When acoustic electric guitars batteries run low...

Friday, I captured a recording of a friend playing guitar. I had both the direct feed off his guitar and a condenser mic on his guitar. I was interested to note that the above zero half of the direct line off his guitar seems to always be light above zero.
 
Could this indicate a bad battery??
 

 
Once in the past, I had an underpowered pre-amp and it cut all the above zero parts of a wave form firmly, but it was consistent at a particular point, as if limiting the signal only above zero. In this case, it appears to be compressing the signal only above zero.
 
This is another image of the same guitar recorded with the RME in January. This image doesn't show the imbalance... This image is from January 2015 (MLK day).

 
Another difference between the two recordings is that the two recordings is that the unbalanced image I was recording using the High Z setting on my Audient ASP880 which I just picked up.
 
http://audient.com/products/asp880?gclid=CjwKEAjw25SoBRCMn7Gc97Knj0ISJAC7vaMrBQkoXadG7aMqUF3NhRsso7SkWhHX0RUAxGJu1p-63hoCgmnw_wcB
 
I'm concerned that maybe this device should not have been set to hi-z when recording the acoustic electric. But I kinda thought that recording this type of guitar was what the ultra high-z setting was for.
 
So now I'm worried. I have a big session today and I'm not sure what setting to use on the acoustic electric guitar (other than to not use the audient for it. :-)
 
Edit:
I just tested my Seagull Acoustic Electric on all the Z settings on the Audient and the wave-form was even on all three settings.

I have had issues with active pickups through DI boxes in the past with a Peavey bass. New batteries didn't seem to help.
 
Rocky

I'm wondering if what we're seeing is a side-effect of how Sonar draws the graphics rather than something "real". In other words, if it wasn't for having a picture to worry about we wouldn't be giving it a second thought.

The interesting thing is that the sound seems to be fine. I can rationalise my "kick drum" by thinking it's not impossible that, entirely by coincidence, the synth was patched to output opposite phases of exactly the right duration at exactly (or as near as matters) the same time.

That doesn't seem to make sense for guitars though....

bapu
I think Beepster noticed a similar problem when using a 70's amp/preamp as the input?

Indeed I did and it the wave looked very similar to what Geoff posted (except it looked more compressed in the top half of the clip).
 
I have since done quite a bit more recording using the same output and the result has been the same. I have also been paying close attention to the wave being drawn in the parent track as it is recorded and it looks perfectly balanced. It only goes wonky after I stop recording and the wave redraws in a lane. There is absolutely no noticeable degradation of sound quality so tlw may be right in his guess that perhaps Sonar is doing something strange when redrawing.
 
However I have also done a little more research about "balanced" signals and it seems this could be from some kind of issue where one pin is getting slightly more juice (or a different type of juice) than the other for some reason. This would kind of jibe with a battery dying on an active pickup I think (I ain't no electrical talkin' dude).
 
Either way, as was said to me multiple times when I reported the issue if it sounds alright there is no problem and off kilter waves like this are common and normal... just not usually for signals like a guitar.
 
The only potential problem I've found mentioned anywhere about this type of out od whack wave is that when running it through something like a compressor the effect may be hit harder than normal by the negative phase of the wave (or positive I guess if the wave was off kilter in the other direction). This makes it so the compressor will be working harder on one side harder than the other and thus reducing the desired effect (because it is not hitting the other side evenly.
 
I think in that case if it a major problem a possible fix/workaround could be to use a two stage compression set up where the first compressor takes care of the uneveness of phase cycles then the second would be what you would normally get your compressor to do.
 
Not ideal but it might work IF there is a problem.
 
Sorry if that is dumb or doesn't make sense. I'm still kind of trying to understand it all myself.
 
 
Cheers.

+1 to TLW's first post.
 
A battery replacement is definitely something to try, but another thing to consider is the placement of that piezoelectric pickup... it is right at the string node (under the bridge), so is where it will pick up every harmonic it can respond to. This often utterly defeats the "acoustic" sound you want to hear.
 
In the past I have used a very old Dean Markley "in the hole" passive pickup which is pretty decent and great in a pinch or loud environment (where a mic may not make the cut). The definite benefit of this is it is centered at the same region the acoustics are (the displacement of the string base tone is much more powerful than any harmonics). It is essentially a warm, removable humbucker that will fit any guitar with a standard sound hole.
 
For your situation, if you already have a good mic setup for recording to your liking, I would stick with that. Recording the piezo is fine, but that output is not even close to "ideal," even if it were perfectly recorded (and the battery "fixed" it). Don't feel the "need" to use that output if you have a better recording.

Hay Peeps.
I notice this on microphones, and long runs of cables from amp line outs to my mixer, then recorded to the Sonar versions I have used...Periodically.
I have run over 50 low noise good quality braided cable through the dropped ceiling of my basement, to acoustic drums, and various amps, PA, and other instruments out side my booth...
 
I think it might be all those cables together in close proximity to each other or other magnetic or impedance causing the oddity of the redrawn waves.....Just guessing...In one test, I changed the overhead microphone , to another kind, non phantom powered, and that solved it for a few recordings....but it is back now....I do hear something not right if I listen solo to this sort of track if recorded slightly hot...So I reduced my record levels, and that makes it sound better in the mix, and redrwas look low but I do not see the oddity as you show  now...as the wave draws are not so wide anymore....and my eye sight is poor....wink.