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Help please: what is this annoying sound?

Alex J

Alex J

Jul 5, 2011
615
677
UK
www.instagram.com
#1
So I sat down to record some tracks and immediately was hit with this super irritating sound that I've never noticed before and I can't for the life of me work out what it is.

- It's constant, like a helicopter or an idling engine (mp3 attached), and is the same whether I am touching metal components or not. It never varies in pitch or intensity.
- It is directional in that some angles lessen or increase it, but it occurs whether I plug into my Focusrite Scarlett into my laptop or into a Zoom H4N on batteries elsewhere in the house.
- I tried through my amp and it was very audible out the speakers.
- I have tried several different cables and turned various devices in my studio on or off.
- Holding the cable in certain positions can make it worse.

At first I thought it was a problem with the preamp in my active jazz bass, but I can detect the exact same sound at the same frequency when I use my Stingray so unless they have both gone wrong in the same way at the same time it must be something external, right? I can't hear it when I switch my jazz to passive mode.
 

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#2
in this very brief sample i'm hearing regular hiss / noise that occurs in just about any home recording situation. no helicopter idling that i can detect.

that you say the angle the bass is pointed at affects it and that you hear it through your amp says to me that it's either due to poorly shielded basses, "unclean" power in your house (very common), or some combo of the 2.

how loud is this interference compared to your actual bass signal? because it may be something that will never be audible in a mix.
 
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#3
If you turn the volume up sufficently you should be able to hear the repeating sound under the hiss. I can hear it on cans and out my monitors.

I think you're right about unclean something, but it happened in a portable headphone amp too so something is kicking out something nasty. Just can't work out what.

Although it's not audible when I bass is mixed into a track, I'm concerned because I'm recording tracks for someone's (very well produced) album and I don't want the isolated bass I send over to be full of artefacts and weirdness.
 
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#5
Alex J said:
So I sat down to record some tracks and immediately was hit with this super irritating sound that I've never noticed before and I can't for the life of me work out what it is.

- It's constant, like a helicopter or an idling engine (mp3 attached), and is the same whether I am touching metal components or not. It never varies in pitch or intensity.
- It is directional in that some angles lessen or increase it, but it occurs whether I plug into my Focusrite Scarlett into my laptop or into a Zoom H4N on batteries elsewhere in the house.
- I tried through my amp and it was very audible out the speakers.
- I have tried several different cables and turned various devices in my studio on or off.
- Holding the cable in certain positions can make it worse.

At first I thought it was a problem with the preamp in my active jazz bass, but I can detect the exact same sound at the same frequency when I use my Stingray so unless they have both gone wrong in the same way at the same time it must be something external, right? I can't hear it when I switch my jazz to passive mode.
Click to expand...
Its your settings. Most likely a ram drop. Close all other processes on your computer when recording, and re-set up your latency. But, you shouldn't hear it when you mix it down. My computer does this sometimes. People ask me the same question.
 
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#6
JeezyMcNuggles said:
Its your settings. Most likely a ram drop. Close all other processes on your computer when recording, and re-set up your latency. But, you shouldn't hear it when you mix it down. My computer does this sometimes. People ask me the same question.
Click to expand...

But it does it when I'm not even plugged into the computer, in a different room, on a headphone amp powered by batteries?

Here's a longer clip.
 

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#9
Tough one to figure out... sounds like RF interference
I'd try a few things:

1) different cable
2) new battery in the bass
3) look for some other cause - fridge or ac compressors, mobile phones in proximity, etc.
4) try a different electrical circuit in your house
5) are you near a cellphone tower
6) see if it happens in a differnt location

There are a lot of things it could be.
 
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#10
upload_2020-8-7_12-39-43.jpeg
'Cause the man from Mars stopped eatin' cars and eatin' bars
And now he only eats guitars...
 
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#13
I remember having exactly same sound with my Focusrite Solo. I think is was some kind of interference from other laptop component, like wifi or bluetooth. First remove every external device that is not critical, like mouse, printer, etc. If that doesn't help, open Device manager and turn off one device after another, starting with USB interface.
Also, if you're using laptop, run it on battery.
One more thing, do you hear same helicopter noise when nothing is plugged in Focusrite? If so, could be the bass is unshielded. In that case, noise could vary when you face it toward screen and away.
 
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#16
RattleSnack said:
I remember having exactly same sound with my Focusrite Solo. I think is was some kind of interference from other laptop component, like wifi or bluetooth. First remove every external device that is not critical, like mouse, printer, etc. If that doesn't help, open Device manager and turn off one device after another, starting with USB interface.
Also, if you're using laptop, run it on battery.
One more thing, do you hear same helicopter noise when nothing is plugged in Focusrite? If so, could be the bass is unshielded. In that case, noise could vary when you face it toward screen and away.
Click to expand...

Tried all that but no change, alas. It only happens when active basses are plugged in, as far as I can tell, but both are much higher output than my passives.

My Focusrite is a generation 1 and about 8 years old, so if nothing else, it's a good excuse to get something new!
 
#20
Since you said that you get the noise when using a portable headphone amp, that pretty much rules out everything except RFI or EMI. The good news is that you can take advantage of your portable headphone amp to wander around your house/apartment to see how and where the noise changes, which might help you identify the source if it's in there somewhere. Then take the bass out into the back yard or parking lot, etc. to see if you still get the noise, which would help determine if the source is actually in your house/apartment. If you're lucky it could be as simple as a dimmer switch, television, or other electrical equipment.
 
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