I’m still not sure what changed with me for pickup machines. They were one of the main things that tipped the scales for me to finally buy an OT, then I found them so clicky they were nealy unusable and I hardly touched them for a couple years. Then I really needed them for a project I started in 2020, but when I started using them again, I didn’t have trouble with clicks and now I use them more than anything else.

The pickup machines didn’t change as far as I know, so it must have been something about how I play or my routing.

The one thing that I’m consistently doing differently now is usign the PUMs to ecord from other tracks rather than the inputs, maybe that makes a difference. I used to be able to consistently make the PUMs click even with no input signal at all (nothing connected to the inputs, gate set above the noise floor, all the recordings confirmed to be digital black except for the click) so I don’t think it’s anything hardware related, like DC coming in from external gear.

So if you’re having trouble with PUMs clicking, maybe try monitoring your input signal with a thru machine and setting its track as the PUM’s source, instead of an input. I don’t know if that’s what fixed it for me but it’s possible.

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