Eliminating stupid hum/noise/auditory AIDS from reamp signals?

[AdamWathan]

So here's a clip I just made of my amp when connected to my setup for reamping...

http://www.adamwathan.com/misc/reamphum.mp3

The first section is with ground lift off on the Redeye, second is with ground lift on, and third is with a guitar plugged in instead of the Redeye.

The ground lift helps immensely but there is still this fucked up mechanical stuttering sound? Where is that coming from? I am considering one of the Ebtech Hum X devices, or one of their other hum eliminating products to isolate ground loops, but is that only going to do as much as the ground lift on the Redeye? When I ran an extension cord from my amp to another outlet on a different floor on the other side of the house, the stuttering went away but it was still uber noisy during my last tracking session.

So what should I do? Something to isolate the ground loop with it's own transformer (ie something from Ebtech)? Should I incorporate a noise gate into my FX loop as well? I feel like I can hear this awful noise even when the guitar is playing but it might just be my imagination...

Marcus I know you have a Hum X, in your experience do you think it will help or is it just doing the exact same thing as a ground lift just "safer"? That stuttering is going to be the end of me!

 

[::XeS::]

Same problem here with the RedEye...the ground lift helps a lot but a hum noise still remain.

 

[Wolfeman]

that stutering sounds digital... Gotta be caused by something in your mains. I don't think an isolation transformer will get rid of that. Might be your interface causing it?

 

[AdamWathan]

Just went down to test a few other variables and the stuttering is gone if the laptop isn't connected to the interface. Must be something to do with the interface connection to the laptop or the laptop itself, never had this problem with my Onyx and desktop PC rig :/ Blast.

 

[::XeS::]

I did'n listen the sample....it's not a hum noise but it's digital. It seems like when my profire loose the syncronization with the firewire (or something else) and when I raise or lower the master volume it does a noise like that.
Mine is a hum noise

 

[AdamWathan]

Figured it out, it's my goddamned Glyph 050Q external hard drive that is daisychained through the fucking firewire. As soon as I turn it on, craaazy stuttering. Turn it off and it's fine.

Don't know how I'm going to reamp guitars without having the external hard drive turned on, maybe if I connect it via USB when reamping since it's only recording one track at a time... Wish this fucking computer had an eSATA port!

 

[ahjteam]

record the reamps to the internal hd?

 

[AdamWathan]

record the reamps to the internal hd?

Yeah I could do that too, this forum has seriously spooked me when it comes to recording to the system drive though, especially with reamps where sometimes it's literally 2 hours of continuous recording

 

[Metaltastic]

Dude, it's still the result of a ground loop - before I got my Ebtech Hum-X, I would get a horrible ground loop noise with my laptop plugged in, but even with it unplugged the external HDD noise would come through; no longer an issue with the Hum-X, though if you don't use the same size plugs as us up in Canada, eh (I honestly don't know ), then the Hum Eliminator between interface and Redeye would do the trick, and you wouldn't have to use the ground lift button and potentially suck tone (and Michele, this applies to you to )

 

[joeymusicguy]

Figured it out, it's my goddamned Glyph 050Q external hard drive that is daisychained through the fucking firewire. As soon as I turn it on, craaazy stuttering. Turn it off and it's fine.

Don't know how I'm going to reamp guitars without having the external hard drive turned on, maybe if I connect it via USB when reamping since it's only recording one track at a time... Wish this fucking computer had an eSATA port!

and glyph drives are digidesign certified

hahaha

looks like the pt world isnt without bull shit, either.

 

[AdamWathan]

...though if you don't use the same size plugs as us up in Canada, eh (I honestly don't know )...

Dude Yes we use the same plugs lol

You really think it's a ground loop? If it was wouldn't the ground lift be eliminating that? It sounds like a digital noise that's being transmitted directly out of the interface and through the guitar cables into the amp... colynomial has a Hum X, he's gonna bring it by next week so I'll report back.

EDIT: Actually you must be right because like I said in the first post, if I plug the amp in using an extension cord to a plug on my main floor on the opposite side of the house the stuttering goes away :/ Hmm... Does it make more sense to put the Hum X on the amp or on the interface? Interface I imagine draws less current so it is probably safer?

 

[joeymusicguy]

Dude Yes we use the same plugs lol

You really think it's a ground loop? If it was wouldn't the ground lift be eliminating that? It sounds like a digital noise that's being transmitted directly out of the interface and through the guitar cables into the amp... colynomial has a Hum X, he's gonna bring it by next week so I'll report back.

the audio sample is definitely of digital nature

not electrical

 

[Metaltastic]

EDIT: Actually you must be right because like I said in the first post, if I plug the amp in using an extension cord to a plug on my main floor on the opposite side of the house the stuttering goes away :/ Hmm... Does it make more sense to put the Hum X on the amp or on the interface? Interface I imagine draws less current so it is probably safer?

