Uh oh, Orban EQ and powered mixer had some sort of failure event

[mort]

Spotify > Steinberg UR242 Line Outs > Orban 622b EQ > Yamaha EMX212s Powered MIxer > Pair Peavey PR12RX Speakers


Played music for about 5 hours. Sounded fantastic. Moderate to sorta loud in the house volumes. Without warning the squeal of death fills the house.

Isolated the noise down to the left channel on the EQ and now when using the working channel of the EQ, the mixer volume controls have no effect on the music coming out of the speakers.

Packed it up for the evening and will revisit.

Just got this EQ too and it sounded really REALLY good

[J M Fahey]

Start by separating and bypassing the many links in your chain to see which one is actually misbehaving.

Check cables and connectors too.

[Jazz P Bass]

Here is the operating & service manual if you need it.

[Brad1]

Spotify > Steinberg UR242 Line Outs > Orban 622b EQ > Yamaha EMX212s Powered MIxer > Pair Peavey PR12RX Speakers

Isolated the noise down to the left channel on the EQ and now when using the working channel of the EQ, the mixer volume controls have no effect on the music coming out of the speakers.

Couple things to clear up. Spotify (on computer) > Steinberg Line Outs > Orban > Yamaha Mixer...which inputs? How do you have the mixer configured as to mains, mains + monitor, etc.?

The ODD thing is "the mixer volume controls have no effect on the music coming out of the speakers"? Why would THAT happen? did they work before? WHICH mixer volume controls...the individual channel(s), the main, or all? Which goes back to which inputs, and how is mixer configured?

What software are you using to run Spotify through the Steinberg? Are there software effects (Para EQ) available through that? Just because you found a new toy, it doesn't mean you HAVE to use it, and sometimes, it may be worse than none.

You are introducing more complexity, and more points of possible failure for everything you add. You are adding more electronics, and another gain-stage that must be balanced, if that Orban has any kind of gain control. Adding more of those adds more noise.

Are the Steinberg line-outs actual non-adjustable line level "line out" signals, or are they adjustable through software or unit gain/volume knobs (or both)? If that's the case, you must be careful about the level pumping into the Orban, then the level the Orban is sending to the mixer, then the level of the channel input (input trim), then the level of the channel volume fader (knob), then the main volume knob. So, as you can see, if the Steinberg outputs are adjustable, with the Orban in there, you could have at least 5 level controls that all need to balanced with respect to each other (gain staged).

And, if you are running through software that are effects-capable, and you are running any graphic or parametric eq in that, then you are passing the signal through that eq, the Orban eq, the mixer lo/mid/hi knobs' eq, and the mixer main eq(s), unless all those can be switched out and bypassed. Or, at LEAST left 'flat', because using any of those conflicts with the whole point of using the Orban. Those also add more noise.

The part about "the mixer volume controls have no effect on the music coming out of the speakers" makes absolutely no sense IF they were adjustable before the thing went into scream mode. THAT is the part that has me curious. The rest can be explained, as already stated by others, by cables, or by configuraton...or...it could be some catastrophic failure of one of the units? I'd remove the Orban and plug into the exact same inputs to the mixer...whatever those were (or is that plugged into a serial or parallel effects loop on the mixer, if it has one?)

Simplify as much as possible, then add back, considering cables, and configuration settings of the units.

Good luck

Brad1

[mort]

Mote details on how it was set up..

With the Steinberg plugged into a laptop via USB, you can simply choose the Steinberg as the laptop’s audio output device in sound settings. The Orban is connected to the line out jacks on the back which can be level controlled with an output control on the front of the Steinberg.

The outputs of the Orban were connected to channels 1&2 on the mixer. The levels on the steinberg, mixer channel levels and mixer main levels were all set between 2-3 and the orban levels around 5. The mixer was set to Mains + monitor.

All the level controls on the mixer worked fine. After the squeal event I disconnected the orban from the mixer and the Steinberg and powered the mixer back up. No squeal. Plugged only one channel of the Orban back into the chain and audio made its way to the speakers but none of the mixer controls had any effect on the sound. The Orban still had effect on the sound though.

Then I disconnected the Orban again and tried the other channel in the chain. Big squeal. Disconnected the Orban from the Steinberg leaving it still connected to the mixer. Big Squeal.

That’s the point where I shut it all down, made this thread and went to bed. Tonight I’ll try each piece individually and see if the failure modes are still present.

[mort]

Only had time for a quick play test just now with the same chain with the Orban removed. When first powering up for a few seconds the level controls didn’t work but music was coming through the speakers. Then there was a click and everything went back to normal. I’m guessing it went into a self protect mode and then came back out of it this morning.

Added the Orban back in and with all gain levels at zero it squealed when the left channel of the orban was plugged into the mixer. The right channel seems to be working normally. Will open it up tonight.

[g1]

If you were using the mixer to give stereo output, you should not have it set to main/monitor mode. That is where I thought you may run into the issue of it not responding to the output levels (on monitor side amp). Unless you were running both speakers off the 'mains' side amp, and not stereo.

But that does not support the issue of the click you heard and then everything went back to normal. Unless the main/monitor switch is acting up.

[mort]

Had a conversation with an Orban tech, described in detail the rig and happenings. He suspects an unhappy IC chip and given the generous access the unit provides to the board the troubleshooting time should be pretty short. I'm just gonna send it in to them since they are intimately familiar and can make sure the entire unit is at factory spec. After almost 40 years it could probably use it anyway.

It sounded really REALLY good. On it's own my powered mixer sounds ok but that EQ really woke it up.