1. It’s good your outlets test ok 2. I thought somewhere it was established the the frequency was not limited to your power at 50 Hz.
By the way, the power can be fine but still cause a problem if connected audio devices are plugged into different circuits. It’s best to have all your studio equipment on one circuit by itself. Lights, phones, routers etc. and especially AC should be on another.
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1. It’s good your outlets test ok 2. I thought somewhere it was established the the frequency was not limited to your power at 50 Hz.
By the way, the power can be fine but still cause a problem if connected audio devices are plugged into different circuits. It’s best to have all your studio equipment on one circuit by itself. Lights, phones, routers etc. and especially AC should be on another.
Thanks Matt, No ground loop that was an easy and early check..all the audio gear is on one circuit and that comes through a power conditioner. Ferrite beads can/may reduce EMI & RFI picked up by cables from the environment...so it's a small investment that MAY be of benefit. Robustly shielded cables may also have to be considered.
Faraday Cage anyone?
Last edited by rayc; 09/10/2102:52 PM.
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
If it's caused by 50Hz mains, then the interference would be delivered as a continuous low-frequency hum.
It also may be that something has become dislodged as part of your relocation effort and is delivering the static. Perhaps an edge connector or other internal connector?
To rule out your home environment, can you take the gear to another location and connect it up to test?
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If it's caused by 50Hz mains, then the interference would be delivered as a continuous low-frequency hum.
It also may be that something has become dislodged as part of your relocation effort and is delivering the static. Perhaps an edge connector or other internal connector?
To rule out your home environment, can you take the gear to another location and connect it up to test?
It partially depends on how "clean" the 50hz is for him. In some places I've seen AC as a nearly pure sine wave, and in others it's got all sorts of spikes and other nasties. Some of that noise can present itself way up into the khz range or even mhz range, which can cause all sorts of weirdness when that's being sampled at the regular audio sample rates.
One thing I've done in the past that can help with situations like this is to use balanced cables with the ground lifted at the receiving end. This can often produce lower noise than having the ground connected at both ends. If you're handy with hand tools and/or a soldering iron it's fairly trivial to lift the ground at the end of a cable, provided it's a jack that can be disassembled.
I agree that some internal connector somewhere could've shifted, which could cause this problem.
... It partially depends on how "clean" the 50hz is for him. In some places I've seen AC as a nearly pure sine wave, and in others it's got all sorts of spikes and other nasties. Some of that noise can present itself way up into the khz range or even mhz range, which can cause all sorts of weirdness when that's being sampled at the regular audio sample rates.
Good points Simon, and definitely worthy of consideration. The area the Ray is in should be expected to have reasonable electricity supply. My brother lives not far away from there and has never experienced an issue. That is not to say that any external interference could be quite local to Ray, which is why I suggested a trial of the same gear at a different location. I understand that his gear apparently worked OK at his previous location.
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If you have access to an oscilloscope, you can put it on the mail lines and see if anything is riding on them that would be causing this. You mentioned the solar panels as possibly having a carrier. Sweep the freq up and down and you'll see what's hiding there.
I'd certainly do the laptop powering the interface and see if it's still there. If it is.... I'd then carry that setup a good distance away to the local pub or something that gets you away from any local noise sources.
This certainly sounds like a detective job for you.
Since you are in AUS.... any aboriginal graveyards nearby?
Do keep us posted when you finally figure it out.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
I turned the lights off, I put Ferrite beads on both ends of each related cable into or out of the interface and computer, I have the power conditioner set & running properly, I have the gain at noon on the preamp, I created a Faraday Cage for the interface, (as best could be expected given cables in n out ), using a foiled lined freezer bag, I turned the monitor screen off, AND I used a "terminated" XLR cable.
Net result a TINY drop in the level of the problem. I tried to filter the noise out using ReaFir... it takes a block at -108dB to filter out the sub hump and a block at -102dB to do the same for the peaks. Those dB levels are according to ReaFir.
With those settings there's quite a bit of "noise" between the hump & peak when the line & HiZ buttons are engaged and quite a bit more when the 4K button is brought in...all expected as a matter of signal increase and colour (interesting to "SEE" the colour of the Heritage 4K thing...a low mid through to upper mid curve and harmonics after the peak). basically some EQ and distortion. a) bass before Reafir b) bass IN ReaFir & c) bass post ReaFir
I filtered the noise from the guitar bus and the bass as they had the most pronounced readings - caused by the HiZ preamping the vocal wasn't as severely affected.
Last edited by rayc; 09/19/2101:54 AM.
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
I turned my system on one day and had a really bad hum.... 60hz. I was thinking something had blown up or whatever.... bad cables.... etc.....
After spending more time than I should have spent.... I realized I had left my POD2 output turned up from the last recording session and the guitar cord was in the input and the guitar was not connected.
Some times it's just the simple stuff.... be sure you check those things too.
Do to my personality and how I think....I try to analyze from the hardest things first.....as a result, I often spend more time and effort than necessary.... if I had only checked the simple things first.... such as.... yep... is the switch on the side turned on? No? Oh S%#&!
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
I turned my system on one day and had a really bad hum.... 60hz. I was thinking something had blown up or whatever.... bad cables.... etc..... After spending more time than I should have spent.... I realized I had left my POD2 output turned up from the last recording session and the guitar cord was in the input and the guitar was not connected. Some times it's just the simple stuff.... be sure you check those things too. Do to my personality and how I think....I try to analyse from the hardest things first.....as a result, I often spend more time and effort than necessary.... if I had only checked the simple things first.... such as.... yep... is the switch on the side turned on? No? Oh S%#&!
Thanks for the encouragement HH, As my most recent post makes clear, the only input for the recent test was a "terminated" XLR cable. The images were taken with a bass D.I.'d as I needed some signal to show the variation. The fairly extensive list of variations and changes include using a laptop computer running on battery and in a different room to the problem spot.
There are two steps I've not yet taken..one is to repeat the laptop & interface test but after blacking out the house AND taking the laptop and interface into the street. There're two BIG questions - 1. What's causing this problems? and 2. Does it have an audible impact on my recording, processing & mixing?
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
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