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Okay, something has to be wrong with my STC-8. It has no headroom which leaves me to believe the jumpers are wrong inside the box. The guy I bought it from said he did the jumpers for the softer KI knee and more input headroom for mastering but this thing is clipping way before it should. Its a year old and looks mint but yikes, it cannot be this lame. Could be why he didn't like it. He screwed the jumpers up yes.

Any suggestions on what do change or is this normal?

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audiokid Thu, 01/05/2012 - 10:23

The STC-8 I have is less than a year old but the manual I have is obviously older. It doesn't show the current J2 jumpers described, mine are J8 and J9.
I did move the j8 jumper to the other location but it didn't help. I need to find the updated version and I guess at this point, I should call Crane Song.

The unit sounds great but I'm not liking how the meter output is responding like that.

audiokid Thu, 01/05/2012 - 11:43

For others with a new STC-8 that find this thread and have the same concern, I Downloaded the latest manual (1.2) and it still doesn't reflect the inside of this box entirely. But I see jumper JP8 (called J3 in the manual) there and clarified better. I've changed that back to the default. Still looking for J1 and J2 in the manual which I'm guessing are now called JP9 and JP10 that NOTE) cannot be switched, which it states (not recommened to switch in the manual).

Time to call support.

audiokid Thu, 01/05/2012 - 12:12

Just got off the phone with support. The manual is still outdated but I have answers. Oh ya! this thing has headroom. The meters stop at plus +3 but the unit will do +25. So... no need to worry about clipping it. Quite contrary to digital meters where I don't go near red.

JP9 and JP10 stay where they are. Removing them will allow more threshold sensitivity which I do not need. To summarize, the manual is outdated and RED meters are weird, calibrated incorectly to me but cool. To me the OUT meter is goofy and completely useless and still appears to be calibrated wrong but how its sounds will be the test.

RemyRAD Thu, 01/05/2012 - 15:21

Just your description of this doesn't make it sound terribly professional to me? I've never even seen one of these things. If it was at the AES show, I must have walked right by it? I'm also not quite sure why everybody wants Mastering Limiters? What about good old-fashioned broadband program limiters? You indicated you have an 1176 also on order so why this? I mean even George Massenburg's limiters utilize DBX VCA's along with his own surrounding stages. So if you're using a George Massenburg limiter, why not use a DBX instead? I mean we all like clarity of sound but the clarity of digital still is so obtrusive sounding, we need some mush to make it listenable. Cleanliness and purity doesn't necessarily improve listenability. I remember some microphone transformers that were as big as your fist. And people through those out when analog recording improved over the years. Now we need those again just to make digital palatable. So what's old is new again my friends and should not be forgotten. Why do people want so much tube equipment? It's because digital sounds like crap. And nobody here wants to sound like that. Do they? So with my brain damage, I guess I'm getting confused? Maybe it's just my age? What flavorful improvement will this offer?

Is rock 'n roll here to stay?
Mx. Remy Ann David

audiokid Thu, 01/05/2012 - 16:13

Yes, analog all the way!

Good points and please don't tell that to my wife !

Remy,

I bought the LA2A and an 1176 for vocals. I may use the LA2A on other things but its basically just for vocals, maybe bass, guitar .... The 1176 will be more useful for other sounds but again, there for my vocal chain. Too many years trying to get that sound, now I got it.

The STC-1 is for my 2-bus, however, I may find it works well on just about everything but I didn't get it for everything either.
I bought the A-Design Nail for synths but, wow, is it ever good on the two bus.

The MixDream/Dangerous master combo is opening up a whole new way for me. Sending out stems and patching in these comps is making life fun. Like having real analog plugins.

Herbeck Fri, 01/06/2012 - 10:10

audiokid, post: 382086 wrote:

please don't tell that to my wife!

I once sold a guitar to a guy who is purchasing manager at a nuclear power plant.
Now here is someone who's used to do very big deals and he asked me to write a receipt that was
about half of what he paid for the guitar. I got a bit curious about it and asked him, -why?
A little bit embarrassed he explained it was for his wife.