Narcsoul
1 post
Aug 05, 2018
12:21 AM
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Hello, I am a street artist, guitar and vocals and I use a cube ex and an synheizer e945.
My problem is that in normal and Max mode I get distorted vocals when I make high notes and I am very near to mic.
I also use 2500 mah batteries but I do not know what it cause all this!! I have the volume at 12 o clock though not very high....
I think if the microphone is the problem and I would like to know if you have to suggest something about this.
I am also thinking about using another mic but which one? but also don't know if something like this will fix my problem.
So is the amp? It is brand new ( only six uses ) is the batteries? Is the mic ?
Can you help?
Thank in advance
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Andrew
1805 posts
Aug 05, 2018
4:34 AM
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It's not the batteries. If the technicality of '2500mah' is beyond you, don't worry, it's irrelevant.
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Narcsoul
2 posts
Aug 05, 2018
4:40 AM
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so? What it is?
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Christian Wasmer
7 posts
Aug 05, 2018
4:41 AM
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Hi Narcsoul, it will be difficult to give you a technical answer from what infos you give. I can only suggest to do further tests :
- with an other mic (any type, just to check)
- with other batteries ; I bet you refer to NiMh when you mention 2500 mAh. Are they new and correctly charged ?
I can only recommend ENELOOP batteries (now PANASONIC) and a good "intelligent" charger (such as LaCrosse BC700 or BC1000)
But simply putting a set of normal alkaline batteries would help clear the power supply issue.
Do you have a GOOD multimeter to maybe monitor the power supply while inducing the distorsion ?
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Christian Wasmer
8 posts
Aug 05, 2018
5:43 AM
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Moreover, if my maths are OK, the spec sheet claims 5 hours battery life for 2450 mAh, I find a total consumed power of 4,7W.... very far from the claimed 50 W output ! Anyways, this published data fails to precise wether it is RMS, or what. Maybe peak power with lots of distorsion....
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Narcsoul
3 posts
Aug 05, 2018
9:21 AM
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I have Panasonic Eneloop Pro batteries brand new and Panasonic Eneloop BQ-CC63 for charger.
Whats does it mean correctly charged. As soon as the lights of charger go off batteries are full charged i think.
When amp is plugged in electricity current there is no ditortion issue..
So? Are the batteries ?
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Narcsoul
4 posts
Aug 05, 2018
9:21 AM
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...
Last Edited by Narcsoul on Aug 05, 2018 9:21 AM
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dougharps
1801 posts
Aug 05, 2018
9:36 AM
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If the distortion is not present when you are plugged in and only shows up when you are using batteries it seems likely that the batteries cannot keep up with the current demands of the volume you are expecting. It could be an issue of those batteries, but I think it may be that the amp at high volume is expecting current that even good batteries cannot provide.
A similar distortion appears on high frequencies in guitar preamps when batteries are getting low. They cannot meet the current demand of the amp.
If you turn down the bass setting (which demands more current than treble), using freshly charged batteries, does the treble clean up?
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Doug S.
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Andrew
1806 posts
Aug 05, 2018
11:43 PM
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Well at least my post seems to be about the technicality of 2500mAH, so that I don't look like a total sphincter.
But if you're a street artist, you should have met with having to change your batteries when they go flat.
Having said that, I'm not a fan of Panasonic gear - my HDD was terrible and my phone was terrible, but I do still have a 10-year-old Lumix Z8 camera.
Last Edited by Andrew on Aug 05, 2018 11:48 PM
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Cotton
103 posts
Aug 06, 2018
7:05 AM
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When I had a yamaha thx and used rechargeable batteries, it just stop working randomly. When I replaced with alkaline batteries it worked fine. I now have a Roland Micro Cube and use disposable alkaline batteries, it works fine. Batteries last a long time.
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Christian Wasmer
9 posts
Aug 06, 2018
7:14 AM
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ENELOOP batteries have been acquired by PANASONIC recently, but were not developed by them.
ENELOOP are very different from ordinary Ni Mh batteries : they are sold fully charged, because their technology allows them not to lose charge over time !
I have discarded all other brands, which tended to lose their capacity after maybe 2 years. With new ENELOOP gear and the dedicated charger, your should be safe for a few years.
Coming back to the CUBE topic, my feeling is that, since it works fine on the line supply, but distorts on the best batteries, it is a design flaw and the battery pack cannot sustain the power demand.
