Noise / whine on Denon SC3900 audio out

Today I was trying to sort out how I can get audio from both Serato DJ and Ableton together. While trying to sort this out, I found I was getting an annoying high pitched noise when no sound was being made. After trying various different cables and connecting things in different orders etc. I narrowed the problem down to the Denon SC3900 I had connected up, and specifically the USB port it was plugged into. By unplugging it from the USB3 hub I had it plugged into, and instead plugging it into a front USB3 port, the noise went away.

So, similarly to the issue I had with my Multimix 16 crackling via ASIO4ALL, the culprit was the USB port. The difference here is that the USB wasn't being used for audio at all, only MIDI signals, and being plugged into a hub was the culprit rather than the fix.

Actually, after further investigation I think the issue could be due to my Roli Lightpad block, which was plugged into the same USB hub. Depending on how I have things connected I can still get some noise (though much less than before), and it is fixed unplugging the USB for either the SC3900 or the Lightpad block.

In terms of combining the audio of Serato and Ableton, the difficulty is that Serato doesn't allow choosing your audio routing, it will always send the audio to your Serato hardware (in my case my AMX mixer). It seems there are 3 different options to work round this:

1. Send the audio from Ableton to your Serato hardware. This worked okay but the sound quality seemed to get a bit messed when doing multiple quick hits on the Kick 606 in Ableton. I tried MME/Direct X and ASIO4ALL and straight ASIO.
2. Send the audio from your Serato hardware back to your PC then use this for an audio input in Ableton. There doesn't seem to be any audio distortion issues like this. This requires using an actual cable (at least with the AMX, when I try the combined DX option in Ableton it just plays the control tone, not the Serato output, and the combined WAV option just said it couldn't connect).
3. Plug the output from the Serato device and the output from your PC into another mixer. I don't have another mixer, and even if I did, then plugging a mixer into a mixer just seems silly. If I was only using one deck with Serato, I could connect the PC output to the 2nd input on the AMX, and then set it to thru on Serato.

Why did I do this?! (RAID)

A few weeks back Amazon had a good deal on some WD 10Tb USB drives. Since I was going on holiday shortly and probably going to come back with a large amount of photos and video, I thought it would make sense to increase my storage.

Presently I have a 5TB drive and then 2 5TB drives for backup. So by purchasing another 5TB drive to give me 4 5TB drives (of the same model) I could set them up as a fast 10TB RAID 10 disk. And then get a couple of the 10TB drives for backup.

In hindsight, it wasn't needed (I didn't take many photos on holiday), and just buying a normal drive rather than going RAID would have been so much easier and quicker.

The first issue was that since I was needing to wipe the 5TB drives, I had to copy the data from the 'main' disk to both the new backup disks. Then do binary comparisons of the new 10TB backups against the old 5TB backups, to ensure the data had copied okay and avoid any bit-rot issues.

After about a week, I'd got that job done. Now it came to actually installing the 5TB disks in my PC. Unfortunately my PC only has mounting points for 2 3.5″ drives (who uses mechanical drives in their PC nowadays?). I scavenged some parts from work in an attempt to find some way of getting the setup I wanted.

My case is a Corsair Air 540. It has two sides - one for the PSU, 5″ drive bay and SATA SSDs, and the other side for the motherboard, cooling, and 2 3.5″ drives. In the smaller side there are two spots the drives could be placed: above the SSDs (behind the 5″ drive bays); or below the 5″ drive bay.

The problem with placing the drives below the 5″ bay is that there is no airflow in this location and no way to add any. Basically the drives would be surrounded by the 5″ bay (occupied with a backplane) on one side, the solid case front on another, the solid bottom of the case on another, and the PSU (where the cables are attached) on the other.

The other option I did think of was having the drives just in a backplane outside of the case (acting like a DAS). There are holes in the case below where the 3.5″ drives mount, so feeding SATA and power cables out of the case to a backplane just outside wouldn't be too difficult. But this option wasn't good for me as I don't really have space near the PC for this. It's a bit annoying as well having a large case and then having to mount stuff outside of it.

