Mixer crackles at 96khz when moving the pitch fader or pressing the sync button

Engine DJ Hardware Mixers
1

Hi,

my X1850 mixer ocassionally crackles when moving the pitch fader of any of my two SC5000m players. Sometimes a crackling sound can also be heard when pressing a sync button.

Audio sample recorded at 96khz/24bit: crackles noticable around seconds 1 to 6 and 14 to 17.

The crackles are visible as jumps in the waveform:

crackles
crackles1627×803 18.6 KB

The crackles occur on all outputs: headphones, master out, usb out. The crackles also occur in all combinations of player/deck states (playing, stopped) and sampling rates of the audio files (including 96khz/24bit files). They occur even when only one player is playing and I move the pitch fader of the other fader. After powering on the mixer, the crackles are rare but after an hour or so they are clearly noticable on almost any move of the pitch faders.

My setup: 2 months old X1850 mixer: Firmware v1.5; sampling rate = 96khz; digital RCA cable from the mixer’s digital out to amplifier; all channels set to digital in. Two SC5000m players connected to the mixer via digital RCA cables and cat 6 ethernet cables. Sync mode = tempo sync. While my regular setup is all-digital, I can exclude an issue with the digital cables because I tested different digital RCA cables and also analog cables without a noticable difference.

I was able to reproduce the crackles with a different mixer, an old X1800. So it is not exclusively my particular X1850 unit that is faulty. Nevertheless, I am sure it is not an issue with the players but the mixer for different reasons:

  1. I have recorded the sound from the players’ line out using a different sound card while the players were digitally connected to the mixers. Result: when I heard crackles from the mixers, the sound recorded directly from the players was at the same time absolutely clean.
  2. the crackles occur even when the pitch fader of the other player is moved
  3. crackles do not occur when Engine Connect is disabled in the mixer.
  4. Infrequently, some leds in the sweep FX and / or the microphone section go on when I move the channel fader
  5. When the mixer is set to 48khz crackles do not occur

I appreciate any help for solving this issue. Can someone else reproduce this issue?

2

I will happen on other mixers also because it’s coming from the decks. That’s why you hear it on all outputs. This is a bug.

3

Yes it looks like a bug. However its is not the decks but the mixer because the sound coming from the decks is fine.

4

Yeah I know I forgot to mention it happens with sync no matter what mixer you’re using. The other stuff is the mixer. Sorry about that.