Background noise?

Hi Everyone,

I have an odd issue. When I switch to factory preset 227 (Bond...James Bond), I get lot of static when I am not playing, but also you can hear it while I am playing too. Example



As another example, on factory preset 229 (Screaming Plexi 3) this is what it sounds like when I don't play anything but I just wave my plugged in guitar around a little:



Both examples have my studio monitors (although have the same issue on headphones) and is audio recorded via USB direct into Cubase (no post processing). On another factory preset, 228 (Zamfir), I hear also hear a little background noise.

Any idea why this might be happening? Is this normal? Is it because they are presets with high gain? Should I still hear the static even while playing?

Thanks,


You could also check your cable. If you unplug your guitar but not the cable from the Axe-Fx and wave it around, is it still noisy? What about when you touch the switch sleeve? A properly shielded cable should be pretty silent.
 
That´s just crazy. I have the same problem with my Ax8. And you´ve even got the new AxIII which is like the most advanced piece of gear out there at the moment. And you have to buy an external noisegate. That´s no good.

I mean, these are among other thing made for recording. Your going to sit next to a computer and monitors and so on. I never had this problem with Kemper, Line6, Boss. So it is certainly doable. To bad becasue the Ax sound very good.
 
That´s just crazy. I have the same problem with my Ax8. And you´ve even got the new AxIII which is like the most advanced piece of gear out there at the moment. And you have to buy an external noisegate. That´s no good.

I mean, these are among other thing made for recording. Your going to sit next to a computer and monitors and so on. I never had this problem with Kemper, Line6, Boss. So it is certainly doable. To bad becasue the Ax sound very good.
I have other amps and stuff in the room and in my case they all do the same thing, same noise, buzz, etc. it is definitely the guitar pickups that are picking up the noise. I found that if I turned off my monitors, mouse, and computer they had virtually no impact on the noise. If I bring the guitar within like an inch of those devices then yeah, they will pickup some buzz, but it doesn't happen if I am just sitting normal distances from the devices. I think that some locations, especially ones where electricity enters the house from outside hanging power lines you just get a ton of EMI noise floating around, and the guitar pickups are super sensitive to that.

Also the Rocktron products are EMI - noise - hum reducers, not noise gates. The noise gate on the Axe-FX 3 seems to be pretty good, but does nothing really to reduce noise behind your playing. That is what the Rocktron stuff does, and I use it on my other amps as well since they are just as noisy.
 
I've had this issue with picking up interference from my computer. All those things suggest were good but sometimes I can get rid of it by just turning some and facing a different direction. Just a thought!
 
I think I have actually mostly solved it. What I did was buy one of these:

http://www.rocktron.com/hush-2x.html

It goes through the FX loop of the Axe-FX 3 (Output 3 to Input3 blocks), and also has a second input that where I am directly inputting the guitar. Have a look at the video. So far I have checked it on a few presets and it has totally gotten rid of the noise lurking in the background. Sustain and tone seem mostly untouched. If I get really aggressive with the threshold it will slightly deaden the top end, but I have been able to avoid that by backing it off a bit. So far I am totally thrilled, as I had terrible noise behind all of my notes. I am not even using the gate in the video below.


This strikes me as something the Axe Should be able to implement via envelope controllers and filters or similar... another external filter box feels unnecessary. The III (for my tastes) feels like a unit that should only really need minimal additional hardware as that is its appeal.

@FractalAudio --- Wish List: "Hush" block. :D

That said, I am having severe noise issues, with my III, too. I am not 100% convinced it is pure EMI in my case it sounds similar for high gain... but does not seem to have any positional dependency... and I hav

Like any unit you will see a need for gating on high gain but the III is so much noisier than the II on same settings, with same gear it feels wrong... This might be some kind of config issue on my end, though not ready to fault the unit just yet...

And the really weird thing is I can play a clean preset which does not really have audible noise and am getting occasional, low volume, but audible, 'tick' and 'pop' type sounds they are lower than the signal but there and worrisome, especially once you notice. I dunno I guess it could be some external device emitting a pulse. I haven't been able to characterize it, yet.

Need to dig in on it this weekend to see if I am going to have to ping support depending on whether I convince myself it is an issue with unit or with me/the room/etc.
 