I did also think of using a server tower case. This would accommodate the hardware much better than the Air 540. But airflow would be much worse - front intake would just be the backplane fans pulling in what they can through the backplanes (i.e. not much), and the rear fan is a single 3 pin 120mm. I'd rather stick with the 140mm Noctuas on my Air 540.

I'm also hoping to move to water cooling at some point, which I think will work much better with the Air 540 than a server case that has nowhere to mount radiators. I may actually move to an open air case when I do that though.

So, the only place I could see to 'mount' the drives was above the SSDs. Unfortunately a backplane is too large to mount in this area. Some of the parts I salvaged were 2 parts that take 2 3.5″ drives each. They only just fit in the area. They didn't mount together, so I cabled tied them together and used cotton buds down the 'tube' bits (where the metal edge is bent back on itself) to keep them joined together.

When actually mounting the drives in these, I found that the drives don't mount in the same place - the 'higher' drive mounts further back. This was no good as I didn't have the room for that. So I ended up securing the bottom drive in each bay with a single screw (I forgot to scavenge screws), and then taping everything together to keep the upper drive in each bay in place.

This then only just squeezes in the area when SATA cables and power cables are attached. Airflow is provided by the fan on the rear of the backplane on one side of the drives, and a 90mm fan attached to the rear of the case on the other. I need to get another 90mm fan to cool the bottom 2 drives.

Note the 10TB drive in the above picture wasn't plugged in, it was just to prop up the drive bays and keep them in place - in actual use I use the case in 'desktop' orientation, so they are resting against the side (bottom) of the case). Also, this photo was from when I had them plugged into the motherboard SATA, not the RAID card.

After getting the placement of the drives in case sorted, I booted up the PC only to find Windows wouldn't start. I spent ages trying to fix this (it would boot into safe mode no problems but not normal windows). In the end I just went for the 'Reset' (Reinstall Windows and leave personal files) option. I have tons of software on the PC I'd need to reinstall, so that's why I spent a long time trying other options before I finally gave up and went for this option.

I left it reinstalling windows while I had lunch, and when I came to check on it, it was just stuck on a black screen. Doing a forced off / on, it said it was undoing changes, then after a bit came up with a message saying the install failed and to try again. Clicking OK on this, the machine rebooted and did the undoing changes thing. Then rebooted and did the same again. Then rebooted again, and Windows loaded, with everything as it was (or near enough) before it decided to break.

So the option that said it would wipe Windows and all installed software actually didn't do this at all, but it did fix it. That's Microsoft logic for you.

Once I'd undone some of the stuff I'd done in trying to fix Windows (disabling all non-essential services etc.) I tried setting up a storage space with the 4 drives. At first one of the drives was missing, I checked all the SATA connections and it seemed one was a bit loose. On reboot they all showed in BIOS, and upon boot to Windows, Storage Spaces could now see them as well. But when I tried to create the storage space I got the error Can't create the pool. Check drive connections - Request not supported 0x00000032.

Searching for this error, I found the fix was simply to uninstall the drives from device manager, then scan for new hardware so they all get added again. Another case of Microsoft logic.

There didn't seem to be any options about number of columns, just the option to create with no mirrors, a single mirror, two mirrors, or parity. So I just chose the single mirror option - I presume this is equivalent to RAID 10 as it ended up with a 10Tb partition. I then ran Crystal DiskMark to get an idea of the speed.

I then destroyed the space and pool and ran Crystal DiskMark on a single drive.

The next stage was to set up the disks with hardware RAID 10 and benchmark that. I got everything connected, but on boot it would say 'F/W Initializing devices', get to 100%, then boot Windows. So how was I meant to get into the RAID card BIOS to set up the disks?

The card I'm using is an LSI 9267-8i MegaRAID card. Googling, I found it was Ctrl + H to get into the card BIOS. But multiple boot runs trying this, I couldn't get anything. I tried a PS2 keyboard in case it didn't like my wireless USB keyboard on a USB 3 port, still the same. Then I found another key combo - Ctrl + P to pause. Pressing this when it was saying 'F/W Initializing devices' it would then pause for about 5s after that got to 100% and would display 'Press Ctrl + H for BIOS'. But pressing Ctrl + H would just boot to Windows.