BTW please notice that the AC adapter is specified as a 13V DC supply, quite a bit more than the 9.6 V a 8 x Ni Mh pack will output !
Maybe you could use a 12V battery (like a motorcycle on) with the correct DC jack to boost voltage and capacity !
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nacoran
9931 posts
Aug 06, 2018
2:32 PM
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Eneloop are good rechargeables. In the interest of trouble shooting, since you say it doesn't happen when you are plugged in, try a set of alkaline batteries. If the problem stops then it's the rechargeables. If it doesn't it may be battery power in general which would mean you'd have to do more tests to see if it's a fault with using battery power in general or if there is a loose wire or something.
Rechargeables are really good for lots of things but sometimes have problems in high discharge situations. Of course, if you are performing out a lot being able to recharge your batteries can save a lot of money pretty quickly.
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Nate
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nacoran
9932 posts
Aug 06, 2018
7:23 PM
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One other possibility, if you like the sound when it's plugged in, would be to look into portable power sources (bigger batteries or generators) and run it off the cord, although that's a different price range, I think, but might be more cost effective in the long run than non-rechargeable batteries.
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Nate
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Narcsoul
5 posts
Aug 07, 2018
8:34 AM
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Thanx! My main fear is the possibility i bought a faulty amp. But if you think all this is normal i will find the best solution either with better vocal /mic technique either try another mic like Shure SM58. Hope i will get better results :)
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MindTheGap
2570 posts
Aug 09, 2018
2:22 AM
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My guess is the lower battery voltage from the rechargeable batteries - as Christian said. It's less likely to be a problem of capacity (mAh) or high current drain; rechargeable batteries tend to be good for that in principle because they have very low internal resistance. But it's the lower EMF (sort of voltage) that seems to cause trouble.
I agree with Nacoran that an experiment with alkalines would tell you if it's the rechargeables. But that doesn't mean they are defective (although they could be) it just tells you that the resulting voltage is too low.
One solution could be a rechargeable battery pack with more cells to bring up the EMF, but that would need to be external. Lighter than a car battery though.
Last Edited by MindTheGap on Aug 09, 2018 2:27 AM
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Christian Wasmer
10 posts
Aug 12, 2018
9:13 AM
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I have got a new option for your power supply problem !
I have built myself a « garden amp » for guitar and/or mic. This consists in :
a power amp kit delivering 7W into 4 ohms under 18V DC (actually, I measured 5 W « true »RMS)
a 8 '' speaker, 4 ohms (Eminence)
everything installed in a 6 wine bottles crate
The wine bottle crate = French variant of a cigar box :)
Now for some conversion between imperial units (inches) and French units (wine bottles) :
a 6 bottles crate holds one 8'' speaker,
while a 12 bottles crate would easily take a 10'' speaker. If you would try to fit a 12'' speaker there would only be 3 or 4 mm of wood on the sides of the baffle... This holds true for « standard » Bourgogne or Bordeaux bottles, but maybe some Alsace bottles would do it. Yet to be acertained...
I Initially powered it from 15 Ni Mh AA cells (afore mentioned Eneloop BTW) to produce
15 x 1.2 V = 18 V.
Works very nice, but my concern is that I only own one good « smart » battery charger that I am confident in (LaCrosse Technology) which holds only 4 cells. Hence, recharging the 15 cells requires 4 cycles. Not too convenient...
Also to gather 15 AA cells I had to rob all my spare batteries from my several radiosets, my Tascam hand held recorder, my weather station , etc.
That is why I have just experimented another power supply system, based on some ideas collected on the net.
It basically makes advantage of these « power banks », external batteries intended to recharge your smartphone in the middle of nowhere, which are both lightweight, cheap and also available in indecent capacities (10 000 mAh or even more).
Now to make 18V from a 5V USB plug requires a DC/DC step up voltage converter. I have found nice ones, in the form of a USB to DC plug cable. The electronics are inside the USB plug, and the other end of the cable is fitted with a standard DC plug like your stompbox uses.
A 5V to 12V will be even more easy to source, and would bring the voltage very close to the 13 V that your AC adapter produces now.
It cost me 10 euros (11.4 USD at today's exchange rate) for the cable/step up converter, and 20 euros (22.8 USD)
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