Originally posted by Ryan0751
Lol, I dunno man... At least you have the troubleshooting mindset down
Go through an optical converter into you computer... hehe!
Yeah I'm kinda good at that...troubleshooting problems. But I love troubleshooting something I don't understand because I do a lot of researches like I'm doing right now for this noise issue. I understand more and more what could be the problem, what are the technologies and how to prevent the issue to return in the future.
Anyway if anyone got a clue, reply please ! By the mean time, I'll test more tonight and get my speakers this weekend.
Hum I just thought of something and this is probably related. Sometimes, there's a big WOUSHHHHH coming from my speakers. The mixer has to be open, the amplifier also. Playing music or not, faders up or not, sometimes it just makes a very powerful "WOUSH" in the speakers, like if I was turning ON my mixer AFTER turning ON my amplifier. Maybe it doesn't like the XLR to RCA connectors ? I'm sure this is related somehow to a ground problem.
Feb-20-2008 20:55
Neo Hacker
Passionate
Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Montréal
Little update :
I was not able to reproduce the noise yesterday. I played for hours music and movies on my setup, no noise at all...so I guess I'll just keep checking if it comes back I'll be able to test more
Thanks for the help guys...
Feb-21-2008 13:29
Neo Hacker
Passionate
Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Montréal
Re: Re: Noise in my setup...
quote:
Originally posted by ********
could it be the soundcard picking up machine noise or "other noise" not coming in through the connectors...? is there some type of interferance.. cell phones, wireless devices etc..
are there any scratches on the wires.... is the soundcard loose etc..??
are any other channels active that don't need to be.. what is the noise threshold on the card?, how loud is your volume etc...
Not at all. The soundcard is alone in his corner. It's brand new and everything is very solid and doesn't seem to have any problem with the device.
The only active channels are the only I need (Windows, MIX2). The volume is at 80% to make sure it doesn't clip but I don't know where to find that noise threshold feature you're talking about...
Feb-21-2008 14:28
Neo Hacker
Passionate
Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Montréal
Alright I managed to get that noise back. I ran the Test4 I'm talking about and it seems to be related to the USB cable somehow that goes from the computer to the sound card. If I unplug the AC adapter of the soundcard (which is optional because it can use the USB 5V but the soundcard will run at half i/o), the noise is still there. BUT, if I unplug the USB cable, noise disappears. Then, if I plug it back, it comes back (even without the AC Cable). Playing with the cable seems to do something because the noise is changing his sound while I'm playing with the cable. This is for sure an electrical source. So it's related to my USB 5V and this power is delivered from my power supply of my computer. I think at this point, there's nothing I can do really. All readings of my motherboard seems to be fine for the voltage and my powersupply is a very good shape. It might be related to something on the motherboard itself...can be anything really. And I'm not forgetting that ground issue. If my appartment is not well grounded, this kind of thing could happen...
I'll keep updating the topic if I get anything else new. It can be a good resource for someone who's having similars problems.
If you guys have any suggestions, feel free to post. Do you know any "ground tester" that exists on the market that I could buy and test my ac outlets ?
Feb-23-2008 06:48
Neo Hacker
Passionate
Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Montréal
Alright time for an update haha
So I got a small device from Canadian Tire which allow me to test circuit and ground. Every ac outlets in my appartment aren't grounded...this is what I thought, the appartment is quite old...
so I guess there's nothing really I can do about it now except maybe getting some isolators we were talking earlier in the topic. There's no way to be sure that the missing ground is the problem, but it sure doesn't help...
I guess this is the end of the story here. I don't see what else I can do really. If I get some isolators I'll post back the results.
If anyone has something to comment, please do I'm open for anything hehe
Thanks for the help guys, it was much appreciated
Feb-23-2008 21:17
orTofønChiLd
Everything is illuminated
Registered: Feb 2008
Location: Miami
there's alot of things you can do, invest on shielded cables, get a dedicated line straight to your panel box for harmonics, keep ac cables away from audio cuz that brings out noize
Feb-24-2008 04:10
Neo Hacker
Passionate
Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Montréal
quote:
Originally posted by orTofønChiLd
there's alot of things you can do, invest on shielded cables, get a dedicated line straight to your panel box for harmonics, keep ac cables away from audio cuz that brings out noize
I don't see why shielded cables could correct my problem...the cable isn't the problem nor interferences outside the cable, but the signal that is delivered to the cable. The problem is in my computer, because it delivers static (or noise) into my USB cable due to irregular voltage (probably due to the missing ground of the appartment).
AC Cables and Audio cables are already as far as they can but I'll try to manage something else then.
And for the dedicated line, there's nothing I can do. The appartment was built in 1958 and as I said I'm not the owner of the house, I'm renting the appartment. I can't do that kind of modifications to the electric circuit.
I'll try to manage my cables differently, but could you explain to me how a shielded cable (we're talking about AUDIO cables right ?) could fix that issue ?