After more googling and messing with BIOS settings, I found you need to set CSM to BIOS and UEFI, and Interrupt 19 Capture must be turned on. Save the BIOS settings and reboot, press Ctrl + P when it gets to the LSI 'F/W Initializing devices' screen. Press Ctrl +h when prompted, then hammer the F8 key or whichever the boot menu key is for your system. Now choose the RAID card from the boot menu. Now you should finally be able to get into the LSI MegaRAID WebBIOS to set up your array.

However, I then had trouble setting up the RAID array. I found a youtube video that went through the process, and the bit I was missing was that when you create the 2nd drive pool, you must click the button to accept the pool. The button seems like it acts as 'add new pool', but it really is an 'accept pool' button, and if you don't accept the 2nd pool, then on the next step you only have the first pool to choose from and so can't set up the array properly.

When I was creating the array, I got the message that it would use write through as the BBU wasn't available or wasn't charged or was relearning. So I need still need to check on that. It does see the BBU and says it is operational.

These are the test results I got from Crystal Diskmark:

Single drive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 6.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2018 hiyohiyo
                          Crystal Dew World : https://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

   Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :   215.092 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :   215.584 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q=  8,T= 8) :     1.735 MB/s [    423.6 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q=  8,T= 8) :     1.957 MB/s [    477.8 IOPS]
  Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     1.777 MB/s [    433.8 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     1.953 MB/s [    476.8 IOPS]
  Random Read 4KiB (Q=  1,T= 1) :     0.796 MB/s [    194.3 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q=  1,T= 1) :     2.077 MB/s [    507.1 IOPS]

  Test : 1024 MiB [G: 0.0% (0.2/4657.5 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
  Date : 2019/11/02 13:55:07
    OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 18362] (x64)

Storage Spaces

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 6.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2018 hiyohiyo
                          Crystal Dew World : https://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

   Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :   209.958 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :   209.387 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q=  8,T= 8) :     6.867 MB/s [   1676.5 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q=  8,T= 8) :     2.684 MB/s [    655.3 IOPS]
  Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     6.979 MB/s [   1703.9 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     2.676 MB/s [    653.3 IOPS]
  Random Read 4KiB (Q=  1,T= 1) :     1.118 MB/s [    272.9 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q=  1,T= 1) :     2.690 MB/s [    656.7 IOPS]

  Test : 1024 MiB [G: 0.0% (0.4/9297.9 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
  Date : 2019/11/02 13:46:54
    OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 18362] (x64)

RAID 10 on LSI MegaRAID controller

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 6.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2018 hiyohiyo
                          Crystal Dew World : https://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

   Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :   553.287 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :   416.736 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q=  8,T= 8) :    12.968 MB/s [   3166.0 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q=  8,T= 8) :     3.112 MB/s [    759.8 IOPS]
  Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :    12.566 MB/s [   3067.9 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     2.724 MB/s [    665.0 IOPS]
  Random Read 4KiB (Q=  1,T= 1) :     2.601 MB/s [    635.0 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q=  1,T= 1) :     0.530 MB/s [    129.4 IOPS]

  Test : 1024 MiB [G: 0.0% (0.4/9314.0 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
  Date : 2019/11/02 15:26:59
    OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 18362] (x64)

Sequential read speed with RAID 10 is very good, similar to SATA SSD speed. Storage Spaces is better than a single drive for random reads and writes, but generally not as good as RAID 10. Random write Q1,T1 on RAID 10 is pretty slow though, I don't know why that would be?

Flight cases for DJ controllers comparison

I though I'd put up a quick comparison of some cases I purchased for my DJ controllers. My main interest was in trying to find something reasonably priced that would fit the Denon SC2900 & SC3900 CDJs. I wanted to be able to use the controller from within the case if possible. And ideally also allow inserting CDs into the unit while it is being used in the case, though this is more of a nice to have as they are mainly used as Serato controllers.

