balanced vs unbalanced

T

The Arkitekt

Guest
damn!!! i'd look forward to going to work in the morning if i was employed there lol
 

Shonsteez

Gurpologist
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 33
Props man, i cant stand the public interaction to that degree. I worked Customer Service in retail for 5 years and that sucked major balls. Obviously your gig is entirely different but having to deal with people and sell stuff on the phone on a daily basis would drive me mad! I just aint built for that shit tho.
 

thedreampolice

A backwards poet writes inverse.
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
Right on, its actually cool. I deal with the same people usually. They love what I am selling. They are happy to hear from me. Many of them are now on my myspace page. Many of my now customers are my heroes and musicians that I have been fans of for years. Its crazy to hear your heroes voice on your voicemail saying "Chris call me back I need your advice." Man thats a trip. But ya it can get old when you have had your 50th conversation about an Mbox.
 

elementsrtyte

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
damn that sweetwater facility looks dope as hell. making over 100k? thats amazing.

ok ok, but back to the thread,
i have 3 balanced cables, and 1 unbalanced 25 ft cable (my guitar cable thats gold plated but unbranded and generic). i am getting what guitar center called a "50hz hum" or some shit. if iswapped the guitar cable out with a balnaced cable would it reudce my problem? i bought this shitty monster power surge that plugs into the wall or some shit and it helped the problem a bit, but the 50hz hum is still there. i'm wondernig what would be the bets way to get rid of that.

thanks
 

Shonsteez

Gurpologist
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 33
I think this ones for Dream, but i would gather that the "better quality - balanced" cables should do the trick to help cut that noise down.
A lot of engineers have to cut at that frequency during the mixdown stage in general just as regular practice so u could try that too if the cables still dont help.

*You should re-examine your whole signal chain though.
There could be a possibility of something else thats in the chain causing the problem like your preamp?
 

elementsrtyte

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
oh no not at all, i have a studio style setup. no high gain shit here. i have 2krk rokit5s and a rp10s sub. and a firewire 410. 2livewire balanced shielded xlr xlr cables, 1 mogami studio cable, and 1 25ft guitar cable (gold plates, but unbalanced).

so its weird, when i hook up my power supply to my laptop i get the hum, and when i disconnect it, it's all gone. i went to guitar center and they send oh, thats a common problem, you just need to get a power conditioner. they were recommending this 150$ furman, but i'm like wow thats a bit too pricey for frickin just power. and they showed me a monster [http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Monster-Power-PowerCenter-PRO-200?sku=180018]

so i was like aight let me cop that, and i come home and plug everything into that, (well i used a power strip to give me more inputs), and the noice was reduced significantly, but i could still hear it. so i'm not exactly sure what it is, maybe i sholdv'e just copped the more expensive furman but who knows. what do you think dream police?
 

Shonsteez

Gurpologist
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 33
That sounds like some kind of "ground" issue rooted at your laptop then. Id check your power adapter for your laptop, maybe even try something simple like relocating the adapter to a different power outlet first and see if that makes a difference???

But if your getting noise as soon as you plug your adapter in, thats where i would start looking first.

Also i dont think you can get cross-talk from laying your balanced cables across your adapter cable but i think it may be possible to cause some kind of noise that way maybe so try keeping your cables separate as well.

Just trying to cover all the bases...
 

elementsrtyte

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
its pretty terrible, like usualyl what I do is just turn off my speakers if i'm doing work, or just unplug the power adapter if i'm doing music. one remedy i found was to lower the volume on the monitors, i have them set at -8db right now each and its not that obnoxious,but still noticeable. how do you fix a ground loop problem if that is the case?
 

Shonsteez

Gurpologist
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 33
Well my first guess is that you have a bunk adapter cable for your laptop....
My next guess is that the line-in's that your using on your interface could possibly be fried....

I mean, it sounds like by process of elimination we decided that its not cables now since you got balanced ones after the first incident.

Also, are u plugging directly into a wall outlet for your laptop? And how is your interface powered? Bus powered or adapter as well?

Whatever it is, it sounds like something in your chain is dirty...

Did u try plugging into a different outlet yet?

**Good example link on ground info by the way Arkitekt....
 

elementsrtyte

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
good post arkitekt, that is exactly my problem. but that site really didn't do a good job of describing how to fix it.

and to shonsteez,
what is a bunk adapter?

and the line-ins on my card are not fried, it happens if i plug in directly to the computer.

and no i am not plugging directly into the outlet, i am plugging into this this monster power pro shit or something (i posted the link earlier on in this thread). everythings plugged into that via 2 power strips. if i didn't use that i know dirty power would be introduced into my setup so i know trying another outlet would be stupid. i'm thinking it might be the power strips that are introducing the loop. but because i don't have enough plugs in my monster power shit, i have to use them.

the thing is that everytime i disconnect my power adapter for my laptop, the hum goes away, so i'm pretty sure that the power filter i have isn't cleaning up the power coming from the adapter enough. idk what do you think is the best way to clean that up or fix a ground loop.

*and my interface is powered via adapter.
 

Shonsteez

Gurpologist
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 33
and the line-ins on my card are not fried, it happens if i plug in directly to the computer.
Oohhhhh....
So wait, sorry if im still missing something but - your saying that you plug your mics or instruments DIRECTLY into your computer input INSTEAD of your soundcard???

I have a feeling thats not what u meant, but if so....DONT DO THAT.
Thats what your cards for.

Also, did the signal get better once u installed the Monster power filter or was it exactly the same?

Well its pretty clear your getting a ground loop, but the question is where???

See what happens if you take your laptop adapter out of the power strip and plug it directly into the wall with the power filter instead maybe?

______________

*Oh when i said you might have a "bunk adapter" i just meant theres a possibility that your laptops power adapter has a ground issue.
 

elementsrtyte

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
actually wait, what did you mean when you said line-ins fried? it happens regardless whether i'm using a microphone or not, so thats not the case.

i was just trying to illustrate the point that its not the audio interface's problem at all because it happens when i plug the speakers directly into the computer. i meant to say lineout*.

and yes that is how i set it up. my power adapter directly into the wall, and one stirp connected directly to the wall and another stirp connected to that strip hah. i dont know if its possible for a power strip to introduce noise in power, but if it is possible than I believe that would be the problem. [i just did a quick google search and some non-reliable site said that it is possible] so idk can anyone w experience back that fact up?

oh and it definitely improved the problem when i used the monster power filter.

if the case is the power strip introducing power, then i know i could resolve the issue by purchasing a furman rack with 6 or 7 inputs, but is there any other cheaper alternative?

thanks all for helpin me out!
 
T

The Arkitekt

Guest
id go and purchase the furman rack or find one on ebay for like 70 bucks max, it could just be your power from the wall is dirty as fuckkk..... i remember like a year ago when i was still in queens, the power from the socket was really dirty, lights flickered frequently and when i used the svideo from my laptop to my tv it would be really fuzzy and id take the power adapter off so the laptop would be only on batteries and the fuzziness cleared up. im pretty sure its just really really dirty power coming from the socket. the best thing to do is just get a spool of romex from home depot or something and run a dedicated line from your circuit breaker to all your music equipamt so its not running in parralel with lights, tvs, etc and u get clean power striaght from the box
 
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