unclean electricity?

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gravitychapters
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unclean electricity?

Post by gravitychapters » Wed Feb 10, 2021 8:05 pm

I've been getting some weird high-pitched static-y, almost radio interference sounds in some of my gear lately. Certain mics in particular seem to really pick it up.

I moved my gear to a different room, and the sounds disappeared. Which is great...except I can't stay in this room.

Anyone else have this problem? Anyone know of solutions? Dare I even ask if a power conditioner might help?

(I tried to attach a clip of the problematic noise, but apparently we can't attach MP3s? Anyway, I dropped the clip into soundcloud if you want to hear it: https://soundcloud.com/auntalice/bad-studio-sound)

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Nick Sevilla
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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by Nick Sevilla » Wed Feb 10, 2021 9:33 pm

Sounds to me like noise.

:rofl:

It sounds like it is being produced by an electronic device.
Possible culprits:

Cellphone.
Computer screen.
Some hardware device (anything new to you in there?).
Some hardware device on the same electrical circuit but in another room? Do you know your electrical layout?

You bang on something towards 2/3 of the way in. What were you hitting? it made the noise louder. Might be a clue?
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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winky dinglehoffer
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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by winky dinglehoffer » Wed Feb 10, 2021 9:44 pm

AC adapters can be a noise culprit as well.

If you have a mic that reveals the noise, move the mic around the room and see if the noise gets louder in certain spots or near a certain piece of gear.

Unplug all your shit and then plug it back in 1 item at a time and listen for noise at each step.

Probably wouldn't hurt to get a wall outlet tester just to make sure all of that is correct and consistent. Correcting wiring issues might not help with the noise but might prevent other problems down the line.

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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by gravitychapters » Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:05 pm

The racket you ask about is just me messing with knobs on the preamp I was recording through. The volume jump is just the gain going up.

I'm in the fortunate(?) position of having mostly new gear right now, so it's hard to identify which piece might be the culprit. To your point, I do suspect that the issue has something to do with a bunch of gear being in super-close proximity, and perhaps in close proximity to a high current device I'm not aware of (I'm in a big apartment complex, so who knows). However, I've been meticulous about isolating single elements (control experiments) to narrow down the possibilities, and that hasn't gotten me very far. Two of my mics through two of my preamps have been most reliable for creating the problem noise. Only one channel of one of the preamps produces the problem, and it's the channel physically closest to the unit's power supply. I've tried numerous cables (all Mogami Gold), and that changes exactly nothing.

For now I'm going to pull everything apart and rearrange (to the extent that rearranging is possible in what amounts to a closet). In the meantime, if anyone has any more insights, I'm all ears.

Nick Sevilla wrote:
Wed Feb 10, 2021 9:33 pm
Sounds to me like noise.

:rofl:

It sounds like it is being produced by an electronic device.
Possible culprits:

Cellphone.
Computer screen.
Some hardware device (anything new to you in there?).
Some hardware device on the same electrical circuit but in another room? Do you know your electrical layout?

You bang on something towards 2/3 of the way in. What were you hitting? it made the noise louder. Might be a clue?

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Nick Sevilla
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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by Nick Sevilla » Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:16 pm

gravitychapters wrote:
Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:05 pm
Only one channel of one of the preamps produces the problem, and it's the channel physically closest to the unit's power supply.
Well, there it is then. I suspect something inside that unit is being naughty.

:biggergrin:

So, service it asap.

Until then, try to keep it out of the loop as it were. Physically not in the room, not connected, in another room, in the corner, with
a giant hat that says "NOISY" on it. So everyone knows it was bad.

Cheers.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Scodiddly
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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by Scodiddly » Thu Feb 11, 2021 5:20 am

Can you plug in a long mic cable and take a sensitive mic into the "noisy" room to feel around for noise sources?

I recently acquired a new interface with an inline PSU, and I have to be careful to keep any mic lines away from that PSU.

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digitaldrummer
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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by digitaldrummer » Thu Feb 11, 2021 6:11 am

I have to agree with Nick on this one. seems you already know the source of the noise.

when you mention preamps and "one closest to the units power supply..." is that a 500 series? if so, can you re-arrange them in the chassis or move away from the PSU? what are the pieces (preamps, chassis, etc.). some are shielded a lot better than others.

I know a guy that was having all sorts of problems in his studio and as I found out, he had everything connected with (cheap) RCA and TS cables (as opposed to balanced TRS or XLR) and unbalanced cables are susceptible to picking up noise. Computers and cell phones being frequent offenders.
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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by gravitychapters » Thu Feb 11, 2021 8:48 am

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.)

digitaldrummer wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 6:11 am
I have to agree with Nick on this one. seems you already know the source of the noise.

when you mention preamps and "one closest to the units power supply..." is that a 500 series? if so, can you re-arrange them in the chassis or move away from the PSU? what are the pieces (preamps, chassis, etc.). some are shielded a lot better than others.

I know a guy that was having all sorts of problems in his studio and as I found out, he had everything connected with (cheap) RCA and TS cables (as opposed to balanced TRS or XLR) and unbalanced cables are susceptible to picking up noise. Computers and cell phones being frequent offenders.

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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by gravitychapters » Thu Feb 11, 2021 8:50 am

As much as I like the idea of punishing a preamp and making an example of it for other gear that might misbehave, I'm pretty sure the unit in question is actually not the culprit. Other units make the sound, too. And they do it when the potential culprit is unplugged and in a totally different room.

Nick Sevilla wrote:
Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:16 pm
gravitychapters wrote:
Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:05 pm
Only one channel of one of the preamps produces the problem, and it's the channel physically closest to the unit's power supply.
Well, there it is then. I suspect something inside that unit is being naughty.

:biggergrin:

So, service it asap.

Until then, try to keep it out of the loop as it were. Physically not in the room, not connected, in another room, in the corner, with
a giant hat that says "NOISY" on it. So everyone knows it was bad.

Cheers.

gravitychapters
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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by gravitychapters » Thu Feb 11, 2021 8:53 am

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.

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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by markjazzbassist » Thu Feb 11, 2021 8:57 am

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

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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by digitaldrummer » Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:15 am

and the Mogami Gold cables you mentioned are all balanced TRS or XLR? is anything unbalanced? if so I would start looking there.

I also had an experience with a set of monitors that were connected with TS cables and every time the mouse moved, high frequency squeal... :twisted:
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losthighway
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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by losthighway » Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:24 am

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.

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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by gravitychapters » Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:26 am

Man, I don't doubt that at all. Then again, I might have taken the Twin Peaks reboot a little too literally.
losthighway wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:24 am
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.

gravitychapters
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Re: unclean electricity?

Post by gravitychapters » Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:26 am

All balanced. I don't think I've got an unbalanced cord anywhere in the rig.
digitaldrummer wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:15 am
and the Mogami Gold cables you mentioned are all balanced TRS or XLR? is anything unbalanced? if so I would start looking there.

I also had an experience with a set of monitors that were connected with TS cables and every time the mouse moved, high frequency squeal... :twisted:

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