[SOLVED] Clicking background sound

Endy

Endy

Member
Can anyone please help me shed some light on this problem?
For the last couple of days Ive been experiencing a strange fast ticking noise in the background, I can gate it out if I set the gate heavily but obviously thats not the best idea.

Ive included a link to an audio file of whats happening.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/464swkcyn45hash/AXE Test.wav?dl=0

Ignore the quick riff, thats just to show the volume, after the riff I kept touching the strings to open the input gate and you can hear the clicking noise.

Round about 00.15 I turned the noise gate off (open) then back on again so you can hear the noise on its own.

It happens on all presets on speakers and headphones, on all guitars and even plugged into another mains socket and the more gain the louder it gets.

Any suggestions would be welcome on this or should I contact support?

Cheers in advance.

PROBLEM SOLVED Thanks a lot Guys
 
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If you turn down the volume on your guitar does it go away? If so it's external interference getting into your pickups. If not does it go away when you unplug the cable from the INSTR jack? If so it's a bad cable.
 
FractalAudio said:
If you turn down the volume on your guitar does it go away? If so it's external interference getting into your pickups. If not does it go away when you unplug the cable from the INSTR jack? If so it's a bad cable.
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Yes it does go away when I turn the volume down on the guitar or unplug the cable, if it's interference I'm gonna have to search for what could be causing it, I haven't changed anything in my studio,
I tried going out of the room away from everything else and could still hear it.
thanks for the quick reply.
 
Did you change a lightbulb? Or switch to a new internet router? Sometimes those can cause electrical interference, yes even lightbulbs. I’ve played in places where I can trace the power runs in the wall with my guitar due to older wiring giving off interference
 
marshall2553 said:
Do you have a cell phone near your guitar? That sounds a lot like what I hear if I play with my iPhone in my pocket.
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I did have a cell phone on my desk but I checked and it wasn't that but I wonder if its the wifi signal coming to my PC? I'll try turning it off tomorrow and see what happens, can't do it at the moment, wife watching netflicks so that would be dangerous lol
 
Werpinater said:
Did you change a lightbulb? Or switch to a new internet router? Sometimes those can cause electrical interference, yes even lightbulbs. I’ve played in places where I can trace the power runs in the wall with my guitar due to older wiring giving off interference
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I did add some smart bulbs in my living room downstairs actually, just tried switching them off at the wall switch and the problem has gone, I would never have guessed that would be the problem.
Thanks a lot guys for the help, I'm happy now, it's great to be part of such a helpfull comunity and Keep up the excellent work Cliff, you guys rock :)
 
Endy said:
I did add some smart bulbs in my living room downstairs actually, just tried switching them off at the wall switch and the problem has gone, I would never have guessed that would be the problem.
Thanks a lot guys for the help, I'm happy now, it's great to be part of such a helpfull comunity and Keep up the excellent work Cliff, you guys rock :)
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Yeah me and my friend were going nuts changing preamp and poweramp tubes in his Mark V because there was a constant clicking sound. Turns out it was my powerline adapters causing interference. I didn't hear it on my amp because of the noise gate. Strange stuff. Lately I've been hearing radio stations on all my gear. I recently moved an air conditioner to a nearby window maybe its because of that.
 
Just out of curiosity were you using a power conditioner? I have a lot of noise in my setup and hoping that might be a simple fix. Mine gets worse running into Cubase and even worse if running plugins. Was considering getting a better computer setup. I have a laptop and wires running everywhere.....
 
Gary_B said:
Just out of curiosity were you using a power conditioner? I have a lot of noise in my setup and hoping that might be a simple fix. Mine gets worse running into Cubase and even worse if running plugins. Was considering getting a better computer setup. I have a laptop and wires running everywhere.....
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As mentioned, the problem went away when the guitar was turned down, meaning it's some form of EMI... So, not coming thru the power.
 
Gary_B said:
Just out of curiosity were you using a power conditioner? I have a lot of noise in my setup and hoping that might be a simple fix. Mine gets worse running into Cubase and even worse if running plugins. Was considering getting a better computer setup. I have a laptop and wires running everywhere.....
Click to expand...
Yeah, I use a Furman power conditioner but its been sorted now, I had installed two smart bulbs downstairs which happen to be on a dimmer switch of all things, I should have thought of that actually but because the Axe FX was the only thing in my studio that was picking up the noise I didn't think it could be outside my studio room, oh well you live and learn lol
 
Is the clicking sound in time with tap tempo? Are you using a patch panel that has your guitar input and the FC cable both mounted to it?
 
I am getting kind of entertained by the number of people reading the first post and not the rest of the thread. It was found that the issues was Smart Lights installed on a dimmer switch in a living room. My question is though, does the sound go away without the dimmer switch? At which point both the smart lights and the guitar pickups could maybe play well together. Although the sound is probably tied more to the wireless signal on the lights than the dimmer, but it is worth a shot to possibly have the best of both worlds
 
For any entrepreneurs out there... I recall when chasing down a similar EMI issue some years ago that someone should make a portable product that simulates the RF reception of a PUP & strings that you can walk around with to determine the source of the EMI... it could generate noise, light LEDs, etc. like a geiger counter or metal detector. :)
 
Endy said:
Yeah, I use a Furman power conditioner but its been sorted now, I had installed two smart bulbs downstairs which happen to be on a dimmer switch of all things, I should have thought of that actually but because the Axe FX was the only thing in my studio that was picking up the noise I didn't think it could be outside my studio room, oh well you live and learn lol
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Appreciate the response. I had read through and seen the solution but was curious if the noise was coming through even though a power conditioner was being used or not. I'm no electrical engineer but I assumed it could be picked up other ways that a power condition wasn't able to deal with and seeing if it may help solve my own situation. I have a number of smart wireless devices and may have to just deal with nuisance noises.
 
Werpinater said:
I am getting kind of entertained by the number of people reading the first post and not the rest of the thread. It was found that the issues was Smart Lights installed on a dimmer switch in a living room. My question is though, does the sound go away without the dimmer switch? At which point both the smart lights and the guitar pickups could maybe play well together. Although the sound is probably tied more to the wireless signal on the lights than the dimmer, but it is worth a shot to possibly have the best of both worlds
Click to expand...
Actually I was going to try replacing the dimmer switch with a standard on/off switch to see if that cures it, I'll let you know what the outcome is when I get round to it.
 
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