I just got my Sub Phatty today; all of my excitement had turned to disappointment with the prospect of having to send it back for a replacement.
Here is the set up, followed by the issue.
With out listing every single knob on here, I’ll,say this:
1 osc at about the 11 o’clock position.
Noise is off
Mod wheel is down.
It’s a simple osc (any shape, well say triangle for this)
Multidrive is down to 0.
Plain old simple unaltered triangle.
Now, when I hold a note down, and sweep the volume knob I don’t only hear the volume sweeping in and out, I also hear static crackling. Very noticeably. No effort required.
Now, volume up to about 9, I sweep the filter (in 24db mode)
The filter for one thing does not go down to silence. It does not cut basically everything off, and yes I’m absolute positive it IS in 24db mode. I also get that same static crackling. The static makes the filter anything but “smooth” or “sweet” or “phat”. It makes it sound like I’m playing through a cable that’s chewed nearly in half.
And guess what, I get all this whether I’m plugged in with headphones, or a TS cable to my interface.
Testing with with no cables, just headphones and narrowed it down to the unit itself.
Hey, question for you. Does it happen when the phatty is alone on the power plug with headphone output?
As I understand it is connected to your audio interface. This is a ground loop in that case.
Try to remove every cable between the phatty and whatever, even if you use the headphone output from the unit. Be sure it is properly grounded too.
you might also want to update to the latest firmware, since it’s possible you have a MIDI feedback loop as well, and that’s handled better in the new firmware.
First: thanks for the replies you guys.
Second: had my post been posted sooner I would have sent my own follow up.
I hope my ridiculous error helps someone else because its quite simple.
I was so fixated on getting my hands on it when it arrive that it took me a while to look back up at my computer screen (a welcome change) to realize that I had the Phattys midi track I/O on “monitor”. So, it was sending and receiving a surplus of data (midi feedback) and that was creating the nasty cackle. Once turned midi monitor off on its track in Ableton, good to go. And the sound… Yum.
Operator error. It just took me reeling in my excitement, then panic and heartbreak to correct that simple mistake.
If it is in fact a ground loop problem one solution is a ground loop hum eliminator. I can’t fix the wiring in my apartment so I use an Ebtech HE-2 XLR on gear I have a problem with. It works great and there are also cheaper ones if you look around.