Static noise in power saving mode

troxx · Post by **troxx** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 9:05 am

I've tried 3 different headphone sets & connected to powered monitors via the audio outputs & all emit static noise in power saving mode, soon as its disabled the noise is gone. Anyone else experiencing this? Is it a fault of the unit?

mihata · Post by **mihata** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 11:33 am

I did, and I changed the unit in the shop. Was aware to watch for this bug. New one is totally silent.

Buska · Post by **Buska** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 3:47 pm

Yeah mine had this too (emx2)

troxx · Post by **troxx** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 8:40 pm

Oops yeah, I forgot say it's with the EMX2. So it looks like a fault, thanks for your responses guys. Looks like it's a trip into town for a replacement.

dutchcow · Post by **dutchcow** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 7:42 am

My E2 is totally silent with headphones. Even on max volume. No hiss. No phone, no beeps, no communication.

h.vel · Post by **h.vel** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 8:46 am

Hi,

in the beginning I thought that my ES2 doesn't make any noise in power saving mode. But at this time the audio in thru was set to off. Now I recognised when the audio in is set to on (and power save mode is enabled) there is a noise (low to middle frequency).

Is it possible that this noise is related to the audio input? As I said the noise is just appearing when both (power save and audio in) is enabled. If I set one of both to off, the noise disappears...

Also my LCD display is flickering (some kind of waves moving slowly from the top of the display to the bottom) when the ES2 is in power save mode. But maybe this behaviour is a part of the power saving, the LCD is not refreshing itself so often to save power?

Do you guys experienced similar behaviours or should I return my unit? Thanks

apapdop · Post by **apapdop** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 2:44 pm

h.vel wrote:Also my LCD display is flickering (some kind of waves moving slowly from the top of the display to the bottom) when the ES2 is in power save mode. But maybe this behaviour is a part of the power saving, the LCD is not refreshing itself so often to save power?

Do you guys experienced similar behaviours or should I return my unit? Thanks

Screen flickering is normal when in power save mode. It happens on the synth version.

troxx · Post by **troxx** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:02 pm

I have not taking the E2 back to the store yet (lost my reciept, doh!) but I did check the sampler version & there is also a very slight buzz from the headphones in Power saving mode if I whack the volume to max, but its really not as bad as the E2. It's not the headphones either as I have tried with 3 sets of headphones and also via my powered monitors.

I'll have to try your steps tonight to see if the buzz goes away with Audio In disabled?

mihata · Post by **mihata** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 11:19 pm

no buzzing here when in powersafe and audio thru on/off.

DjoHxC · Post by **DjoHxC** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 1:49 am

I have checked mine, and it is affected too. Hiss in powersafe and worse with audio in through on.
Pads are slighty pushed down on top row too. Seems quality control is very bad.
I'll take it back to the store tomorow.

mihata · Post by **mihata** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 6:05 am

yea, there are 3 hardware problems known to me and I changed mine TWICE!

- Faulty pads
- Hiss in powersafe
- wobbly body (not levelled properly when sitting on table)

DjoHxC · Post by **DjoHxC** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 3:50 pm

I just got back from the store. I tested the four machines they had in stock and they all have the same buzz on the audio outputs.

We must ensure that this is indeed a problem on some series or if all machines are affected. For this I made a record of the fault. The audio file is normalized, so we clearly hear the problem without having to increase the volume of monitoring.

Here's the file :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5FND3 ... sp=sharing

-00:00 : You will hear the background noise of the audio interface and two second later a pop/click when I switch on the electribe.
-00:16 : Boot is done, and you will now hear some hiss. I then increase volume and input pots to max. Hiss increase.
-00:26 : I switch on then off Power Save two time.
-00:32 : I switch on then off Audio In Thru two time.
-00:38 : I switch on Power Save and leave it.
-00:40 : I switch on Audio In Thru. Huge noise isn't it?
-00:45 : I switch off the unit and then the file finish with audio interface background noise.

So, please people, can you put a headset and do this test. We need to know.

Best regards.
Djo

mihata · Post by **mihata** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 4:26 pm

I gave it a try again and I can recognize some difference when I switch the audio through on and ever so slightly when I do the same with power-safe on. It's not like the buzz in your record though, just slight increase in the background hiss which sounds kind of expected especially when the volume is cranked up to the max.

I had a buzzing unit before and I remember was exactly like the record.

mihata · Post by **mihata** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 4:55 pm

Although being happy with the E2 after swapping it twice (pads are better, no buzz) I am extremely annoyed of the the lack of ANY quality control. Even if KORG don't see this as a bug, they should describe such thing as "expected when in ... mode" type of behavior. But of course they cannot do that, because they don't know it themselves, because they barely tested those machines.

h.vel · Post by **h.vel** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 5:47 pm

Thanks to everybody who was giving some feedback.

DjoHxC, your audio file is helpful, thanks. The noise I'm having seems to be the same like yours. But did I understand it correctly: in the time between 00:26 - 00:32 the audio in thru was set to OFF?

In my case this noise just appears when power safe AND audio in thru is set to ON. If I just enable power save mode (or just one of both functions), there is no noise. By the way, the noise is not related to input level/volume. Same loudness when input level is set to "0" in compare to "full".