Help! Square waves when recording. (pic attached)

[Aequitas123]

Recording into Live with an SM57 running XLR into a Tascam US-428 and getting this...

http://i.imgur.com/J61Yj.jpg

whats causing this?!

[Tone Deft]

does it sound bad?

look at the numbers, how close are you zoomed in? what's the resolution of what you're looking at? at 48kHz how often are samples taken?

think about it...

[Aequitas123]

Hey Tone,

It sounds fine but it looks scary. Running at 48kHz. Could the US-428 be a poor AD/DA converter? or could it be that running the 57 without a High-Z converter causes lower resolution?

[Tone Deft]

it's fine, think about it...

you're zoomed way into the waveform (I always type waveforum, argh!!)

at 48kHz samples come in every 1/48,0000 per second, that's 20.83333333 microseconds, or roughly 50 times every millisecond. so between the 35.857 and 35.858 markers (that's a length of 1 millisecond) there are 50 samples, you're seeing those samples.

use your ears.

[Aequitas123]

thanks a lot!