You can purchase flight cases designed for the SC2900 / SC3900, but they are very expensive when you consider the units' current values. So I really wanted something that would 'do the job' for a reasonable amount rather than something that was 'just right' for a lot of money.

I also have a Numark V7, around the same size as the SC3900 / SC2900, but not as tall, and as this is a straight USB controller, no need for any low access to the unit for inserting CDs into it.

And then also the Akai APC40 Mark 1 controller and the Ableton Push 2. Again, a case that these can be used in would be best, rather than a case that is only for transport.

Pictured, from top to bottom:

1. ROC cases (Allendale) Aluminium Flight Case with dividers
2. Gorilla Small DJ Controller pick & fit case
3. Gorilla 47cm wide universal pickfoam DJ flight case with door (upside down - the rubber feet above it belong to this case)
4. Gorilla 50cm Universal Mixer CDJ Pickfoam DJ Case with Door

In the comparison below, I've put the case measurements in the order Width x Height x Depth. The measurements are from the item listings online - I haven't measured them myself.

Gorilla 47cm wide universal pickfoam DJ flight case with door ~£35

SKU:

GC-UNI-47

External:

512 x 382 x 146mm

Removable Foam:

480 x 350 x 90mm

It fits SC3900 / SC2900 but if you wanted to use the controller while in the case then you won't be able to put CDs in.

If you use the case upside down, with the controller in the lid, then you can use CDs. Note that this way doesn't give much padding to the top of the CDJ when it is packed - the spindle and buttons on top of the raised part are up against the 'lid', and there isn't room for more foam.

It also fits the APC40.

If you add one of the layers of pickfoam under the APC40 then the removable side panel is at the right level to allow connecting cables to the rear of the APC40. The downside is that I don't think using the unit like this would be a great experience as you have to reach down in the case to access the faders. Again, you could reverse the case and put the controller in the lid instead.

The V7 fits in the case fine.

It has rubber feet on the bottom, which make the case larger and are a bit annoying if you plan on using the case upside down.

You can also fit in this case the Ableton Push 2, a layer of foam, then the APC40. So you could carry them both in the same case, then when you want to use them, put the APC40 in or on the lid and the Push 2 on the foam in the base or use it on top of the base.

Gorilla Small DJ Controller pick & fit case ~£35

SKU:

GC-SDJC

External:

500 x 390 x 165mm

Internal:

480 x 350 x 80mm

Removable Foam:

420 x 305 x 60mm

APC40 fits well, and there is enough space at the sides to include the power adapter, USB cable etc. Placing the controller on the bottom of the case there isn't really enough room to plug in the cables - you would need to use right-angle adapters.

With the case upside down, and the controller placed on the egg-crate foam in the lid, then you can plug in cables normally. A layer of the included foam can be placed in the bottom (now top) of the case to provide a good amount of protection when the unit is being transported.

The SC3900 and SC2900 fit in the case, though you would need to remove the egg-crate foam from the lid to close it. But you couldn't use them with CDs while still in the half case.

The V7 fits in the case and it will close fine.

Ableton Push 2 fits fine, you can use a layer of the included foam underneath it. There is enough room in the case for including the power adapter, USB cable etc. as well. I think I suggested this case previously for use with the Push 2, but now that I have it, I must admit that it is quite a large case (height-wise) for this controller.

ROC cases (Allendale) Aluminium Flight Case with dividers ~£20

SKU:

EN-AC-FG-A022

External:

460 x 330 x 150mm

Internal:

435 x 310 x 95 (base) + 40mm (lid)

This case is actually designed for carrying tools, but you can remove the tool carrying insert from the lid and just not use the dividers it comes with.

It fits SC3900 / SC2900 and the V7, but the issue with this case is that the lid is not removable. So not really suitable for using the controllers in, but okay as a carry case.

The Akai APC40 mark 1 will kind of fit, it goes in at a bit of an angle and can't be pushed down all the way to the base of the case as it is too big.

If you wanted to put the Ableton Push 2 in this case, it would fit. But it's not really a suitable case for this controller.

Build quality isn't as good as the Gorilla cases, and it uses much cheaper feeling standard latches than the nice butterfly latches on the Gorilla cases. It also doesn't come with any foam. But it's a lot cheaper, so what do you expect?

