Time Suck Lesson Learned - Faulty USB cable

rodzimguitar68

Fractal Fanatic
Guys,

My gear remains largely unmoved and all connections are constant, and largely unchanged. About 3 days ago, when I would try to record, I had the most screechy digital bits, farting sound printed to the track, totally obscuring my audio work.

I was also ping testing my latency with the I/O plugin in Logic and getting wild stats, like 16,593ms and stuff like that.

I had recently installed the new beta for Slate Digital, that helps subscribers make sure all their subscription plugins are up to date, and I also installed a similar app from Izotope, that does the same thing. I immediately suspected they were churning and thinking in the background and this was sucking my processor into paralysis. Nothing I tried worked. So I actually uninstalled those apps which didn't solve the issue, and literally did the same thing to Logic (reinstalling it as well) as a last ditch effort earlier today. I managed to record 8 bars of clean audio on an intro, and thought my problems were solved. I armed an adjacent track and proceeded to double track the part. This track had the screechy audio thing happening again!

For giggles, I decided to use a different USB from the AXE to my iMAC, and boom - everything was back - no latency, and no weird crackle.

Honestly, I don't know how a cable that is laying behind my desk and protected from interference by other boxes, could fail. I have only one theory - my cat is mischievous, and he can fit back there - perhaps he's chewed it or punctured it with his claws. I ordered new USB cables and when they arrive, I will tear apart my desk and get the defective cable out of there and inspect it.

I have probably spent 2-3 hours over the past couple of days messing around and trying to track down the cause of this issue. Like I said, the cable was my last suspect, because my connections are constant and cables do not get moved or disturbed.

I hope this helps some other poor Chucklehead out there.

Rod
 
My contribution to the above link:


Waaaay back in The Day I worked with a company that was one of the first DAW players in The Game. Their app ran on a Mac II, probably OS 6.something IMSC. Those goofy 9PIN mini-DIN connectors that were all the rage with Things Mac would ALWAYS fall out of the back panel – so much so that there was a small button glued to the side of every TS phone that, when pressed, would let The Caller hear a "Polly wanna cracker?" voice saying "Braaaaak – check the cables. Check the cables!"

It got pressed A LOT.
 
As an IT guy, and a recording chucklehead... I have learned never to believe the term 'power surge'.

But cables and connectors fail. I sympathize with OP.
 
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