S3200 Quiet Clipping

Hello! New to the forums and immediately ready with a problem

I've got an MPC3000 and an S3200 that I've been using in tandem with each other. I usually either make beats in the 3000 or on Sony Acid to switch it up, but when I'm on the computer, I run samples through the S3200 for that warm sound.

Anyways, today while running a break through the S3200, the output was coming out sounding like it's clipping even though the overall level is pretty tame. To troubleshoot, I recorded the break into my 3000 and 3200 at the same level and all other things equal. Looking at the waveforms, it looks like the S3200 is squishing the waves down in a square shape. I've attached an image showing this.



The MPC3000 recording was louder too even with the variables all the same.

Do you guys think this might be a faulty preamp? The A/D converter? It would be a shame if the 3200 turned into a brick, but it seems like something is expensively wrong with it. Anyways, any help figuring this out would be appreciated Thanks.

What was your gain set at? Have you tried re-recording with the gain set to low and then up the record volume?

Also, why does the waveform on the S3200 look like it has been compressed?

richie wrote:What was your gain set at? Have you tried re-recording with the gain set to low and then up the record volume?

Also, why does the waveform on the S3200 look like it has been compressed?

The gain on the MPC3000 was set at 12'oclock and the S3200 was set at about 3'oclock. There's a significant difference on the recording level for both so I kept recording into the S3200 until it would match the gain of the 3000. This is all going straight from the interface -> MPC/S3200 -> preamps. There's absolutely no processing of the audio. No idea why it looks like that. It's not even loud, just distorted.

I'm talking about the gain slide button on the back of the S3200. You'll see it is located in between the balanced inputs.

richie wrote:I'm talking about the gain slide button on the back of the S3200. You'll see it is located in between the balanced inputs.

Both of them were set to "LOW"

So have you tried recording with different gain settings to see if it still happens?