Digi 002 Rack Playback Static/Distortion

I sort of posted this, but I buried it in another thread, and I left out some information: I'm using a Digi 002 Rack with PTLE v. 6.1.1. Running on XP 2.4gHz, 768mb. Using a "Known Compatible" chipset. It works fine for a while, then I'll start to hear something like distortion. It starts out very quiet, and get's louder and louder. And it's worse during higher levels than lower levels. This distortion happens on the headphone output and the monitor output. Signal from the microphone is distorted, as well as playback. I can shut off the mic preamp and turn the level all the way down, noise is still there. If I close the session and re-open it, the distortion goes away -- I don't even have to close PT, just close the session. Anything recording during the distortion episode is clean. It takes several minutes, but it eventually comes back. Only happens if I'm recording. Any ideas? Stu Venable

Describe what front end stuff you have. Also, if you have poor sheilding or grounf=ding you can get noise in the monitoring path. Since your signal is recorded clean, the problem is the monitoring chain. Are you near flourescent lights? Are your mintor cables balanced? Are you overloading the master fader? I would put myself in diagnostic mode and start testing by changing headphoens when the distortion starts, see if it happens always at the same point in the session, lower the master fader, It is mpossible that the hardware interface is defective so call digi and they will know if its a "Known Issue" Also do the usual - update Mobo drivers, SP1 etc.

Switch to balanced cables for your monitors if you don't have them.

The cables going from the monitor outs to my powered monitors are shielded. I tried moving the 002Rack farther away from the computer (about 3.5 feet away) -- no change. (By "frontend" you mean mics and cables and such?) I'm using an AKG C3000B with an XLR going into the #1 input (XLR) on the rack. No external mic preamp, no outboard FX. But the noise will continue if I hit the mic/line switch on the front (and turn the gain all the way down). No flourescent lights. The last time it happend, the crackling started *immediately* after I pressed the space bar after finished a punch-in. The weird thing is, the distortion/static starts out very quiet, and quickly builds until you can barely hear the audio behind it -- almost like there's some sort of feedback loop... I emailed Digidesign earlier this morning. I'll do more troubleshooting tomorrow night. Stu

Do you have any plugins running in the session? I have had some wierd r-verb stuff happen before. Also, what about the playback buffer? Have you adjusted that to see if it makes a difference? GregJ

I'm recording dry as a bone (no plugins -- except the "click" plugin on an aux channel). I have not tried adjusting the buffer size. I'll try that tomorrow. I should mention that I was recording at a very low sample rate as to reduce latency (like 64). The click plugin doesn't function in low latency monitoring. Stu