Production Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

[danielRR]

I've got all my I/O for the DAW, monitors and outboard gear running through a Behringer unbalanced patch bay. I was hoping that with such short cable runs I wouldn't pick up any interference, but I'm getting a ton of noise. Not so much a hum, but a static sound with a bit of a high pitched whistle.

I thought the patchbay was balanced, but i just found out it's not. I was hoping some balanced cables from the patch bay to the monitor input would do the trick, but not if only one side is balanced. I tried switching to some other TS jacks with the same result.

Any suggestions or should i just ditch the crappy behringer ?

[diegoff]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

I had the same problem, not so high noise level, but there was some. I replaced the cables for balanced ones (all I/O are balanced), and it worked fine... other important tip: make sure you have an electric ground. If not, check if the computerīs trafo or any equipmentīs trafo is adding noise. If they do, try not to plug them in the same power plug.

[danielRR]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

Thanks Diegoff, I'll try some balanced cables. Maybe the balanced connection on the monitors can help mitigate some interference ?

What's a trafo ? power adapter?

In fact, the house I live in is over 100 years old so all the electrical is pretty shoddy. I can't use one of the plugs in the room with any of my audio equipment because it makes a HUGE hum.

Maybe I can open up the electrical sockets and try to make a new ground to help the problem.

Thanks mate.

[Weizy]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

Ugh the never-ending fight against ground loops! I have the same problem with my setup. I live in an old place and the electrical is shite. If that's the case try isolating the problem to a particular piece of equipment. Other than that you can purchase Hum Eliminators for your outlet(s), but I have no personal experience with them.

[danielRR]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

I took apart the electrical outlet and it looks like everything is good, and it does have a ground wire.

Went and got some balanced cables to run to the monitors with no difference...bummer.

I used to have my interface output routed directly to the monitors with no problem and only used the patch bay to connect hardware coming into the interface. The problems started when I extended the interface outputs and monitor inputs to the patchbay. I did this so it's easy to patch my DJ mixer into the monitors and also so I can send things from the computer out through hardware effects and whatnot. I really like the flexibility of this setup but this noise has to be stopped.

It's odd, I can hear different noises through the monitors when I do things like scroll the mouse or open programs.

What about those Furman power conditioners ? Anybody have experience with those ?

[bobjuice]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

Although you say the grounding in the outlet appears sound, the problem may be more to do with the fact that your PC, monitors and other gear are sharing that same grounding route? Try plugging in you DAW to another circuit if you can, even if you need a fairly long extension lead to do so.

The patchbay itself i'd say is unlikely to be the problem but the way your equipment is connected through the patchbay could have been a factor.
If you have a balanced source with a balanced cable, it may not remain so when it goes through the patch, whether that's because the patch is unbalanced or you have an unbalanced lead in there somewhere. Same could apply vice versa too.

[bobjuice]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

Are the connections at your interface balanced or unbalanced?

[danielRR]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

I've got an Apogee Duet with unbalanced outputs. I just switched the cables back to the way it was before, with the interface outputs going straight to the monitors, and the noise is gone. I only get the noises when I run all my I/O through the patchbay.

I looked at all the electrical wire routing from down in the basement, and as you'd expect, all the plugs in this room run off the same circuit. I'll try to run a grounded extension chord from some other circuits and see if that helps.

thanks

[bobjuice]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

Yeah try the mains to the DAW from elsewhere if you can and seeif you notice an improvement?

But, by the sound of things you removing the patchbay has isolated your problem. As a passive piece of equipment your patchbay won't "generate" any "noise" but if you're not careful with those signal paths going through it and onward from it, the noise will come back.

You say the balanced cables to the monitor made no difference? Were they coming direct from the (unbal) output of the Duet? if so, they wouldn't have improved anything without their source being balanced too.

Have a run through your kit and make a note of which has balanced / unbalanced I/O - PM it to me if you like,

cheers

[danielRR]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

I ran the balanced cables from the patchbay to the monitors. I was also under the impression that it wouldn't make a difference unless the source was balanced as well. Just thought I'd try.

[diegoff]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

power adapter, yes...
mmmm... I had that problem with the noise when you scroll the mouse with my other computer. It was because of the computerīs power adapter (it was a notebook, and when I used it with the battery, unplugged, the noise went away).
To avoid ground loop, I plugged the computerīs power adapter but only the two power connectors (not the third one, the ground). That worked. I think it was because the ground of the electrical circuit of the house wasnīt good enough.
Other thing you can try is to connect the patchbay to ground, even if itīs passive it sure has a ground connection.
good luck!

[bobjuice]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

[bobjuice]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan10/articles/qa0110_4.htm

http://www.dplay.com/dv/balance/balance.html

[danielRR]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

Thanks !

Good looking out... SOS is top quality.

[bobjuice]

Re: Any tips to get rid of the noise coming through my monitors ?

So, where are we at Daniel? Were those links any help? Not knowing what you know already makes it harder to offer help as you may already know all the info on those pages??

I feel like shit today and thinking isn't something i'm planning on doing in case my head hurts more. I think the info about breaking the ground loop and using "quasi balanced leads" should help.