So, I'm jumping the gun a little bit because I'm posting this from my work computer and the sound clips are on my home computer, but I wanted to start getting peoples' input.
Plugging in to my computer to record, I often get a very high-pitched buzzing sound with a lot of crackles. At high gain, doing things on my computer such as moving the mouse, clicking on things, etc, generates more of this noise.
Here are some factors that could be influencing things, in no particular order:
1. My computer is about twelve years old and was set up for gaming, so it has lots of those goofy LED fans in it. Cleanliness of power was not a consideration when I built it.
2. I live in an apartment in a large, old complex, and I am not plugging in to any sort of power conditioner.
3. My pedals are all powered by isolated inputs, however, running them off of battery power does not change anything and the noise is present whether I plug in to my pedalboard or direct into my interface.
4. The noise occurs whether the bass is a beautifully shielded/grounded custom instrument or a cheap old one with no shielding at all, though in the latter case the noise is slightly louder.
5. My interface, an Audient id-4 mkii, is powered by USB-C plugged into the computer, there is no way to power it any other way. The USB-C cable is not shielded in any way.
6. The noise is present whether I am using speakers or headphones, and in fact when I had a Scarlett 2i2 as an interface the noise was present whether I was recording or not - even just playing games or watching videos, it was present in the background.
7. As expected, the noise is louder when using effects such as distortion, louder still when plugging into an amp and then running direct out of the amp, and louder still when using VSTs, in particular very distorted offerings from Neural DSP.
8. A noise gate pedal solves the issue when I am not playing, but as soon as I start playing it is apparent, especially when the notes decay/ring out.
So, given the above information - if you were me, where would you start with trying to clean up your signal?
Sound clips when I get home.
Thanks!
Plugging in to my computer to record, I often get a very high-pitched buzzing sound with a lot of crackles. At high gain, doing things on my computer such as moving the mouse, clicking on things, etc, generates more of this noise.
Here are some factors that could be influencing things, in no particular order:
1. My computer is about twelve years old and was set up for gaming, so it has lots of those goofy LED fans in it. Cleanliness of power was not a consideration when I built it.
2. I live in an apartment in a large, old complex, and I am not plugging in to any sort of power conditioner.
3. My pedals are all powered by isolated inputs, however, running them off of battery power does not change anything and the noise is present whether I plug in to my pedalboard or direct into my interface.
4. The noise occurs whether the bass is a beautifully shielded/grounded custom instrument or a cheap old one with no shielding at all, though in the latter case the noise is slightly louder.
5. My interface, an Audient id-4 mkii, is powered by USB-C plugged into the computer, there is no way to power it any other way. The USB-C cable is not shielded in any way.
6. The noise is present whether I am using speakers or headphones, and in fact when I had a Scarlett 2i2 as an interface the noise was present whether I was recording or not - even just playing games or watching videos, it was present in the background.
7. As expected, the noise is louder when using effects such as distortion, louder still when plugging into an amp and then running direct out of the amp, and louder still when using VSTs, in particular very distorted offerings from Neural DSP.
8. A noise gate pedal solves the issue when I am not playing, but as soon as I start playing it is apparent, especially when the notes decay/ring out.
So, given the above information - if you were me, where would you start with trying to clean up your signal?
Sound clips when I get home.
Thanks!
