Big Problem With Noise!

Dvenci

Member
HELP!!!

Hey guys, I switched from a Kemper to an AX8 about a month ago and I adore the AX8. I'm having a bit of a noise/buzzing/hissing problem in my home/studio that I've never had before.

Certain high gain patches have a ton of noise but some don't. Some clean patches have a weird amount of noise, as well. I changed guitars, cables, rooms, outlets and nothing has helped. Noise gates help but I'd much rather isolate and fix the problem rather than cover it up.

I built my house and I'm a nerd, so it's fully automated and has full, in home audio with 30 in ceiling speakers. I have automated dimmers throughout the entire house. I also have all my a/v components in a closet on the second floor. I noticed that turning dimmers on/off can affect the noise. Also, turning the amp that drives the in ceiling speakers affects the noise, as well.

Even with the dimmers and amp off, I still get noise that changes depending how I'm holding my guitar or if I move positions.

I need to get this setup quiet for studio use. I'm a producer and a session player. I didn't have this issue with my Kemper, for whatever reason.

Any advice or insight would be insanely appreciated??

Ibanez J Custom ---> AX8 ---> powered studio monitors.

I have a couple videos of the noise but the files are too big to attach.
 
Interesting. Are you sure you have your rig set up identical, same place, hookup, and cables as you had the Kemper?
There are two likely sources to check - ground-loop, where noise gets into the signal through the ground system, and RFI 'radio' pickup from the air. To check for ground loops, see if the noise persists when you turn down the volume pot on guitar all the way.

If the noise stops with guitar volume off, it is most likely a pickup noise problem.

If the noise persists with guitar volume off, it is ground loop or other circuit anomaly, but ground-loop is place to check first - and I guess another possibility is the electricity to your rig might be 'dirty'.
 
I get noise, even on clean presets, if my guitar is pointed at my computer monitor and led lamp. If I turn my guitar to face away from them, then the noise goes away. It is not the type of noise that can be blocked by a noise gate. It is integrated in the sound itself.

This is pretty annoying when recording because looking at the monitor is pretty important during the process. I am even using the spdif outputs. For reference, I have never had this problem with a POD 2.

I guess I will live with it and hope that they invent a cheap enough monitor that does not radiate RFI.
 
I get noise, even on clean presets, if my guitar is pointed at my computer monitor and led lamp. If I turn my guitar to face away from them, then the noise goes away. It is not the type of noise that can be blocked by a noise gate. It is integrated in the sound itself.

This is pretty annoying when recording because looking at the monitor is pretty important during the process. I am even using the spdif outputs. For reference, I have never had this problem with a POD 2.

I guess I will live with it and hope that they invent a cheap enough monitor that does not radiate RFI.

The ones with a cathode backlight do emit RFI a lot. Get one with LED backlight and you should be ok. I'm a bit concerned about you saying you use dimmers. The cheap phase-fired controller based dimmers are a source of trouble on its own.
 
Dimmers and computer monitors definitely affect this stuff. I’ve run into it many times with guitars and amps too.

I’m just learning about them but have you tried the Humbuster cables mentioned in the Fractal manual?
 
Dimmers and computer monitors definitely affect this stuff. I’ve run into it many times with guitars and amps too.

I’m just learning about them but have you tried the Humbuster cables mentioned in the Fractal manual?

Being used to connect the AX8 to an amp Humbuster cables will not eliminate the noise picked up by the guitar.
 
Interesting. Are you sure you have your rig set up identical, same place, hookup, and cables as you had the Kemper?
There are two likely sources to check - ground-loop, where noise gets into the signal through the ground system, and RFI 'radio' pickup from the air. To check for ground loops, see if the noise persists when you turn down the volume pot on guitar all the way.

If the noise stops with guitar volume off, it is most likely a pickup noise problem.

If the noise persists with guitar volume off, it is ground loop or other circuit anomaly, but ground-loop is place to check first - and I guess another possibility is the electricity to your rig might be 'dirty'.

Originally, yep. The rig was identical. I unracked my Kemper and used all the existing cabling my Kemper was using, in the same place. Now, I have the rig in a different room to try and isolate the issue. I don't think it's a ground loop because when I roll the volume off, the noise goes away.

I'm a bit concerned about you saying you use dimmers. The cheap phase-fired controller based dimmers are a source of trouble on its own.

When I built my house, I wanted to utilize automation. I bought Lutron Caseta Wireless Dimmers for lighting control. At the time, I wasn't aware that they could create a problem. They didn't seem to affect my Kemper, so I didn't think anything of it until now.
 
Here is a video of what the noise sounds like on some high gain presets. I'm in my hallway, walking around and moving the guitar, which is why the noise is changing. I switched to the single coil towards the end when it gets really loud.



Here is a video of what the noise sounds like on a clean preset.

 
Sounds to me like your domestic lighting system is the culprit. Can you turn it completely off (like taking out fuses) and check again ?
 
Sounds to me like your domestic lighting system is the culprit. Can you turn it completely off (like taking out fuses) and check again ?

I could likely put the rig in a bedroom with no dimmers and turn off the breakers for the rest of the houses lighting! I can do that today.
 
Dimmers are the worst. They dirty up your AC power and throw off heinous interference. I had a single dimmer in a room located on the other side of the house from my studio--like, literally forty feet away--and the noise it threw off whenever somebody used it was truly awful. It made anything with a little gain on it unusable. It is gone now. :)

I have no idea why you didn't have a problem with the Kemper before, unless you've recently added the dimmers or simply weren't using them before, so that's odd. The dimmer should affect everything. In my case, it hit tube amps, Axe-FX, basically anything I ran my guitar through.
 
ChristThePhone, my monitor is LED. It still emits RFI. Apparently OLED monitors will have much reduced RFI but they are not common or cheap yet.
 
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