Buzz and Hum

[tunetown]

and other strange noises are present since I put my temporary room back together. Along with the buzz and hum there is also a tick....tick....tick happening. I thought it was the quad eights but appears in other pre's as well.

I'm suspecting power and earth problems as its intermittent. I have no power conditioners but thought I'd ask you guys for some troubleshooting tips before I start spending more money.

Is it really simply a matter of unplugging everything and and starting again?? Are there any shortcuts? It could just be one rouge cable.

Any advice is highly appreciated.

[Wiz]

what i have done in the past.

Strip everything back to basics, music source, power amp, speakers. The minimum I need to hear. Then add one at a time, dressing the leads as I go, running audio and power seperated from each other. In the end, it really is the fastest best way I reckon, lest you get lucky.

regards the tick tick tick, let me tell a great story.

In the late 80s i fixed fax machines. Then they were really intricate mechanically as well as electronically, and lots of servicable and field replaceable parts. It was a great job actually. These fax machines were about half the size of a pinball machine.

There was a really big corporation in melbourne, that actually had a "fax room" with 3 people working in it 2 shifts a day, sending, recieving and distributing faxes. The room was full of fax machines.

I got a fault call, that the machine would beep for a while then stop. Which was really weird as this machine had nothing in it that would beep.

A couple of other techs had been out before me and found nothing wrong, the manager asked me to go out. When I rang the customer I asked them to give me as much info as possible. He mentioned in passing it always happened around the same time of day. So I went out there about 30 mins before that and hung around.

Sure enough, 3 pm, beep beep beep beep....... the guy says, "See, it does beep!"

I reached over and hit the alarm on the clock radio sitting on the shelf above the fax 8)

One of the best moments in my working life.....

Oh the shit I gave the other techs who had been out before me...


cheers

Wiz

[tunetown]

Thanks Wiz,

Damn those pesky clock radios.

The system works fine. music plays back as it should. No noise.

It's only when I hook up a Powered condensor mic through the patch bay that these noises occur. Doesn't seem to happen with an SM58. I tried several mics. Even just plugging the mic in and not powering up creates noise.

I'll pull everthing out of the patchbay over the weekend to see it something is earthing it out.

[Wiz]

Thanks Wiz,

Damn those pesky clock radios.

The system works fine. music plays back as it should. No noise.

It's only when I hook up a Powered condensor mic through the patch bay that these noises occur. Doesn't seem to happen with an SM58. I tried several mics. Even just plugging the mic in and not powering up creates noise.

I'll pull everthing out of the patchbay over the weekend to see it something is earthing it out.

If its only one thing doing it, then that sorta changes things.

I have never run mics through a patch bay, I know its possible. I would try it by pulling the mic out of the patchbay routing.

Plug the mic straight into the appropriate input of your recording system (preamp) and see if it happens...

Is it phantom powered? Or is it a Tube mic with its own power supply?


Then I would substitute the SM58 for the condensor, and you sort of have your answer.

Hope that helps


cheers

Wiz

[Chris H]

First thing that comes to mind is try the same mic with another cable if it hasn't already been done.

[Drumstruck]

what's the BPM of the ticking?

[tunetown]

Lol, I'll time it. I'd say around 60 to 70 BPM.

[tunetown]

Thanks Chris, Yeh, I did that. Tried both power and mic cables. I'm leaning towwards the patch bay.

[Drumstruck]

Lol, I'll time it. I'd say around 60 to 70 BPM.

aim to please ;-)

[Manning]

Cant ego loquemur Latine

Cum catapulatae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.

[tunetown]

Cant ego loquemur Latine

Cum catapulatae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.

Ummm, I googled it and still unsure what you mean.

[Chinagraf]

Quotingus Latinus isto forus tosserati..

[tunetown]

Quotingus Latinus isto forus tosserati..

Now that I got.

[Drumstruck]

I'm sure I read that in a roadrunner cartoon

[Manning]

As we were getting all highbrow I thought I'd throw in my favourite latin phrase:

"If they outlaw catapults, then only outlaws will have catapults."

[Wiz]

The only Latin I know off by heart is

"Romanus Aunt Domus"

ahhhh Monty Python, is there anything they cant teach us...

[rob]

do you have any electric fences near you?

[gigpiglet]

what is that latin for rob?

[tunetown]

do you have any electric fences near you?

Maybe, I have moved to a rural area. There are none on my boundary fence. The house had been owned by an electrician and there are ethernet and coax cables into every room. The hub for this is in my studio. Could this cause issues?

[casey_rice]

remove all voltage adaptable/switching power supplies from the wall and see what happens.