unclean electricity?

[gravitychapters]

Yeah, that was one of my first thoughts too. I used to use a tube mic that would get noisy--then I'd rotate it 90 degrees and the noise would be gone.

No such luck with this stuff. Moving it around the bad room did no good at all. But, moving it to the good room fixed everything.

I might just have to convince my wife that the studio gear "looks kind of cool" in the living room.

have you tried moving it around your room physically? could be other magnetic fields interacting with it. i know i have 1 wall in my studio that the electricity runs up and down (sockets in the wall there too). i have to have my gear away from that wall otherwise it introduces more noise. pluggin it in and getting the gain cranked to get the noise, then move stuff around and see if that helps any

[Nick Sevilla]

Also, just to clarify: it's only the right channel of the RPQ2 that produces the noise, and that's the channel closest to the RPQ2's internal power supply. Not sure if I was clear about that earlier.

"Other units make the sound too"

"...it's only the right channel of the RPQ2 that produces the noise,..."

Now I am very confused.

[gravitychapters]

Sorry, that was poorly worded. Of the two channels on the RPQ2, only the right channel produces the noise. I've never gotten any trouble from the RPQ2's left channel, regardless of room.

Separately: in the bad room, other gear produces the same noise.

Also, just to clarify: it's only the right channel of the RPQ2 that produces the noise, and that's the channel closest to the RPQ2's internal power supply. Not sure if I was clear about that earlier.

"Other units make the sound too"

"...it's only the right channel of the RPQ2 that produces the noise,..."

Now I am very confused.

[vvv]

Ribbon mics and dynamics into my 1073 produce the bad sound at high gain levels. Condensers, weirdly, do not.

There's a clue here, perhaps.

Have you tried a Cloudlifter on the ribbons or dynamics?

How about a DI box, grounded vs. lifted?

[Snarl 12/8]

My advice?

1) Make sure you're using balanced cables with all the gear that have balanced connections.
(Maybe check out the Rane "interconnect" document to make sure you're doing the unbalanced connections properly. https://www.ranecommercial.com/kb_artic ... ticle=2107 )

2) Tear your setup completely apart and then hook things up one by one until you figure out which pieces are causing the problem.

Someone else already suggested both these things. Have you tried them?

[markjazzbassist]

I don't know if this is scientifically accurate, but I've long supposed that my noise issues are a result of the proximity of power lines to my studio. "It's moving through the air, maaaan." On a bad day it makes me want to build a faraday cage for the whole place. But it seems that some pieces of gear are more vulnerable to it. None more so than a Fender telecaster's single coil pickups.

100% this. i have to stand a certain way in my studio with single coils as it's the only way to get no noise lol "hey there, turn 90 degress....yep that's it"

[vvv]

Likely obvious, but if it's yours, shielding the guitar can help a lot.

And FWIW, I notice that if I'm grounding the strings with my hand when not playing, the guitar stays quieter.

[losthighway]

Likely obvious, but if it's yours, shielding the guitar can help a lot.

Yeah I had a guy in once with the quietest telecaster to come to the place. He had put in all kinds of shielding. I need to research the strategy/material on that jobby.

[vvv]

I bought the sticky shield-foil for a knockoff Tele I like. PITA to apply it, tho' it works well.

The shielding paint has to be easier, but also more expensive.

Depending on the guitar, I might choose to just replace the pups.

[numberthirty]

No, it's an AEA RPQ2. Just got it last week. And here's the important thing: I can take that preamp out of the "bad" room entirely, and other units in the "bad" room still produce the "bad" sound. This leads me to believe that the sound was always there and I just wasn't turning up gain high enough to hear it. (Which reminds me, another clue: you've gotta get the gain pretty high to hear it.) Ribbon mics and dynamics into my 1073 produce the bad sound at high gain levels. Condensers, weirdly, do not.

At any rate, I don't think the RPQ2 is the culprit. I think that unit is just particularly sensitive to whatever was happening in that room. I've been on the phone with Joey from AEA a lot over the last few days; he's been super helpful with troubleshooting. Between the two of us, we're pretty sure at this point that the RPQ2 is not the culprit.

(Further evidence: the RPQ2 works perfectly in "better" room.)

A couple of quick questions...

Just how "High..." are we talking?

Also, this "Suspect..." room where the issue is. Have you tried checking the outlets in that room with something like this?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Power-Gear- ... /206212329

[losthighway]

(Which reminds me, another clue: you've gotta get the gain pretty high to hear it.)

A couple of quick questions...

Just how "High..." are we talking?

I first read this as "You've gotta be pretty high to hear it."

"How high are we talking?"

I'm surprised this has never been an exchange on this forum.

[digitaldrummer]

I'm surprised this has never been an exchange on this forum.

I'm sure if you get a transcript from VVV it's been used before. in fact I was surprised when this was not his reply...

[vvv]

It's all y'all be trippin', not me.

Besides I don't get high anymore - what with the pandemic, a whole lot less, what with not seeing my friends.

We need a boozin' graemlin.