Nah dude, I'm sure it's designed to handle plenty of current since it's designed for audio use, and they couldn't trust that people wouldn't inevitably use it on high-powered gear to make it weak - and more importantly, I've always used it on my amps without a problem!

And Joey, nah, I'm pretty certain it's the electrical noise of the hard drive spinning and operating, I had something very similar as I mentioned, and the Hum X got rid of it

 

[mick thompson]

sounds like either a ground loop or cable inductance - first things first try using a gold plated balanced cable. that done wonders for my peavey head in the fx loop and a cycle hum from the transformer

a ground loop isolator will suck your tone so dont even waste your money on one. i picked up one for my peavey's head and it was useless. dont bother trying to eq out the problem either "like a 50 or 60 cycle" because again your back to square one with the tone sucking. or else you'll have to dig out all your electrical connections throughout your house and lead them to the same ground if it is a ground loop problem.

so like i said try a balanced gold plated cable on your chain - it worked 100% perfectly on my peavey - only thing is i had to buy all balanced cables including patch cables. it was costly. in theory it shouldn't work but it did and i've suggested it to other members here and it worked for them too

 

[Metaltastic]

Dude, whether it's gold-plated or not has nothing to do with its potential at having a ground loop/hum Furthermore, the Hum X isn't a ground loop isolator, it goes between the plug of a piece of gear and a wall outlet; but still, most hum isolators these days are totally transparent, that's what you're paying for, and there's been a need for an effective one for long enough that they've probably developed to the point of transparency by now

And he's already using a balanced cable, the TRS-XLRm cable from his Profire, this is not that cutting edge a concept

 

[mick thompson]

yea see the problem i had metaltastic is before i tried the gold plated balanced cables (which i'll explain in a sec why i did) is that i was looking at hum eliminators but i couldn't find a cheap one that was 60hz but all i could find (2 years ago) was a 50hz which didn't work for me naturally because of our voltage difference (stupid yanks grr)

now: reason i picked up GOLD PLATED balanced cables is because it was more of a cable inductance problem i had then a ground loop (but i still believe to this day it was a bit of both) the gold plated shielded the cable inductance and the back of my peavey head right beside the transformer. the balanced cable being naturally more expensive was thicker, better wires etc causing less interference to penetrate through the cable and for some reason which i cannot explain and i've asked countless people and none of them know (including my old music teachers in college) the balanced cables second like seemed to send back the feedback or something and cancelled it out. i picked up a cheap balanced cable. it worked a bit, i picked up a planet waves gold plated and it done the job perfectly

like i said i dont know why it worked but it did and its worked for others here too!

dont eat me alive - i chewed my brain and countless others in music stores etc all over dublin for weeks - i was on the verge of sending my head back to peavey and telling them sort out the f'ing problem until balanced gold cables worked. so explain to me why it did work? i know i have a cycle hum problem in my new house because every single phone in this cursed house has a cycle hum when your speaking on it.

EDIT: its a bit of cable inductance too on my head because when i waved the fx loop cables behind the amp away from the transformer the hum disappeared - so in my case it turned into a double nightmare

again explain to me why a balanced cable worked for me then? because nobody yet has been able to tell me why (guitar teks, music shops, music teachers, engineering teachers & mates) - unless the pack of them are retarded

if you want a video i'll make one tomorrow and upload it to prove it

 

[Metaltastic]

I must admit, I am pretty curious!

 

[mick thompson]

right if i get a chance ill throw up a video tomorrow - its 3.50am here at the moment so i cant really fire up my peavey now or my parents will castrate me

 

[Wolfeman]

I think the best bet is to try to eliminate the problem to begin with, instead of trying to isolate it using a transformer(as all ground loop isolators do). It's obviously the drive causing the issue, have you checked any kind of forums to see if other Glyph users had this problem? Some of the old Firepods had an issue with tons of people getting a digital sounding ground loop. Ended up being caused by an SPDIF jack grounding out on the case. Just by breaking the connection to the case caused everything to be fine.

Maybe it's something as simple as that. I'd look into it before spending money.

Edit- Well I just read some more of your posts, and since you say that plugging things into different outlets makes it go away, I think the problem is elsewhere. Try the Ebtech

 

[::XeS::]

How do you connect your drive? macbook -> fw400 -> profire -> fw400 -> glyph?
It's very weird the drive does this....it happens to me sometimes but if I re-start the drive and the interface I usually solve the problem (sync problem). I also have ground loop problem connecting the external monitor, but it's only a monitors noise so it doesn't go in the recorded tracks.