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Shielding your guitars does wonders. A few years ago I went through and removed all the electronics from my guitars and shielded all the cavities with shielding tape and it worked wonders. Also goes without saying, leave your cell phone in another room.
.....really? i never heard this about cellphones
 
Hey guys! Just wanted to share my experience with this as well. I've had an Axe II for years and now an Axe III...I have the exact same issue with this crazy EMI. I have a PRS Tremonti with stock pups, and a Yamaha RGX Custom with active EMG's...and both guitars exhibit the issue. Sounds EXACTLY like Pombero's video in post #61. I can get it to mostly go away by facing the guitar a certain direction and also angling it down at about a 45 degree angle toward the floor...however, it's impossible to play like this (and you can still hear it some even then) I've tried all the suggestions...Mogami cables, PRS cables, lifted the ground, I even use a Furman IT-20 balanced power supply. I even turned off every single breaker in the house except the one powering the Axe Fx...same issue. I even ran an extension cord outside and put the Axe FX in the front yard and played out there with headphones on...same thing. There has to be an outside source of EMI that I can't control. It sucks so bad. I hear all these recordings from people and I have no idea how they are able to have such perfect pristine sound...
 
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I think I have actually mostly solved it. What I did was buy one of these:

http://www.rocktron.com/hush-2x.html

It goes through the FX loop of the Axe-FX 3 (Output 3 to Input3 blocks), and also has a second input that where I am directly inputting the guitar. Have a look at the video. So far I have checked it on a few presets and it has totally gotten rid of the noise lurking in the background. Sustain and tone seem mostly untouched. If I get really aggressive with the threshold it will slightly deaden the top end, but I have been able to avoid that by backing it off a bit. So far I am totally thrilled, as I had terrible noise behind all of my notes. I am not even using the gate in the video below.



I have had this exact issue for years, I still think it’s an outside source in my area...I’ve even moved and it’s still there! I think I’m going to have to try this Hush 2x thing as a last resort...

Does it kill all your noise? Like even when you move/turn the guitar to a position where the noise is louder?
 
I have had this exact issue for years, I still think it’s an outside source in my area...I’ve even moved and it’s still there! I think I’m going to have to try this Hush 2x thing as a last resort...

Does it kill all your noise? Like even when you move/turn the guitar to a position where the noise is louder?
Hey Brian,

Like I said, that box is not doing anything the Axe cannot do, AFAIK. The Axe's filters should be able to eliminate hiss and can be tuned on a per preset basis. I would *love* to see what @FractalAudio could do to provide an inline automated hiss supressor but you *can* roll your own:

Here is a post I made regarding the noise issues I had with the II as I noted above the III seems even more sensitive (or at least the way I have it rigged at the moment is...)

I frequently have to use my presets in an electrically noisy environment. I frequently get some baseline noise in high gain presets but what drives me insane is noise on an extended note. My presets are setup to kill this hissy high end noise on singing notes without artificially cutting it off... 'Gates' are not really good at *reducing* noise/hiss riding on a signal.

For some reason all of this lives in the high frequency area so my method leverages that:

  • For baseline noise: intelligent noise gate set to the minimal thresh and ratio to just stop noise when not playing
  • For hissing: Filter block, LPF, Frequency controller attached to envelope.
    • CRITICAL: play a note or have someone else do it or loop something and:
    • Raise the starting point of the controller curve until it barely covers the noise.
    • Change the end point and slope so the filter goes fully transparent quickly as the note rises.
This works better than anything I have tried. I wish every piece of gear/plugin etc I had access to could perform this function. The 'envelope' controller is just brilliant.

So I use a two pronged attack. The gate to truly hard gate the noise floor and this weird active filter to handle HF hiss. Each is application specific and the settings are minimal as possible for the patch. This gives a maximum transparency as these noise things can kill your feel, etc. To me the using VOL to kill noise that just lives at the high end is not nearly as satisfactory. It is too heavy handed and diminishes tone/feel more.

On the II I cherry picked a couple of good configs for the above and saved the blocks in AE. Then I could plop one down and tweak it as per above for high gain presets. It was an okay solution but a lot of noobs are not going to be comfortable with that and like I said, maybe Cliff could work some magic having full access to the internals.


LOL. Now that I think of it maybe this is why my III seems so noisy because I am used to this on the II. :D As noted above, I love that envelope controller. It is so useful.

For me the entire point of a bleeding edge unit like the III is that it can do everything in the box.Buying a box and putting in the loop etc is like admitting defeat. ;)
 
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Hey Brian,

Like I said, that box is not doing anything the Axe cannot do, AFAIK. The Axe's filters should be able to eliminate hiss and can be tuned on a per preset basis. I would *love* to see what @FractalAudio could do to provide an inline automated hiss supressor but you *can* roll your own:

Here is a post I made regarding the noise issues I had with the II as I noted above the III seems even more sensitive (or at least the way I have it rigged at the moment is...)

