brundlefly

arachnautI've had it on for 10 to 20 minutes and the channel output never changed from -56.5 db.

-56.5 is about 3dB above where mine starts with the Noise knob at max. Unless you have some other input noise on the channel, it seems like you're seeing an increase.

I understood it wasn't moving - but yes, you're right. With an empty audio track, and only the tape sim in the Prochannel on the track, there is absolutely nothing audible or visible on the -90db track meter here. After 6-8 minutes it creeps up to maybe -65db or so. It is slow, almost unnoticeable. Unless you make the mistake I did and leave it on and go away - a few hours and my monitors were 90 db of 60 HZ humming. Not good.
But yes you're right - there's no reason anyone should see -56.5 db - it starts out clearly under -90 db here.

Yes there does seem to be feedback at 60 Hz - a really nasty ground-loop.
 
http://www.arachnaut.net/video/Sonar/20-minutes-later.png
 

 
http://www.arachnaut.net/video/Sonar/25-minutes-later.png
 
 

 
http://www.arachnaut.net/video/Sonar/Later-still.png
 

Dan Gonzalez [Cakewalk]
Attempting to Repro now...

Hi Dan,
 
Do you have an update for us?
 
Thanks,
G

jb101
Hey, Brando, I am still not getting it here.
 
Noise was set to 50%, and I left it for two hours.  Nothing is registering, apart from the faint his one would expect.  Meters read nothing, and it's just tickling he bottom three "LEDs" in the zoom out QuadCurve EQ.
 
Very odd.  What inputs are set on the track?  Is there anything else on in the ProChannel?  Have you left the other settings in the Tape Emulator at default values?
 
Sorry for all the questions, I'm just fishing for an answer.
 
Oh, and the Harvest Festival was great - charming, in fact.

Hi JB - Well I stupidly left Tape Sim enabled last night again after checking it out. Fortunately I had the master fader way down. But the track it was on was solidly in the red this morning. Only fix was to remove the tape sim from the prochannel.
I read your note above and figured I would re-try. So I just tried a single Audio Track with nothing but the Tape Sim, and after 1 hour, there was no rise in the track meter. So it is definitely dependent on something else.
I just opened up a new project with nothing but Lounge Lizard Session 4 - comes with X3, as a simple instrument track. I opened ProChannel and inserted the Tape Sim, set noise to a hair over 50% and immediately - the track meter popped up to -75 db. (Which is a little different than what I've observed previously) After 20 minutes, the track meter is about -60 db. Nothing shows up in the Console view yet, as I am using -42db meters on the console. After 20 minutes, I can only see the creep on the horizontal -90 db track meter. I never touched a key (in fact input echo is off on Lounge Lizard. I have the compressor, the EQ and the tube warmer in the Proc Channel, but all are "off". After 25 minutes, the track meter is showing -54 db. (Still doesn't show up on my console meters).
So there seems to be some randomness to the problem. Yesterday I was able to get it to happen on a simple Audio Track. This morning I couldn't at least in an hour. I may have done something else to contribute to the problem yesterday however.
It really is a modelled ground loop - and likely designed this way but unlike real hardware there is no way to dissipate (or limit) the noise - turning off the Tape Sim in Prochannel doesn't do it. When you turn it back on, the noise continues to swell. I wouldn't use it currently without a limiter. 
(After 30 minutes, my meter shows -50 db and the hiss is just becoming apparent.) 
(After just under an hour, I am at -42 db and the console meter is just beginning to show the barest trace of a signal. The noise sounds like a low amp hum.
The problem as it sits is that if I wanted the noise (I doubt that I would, but maybe for an effect), I would expect it to be there when I engaged it. But it's like this has a 2 hour tube-warm up period that makes it impractical to use. I could just turn the noise off, but from what I have seen, the noise still climbs with the dial at 0, just slower - so you still end up with the same problem.
The "noise" needs to be fixed to certain db levels - maybe 100% is -20 db or whatever.
Maybe a quicker ramp up to the noise target to simulate a real warm-up period, with a built in limiter to keep the noise from exceeding the target threshold.
Because you are hearing the hiss - I wonder if you could confirm you have 90 db meters on your track - 
Hopefully Cake comes back with a fix because there have been a number of confirmations at this point. So it might not happen to everybody but it is happening to a number 
 

Hey arachnaut - thanks for confirming also.

Photo_G

Dan Gonzalez [Cakewalk]
Attempting to Repro now...

Hi Dan,
 
Do you have an update for us?
 
Thanks,
G

Hey guys, I'm letting one of my machines sit with an audio track open with the Tape Machine on as I type this. Hoping to track down the source of this issue. Thanks for the details on this!
-DG

It happens on any settings

Dan Gonzalez [Cakewalk]
Looks like I can get this to happen.  It's really slow.  We are definitely looking into this now.  Thank you for all the help on figuring this one out!
-DG

Thanks Dan - yes it is very slow which no doubt makes it difficult to observe the problem. Thanks for the follow up.