Unbearable noise... send help

A

AaronB

Member
Anybody have ANY idea what could be causing this ungodly noise? A gate is obviously useless when the noise is arguably even louder than the playing...

5153 Blue. Barely any gain. Bright Switch on (which does add a good amount of compression, at least on this model so the effect is greatly exaggerated). Anybody experience anything like this and solve it? Any guesses?

 
AaronB said:
Anybody have ANY idea what could be causing this ungodly noise? A gate is obviously useless when the noise is arguably even louder than the playing...

5153 Blue. Barely any gain. Bright Switch on (which does add a good amount of compression, at least on this model so the effect is greatly exaggerated). Anybody experience anything like this and solve it? Any guesses?

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Is this happening with any amount of gain? If it's lower when using less gain it means it comes from your guitar or cable.
Try using another cable and/or another guitar, if it's still there it's probably EM interference coming from some other device in your room (maybe pc or monitor?), try to move away from them in this case.
 
So I tried moving further away from my setup. Once I'm basically on the other side of the room, it goes away. As long as I also face 180° away from my gear. It doesn't complete disappear but it's definitely much less noticeable. It's also impossible to track anything from here so... yeahhh.

Would a hum eliminator or something like be of any use here do you think? I've never used one.
 
Also yeah I tried another cable and another guitar. Same result. It's basically none existent on clean patches but on any patch with gain/compression... well, you hear it.
 
Any fluorescent lights, computers, monitors, T.V.'s in the area? If so, turn them off one at a time and check to see if the noise stops.
 
DLC86 said:
That means it's EMI.. try to find out what device is causing it by turning them off one at a time.
Are you using single coil pickups?
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Humbuckers. Modded EMG's to be exact. And yeah to answer Toopy14, I'm basically surrounded by electronics in here. Big monitor, PC, Speakers, Central Station, WiFi receiver, a TV in the back of the room. etc.. guess I'll start flipping things on and off and see what happens. Maybe try different outlets/power conditioners for different things idk
 
AaronB said:
And yeah to answer Toopy14, I'm basically surrounded by electronics in here. Big monitor, PC, Speakers, Central Station, WiFi receiver, a TV in the back of the room. etc.. guess I'll start flipping things on and off and see what happens. Maybe try different outlets/power conditioners for different things idk
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Start with the Wi-Fi AP.
 
Tried turning off essentially everything until I was left with the Axe itself and the power conditioner its plugged into. No change whatsoever :/
 
Keep looking. Turn off lights in the rest of the house (especially any dimmers). Unplug gadgets and power supplies. In one support case, we went as far as turning off every other breaker in the house (unfortunately this didn't solve the problem, which turned out to simply be really noisy power from the local grid.)

Also, do look into "noiseless" pickups. You'd think a humbucker is quiet, but this isn't always the case.

My home studio is generally really quiet, but there is a neighbor across the street with power problems. When he powers on certain things in his shop, I get a buzz in my gear.
 
AaronB said:
Tried turning off essentially everything until I was left with the Axe itself and the power conditioner its plugged into. No change whatsoever :/
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Are you playing the Axe-Fx through anything, ie. powered monitors, speaker, power amp. etc.? Is the Axe-Fx mounted in a rack with steel rack rails? If so, is there other gear in the rack with it?
 
Toopy14 said:
Are you playing the Axe-Fx through anything, ie. powered monitors, speaker, power amp. etc.? Is the Axe-Fx mounted in a rack with steel rack rails? If so, is there other gear in the rack with it?
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The path is just my guitar, straight into the axe, then the Axe goes analog out into a presonus central station monitor controller, the monitor controller then goes to a pair of Adam A7x powered monitors. Also using my Axe as the main interface via usb.

I have two power conditioners plugged into the nearest wall sockets and EVERYTHING in my setup is plugged into one or the other of these conditioners. I'm no electrician here so idk if it's worth the trouble but I was thinking about maybe taking everything musical and plugging it into one conditioner and everything technical (monitor, pc, etc) into the other. Somebody stop me if this is pointless lol it's a mess back there.
 
AaronB said:
I'm no electrician here so idk if it's worth the trouble but I was thinking about maybe taking everything musical and plugging it into one conditioner and everything technical (monitors, pc, etc) into the other. Somebody stop me if this is pointless lol it's a mess back there.
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Yes, try that. It could be a ground loop between the two outlets. Eliminate the conditioner and plug the guitar gear into the same outlet.
 
AaronB said:
The path is just my guitar, straight into the axe, then the Axe goes analog out into a presonus central station monitor controller, the monitor controller then goes to a pair of Adam A7x powered monitors. Also using my Axe as the main interface via usb.

I have two power conditioners plugged into the nearest wall sockets and EVERYTHING in my setup is plugged into one or the other of these conditioners. I'm no electrician here so idk if it's worth the trouble but I was thinking about maybe taking everything musical and plugging it into one conditioner and everything technical (monitor, pc, etc) into the other. Somebody stop me if this is pointless lol it's a mess back there.
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Is your USB connection thru a laptop with a power adapter ?? If so, disconnect the USB and see if the noise disappears!

Also, I get RF interference from my 2 monitors when I play at home.. have to turn the guitar away from them or move somewhere else.
 
AaronB said:
I have two power conditioners plugged into the nearest wall sockets and EVERYTHING in my setup is plugged into one or the other of these conditioners. I'm no electrician here so idk if it's worth the trouble but I was thinking about maybe taking everything musical and plugging it into one conditioner and everything technical (monitor, pc, etc) into the other. Somebody stop me if this is pointless lol it's a mess back there.
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Just a thought... I had a similar hum for a while in my old house. I did pull the outlet out, and some nutjob had it wired backwards... Neutral on black, hot on white... I was so mad, a whole year of "putting up with it".

Something else before you potentially risk a quick 110 jolt: have you brought your rig and reference monitors somewhere else like a buddy or relatives house? That's at least worth trying to entirely isolate it to one or two circuits in the house. If you're handy, take a look at the outlet. It may be worth updating the device and ensuring the wires are not crossed. Alternating current is a funny animal for digital gear sometimes....
 
Wow thanks for the responses guys I have a lot to try. I'm going to get behind my desk tomorrow and start trying some different arrangements. I'll also have a look at the outlet my conditioners are running off of as well. As for the usb thing that was suggested, I'm not on a laptop. Just plugged into the back of my tower. So... everything check out there?
 
Admin M@ said:
Keep looking. Turn off lights in the rest of the house (especially any dimmers). Unplug gadgets and power supplies. In one support case, we went as far as turning off every other breaker in the house (unfortunately this didn't solve the problem, which turned out to simply be really noisy power from the local grid.)

Also, do look into "noiseless" pickups. You'd think a humbucker is quiet, but this isn't always the case.

My home studio is generally really quiet, but there is a neighbor across the street with power problems. When he powers on certain things in his shop, I get a buzz in my gear.
Click to expand...

+! to turn off lights. I had the exact same problem, and all I had to do was make sure a light was turned off in the kitchen that had a dimmer on it. It was like night and day when that light was on. Wacky.
 
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