Bit of a long one...if anyone has any ideas it would be very appreciated!
Basically my band play to a click track live and use laptop for noises, synths and some extra guitar parts. Both me and the other guitarist use a Mesa Boogie or an Engl amp for rhtyhm sounds and use a MIDI AB switcher to switch to our AXE FX or POD PRO XT (the other guitarist) for clean sounds. Sometimes use both A & B for lead sounds. The laptop basically does all our MIDI preset changes and A/B changes so we don't need any pedals. The laptop is connected to an RME Fireface 800 which has outputs going to the PA (samples, Axe FX & POD) and inputs for the Axe FX and POD.
It's difficult to isolate where the problem is but occasionally we get some form of buzz, hum or ground loop sounding noise. It does sound like a power/loop problem or perhaps something to do with the MIDI A/B? Maybe it isn't of good enough quality? I use a power conditioner by the way.
Sometimes the noise might just be through my amplifier...sometimes just the other guitarist's amplifer or sometimes both. When we played Russia recently we were using a backup laptop (Dell XPS) and the sound was horrific...i think thats down to the laptop's power supply as the noise dissappears when running on the battery or using our usual laptop.
We played recently in sicily and my amplifier was the only one with noise problems. Tried taking pedals out of the chain but it didn't help...so i'm assuming its some form of power/ground issue going on...I just have no idea where to start with it with this kind of setup!
The place we rehearse doesn't have great electrics so its difficult to test things out there and see what could be the cause as its always noisey there. Although if we can make the disappear there...then we should be sorted for what ever a venue could throw at us.
I was looking into the palmer PLI isolation boxes (Palmer | PLI01) as this may help...but i'm not too sure where i'd put this in the chain? After the MIDI A/B before it goes to the amplifier? In the FX loop of my amplifer perhaps lol?
I attached a crude diagram of our setup if it helps.
Any insight or ideas would be very appreciated! We're touring the US soon so we need to get it fixed up and ready!
PS - Will i have a problem using my UK adapters for pedals in the US if i use a 3pin > 2 pin adapter? Since they're only 9volt type appliances i'm assuming it should be OK? Will I have any more ground related issues with this though?
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/atta...round-problems-tesseract-guitar-rig-crude.jpg
Basically my band play to a click track live and use laptop for noises, synths and some extra guitar parts. Both me and the other guitarist use a Mesa Boogie or an Engl amp for rhtyhm sounds and use a MIDI AB switcher to switch to our AXE FX or POD PRO XT (the other guitarist) for clean sounds. Sometimes use both A & B for lead sounds. The laptop basically does all our MIDI preset changes and A/B changes so we don't need any pedals. The laptop is connected to an RME Fireface 800 which has outputs going to the PA (samples, Axe FX & POD) and inputs for the Axe FX and POD.
It's difficult to isolate where the problem is but occasionally we get some form of buzz, hum or ground loop sounding noise. It does sound like a power/loop problem or perhaps something to do with the MIDI A/B? Maybe it isn't of good enough quality? I use a power conditioner by the way.
Sometimes the noise might just be through my amplifier...sometimes just the other guitarist's amplifer or sometimes both. When we played Russia recently we were using a backup laptop (Dell XPS) and the sound was horrific...i think thats down to the laptop's power supply as the noise dissappears when running on the battery or using our usual laptop.
We played recently in sicily and my amplifier was the only one with noise problems. Tried taking pedals out of the chain but it didn't help...so i'm assuming its some form of power/ground issue going on...I just have no idea where to start with it with this kind of setup!
The place we rehearse doesn't have great electrics so its difficult to test things out there and see what could be the cause as its always noisey there. Although if we can make the disappear there...then we should be sorted for what ever a venue could throw at us.
I was looking into the palmer PLI isolation boxes (Palmer | PLI01) as this may help...but i'm not too sure where i'd put this in the chain? After the MIDI A/B before it goes to the amplifier? In the FX loop of my amplifer perhaps lol?
I attached a crude diagram of our setup if it helps.
Any insight or ideas would be very appreciated! We're touring the US soon so we need to get it fixed up and ready!
PS - Will i have a problem using my UK adapters for pedals in the US if i use a 3pin > 2 pin adapter? Since they're only 9volt type appliances i'm assuming it should be OK? Will I have any more ground related issues with this though?
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/atta...round-problems-tesseract-guitar-rig-crude.jpg
