Digital clipping/distortion on R3?

[Hugh Mann]

Hi everyone...Just got my Korg R3 and on just about every patch I hear a 'clipping' or 'crackle' or digital glitch/distortion or popping of some sort. I don't know how else to describe it but it's almost like a when a record skips. Needless to say, this makes my R3 unusable for recordings or live. I'm going to send it back in hopes that it is a faulty unit. But before I do, I was wondering if this was a common or known issue. Has anyone else noticed this issue? I have a korg electribe mx-1 and a microkorg and they don't have these issues.

[slammah2012]

Hi everyone...Just got my Korg R3 and on just about every patch I hear a 'clipping' or 'crackle' or digital glitch/distortion or popping of some sort. I don't know how else to describe it but it's almost like a when a record skips. Needless to say, this makes my R3 unusable for recordings or live. I'm going to send it back in hopes that it is a faulty unit. But before I do, I was wondering if this was a common or known issue. Has anyone else noticed this issue? I have a korg electribe mx-1 and a microkorg and they don't have these issues.

I hear that kind of sonics out the Radias Phones jack as well.....
Could be just a cheap headphone amp though, and not the mains....

[Hugh Mann]

Hi everyone...Just got my Korg R3 and on just about every patch I hear a 'clipping' or 'crackle' or digital glitch/distortion or popping of some sort. I don't know how else to describe it but it's almost like a when a record skips. Needless to say, this makes my R3 unusable for recordings or live. I'm going to send it back in hopes that it is a faulty unit. But before I do, I was wondering if this was a common or known issue. Has anyone else noticed this issue? I have a korg electribe mx-1 and a microkorg and they don't have these issues.

I hear that kind of sonics out the Radias Phones jack as well.....
Could be just a cheap headphone amp though, and not the mains....

Thanks for the confirmation. Well, that really sux. I did check the mains output as well as headphones. The clipping occurs through both. I did notice it less when I took the fx off, but that is not a solution.

I wonder if Korg is aware of this problem. If the Radias is doing it too, this is a serious problem....

[slammah2012]

Hi everyone...Just got my Korg R3 and on just about every patch I hear a 'clipping' or 'crackle' or digital glitch/distortion or popping of some sort. I don't know how else to describe it but it's almost like a when a record skips. Needless to say, this makes my R3 unusable for recordings or live. I'm going to send it back in hopes that it is a faulty unit. But before I do, I was wondering if this was a common or known issue. Has anyone else noticed this issue? I have a korg electribe mx-1 and a microkorg and they don't have these issues.

I hear that kind of sonics out the Radias Phones jack as well.....
Could be just a cheap headphone amp though, and not the mains....

Thanks for the confirmation. Well, that really sux. I did check the mains output as well as headphones. The clipping occurs through both. I did notice it less when I took the fx off, but that is not a solution.

I wonder if Korg is aware of this problem. If the Radias is doing it too, this is a serious problem....

What I seem to be experiencing would be described as very low overhead.....
Eventhough, this is not an analog board,there are many amplifier stages that can compromise the sound if the headroom is breached.....
One culprit could be the EQ stage.....from my understanding, it is before the waveshape/Drive circuit....the Waveshape/drive circuit can be pre Filter or pre amp.....this then goes on to the Timbre Volume/ and 2 FX controls before mixing in with the other timbres in the Master FX.....finally the result is pushed once more with the master volume......we might be hearing digital clipping and I only wish that an update could allow the "original value" led to blink when we are clipping.....
My Alesis Quadra synth from 1994 has the word clip on its lcd when it reaches the digital clip zone.......the main culprit, overloading the FX Chain with high input...

[Hugh Mann]

I hear that kind of sonics out the Radias Phones jack as well.....
Could be just a cheap headphone amp though, and not the mains....

Thanks for the confirmation. Well, that really sux. I did check the mains output as well as headphones. The clipping occurs through both. I did notice it less when I took the fx off, but that is not a solution.

I wonder if Korg is aware of this problem. If the Radias is doing it too, this is a serious problem....

What I seem to be experiencing would be described as very low overhead.....
Eventhough, this is not an analog board,there are many amplifier stages that can compromise the sound if the headroom is breached.....
One culprit could be the EQ stage.....from my understanding, it is before the waveshape/Drive circuit....the Waveshape/drive circuit can be pre Filter or pre amp.....this then goes on to the Timbre Volume/ and 2 FX controls before mixing in with the other timbres in the Master FX.....finally the result is pushed once more with the master volume......we might be hearing digital clipping and I only wish that an update could allow the "original value" led to blink when we are clipping.....
My Alesis Quadra synth from 1994 has the word clip on its lcd when it reaches the digital clip zone.......the main culprit, overloading the FX Chain with high input...

