25 December 2015

Motu 828mk2



For us guitarist,some noises originating from our gear are accepted because of its design and nature but not to a recording engineer,its the opposite.Any unexpected noise emit by their gear would put a dent to his mood/creativity/work/hobby/effort.What more when its an intermittent during it.Not only the session going to be unpleasant,the engineer too might add high dB of foul noise amplified through his vocal chord.Hehe.

Having said.I was ask by a client to look into his Motu 828mk2.What do I know about recording tools? Nothing! What do I know about interfaces? Nothing! It does have similar technology to amps but in that side of the recording realm.Silence before action is the first amendment.
He informed that the pots were giving problem(crackles/noises) and he had depleted his effort of finding replacement parts.There never were any from the beginning.Visits to forum confirmed this.He told me about a particular mod done by someone in forum but he wish to not have resort to that yet.He hoped with my touch,there would still be mileage left in the pots before resorting to that mod.
Of course high hope can lead to no hope.Before I accept this repair after I did a little forum digging of my own.I need it to meet my criteria before I give my welcome gesture.It has to be over warranty,old but not ancient,parts gone obsolete/ or never available or the company had cease to exist.Fit those criteria and I agree to have a look at it.

I dismantled both pots,give them a good clean up/bath,crimp it back,test it at his realm and noise gone.For how long? I don't know,no guarantee.Maybe it'll last for several days?several months?several years? Will I be expecting future visits of this unit.Definitely but will be denied.If you've ever tried desoldering out any component in a tight spot,on a dual sided pcb with tiny traces going around,you'll know why.




Lucky
yustech


1 comment:

Abdul Aziz Sanford said...

We can never know how long serviced components are going to behave themselves. Have to tawakkal, IMHO. You've done the best for the client. Now, only time will tell.