Gorilla 50cm Universal Mixer CDJ Pickfoam DJ Case with Door ~£45

SKU:

GC-UNI-50

External:

542 x 492 x 191mm

Removable Foam:

510 x 430 x 120mm

This case actually says it fits the SC2900 and SC3900 in its description! And indeed it does, and the removable door allows you to use the CDJ in the case with CDs, without having to do silly stuff like using the case upside down. But the problem is that this case is massive.

This case also has rubber feet, making it even larger.

So my current thinking, which comes only from seeing how these devices fit in the cases, not through any actual experience in use, is to have 2x upside down GC-UNI-47 for the Denon SC3900 and SC2900. Then a GC-SDJC for the Numark V7. And another GC-SDJC, probably upside down, for either the Akai APC40 or the Ableton Push.

Recovering a corrupted wave file

I was trying to edit a wave file today, but in Audacity it was just silence. In VLC and other audio players when you pressed play it would just stop immediately, as if the file had no length. The file was about 1GB in size, and when opened in a hex editor it certainly looked like it was full of data (i.e. not just NUL bytes).

In researching how to open / recover the file, I found this very helpful video: Fix a Corrupt Wav Audio File in Audacity - Data Recovery Using VLC. The guide there says that in Audacity you need to go to File > Import > RAW. Then to find the settings needed, check the file's properties in VLC.

Unfortunately for me, VLC didn't give any information about the file's properties / codec. I have other WAV files recorded using the same setup, so I loaded one of those into VLC, but it still didn't give any information. Thankfully using foobar (and a previously recorded working file), I did manage to get the required information. (Though it didn't give me the endianess, but there's only 4 different options to try for that anyway).

Whereas in their video an offset of 100 bytes gave them the desired result, I still got static with that offset. But with an offset of 80 bytes, the file imported okay. Initially I thought it hadn't worked, and had just opened the file as silence, but once I Ctrl + F'd to view the full file, I could see it had imported okay, it was just the first minute or so of the file was silence.

Odd case pricing on whybuynew.co.uk

After finishing repairing my Akai APC40 mk. 1 yesterday, I was looking for a suitable case for it. whybuynew.co.uk sell a range of 'Gorilla' branded flight cases that are suitable for DJ equipment, at quite competitive prices compared to most other DJ flight cases I've seen.

They sell generic cases, and then they also list the same generic cases as separate items for popular equipment that the cases fit. But the pricing between these doesn't always match up, despite being exactly the same case. If you look at the screenshot below, I've circled one design of case in red and another in blue.

As you can see, the 'Small DJ controller' case and 'Ableton Push' case are both the same, and the same price at £40. But for £10 less you can pick up the same case, only sold as a 'DSLR camera' case. Similarly, you can pick up a 'Medium DJ controller' case for £55, but if you instead go for the same thing but sold as being for a specific controller model, you can save £10 and get it for £45 instead.

Personally, I'm not going to but any case at the moment (there are two I want, and both are just sold as generic ones), but am hoping eBay will do a 10-20% discount off everything again at some point, then will purchase the cases via whybuynew's eBay store.

Replacing faders on Akai APC40 Mark 1

I purchased an Akai APC40 Mk I from eBay that had several broken faders. In hindsight, given the amount of time it took me to repair it, I would have been much better off to just pay the extra money for a fully working one. However, this is mainly because I'm not experienced at soldering / solder removal. I guess at least it gave me some useful experience with this, and it is more environmentally friendly to get it back to working order than just have it thrown away.

First off, there is a very useful video on youtube that covers how to replace a fader on the APC40: Akai APC40 Volume Fader Replacement

I spent quite a while trying to find the replacement faders for the APC40 at a reasonable price. The easy solution is via MPCStuff.com, where you can just select a replacement fader for the APC40 mark 1, i.e. be sure you are getting the right item.

