Lots of buzz last night…

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blueswede

Member
I played my FM9 last night at a church going st into the board via a DI box. Had a really annoying buzz whenever I started to play. I had no idea how to access the noise gate rom the screen….any suggestions? Thanks
 
blueswede said:
I played my FM9 last night at a church going st into the board via a DI box. Had a really annoying buzz whenever I started to play. I had no idea how to access the noise gate rom the screen….any suggestions? Thanks
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I’d recommend sitting down in front of the unit and building some presets from scratch. Learning to navigate the front panel isn't that hard, it's actually laid out well, but it's not the same as the GUI. There are tutorials in the manual, and the Blocks Guide contains good descriptions of the parameters in all the blocks.

I'd also recommend adding the desired control to the global Performance page too, so it's available from the front panel no matter which preset you're in.
 
  • Humbucker or single coil pickups?
  • How high is your FM9 CPU usage?
  • How much gain are you using in your amp or preset? Have you tweaked your sound with full volume before show?
  • Are you using a wireless system with your guitar? Everything okay with that (battery, radio frequency)?
  • Active or passive pickups? If active, did you check your battery?
  • Was your signal healthy when going to FOH? Sure it wasn’t running too hot? Did you check your FM9 output level so your unit wasn’t clipping before FOH?
  • Was your signal going to stage monitors healthy? In-ears sound healthy (if used)?
  • DI box is not absolutely necessary. Sure everything was ok with it (was there phantom power, was there a ground lift/pad on)?
  • Was the backline power healthy (power not coming from same outlet with lighting or PA?)
  • Is your instrument cable healthy?
  • XLR cables healthy?
  • Have you set your FM9 instrument gain? Setting it properly can help with ground noise.
  • Is your instrument set properly? Fresh or old strings?
  • If everything above is working as intended, try raising noise gate treshold and/or ratio.
Just on my way home from a terrible sound check I was doing for one of my bands, because the guitarist couldn’t be there before show. Lots of problems: lot of 50hz noise in bass amp, lot of different ground noise with guitars, venue was echoing like crazy, annoying rattle and noise from stage etc. The sound just completely disappeared on the stage. So much noise single coil guitars were unusable. I tried to play with the drummer but couldn’t play a single song after the house tech tried to fight the noise and it just ruined what was left from the somewhat usable but noisy guitar/bass tone. Setup was 2 (stereo) guitar amps + bass amp. I hope I’m still working for the band after the show tonight…

With an FM9 I’m sure I would’ve been just fine. That setup including two guitar amps + bass amp + di stereo coming from a single guitar and going through two different pedalboards has just way too many variables. Add a venue that has major problems with acoustics and electricity and you’re on your way to a disaster.

TL;DR in case you think you might have less noise problems using a real amp setup, you are wrong.
 
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Any chance you are set up around stage lights, especially unshielded LEDs(strips,etc)?

I get a a buzz when i play at church as well. The stage lights and sound equipment share a power circuit and the LED wall wrecks havoc with my noiseless pickups.

I tend to have a gate in my presets triggered by the input(guitar) but after the drives and amp blocks.
 
FWIW, my FM9 rig buzzes like crazy when it's plugged into the same outlet that is also sharing a breaker with my refrigerator, when I plug it into the outlet on the other side of the room, the buzz is gone.
 
I did some adjustments to the input gate…it was better on Sunday. But that was at a different church. No active pickups, no wireless, no stage lights, guitar is great, cables are good. There may have been an issue with the DI box. But the noise seemed to come and go with my playing. It’s weird…very much a digital thing. I still have a lot of things to learn….
 
blueswede said:
I did some adjustments to the input gate…it was better on Sunday. But that was at a different church. No active pickups, no wireless, no stage lights, guitar is great, cables are good. There may have been an issue with the DI box. But the noise seemed to come and go with my playing. It’s weird…very much a digital thing. I still have a lot of things to learn….
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Among other possible causes, stage lights can be a source of hum, especially if they are at 1/2 level.
I play out at a lot of churches, and its crazy how much buzzing can appear. I've used my FM9 at two churches so far, without any issues. Some churches don't use something like this, when they are instating their lights and sound system.
https://www.appliednn.com/products/architectural-dimming-systems/
 
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