Is this noise normal?

Kablesp said:
Okay, it's not the FM3 itself, which I didn't think it would be. No cable into the unit results in no noise, but I still get the noise when only a cable is plugged in.
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I get the noise when I e.g. touch/hit the strings a little bit, but I don't have the noise when I unplug the guitar. Just cable plugged in FM3 (without touching the plug) --> I have no noise. Does the guitars work like an antenna also with humbuckers? I will also try other humbucker guitars.
More extreme with AKG K701 headphones than with KRK studio monitors but you can hear it on both.
 
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Most of my guitars produce that signal, but my Les Paul just when I turn up the volume very much on FM3, what is normal I think. Well, some of my guitars are the reason for my issue with that signal. A humbucker is not enough also shielding seams to be a topic for non single coil guitars :(
Still the question: Does a firmware downgrade help?
 
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weird guitar person said:
  • Does your AC power source comprise sufficient audio filtering? (Think a new audio power conditioner strip vs. an office surge protector or worse as @12fd was asking...)
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I tried a third (cellar) room and it's gone. Well, its EMI in the second room with these guitars (photovoltaic inverter & IT-systems behind the wall :screamcat:). I just deactivated noise gate, hold the guitar up and went thru the room with headphones on the ears. It's an antenna. But the powerful EMI seams to come from outside the building. Crazy, a normal family house living area.

Do you mean something like this?
https://www.thomann.de/gb/cat_GK_pa...LCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6NCwibGFuZ3VhZ2UiOjJ9&reload=1
Do these power conditioner devices also help if the guitars are the issue/antenna for EMI like this?
 
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TheRedDevil said:
I tried a third (cellar) room and it's gone. Well, its EMI in the second room with these guitars (photovoltaic inverter & IT-systems behind the wall :screamcat:). I just deactivated noise gate, hold the guitar up and went thru the room with headphones on the ears. It's an antenna. But the powerful EMI seams to come from outside the building. Crazy, a normal family house living area.

Do you mean something like this?
https://www.thomann.de/gb/cat_GK_pa...LCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6NCwibGFuZ3VhZ2UiOjJ9&reload=1
Do these power conditioner devices also help if the guitars are the issue/antenna for EMI like this?
Click to expand...
I have one of the AC-210's I use with my portable rig. Otherwise I find the PST-8's super handy around the house.

They're not going to help guitars acting as antennae, but they will help clean up EMI on the AC lines. Need to be disciplined about all of the other issues too though. A friend of mine, a designer, made his studio immaculate, which meant all the lines were running in parallel. Horrible noise problems. I suggested he find ways to make wires cross at right right angles, preferably at a distance, and the noise went away.

So the shotgun approach of using good filtering and paying attention to induction won't solve every problem. I had DC on AC that cause a huge buzz in my KRKs. Furman tech recommended newer filtering. At the time I was a short on cash, but his other recommendation did the trick. I put a lava lamp on the same circuit to bleed the DC. It worked. ;-)

Lot of voodoo around this stuff. Simplify, test, verify. Good luck!
 
TheRedDevil said:
Nothing changed in the room (just the FW) and I already changed the room. I also tries different cables, both Sommer Cable SPIRIT LLX high quality cables with low loss.

I also could try it outside with the power of my e-car ...
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This is one area where an EMF detector can actually be handy for sanity's sake. :)

Not sure if you already took care of shielding in guitars, tried different guitars?

edit: I see you have tried different guitars.
 
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TheRedDevil said:
I just deactivated noise gate, hold the guitar up and went thru the room with headphones on the ears. It's an antenna.
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That’s the right thing to do. Use your guitar as an interference detector. Move it all around the room, high and low. Put your pickups next to every electronic device in the room. Hold your guitar at different angles. In most cases, the interference will be strongest when your pickups are pointed directly at (or directly away from) the source of the interference.

Some of the worst offenders when it comes to interference:

1 Light Dimmers;
2 Fluorescent lighting;
3 Computers;
4 Wi-Fi routers;
5 Cell phones.
 
I still cannot find the solution to this problem. I bought a new power strip that has RFI/EMI protection that did nothing. I turned off other breakers in the house and that didn't work. I also plugged the FM3 into my car and the noise was still there. Maybe there is something wrong with my FM3, I don't have another to test.

This is all so discouraging, I don't want to sell it but this noise is unbearable and makes my recordings way noisier than they should be.
 
Kablesp said:
I still cannot find the solution to this problem. I bought a new power strip that has RFI/EMI protection that did nothing. I turned off other breakers in the house and that didn't work. I also plugged the FM3 into my car and the noise was still there. Maybe there is something wrong with my FM3, I don't have another to test.

This is all so discouraging, I don't want to sell it but this noise is unbearable and makes my recordings way noisier than they should be.
Click to expand...


Your guitar is an antenna

Space Science Yes GIF by European Space Agency - ESA
 
Kablesp said:
I still cannot find the solution to this problem. I bought a new power strip that has RFI/EMI protection that did nothing. I turned off other breakers in the house and that didn't work. I also plugged the FM3 into my car and the noise was still there. Maybe there is something wrong with my FM3, I don't have another to test.

This is all so discouraging, I don't want to sell it but this noise is unbearable and makes my recordings way noisier than they should be.
Click to expand...
A power strip cannot prevent EMI. That comes in thru the guitar/cable not the power.
Kablesp said:
But its noisy with no guitar at all
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You said above:
No cable into the unit results in no noise, but I still get the noise when only a cable is plugged in
Click to expand...

Don't plug a cable in with no guitar connected, that can also be the noise source.

If there's no noise with no cable I'd plugged in, or when the guitar is plugged in with the volume rolled off, then there is no issue with the FM3.

EMI is coming in from the environment thru the guitar and/or cable.
 
Stupid question: Is it simply the background noise of the speakers or amplifier?

The FM3's power supply is separate and can be replaced. The FM3 actually only consists of a mainboard and a separate power supply.

I disabled all the circuit breakers in the house and in the end the noise was still there. If necessary, a little quieter. For me, I'm guessing that the studio monitors (background noise) and the power cable through the whole house are additional reason. I have the feeling that it will be less in the evening because there is less electricity. The AXEIII (computer) also bothers me even when I sit direcly in front of it. This just helps protect the guitar better and/or the noise gate at -55dB and ratio 3. But I still can hear it when I play quietly.

Did you try the ground lift switch on the backside?

With headphones it seams to be more extreme. I'm not sure anymore. Is the internal headphone amp the reason with EMI from FAS device itself? Input and Headphone plug are really near together. Who knows.

Did you try an older firmware? The new one adds dirtyness in the sound and changed the gate. Possibly this is it what I also hear, a kind of frequency, dirtyness? Known from real tube amps on full volume.
 

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