After quite a bit of research I determined that what I probably needed was a 6cm length Dual 10K linear Slide Potentiometer. I purchased this set of 5 For pioneer AKAI Mixer B10K B103 Straight Slide Potentiometer Fader / Total Length 60mm Travel 45mm / Stereo Fader B10Kx2 for $12.10 and 1PCS ALPS 6CM B10KX2 10K DJM600 600 439C-10KBX2 DCV1010 Slide Potentiometer for $4.07. The ALPS branded one seemed to be a good quality one, while the others are much cheaper. So I thought with both, if the cheap ones were no good I could at least test the ALPS one and then order more if necessary.

The set of 5 cheap B10KX2 slide pots arrived within a couple of weeks. As I mentioned earlier, removing the old faders was very difficult, at least initially. To go through the full process (as per the video above):

1. Remove all knob caps, nuts, and washers from the top of the APC40. Also remove the fader knobs.
2. Remove all screws from the bottom, including the ones under the rubber feet.
3. Remove the removable fader
4. Remove the back of the unit, being careful with the cables attached to the main circuit board
5. Remove all screws from the main circuit board.
6. Take the main board out, disconnect the ribbon cable and the other connector from the board on the bottom of the unit if you haven't already.
7. Use a solder wick and soldering iron to remove the solder from all the pins of the fader you need to replace. This is where I had a lot of trouble - I think the first solder wick I tried wasn't pre-treated with flux. I also found it easier after switching to a different soldering iron with a pointed tip instead of the wider chisel tip I was using to start with. You need to place the solder wick over the fader pin / leg, then hold the iron tip against the wick, pushing down onto / against the solder. The wick should then soak up the solder when it melts. It took several passes of each pin to soak up all the solder. Once the solder was removed from all the fader's pins it also required quite a bit of tugging and twisting the fader with some pliers to remove it.
8. Once the old fader is removed there might still be some solder left in the holes you'll need to soak up to make it easier to insert the legs of the new fader.
9. Insert the new fader. Temporarily hook back up the cables to the main board, connect the power and USB and check your new fader is working.
10. (Optional) Solder the new fader in place. I found the faders worked fine and held fast without being soldered. And given how much work it was to unsolder the old faders, I just left them unsoldered - it will make them easier to replace again in the future if necessary.
11. Screw everything back together, put all the washers, nuts, knobs, and caps back on.

For testing the faders, I used MIDIOX - this lets you see the midi signals sent as you move / press midi controls. I found that I was getting constant signals on channel 8's fader even when it wasn't being moved. I had already used my 5 cheap faders in replacing the broken faders (on ch 1-5) at this point, and the ALPS branded fader hadn't arrived. So I just removed the channel 8 fader and left it empty. In testing in Ableton Live I then found that the faders all worked okay, except that the channel 7 fader was also adjusting channel 8's volume.

I messaged Akai Support about this - I wasn't sure if the problem was a dodgy fader on channel 7, the fact that the channel 8 fader was missing, or a problem elsewhere on the board in how the signals from the channel 7 fader were being interpreted. I haven't had a reply from them yet, but thankfully the other fader arrived today. So I fitted that, and it seems to have fixed the issue.

I did find that the first part of the fader movement (at either end, but particularly at the bottom) has no effect. The movement also seems rather jumpy at the bottom end. But this is the same for the original faders.

This pic shows the board with the new faders fitted - channels 1-5 are the cheap ones, 6-7 are originals, 8 is the ALPS one, and the last one (master) is an original.

This next pic shows some of the replacements from the underside - you can see I only soldered one in, and you might also notice the board is a bit messed up around this one - it was the first one I did and took me absolutely ages.

This last pic shows the original channel 8 fader I removed (this one was the one sending out constant signals, all the others I removed had the control 'stick' broken off).

Hopefully this helps if you are wanting to replace damaged faders on your mark one APC40.

UDG Creator Ableton Push 2 Hardcase Black U8442BL - not really a review

I recently purchased an Ableton Push 2 from eBay that came with this carry case included with it. Fitting the Push 2 into it, it seemed like the case was pretty pointless. So I searched for it to see if others' opinions were the same, or there was some 'reason for being' I had missed.

