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What is this ticking noise generated by pedal?

tonemachine

tonemachine

Inactive
Mar 23, 2010
862
624
Chicagoland
#1
I have periodically noticed a ticking noise heard through my speakers (on any amp/cab I use). The ticking is relatively fast, probably 120 bpm or more. It's not a significant factor when playing but when not playing it is quite audible. It ticks both when the pedal is off or on. I finally got around to investigating yesterday.

When I troubleshooted my effects chain, I found that it was coming from my mxr octave deluxe which is powered by my Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 plus. I have only 3 pedals and had them all plugged into consecutive, adjacent outlets on the Pedal Power. I tested each pedal individually, and even switched their power cords among each pedal, to find that it was the Octave Deluxe. I unplugged the power to see if it would happen with battery power and it did, indeed, still tick on battery power. I then plugged it back in to the Pedal Power but, rather than plugging into an outlet adjacent to the other pedals' power cords, I tried using further away outlets and the ticking went away. I think I then plugged it back in the original outlet and the ticking was still gone so that confused me (I'm not with my board now and I did this yesterday so I don't recall for sure)- because of that, I couldn't help but wonder if my inadvertently touching the circuit board when I was removing battery in did something to relieve some static build-up? I'm pretty much electrically illiterate so I have no idea if that's even a possibility but I am sure that this ticking has come and gone before (not sure if it's always this pedal) so something is changing. It has happened in multiple wall outlets at home and at gigs.

Thanks in advance for your input.
 
#3
When it was ticking, was it constant? Or just a few (tick, tick, tick, tick, tick) and then stop for a little while?

My old Blackberry used to do that through my rig.
I never sat down and isolated if it was happening through a specific pedal because it didn't really matter for me, but it was annoying when it did happen.
 
#4
Dave W said:
When it was ticking, was it constant? Or just a few (tick, tick, tick, tick, tick) and then stop for a little while?

My old Blackberry used to do that through my rig.
I never sat down and isolated if it was happening through a specific pedal because it didn't really matter for me, but it was annoying when it did happen.
Click to expand...
Man you had me :confused: until I did a search to find out there was a Blackberry company that makes pedal, I was like what :thumbsdown: a smart phone that outsmarts an amp no :rollno: that's not possible...
 
#6
rratajski said:
Have you contacted customer service at MXR/Dunlop yet?
Click to expand...
No. I assume
Dave W said:
When it was ticking, was it constant? Or just a few (tick, tick, tick, tick, tick) and then stop for a little while?

My old Blackberry used to do that through my rig.
I never sat down and isolated if it was happening through a specific pedal because it didn't really matter for me, but it was annoying when it did happen.
Click to expand...

When it happens, it's a constant, metrononic tick. I did think it was my cell phone or laptop but yesterday neither were nearby and, again, it stopped after some wire moving.
 
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#8
This has occurred at times with my MS-60B in the pedal chain. It appears to be coming from the processor clock getting coupled into the signal stream. A couple things that helped:
1. Ensure the pedal is on an isolated power supply output; no daisy chain. This seems to remove the power supply coupling.
2. I have had to change pedal order or change cables between pedals; some cables seem more susceptible to pickup up this clock than others.
3. Be careful with the gains through your chain - put higher gain devices after your digital pedals if possible. Higher gain in the chain can make the problem appear worse.
 
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#12
slyjoe said:
This has occurred at times with my MS-60B in the pedal chain. It appears to be coming from the processor clock getting coupled into the signal stream. A couple things that helped:
1. Ensure the pedal is on an isolated power supply output; no daisy chain. This seems to remove the power supply coupling.
2. I have had to change pedal order or change cables between pedals; some cables seem more susceptible to pickup up this clock than others.
3. Be careful with the gains through your chain - put higher gain devices after your digital pedals if possible. Higher gain in the chain can make the problem appear worse.
Click to expand...

It seems(ed) related to power supply and some sort of clocking device to me, too, but that doesn't explain why it continued when I removed from the Pedal Power and used a battery. Unless the power supply (or other pedals can trigger something (like an internal clocking device) that remains until something else untriggers that something (like my touching the circuit board which coincidentally happened when removing my test battery before reconnecting to Pedal Power and having the ticking be disappeared!).

Thanks for the input everyone. I hope an engineer sees this and can give all of us a definite answer for this anomoly.

To answer someone else, too- My only other pedals on board were the TU3 Tuner and mxr envelope filter. However, the Octaver continued producing the ticking when totally removed from the effects and power chain.
 
#14
slyjoe said:
This has occurred at times with my MS-60B in the pedal chain. It appears to be coming from the processor clock getting coupled into the signal stream. A couple things that helped:
1. Ensure the pedal is on an isolated power supply output; no daisy chain. This seems to remove the power supply coupling.
2. I have had to change pedal order or change cables between pedals; some cables seem more susceptible to pickup up this clock than others.
3. Be careful with the gains through your chain - put higher gain devices after your digital pedals if possible. Higher gain in the chain can make the problem appear worse.
Click to expand...
I just looked up the specs on Pedal Power 2+ and each power output is supposed to be isolated and "prevent ground loops." I'll contact Voodoo labs and MXR tomorrow and post their input.
 
#16
I (and a few others) had this exact problem with a U-Boat octave circuit board. I tried changing just about everything on the circuit with no success. Suffice to say, the layout was not optimal and caused the D flip flop chip to inject the switching noise into the ground path. The designer made a different layout, and the problem was solved. You probably need the pedal replaced.

If you have a madbeanpedals forum account, the problem report can be viewed here.
 

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