Cutting Radio Frequency from Monitors

[lapsteel]

What's the best way?

[jmblack]

Check the signal path for the piece(s) that are the cause of the noise and fix/replace it - check grounding, loose or faulty cables, etc.

I may be misunderstanding what you're asking. Care to elaborate on your question?

[lapsteel]

Well, I'm picking up a radio signal and was just wondering a good way to get rid of it. I have balanced cables, but I may need to invest in a better pair. I didn't have a problem before at my old place, but now at my new place I do. When I have time I will look at some of my settings. My first question was just asking how have others dealt with this problem. What kind of cables work best, etc?

[jmblack]

I had this problem - well, actually it wasn't a problem because I was trying to get a weird modulated lo-fi sound and the RFI was just enough to fuck up the sound but not sound like a radio so it worked for me nicely - that said, it was a grounding thing, that time in the form of a cable between my guitar and one of the pedals. My house at the time was quite old and I suspect there was something crazy going on with the wiring also because I could not replicate it in other places save one. So with the damanged instrument cable and the poor grounding, that was the sound.

Since you said it wasn't a problem at your old place and I'm assuming you're using the same setup, I'd start by trying another power outlet if possible (how old is your place?). Maybe try another power strip if your equpiment is on one and you can't change outlets.

Its difficult and probably impossible to tell exactly the cause without actually being there and messing around, but I would start with the power outlet/strip as that is the easiest and cheapest thing to try.

How loud is your RFI? Oh, wait, do you have a radio feed into your mixer? LOL!

[lapsteel]

That's a good idea to check the outlets, I didn't think of it. I will try that and get back what I've figured out.

[lapsteel]

Well changing outlets hasn't really worked yet. I've gotten it to be a lot less though. If the monitor is lower to the floor I don't pick as much up either, but that isn't going to work. A few more things left to try.

[lapsteel]

I found a spot that might work. You can't really hear the RFI unless you put your ear right next to the monitor. Now I'm wondering about RFI shielding and if it would help? I haven't had this problem before so I've been trying to research it.

[jmoose]

Is it coming from the monitors themselves or some other source like the console or an DA converter? Maybe one of the cabling runs there?

The only real way to solve this stuff is to start with the power amps & slowly add things to the chain until you find the source of the RFI and then deal with that piece of gear.

[lapsteel]

It is coming from the monitors by themselves. It isn't quite as bad as it was a couple days ago. It is only noticeable if you put your ear right next to the monitors. You can't hear it with music coming out. I wonder if it will affect my mixing, I might end up trying to cut frequencies that aren't in the actual recording.