On Amazon, all the reviews seemed to be pretty positive though. So, as someone that doesn't really have a need for it or having used it, I thought I might as well give my (negative) opinion to add some balance.

Firstly, trying to fit the Push 2 into the UDG case was extremely tight. I guess that's good for keeping it well protected (rather than having it slopping about inside the case). but I would say it's a bit too tight.

Secondly, the foam padding on mine has started to pull away from the edge of the case. This is a case of better glue being needed, and also the tight fit causing too strain when fitting / removing the Push 2 into / from the case.

There's no space in the case for anything other than the Push 2. It's nice that's it quite a tight fit, i.e. the case isn't a lot larger than the Push 2 itself, but I would much prefer it had space for the power adapter and USB cable. What point is taking the Push 2 with you without the power and USB?

Okay, you could argue that the power and USB can just be carried in your standard bag. But (depending on the size of your bag), so could the Push. No, it wouldn't be as well protected as in the UDG Hardcase, but there's not really much on the Push that could easily be broken off in a bag (like faders). If you were concerned about the buttons and knobs, you could put a decksaver on it before you put it in your bag (the decksaver is cheaper than this bag).

You can't use the Push 2 in the bag - it's for transporting / storing the Push 2 only. A design that allows the top & rear area to unzip completely so the Push can be used in the bag, then the top just zipped back on when you're finished would be much better in my opinion.

Other than that, the bag seems fairly decent. Nice zips, decently comfortable handle (though I haven't actually carried it anywhere), well padded, and the case is 'hard' but not completely rigid.

If I was after a case myself I'd be much more likely to go with something like a Gorilla Ableton Push Instrument Case (affiliate link). This case looks like it has room for the power and USB and the Push 2 can be used in the case. It will also look smarter if you already have your other audio equipment in flight cases.

Eating fruit with the skin

You can eat Kiwis with the skin, it doesn't feel furry when you eat it.

You can also eat Orange with the skin, but the taste of the skin is quite bitter. If you only eat a small proportion of the skin it is much more palatable, like eating marmalade. Easy peelers aren't too bad with the skin, though I would say they're nicer without the skin than with. Probably the skin is covered with harmful chemicals they spray on them while they're growing as well.

Grapefruit skin is like orange skin, only more pithy.

Banana skin is too tough.

Pineapple core can be a bit woody. The skin is 'okay' but I wouldn't purposefully eat it. If you do want to eat the skin I would suggest eating the flesh and skin together to reduce the taste of the skin. I suspect if a pineapple isn't very ripe then the core will be very woody and the skin probably taste worse than a nicely ripe one (the one I tried was ripe).

AMD Radeon & NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards together

I recently purchased a Radeon Vega 56 graphics card to go in my PC. I already have a a Quadro M2000, which is good in that it does 10 bit OpenGL (i.e. Photoshop can use it for 10 bit output), but it isn't very good for running modern games. So I purchased the Radeon card for that purpose, and it should also work well for other tasks with its 8GB of HBM2 memory.

Before I purchased the card I spent quite a while researching if the two cards could be used together. There seemed to be various conflicting information. From what I read, it seems that with NVIDIA cards you used to be able to run a Geforce and a Quadro at the same time, but that is no longer possible. It also seems that running a Radeon and Radeon Pro in the same system is not possible. Running a Radeon and a Quadro seemed possible, so long as both are not in use at the same time.

The advice seemed to be to set up dual boot - one OS that has drivers for the Pro card while the non-pro card is disabled. Then another OS for the non-pro card, with the Pro card disabled.

Well, I installed the Radeon in my system, and it seems to work okay without any messing - I can have one monitor in my Quadro, one in the Radeon, and no crashes or anything. The card performance does seem rather limited and I did get crashing when I tried undervolting it. But I suspect this is down to silicon lottery / useless reference cooler rather than any driver clashes.

Something I haven't tried yet is connecting both cards to my main monitor (so I can switch input on the monitor to switch between which card the monitor is running off), but I can't see there being any issues.

Of course, I can't say that all Radeon cards work okay with all Quadros, but at least in my experience it works okay for the two cards I have on my system.

