Just moved in my own place! And got a nice hum noise on all my recordings now...

Howdy folks!

This is a new step in my life... yes! I finally moved in my own place and left my Mom's nest. Yuppy. Finally I can 'nearly' plug my basses when I feel the desire (just avoiding to play loud at night hours) and then, that's great, huh? But there's a big issue...

So to make it clear, first of all: I kept all of the same tools that I have : a Mac computer, a Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 USB digital interface, and the 3 same basses that I own. My computer is plugged in the same power strip (lightning protected).

On the 3 basses that I have, 2 have got an humbucker pickup. The first bass has a JH (Jazz Humbucker) pickup configuration, the other is a single H pickup, with each coil having its own volume knob control.

Of course, what does a humbucker do when fully opened? ... Yes, the hum is gone! For example ; if I play my JH bass with the pickup balancer all the way to the J pickup, the hum is present. If I set the balancer in the middle, it starts to get quieter, but still not away because I think that the two pickups are in parallel (I'm joining the datasheet so you could tell if I'm right or if it's operating in series mode). And then, if I set the balancer all the way for the H pickup, that hum goes out. Bye !

On the other example with my single H pickup, if I only open one volume knob to its maximum, the hum is present, but the two coils get their volume knobs fully opened, the hum is gone. My third bass is out of the story and can't away the hum because it's a PJ bass (Precision Jazz) and nothing will make the hum disappear.

I recorded the signal when I'm not playing anything and when the strings are completely quiet (at least not hearing anything with the volume set at 2/3 on the DI), using Audacity, and used the frequency analysis tool provided. The hum seems to have a fundamental frequency of 300 Hz with a infinity of harmonics going up to 40 kHz! (yes 40k...)

What do you guys think it could be causing the hum? It's rather sad when you go from a place where all your recordings are perfectly great and not facing any bad noises, and then you go your own place and your ears get teared down by a fricking hum... I swear that in some cases, it's very harsh to the ear and not pleasant at all.

Of course I tried using noise reduction on Audacity as well... but it removes a tone of harmonics in the timbre of my basses, and it nearly makes them sound like robots, or it least a lot less natural, if heard on good headphones.

That, and sometimes a ultrasounding hum goes in, but it's clearly intermitant and it could be when the fridge goes on cooling mode or so... can't really tell. As well it's very sad.

Thanks for any idea to a solution.

Musically speaking,
Bapt.

 

I thought it would be a good idea to upload a recording of the noise if you want to check it. BUT PLEASE SET YOUR HEADPHONES VOLUME DOWN BEFORE PLAYING ANYTHING !!!

Here's the link to the .ogg file: TinyUpload.com - best file hosting solution, with no limits, totaly free

 

Thanks for the answer. Yes I heard that in flats, it's the worst, with all the near neighbours, the elevators causing giant electromagnetics fields... etc.

I live in like a small house, and there are other houses all around us, same size, same shape... if you know what I mean.

It's so sad It almost makes me wanna quit playing here

 

Got some bad update. I plugged my digital interface into a battery. So no link with the home electricity. Hum is still there... So I guess there's nothing I can do to avoid it. Right?

 

I think this is a RF interference rather than something in the electrical circuit now.

I don't have my tube amplifier at the moment only my DI, its preamp and a good pair of headphones. Nothing was broken because I can assure you that I took a LOT of lovely care with my basses. <3

Althought, I just plugged one of the 3 basses, my active one, with the J pickup (non-humbucker functionning) in the LINE-IN jack of the iMac itself... First of all I'm surprised by the latence being inferior to the one I get with the DI... and the sound quality being equal... To the point where... The 300 Hz is still there.

I'm monitoring either hardware mode with the button on the DI usualy. But when I record, I use software monitoring using Ableton Lite or Audacity and the 3 different way of doing it gave me that anoying hum...

Of course, as soon as I stop monitoring, the hum is gone, even with the volume to the maximum on the DI or with the headphones output of the computer. So, I don't get any noise while playing tunes or anything else.

Should I try another jack then? Because it doesn't seem to be computer related because if I plug my instrument using my DI and a portable battery, with no link to my home's electricity circuit, hum still happens.

 

By the way... now that I tried pluggin my basses into the LINE IN jack on the computer itself, without using the Native Komplete Audio DI... even a passive one, apart having a more powerful headphones output, I don't feel like it gives a better sound than the the integrated preamp in the computer!! That's insane... The latency is better!

But hey hey, that's another story. I wanna get rid of that hum.
Should I stop using J pickups? :s

 

Yes, grabbed my amplifier and runned my basses through it... same 300 Hz hum with single J pickups. Tried another jack (both are high quality ones): same.

No, but I will do it now. Yes, it's en EMI to me too, now... sadly. I hate these... can't believe how perfect my Mom's place was. Literraly pure sound with any pickup and my all 3 basses. Even a low cost one.

Yes, but I only have single J pickups. The 2 of my 3 basses that have a J pickup, it's only 1, the others are a P pickup (hum-cancelling) and a... humbucker. When having the two pickups activated (PJ or JH) it makes the hum less loud, but still present. If I disengage the J pickup on both basses, it's gone. The 3rd bass has onle one H pickup with both coil having a volume control, if I set one volume less or more than the other one, the hum appears.