Eventide Orville Harmonizer cracking sounds on both channels, help?

[Pastortom]

Got a Eventide Orville Harmonizer here which seems in perfect condition outside and inside, but it has a major problem with both audio channels producing a high volume crackling sound.

Ive got experience within hardware-electronics and service-soldering, so with the right parts and a diagram to show what parts needs replacement, I am certain I can do this. But first I need to know exactley whats wrong, and if its indeed hardware-related.

I've tried to do a reset of the software (holding '8' during bootup) and also done a self test of all hardware (holding '5' during bootup), and still the crackling sound is there.

Can anyone help? Ive googled for hours without luck 😛

[nickrose]

It could be a number of things – it is not always possible to diagnose this from a distance, especially with so little information. That's why we have a Service Department.

You could narrow it down, and see if it occurs on both the A and B machines, on certain presets, with certain inputs and outputs, on certain channels, etc.

[Pastortom]

Its occurring from power up, no matter what preset is loaded.

Immediately after software reset even. No matter if anything is connected or not. Its 24/7 crackling.

My guitar buddy has tried everything he can think off.

First left channel started crackling, then both channels after a period of 1 year. It's impossible to use it, with this noise ruining everything.

Isnt it rather easy to say what's causing this? Isnt this a common wear and tare with Eventide Orville over time?

[nickrose]

It is not obvious what is causing it, nor is it a common problem. My first guess is that it is a power supply issue.

This unit is now probably well over 10 years old, so it could have a number of issues. Nothing more I can add.

[wilkinsi]

2 possibilities: unit is sandwiched between 2 digital devices and wordclock hasn't been set correctly. Otherwise, it might be your analog input/input gain levels are too high, thus exposing a noise floor.

[discocubist]

Yes, the Orville is worse than most things I've come across when clocked incorrectly.

Try setting the system clock to a different value and changing back, double checking word clock is not selected if you are suing analogue i/o or ensuring that if you are using digits, that your clock source is the correct device, ie wordclock or embedded within the AES stream.

Erroneous settings can cause extremely unpleasant artefacts…

When its clocked right, however, the Orville sounds mmmmm…..

Of course it could be an electrical fault, but…

[Author]

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