery Back-up. With all the plugging and unplugging I must have never taken it out of the mix. So, I plugged direct into the wall and the tapping stopped. Just to be double sure when I plugged back into the APC it started up again! I have an extra APC that wasn't in use and I plugged into that - no tapping!! So that was an expensive/time consuming ordeal. Geeze-- lesson learned on that one. Thanks so much, I'm so glad this is over.

Nice! Thanks for the follow-up.

All right! Nice troubleshooting. You might take a shot at getting your Benjamin back from Apogee, since the money didn't fix the problem.

Good idea, Jim.

Gravity Jim wrote:All right! Nice troubleshooting. You might take a shot at getting your Benjamin back from Apogee, since the money didn't fix the problem.

I will try that. I didn't think I could but it makes sense, and I sent them a perfectly fine ONE. Thanks.