Hey all,
I'm building a huge studio in my basement. All is okay so far but the power. Ground checks out okay, current too. For some reason I'm picking up some hum and interference from the power outlets. I already had electricians come in to check things out and according to them it all checks out okay. All of my gear is new and I never had problems with it. Tried different cables, unplugging different units etc. Same shit! Still noisy....
Tolerable but noisey.

I was told that any studio should ideally have it's own power transformer and special kind of power outlets. Don't know a damn thing about that stuff because electricity and I never got along. :-)

I've got quite a few high end UPS and power stabilizer units and they did the trick for me while I was living in a condo but not in my new house.

Any suggestions?

-ED-

[This message has been edited by 3351 (edited 08-19-2005).]

ED:
How old is the house?

When the wiring was put in for the studio, did they bring a new (or Dedicated) line from the main power panel?

I've made a couple of power transformers for music use, not much to them. all you need is a 20 amp 220 volt transformer that steps the power down to two 110v recepticles, this will run a slug of instruments, any electrician can wire it up, put it in a wooden/metal box leave vents bottom and top. should have a off/on 220v switch and a heavy 220v plug and cord. The 110v recpt. can be flush mounted in the box. Paint it black for effects. HE HE.This rig isolates the instruments from other electrical items and the incoming power, it will also clean up florecent lights and dimmer switches somewhat..

Back to the problem. There may be other equipt? running on the same line, If its a old house, maybe no ground wires on parts of it. Usually the culprit is florecent lights or dimmer switches......Pose

edit: Check to make sure out of all your cables, one unshielded did'nt get used going into a amplifier somewhere.

[This message has been edited by loungelyzard (edited 08-19-2005).]

Probably the rats in the wall.
You know how it is when you hear a great tune, you can't help but hum along.
Try not playing so good....maybe they'll stop.
Just a suggestion.

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...shboom

SSSh.
Out here in Callefoornia (as the Govanaoter says) we got cockroaches humming backup for the rats .....Pose

That's gotta look so cool!!
3 little cockroaches wearing sunglasses and little tuxedos struttin' to "Sh-doop...shoo bee doo"

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...shboom

That would scare me and i would smash them

Yes guys it is definitely the ****ing rats. Rat poison ought to do the trick. Why didn't I think of it? Rat knows.. LOL

Loungelizard thank you for the reply. I just had another tech come over and he was thinking of doing exactly what you've suggested. 220 to 110 transformer. Wiring should be easy to do since the house is new and there's lots of unused power outlets. Should be easy. But will see.

-ED-

Ed:
If you go the step/down transformer route, if you put it in a box, you can gig with it, (anywhere there's 220 avail). Might have to get a couple of plug converters (pigtails) to make the different hookups.
The last one I did I put a garage door lift handle on the top. Note: these puppies are heavy, probably 35 lbs......Pose

Ed,

Sorry I didn't get to this earlier. First and foremost, post a list of the total pieces of equipment that you are using at any given time when recording--keyboard, computer, vocal processor, etc...

Also a breif description of the hookup, such as what goes into what, whether or not the equipment is powered with wall warts or internal power supplies, anything that will provide me with a lead of where to go with this one.

Most of the time humm is caused by a single, offending component, and this can often be isolated by merely disconnecting components one at a time until the humm dissapears. Give it a try and post the information.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Well, I already tried what you suggested since I've been messing with problems of this sort for ages. It is indeed a good way to determine the cause of the noise.

So far the most noise seems to come from my Mac G5. Mostly out of it's internal speaker (not an issue but I'm just letting you know), second there's quite a bit of noise coming out of it's headphone jack. THird the same kind of noise but quieter comes out of the main outs of my MOTU 828 firewire audio interface. There are several components to the noise. partially it sounds like weighted pink noise. There's also a slight beeping/ticking noise that really sounds like digital clock. This particular model comes with it's own optional digital I/O which cannot be turned off. I don't know what apple were thinking when they installed that monstrosity but they did and so there must be some dumb reason for it. Most pros who use Macs usually use high end PCI cards (Digidesign etc) or firewire interfaces. Who in the world would need an extra digital out that only seems to be causeing problems?
But whatever.

I tried using my G5 at a different location and virtually there was no noise. I even brought a few of my mixers to make sure it wasn't one of them (although I tried all four at my place. Same noise with all of them).

I suspect this odd problem has to do with weirdness caused by the optional digital I/O and it's digital clock. The rest of the problem has to do with some really sensitive circuitry that my G5 came with. Either Apple cheaped out and forgot to shield a few things properly or they didn't anticipate that it might be used in environments where the current isn't perfect.

Since I had no issues with this at another well powered location (a guy is using a separate power transformer and a few power conditioners connected to the outlets as well as has a well sheilded wiring) I've decided to pretty much do the same thing and install n independant power line running from it's own transformer. I will do it for my entire basement so this shit will never become an issue if I get any sensitive gear again.

On top of that I wil be taking my G5 to the shop to test it's grounding and everything inside. IF there's a way to kil that optional I/O I wil do that too.

Since you've asked my setup is pretty straight forward. Just for now. I wil connect more but here's what I've got now:

Motif ES8 (connected to the Mac via USB. No audio connections to the mixer yet)
Mac G5 (dual 2.7Ghz processor 1.25Ghz bus).
MOTU firewire interface (model 828)
Mackie 12/02
A pair of Tannoy system 600 self powered speakers.

Aside from those toys there's a modem connected to the Ethernet port of my G5. Disconnecting it didn't reduce the noise.


Okay. Thanks everyone. I shall now go rest. Will read ya tomorrow.

-ED-

Ed,

From the way you've described it, I believe the problem could be with the G5. Hard to tell without being there and using some sophisticated test equipment.

Are you saying the same noise comes from the synth with nothing other than headphones hooked up, and nothing else turned on? If this is the case, then this will be difficult to fix.

Good Luck and keep us posted on your progress,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Gary,
So far it breaks down like this. Yes, the G5 seems to be more sensitive to whatever is going on here. It could be ground, it could be the current itself picking up the hum and interference from the rest of the stuff in my house.
FOr now using MOTU 828 works out okay because the noise that I do get is only audible when all the levels are cranked up to maximum. Same with using Digi 002. I think that has to do with the fact that those interfaces have their own transformers. If on the other hand I try to use less expensive interfaces like the Edirol FA101 things get pretty nasty. I'm lucky enough that my dealer lets me take anything I like and try it before buying. OR at least he never gave me a hard time exchanging whatever I buy if there are any problems.

ONe thing that really throws me off in all of my assumptions is that when I connect the Edirol to the G4 I get the same low level of noise that I do when I use Digi 002 and MOTU 828. THe phones out on the G4 is also noisy.

So on one hand it seems like the G5 is definitely more sensitive to any kind of interference but at the same time there's definitely something going on power wise that creates that interference to start with.
Both will need to be taken care of.

I won't really bother connecting my synths yet just to keep things simple. Some of them are over ten years old so regardless of power issues they still have a bit of noise on the outs. I just don't want things to get anymore confusing than they are already.

-ED-