What you are saying makes a lot of sense. But I can't beleive that Korg would release a product that clips as much as my unit does. I have to believe they would have noticed it and either fixed it or adjusted the presets to compensate.

It is really bad on my unit. To the point where I would not be able to use it for recordings or live. I'm returning it today as well as checking out other R3s. I hope they don't do it as well....I'm sure there would be a huge uproar over it and I haven't found anyone else with this issue. So it must be my unit that is bad. I hope!

[ayron]

I' ve just received my R3 today, and have experienced the exact same problem: random 'ticking' noises and clicking sounds, most of them in the reverb or delay tail. They don't occur always, but frequently enough to make the synth pretty much useless for recording or live performance

Although the 'overloading the FX' theory sounds plausible, I'm not really sure; I can hardly believe Korg would let their own factory presets clip.

Does anyone know if this could be a fault in the fx DSP?

[musikmachine]

Had my R3 a few days and i've not noticed any clipping or any digital distortion from the it.I had it on test and would have taken it back had i have noticed this.In fact i've had two,the first was a demo model which was replaced with a new unit a couple of days later.I've recorded with both and had no problems.One thing i noticed was that drive is used in a lot of presets but i can turn the waveshaping all the up without any clipping whatsoever.Sounds like it could be a problem with the units.

[meatballfulton]

Ticks and clicks in the FX will happen if you tempo sync them and then change the tempo.

[ayron]

Mmm, didn't use tempo sync'd fx in my own test patches, and there's still the clipping / ticking sounds, thanks for the suggestion though.

I called my dealer and fortunately I can pick up a replacement in a couple of days

[Hugh Mann]

I' ve just received my R3 today, and have experienced the exact same problem: random 'ticking' noises and clicking sounds, most of them in the reverb or delay tail. They don't occur always, but frequently enough to make the synth pretty much useless for recording or live performance

Although the 'overloading the FX' theory sounds plausible, I'm not really sure; I can hardly believe Korg would let their own factory presets clip.

Does anyone know if this could be a fault in the fx DSP?

So I'm not the only one with this issue. I went to two different stores (Sam Ash and Guitar Center) to test out other R3s and they did not do the clipping I hear on my unit. So it must be a bad batch that you and I got. Seems like there is a bad batch going around. I hope the replacement I get is a from a good batch.

Where did you get yours from? Maybe it can be traced. I got mine from ZZounds in the US.

Ticks and clicks in the FX will happen if you tempo sync them and then change the tempo.

I noticed it the most when I changed the tempo. But still, it should not be required to turn off the fx (or eq or whatever) to use this synth. With these digital clips, this unit is unusable.

[ayron]

So I'm not the only one with this issue. I went to two different stores (Sam Ash and Guitar Center) to test out other R3s and they did not do the clipping I hear on my unit. So it must be a bad batch that you and I got. Seems like there is a bad batch going around. I hope the replacement I get is a from a good batch.

Ah, it's good to know not all R3's suffer from this problem.

Where did you get yours from? Maybe it can be traced. I got mine from ZZounds in the US.

I got mine in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (A shop called DW). The serial number of the synth ended in 001375, so I guess maybe we can compare those?

I noticed it the most when I changed the tempo. But still, it should not be required to turn off the fx (or eq or whatever) to use this synth. With these digital clips, this unit is unusable.

I've tried that also, same thing here: It started clipping and ticking more when fiddling with the tempo button, but it also happens randomly: I latched the arp on some random patches without touching any button, and about once every 20-30 seconds the sounds started to clip or ' tick'.

[jerrythek]

I'm sorry to hear of these problems. It certainly is not intrinsic to the R3 design or voicing.

Hugh Mann - if you are returning your unit to Zzounds we'll get it back from them and look into this.

regards,

Jerry

[Hugh Mann]

I'm sorry to hear of these problems. It certainly is not intrinsic to the R3 design or voicing.

Hugh Mann - if you are returning your unit to Zzounds we'll get it back from them and look into this.

regards,

Jerry

Thanks Jerry. I appreciate the sorry, but I'm even more sorry, as I really wanted to jump into this keyboard.

BTW-the ending # are 006657. I'm waiting for my replacement from zzounds. I do hope that one is much better.

ayron- Let us know how it goes with your exchange and if the new unit you get does the same thing.

[Hugh Mann]

Just got my exchanged R3. I'm happy to report that the new one does not do the clipping. It must have been a faulty unit I got the first time. Thanks to all that tried to help. I'm off to play!

[IIRC]

Do you mind posting the last part of the serial number of the new unit? Just to compare it to the faulty one? Thanks.