I frequently have to use my presets in an electrically noisy environment. I frequently get some baseline noise in high gain presets but what drives me insane is noise on an extended note. My presets are setup to kill this hissy high end noise on singing notes without artificially cutting it off... 'Gates' are not really good at *reducing* noise/hiss riding on a signal.

For some reason all of this lives in the high frequency area so my method leverages that:

  • For baseline noise: intelligent noise gate set to the minimal thresh and ratio to just stop noise when not playing
  • For hissing: Filter block, LPF, Frequency controller attached to envelope.
    • CRITICAL: play a note or have someone else do it or loop something and:
    • Raise the starting point of the controller curve until it barely covers the noise.
    • Change the end point and slope so the filter goes fully transparent quickly as the note rises.
This works better than anything I have tried. I wish every piece of gear/plugin etc I had access to could perform this function. The 'envelope' controller is just brilliant.

So I use a two pronged attack. The gate to truly hard gate the noise floor and this weird active filter to handle HF hiss. Each is application specific and the settings are minimal as possible for the patch. This gives a maximum transparency as these noise things can kill your feel, etc. To me the using VOL to kill noise that just lives at the high end is not nearly as satisfactory. It is too heavy handed and diminishes tone/feel more.

On the II I cherry picked a couple of good configs for the above and saved the blocks in AE. Then I could plop one down and tweak it as per above for high gain presets. It was an okay solution but a lot of noobs are not going to be comfortable with that and like I said, maybe Cliff could work some magic having full access to the internals.


LOL. Now that I think of it maybe this is why my III seems so noisy because I am used to this on the II. :D As noted above, I love that envelope controller. It is so useful.

For me the entire point of a bleeding edge unit like the III is that it can do everything in the box.Buying a box and putting in the loop etc is like admitting defeat. ;)

I'll have to play with these filters you speak of...you wouldn't happen to have a screenshot or something to follow visually would you?

Also, are you experiencing the same noise as Pombero in post #61 above? Check out the video below and listen at the 2:00 minute mark. This is exactly what mine sounds like, and while I'm not a fan of added hardware, if this will take this noise away somehow then I'm willing to try it.




Cliff, @FractalAudio
Have you ever had to deal with this type of noise? How did you handle it? Can something be done in the AxeFx to eliminate it?
 
I would *love* to see what @FractalAudio could do to provide an inline automated hiss supressor

I had this thought too. If the Axe FX III could integrate the ability in software to detect and eliminate hiss, this would be a pretty major improvement and selling point. I presume that the Axe FX III could logically emulate what the Hush does to accomplish this.

@FractalAudio I don't want to ask if you would do this, but do you think this is feasible to accomplish in software?
 
FractalAudio said:
"You can create your own noise reducer by putting an envelope controlled lowpass filter at the start of the chain. That's basically what the Hush and other noise reduction systems do (in addition to gating)."

I didn't know that. What settings should you use to accomplish this?
 
Cheers, @Rex, I didn't see this. So it sounds like this is doable.

Maybe I should add this as a wishlist item for a future firmware update.

On a different not, I ordered a Furman M-8X2 Merit Series 8 Outlet Power Conditioner which I am hoping will help. It claims to help with EMI noise.
 
Yep. When my cell phone starts chattering, so do my computer speakers
FractalAudio said:
"You can create your own noise reducer by putting an envelope controlled lowpass filter at the start of the chain. That's basically what the Hush and other noise reduction systems do (in addition to gating)."

I didn't know that. What settings should you use to accomplish this?
My long reply above (the blue section of it) describes exactly how to do this in detail. I still would like to see a dedicated block or mode from FAS if possible because I think Cliff might still be able to work some extra magic.
 
FractalAudio said:
"You can create your own noise reducer by putting an envelope controlled lowpass filter at the start of the chain. That's basically what the Hush and other noise reduction systems do (in addition to gating)."

I didn't know that. What settings should you use to accomplish this?
Tie the envelope follower to the Frequency parameter of the lowpass filter.
 
Tie the envelope follower to the Frequency parameter of the lowpass filter.
As I noted, you will want to tune it to the amount and spectrum of hiss. The taper of the envelope follower curve also benefits from editing. If you just plonk the follower onto the frequency as a controller it can choke the note like a gate does or at the opposite end be virtually ineffective depending on the hiss, its frequency range, etc.
 
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