High-Pitched Tone w/ Gain Patches From SPDIF Out

[hp/mp]

I've noticed recently that with my patches with gain or drive, there is an audible high pitched tone that occurs mostly when the guitar volume knob is not at either full or zero volume. I don't know if it's exactly a feedback because it always remains the same volume no matter where I am in relation to the monitors. Adding or subtracting gain just adds or subtracts the volume of the pitch.

Here's a sample of the sound when the guitar volume knob is somewhere in the middle:
http://www.4shared.com/file/106838188/9 ... pitch.html
(the first couple seconds is another pitch that I guess decided to exist when I first took the volume down on the guitar for the recording.. the main higher pitch is usually the only one prevalant)

I'm hooked up to a Firewire 410 audio interface thru a brand new spdif cable (shielded coaxial) and I discovered that only when hooked up this way does this noise occur. It also only happens (at least very noticably) with my guitars with humbuckers.

The gate and overdrive response seems to be better through analog (more clean?.. maybe it's just more sterile) But it doesn't sound as nice when recorded analog 44, 48, or 96k versus 48k spdif, to my (untrained in this depot) ears.

Anyway, does anyone know if or how I can fix this poor outcome with Spdif?

 

[hp/mp]

Update: So I just had an instrument cable lying on the Axe's rear momentarily while I turned it on and started tweaking..Few minutes later I notice the same "squeak" tone that was coming from my previous setup using spdif cables, which was odd because I didn't have any spdif connections going on. Well of course, the tip of the instrument cable was resting on the Axe's digital out... This isn't a defect with my Axe is it? :shock:
I want to record digitally

edit: Forgot to mention that the other end of the cable was plugged into my interface's output

 

[porieux]

You didn't say anything about clocking so I think you should check that first.
Also don't let anything touch the outputs except what is plugged into them...no good can come of it.

Nothing should sound better coming from analog if you have it set up right.

 

[hp/mp]

You didn't say anything about clocking so I think you should check that first.
Also don't let anything touch the outputs except what is plugged into them...no good can come of it.

Nothing should sound better coming from analog if you have it set up right.

Whoops..Touched the output with the tip of the cable about 5 times I suppose no one's going to test their Axe this way to compare with mine..

I could swear my digital test recordings sound subtly better to me than my analog.. I just want digital out to work okay with the Axe anyway.

When I set up the Axe to my interface with the digital i/o, in order to monitor and record I had to change the interface software clock to 48k and set it to digital coaxial. Only thing I can think of is that I never set the Axe's input source to Digital..I'm honestly not sure what this would do since I was recording fine, but I don't think it would make the noise go away.

 

[javajunkie]

You didn't say anything about clocking so I think you should check that first.
Also don't let anything touch the outputs except what is plugged into them...no good can come of it.

Nothing should sound better coming from analog if you have it set up right.

Whoops..Touched the output with the tip of the cable about 5 times I suppose no one's going to test their Axe this way to compare with mine..

I could swear my digital test recordings sound subtly better to me than my analog.. I just want digital out to work okay with the Axe anyway.

When I set up the Axe to my interface with the digital i/o, in order to monitor and record I had to change the interface software clock to 48k and set it to digital coaxial. Only thing I can think of is that I never set the Axe's input source to Digital..I'm honestly not sure what this would do since I was recording fine, but I don't think it would make the noise go away.

input source to digital? Are you reamping?

 

[hp/mp]

Whoops..Touched the output with the tip of the cable about 5 times I suppose no one's going to test their Axe this way to compare with mine..

I could swear my digital test recordings sound subtly better to me than my analog.. I just want digital out to work okay with the Axe anyway.

When I set up the Axe to my interface with the digital i/o, in order to monitor and record I had to change the interface software clock to 48k and set it to digital coaxial. Only thing I can think of is that I never set the Axe's input source to Digital..I'm honestly not sure what this would do since I was recording fine, but I don't think it would make the noise go away.

input source to digital? Are you reamping?

Oh, nope... Sorry, I got confused for a second with the ins and outs..

No one knows how I can fix this unfortunate noise?

 

[Strataxe]

[quote="hp/mp":2ftpwm65]
Whoops..Touched the output with the tip of the cable about 5 times I suppose no one's going to test their Axe this way to compare with mine..

I could swear my digital test recordings sound subtly better to me than my analog.. I just want digital out to work okay with the Axe anyway.

When I set up the Axe to my interface with the digital i/o, in order to monitor and record I had to change the interface software clock to 48k and set it to digital coaxial. Only thing I can think of is that I never set the Axe's input source to Digital..I'm honestly not sure what this would do since I was recording fine, but I don't think it would make the noise go away.

input source to digital? Are you reamping?

Oh, nope... Sorry, I got confused for a second with the ins and outs..

No one knows how I can fix this unfortunate noise?[/quote:2ftpwm65]

It seems like your guitar are capturing and amplifying noise from your computer monitor.
Try to move away from the monitor to see if it's the case

 

[AndrewSimon]

I listened to the sample.
It's sounds like pickup noise to me, same sound here.
And yes move away from the computer.

 

[jond]

I got the same thing the first time I tried to use the spdif out. The AxeFx was normally dead quiet, but I got a faint squeal whenever anything was hooked up to or even touching the digital out. It turned out to be a grounding issue with the guitar cable I was using. I know it seems odd, but as soon as I swapped my guitar cable the squeal went away and hasn't been back in the year since.