Midas Venice EQ noise

Mike Caldwell

Mike Caldwell

Junior
Jan 13, 2011
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Covington, Ohio
www.mikecaldwellaudioproductions.com
I'm doing some work with a couple of Midas Venice boards at a friend of mines shop. Their 320 and 240 both have the exact same issue, when turning or even just bumping the the frequency sweep controls on the EQ you can get everything from a popping sound to a dirty pot scratching sound. The scratching sound sounds like the classic sound of an audio pot that has DC voltage on it from a leaking cap. After a few rotations it will clear up for a while.
I would say half the channels on each board do it.
It's clearly audible when running the channel faders full up and the master full up, with normal levels it can be heard in the background of program audio on an affected channel.

I read about EQ oscillation problems on the Venice but this is not what I would call oscillation.

Both of these boards are about 12 years old.

Anyone seen/heard this before.
 
Re: Midas Venice EQ noise

If you're boosting that band a lot a bad pot will produce some very loud oscillation. The proper fix is to replace the bad pots, though they'll often clear up for a while if exercised.

If you love love love your original Venice and want to keep it running forever, call up Music Group *now* and buy whatever replacements they've got left.
 
Re: Midas Venice EQ noise

The noise is there with all the EQ bands cut / boost pots straight up at 0. Since all of the other pots on the boards have no issues and the problem is limited to only the frequency sweep pots makes me think there is still some other underlying issue or maybe the frequency sweep circuit is just really sensitive to the pots tolerances.

The boards are not mine, I didn't jump on the Venice bandwagon when they came out.
 
Re: Midas Venice EQ noise

Yeah I know the issue, the frequency pots are "oscillating" or whatever. It may sound like a sine wave, radio hum or scratchy noise but this is certainly related to bad frequency pots.

In Finland, years ago (time before Music Group) Midas replaced all faulty pots free of charge on my Venice that was about 6-7 years old at that time. I don't know if they still do that but it doesn't hurt if you ask them.
 
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