Hey, all you great minds out there have an idea of my issue?

I have been hearing lower than stellar sound on the analog side while using a 2012 RME Babyface. Synths and plugins sound great with nothing out of the ordinary in the fine quality that I'm used to. I thought that perhaps that there was something amiss with a piece of gear in my go to signal chain (Warm Tonebeast > Warm WA76 > Klark Teknik KT-LA) or my nice Gefell UMT70S, so I switched out the mic to my Daking Mic Pre One and it too was distorted with kind of a bandpass-ish tone. OK, so I switched the mic to my Electro Voice RE-20 and it is the same issue. I've disconnected and reconnected all pertinent cables (all Vovox and picked up used for pennies on the proverbial dollar) and still the problem persists. If I had an extra interface laying around I'd see if that sounded right, but I don't have but the one.

Can the Babyface go tits up like that with perhaps a burnt out capacitor or something inside of it's guts? Can the AD conversion go south at the drop of a hat? That's my take, but I am not a great mind when it comes to electronics and the like. It is almost like a filter is keeping the low end at bay and crinkling the highs.It has been almost constantly on for 8 years or so, the only downtime and sleep was really when I had a usb too long a cable issue a bunch of years ago and it lay dormant for a few days. Like I said, anything digital and installed on the computer such as synths and plugins are dandy, external audio is a horror.

Watchya think?

 

The Inputs have overload protection, but you could have killed it with a hot enough signal

You have tested various things you know are good on the inputs but same result,
nothing has been done to it I think its some kind of digital/software issue

Have you tried turning it off an back on again?=)

 

Does it apply to both inputs?
Have you tried to de- and reinstall the drivers (don't forget to make a backup of the settings first)?

 

Thank you gentlemen for chiming in. As you both were getting at, it seems to be a software/driver based issue. The only thing I hadn't done was to disconnect the interface and to jack it back in, which I have done and which seems to have ameliorated the issue...I think. I've becoming hearing challenged and am not sure if what I'm listening back to sounds as it should. Fucking Rock n Roll, blasting away and turning it up and up during rehearsals, standing ear level next to the drummer's s cymbals with no ear protection in my youth. Rant over, I'll post a file for you to check out in the next few hours.

@Illadelph @No Avenger
Gracias

 

Here is an a capella snip. I think it sounds much better but for a little high end distortion that I am also a bit concerned with but it might be The E Klark Teknik KT-LA that might be introducing it. Also the x731 op amp of the Tonebeast is weird and which I used for this as it decided to work after I reseated it the other day. I was also holding the Gefell on my hand which introduces that noisy bit, and as well used no pop filter.

 

Sounds ok. Not high end, but ok.

If you want to find out to which amount this setup is adding distortion you'll need a clean high sound (such as a VSTi synth) record it through your monitors a) with the mic directly plugged into 'Baby's Face' and b) with this setup (without changing the level and moving the mic, ofc).

 

I also have a 2012 Babyface and the preamp on channel 2 went bad a couple of years ago. It hasn't been to much of a problem for me because I have an external pre that I use. In my case the pre on channel 2 has a loud hissing/screaching sound coupled with severely lowered gain! I have been thinking about buying a Babyface Pro or Pro FS for some time but my setup still kinda works OK so I haven't had the guts to pull the plug on my old and beaten Babyface just yet!

 

It has sounded much better, very much better. I'll try to make time tomorrow to record your test. Thanks for checking it out. I've gotten lots of use out of it and if I need to get something else so be it. Something is fried along the line, and right now it seems like the Baby might be thrown out with the bath water, the likely culprit

 

Hopefully not, that would be the most expensive part, at least as long as you can't pick one up

 

I dont think the vocal sounds dull, for an A Capella it sounds very normal to me

It looks like its a very loud signal so, is the bit of distortion your talking about due to that recording chain or did you limit it after recording?

 

Sorry not to get back promptly. The compression is in the chain, but limiting is post. No Avenger likes a smooth vocal.

 

That much is true. Thankfully, your voice meets this requirement. Now it's the technology's turn.