DJing Discussion

Forum
 DJing Discussion
TTM56 possible grounding problem?
This area is for discussion about DJing in general. Please remember the community rules when posting and try to be polite and inclusive.

TTM56 possible grounding problem?

Timmy G 5:35 AM - 14 February, 2012
I recently purchased a TTM56 (original) and realized a big problem with it. Basically, once in a while my right speaker on the 2nd channel would fully drop out, but if I crank the master and gain to max i can hear an extremely faint sound coming from the right speaker. Usually how I can get it to come back (but not consistently) is by playing around with the ground wires at the back of the mixer. I would take off the ground wire and touch it to the base of the ground that comes out the mixer, and sometimes the sound would come back.
Recently I read that the original 56 has to be grounded itself because of the external power supply, and I haven't gotten around to doing that. So maybe that can be the problem?
I don't have a lot of technical expertise, that is why I turned to you guys.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
DJ Barticus 6:49 AM - 14 February, 2012
sounds like a bad cable,

you said its only coming out of one of your channels, did you try swapping channel 1 and 2 and see if the problem stays with the channel or if its coming from the source?
Timmy G 2:59 PM - 14 February, 2012
I don't think it is the cable. Because this happens specifically for channel 2, the right speaker drops out for both phono and line input, so it is definitely the mixer. I have also tried switching turntables n the same problem persisted... I wish I had a bad cable.

Usually how I fix this is mess around with the ground wires at the back of the mixer.
I'm trying to find a consistent way of the returning the sound to my right speaker, because when I do we might be able to find the problem.
Rane, Support
Zach S 6:40 PM - 14 February, 2012
Have you tried using different cables coming out of the output of your mixer?
Do you have a different mixer to try?

I don't see how messing with ground wires would fix the issue.
Sounds like you have an intermittent connection in your cables.
Timmy G 7:02 PM - 14 February, 2012
Thanks for the response Zach.
I have also tested my tables and sl1 with my other mixer (stanton sk2f) and it works perfectly. This happens only on this mixer. Besides that right speaker problem, sometimes the whole second channel craps out and a lot of distortion comes out of my speakers. At that point the tracking indicator inside the program starts going wild/red and the waves start bouncing around by themselves.
To fix this I do the exact same thing: Reconnect the ground wire of my second turntable to the mixer and most of the time the audio comes back. I realized that this consistently fixes my problem. Hopefully that will help you sort of realized what I'm dealing with.
Rane, Support
Zach S 7:52 PM - 15 February, 2012
Quote:
Besides that right speaker problem, sometimes the whole second channel craps out and a lot of distortion comes out of my speakers. At that point the tracking indicator inside the program starts going wild/red and the waves start bouncing around by themselves.

When this happens, if you hold down the cntrl key + F3 (for the left deck) or cntrl + F8 (for the right) does the audio clear up?
Note: Using those keyboard commands will put the virtual deck in INT mode and reset the pitch of the virtual deck to 0.

It does sound like you have a couple different problems.
If your only having the issue of audio cutting out when using the 56 then I would suggest sending it to us to get repaired.

Contact us with the serial number of your unit and we'll get you sorted --> serato.com
Timmy G 10:58 PM - 15 February, 2012
I have switched my turntables around and that has significantly decreased this right speaker drop-out from happening, although it did happen twice since the switch. I will play around with the mixer for a couple of days and try those shortcuts you posted. And if the problem still persists then I will contact you guys with the serial number. Thanks for your time.
Rane, Support
Zach S 7:18 PM - 16 February, 2012
Sounds good:)
Timmy G 9:45 PM - 17 February, 2012
Hey Zach. The right speaker on the right channel still drops out once in a while but I finally found a way to constantly get right speaker back.
What I do is turn the channel to phono, max the gain and and spin the control record (Basically redline my right channel) and the sound comes back.
So that would explain why the sound would return when I played around with the ground wires.....
I hope that gives you some insight to my problem since now I found a 100% way to return the sound.
Rane, Support
Zach S 5:33 PM - 22 February, 2012
Does this happen when using a regular cd player running into that input or just when using Scratch Live?