Alesis Multimix 16 USB 2.0 crackling over ASIO4All

I recently purchased an Alesis Multimix 16 USB 2.0 mixer, while this is quite an old and outdated mixer it has the benefit that it can send all 16 channels separately over USB to your PC (rather than just the mix like most modern mixers). In Ableton if you select ASIO as the audio driver type then you can only select 1 device, which is used for both input and output (as far as I know). But this isn't what I want - I want 16 channels in from the mixer, then audio out to my speakers, not back to the mixer.

So to get round this limitation I use ASIO4All. In ASIO4All I select the multimix as an input device, and my speakers as the output. In Ableton I then select ASIO4All as the ASIO device to use.

I was testing the multimix with a microphone input, and found that when I was talking into it there would be occasional crackling. Plugging headphones into the multimix there was no crackling. If I set ableton to use the multimix as the ASIO device, then there was no crackling (but getting the multimix to output only the signal received via USB is a right pain and latency was terrible).

I messed around with the buffer settings quite a bit, but it didn't seem to make any difference at all. Eventually I tried a different USB cable and USB port (one of the recommendations online was making sure you don't have it plugged in a USB hub, but straight into your PC). Amazingly this actually fixed the problem. The original USB cable works fine, but it seems the issue only occurs when plugged into the rear USB ports on my PC. Plugged into a USB (3) hub I get no issues at all.

What's especially strange about this is that whenever I have had issues with USB devices before, it has always been that they need to be plugged into a rear USB port, and that plugging into a front port or hub is the problem. But with the multimix it seems the issue is reversed.

Cheap USB sound adapters quick review

Back at the start of December last year, at work we were looking at USB sound options. On Amazon there were a few that were extremely cheap, so I thought I might as well order some for myself, even though I don't need any. They were sent from China / Philippines / Thailand, so took a while to get here, the last one arriving just yesterday.

I thought I might as well do a quick review on them, though I only tested the sound output capability, not the microphone in.

Two of the items I purchased actually turned out to be the same model, there were:

• USB 2.0 Mic Speaker 5.1 Audio Sound Card Adapter - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000N35A0Y £0.85
• SODIAL(TM) USB 5.1 Stereo Sound Card Adaptor (Windows 7 Compatible) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008KGL2L2 £0.78

The other one, which is a different model was sold as:

• USB 2.0 External Sound Card 3D 7.1 Audio Adapter - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WJVGDX6 £0.39

Although all these claim to have surround sound, they actually just have a single basic stereo audio output (and a single mic input). The 7.1 adapter says as part of the product description Comes bundled with Xear 3D Sound simulation software, and turns your stereo speaker or earphones into a 7.1 channel environment!. It didn't actually come bundled with any software (all 3 adapters were just in unbranded little plastic bags), but I presume that you can use software to (likely badly) simulate a surround sound effect when using headphones is how they justify labelling them as surround sound.

The blue '3D Sound' adapters both work the same, as you might expect. Sound is quite tinny and lacking in bass, but if you didn't have anything to compare it with, you may not notice this. That is to say, while the audio quality is not particularly great, it may well be 'good enough', particularly given the price.

The '7.1 Channel Sound' adapter I initially thought was faulty. Using my Creative EP-630 in-ear headphones there was heavy static and when I tried to play a song (or any sound) it would just create a high pitch tone. I then read some of the Amazon reviews of the USB sound adapter and saw some mentioned that if the headphone's impendance is too high, the USB adapter may not supply enough power for them to work properly. So I tried my Takstar Pro 82 over-ear headphones, and was pleasantly surprised. There was no static and the sound was pretty much the same as straight from the PC's headphone socket.

The '7.1 Channel Sound' also features buttons for mute mic, mute sound, volume up, and volume down. I didn't test the mic mute button, but the others all worked fine with my Win 10 based PC.

To sum up, if you're interested in just adding sound to your PC / laptop for as cheap as possible and don't care too much about the sound quality, then I'd suggest getting one of the '3D sound' models. If you do care about sound quality then I'd suggest you should be willing to spend considerably more than £1 and get a decent (well reviewed) adapter from a more well known manufacturer.