Animae Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I've got some sort of problem with my electric guitar. Whenever I plug it into my line/mic/Hi-Z port and arm it to record, I get about -30dB of noise without playing a thing. That is after I have adjusted the input to almost match peak levels. In Reaper it looks like this: Anyone have any idea what the problem might be? EDIT: My soundcard is an E-mu 0404 USB 2.0 if anyone needed that info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theshaggyfreak Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Questions... 1. Are you plugging your guitar straight into your interface? IE, there are no effects in between the guitar and your computer. 2. What kind of guitar is it? 3. Is your guitar close to anything like a CRT monitor or TV? Anything like that will cause a lot of interference. 4. Have you tried another cable? The one your using could have a short. If you're adjusting your input gain to max levels, you are going to get some ground floor noise. That's pretty normal. I typically record guitar with it maxing out at around -12dB to -10dB. It's good to leave yourself some head room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skummel Maske Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Sounds like there's some kind of interference. Try what the above poster said Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animae Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Questions...1. Are you plugging your guitar straight into your interface? IE, there are no effects in between the guitar and your computer. 2. What kind of guitar is it? 3. Is your guitar close to anything like a CRT monitor or TV? Anything like that will cause a lot of interference. 4. Have you tried another cable? The one your using could have a short. If you're adjusting your input gain to max levels, you are going to get some ground floor noise. That's pretty normal. I typically record guitar with it maxing out at around -12dB to -10dB. It's good to leave yourself some head room. 1. Yes. Straight into the interface. No effects at all. 2. It's a Yamaha AES420 bought about 5-6 years ago. 3. Well, not any CRT monitors, but two LCD monitors are pretty close. That's kinda unavoidable since I live in a 10m2 room atm. 4. I've tried two other cables. Even if the guitar is maxing out at those levels, I still get some significant signal. It's much more noticeable if I use some sort of VST amp or effect. If you think it would help you, I could probably record something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theshaggyfreak Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 LCD monitors shouldn't cause too much interference. It's really the giant tube that's in a CRT that causes a lot of electromagnetic interference. From what I see, that guitar looks to have humbuckers. It shouldn't be all that noisy unless there's faulty wiring or a bad pickup. Can you post a recording of the guitar clean without any plugins? I'm curious to see how much noise we're talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animae Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Hm... After fooling around some more(while recording a sample) it seems to be connected to the guitars volume knob. If I turn it all the way up, I get a much lower signal level (-54dB), but if it's not turned all the way up, I get about -30dB. Could it be some grounding error in the volume knob? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theshaggyfreak Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Hm... After fooling around some more(while recording a sample) it seems to be connected to the guitars volume knob. If I turn it all the way up, I get a much lower signal level (-54dB), but if it's not turned all the way up, I get about -30dB. Could it be some grounding error in the volume knob? It's possible there could be some bad wiring in the cavity of the guitar...or a short. It's not uncommon to get some floor noise but you shouldn't be getting that much. Unfortunately, I'd have to have the guitar in front of me to really know if something is amiss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animae Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 How much would it be natural to get? I managed to get the level down to an almost inaudible level while clean. But there is still some noise. I don't know how much noise is natural when using a vst-amp with gain though, since I've mostly played clean guitar until now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theshaggyfreak Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 How much would it be natural to get? I managed to get the level down to an almost inaudible level while clean. But there is still some noise. I don't know how much noise is natural when using a vst-amp with gain though, since I've mostly played clean guitar until now. Using a VST amp simulator can give any amount of noise depend on the amp it's simulating and what it's gain is set at. You can always use a gate to lessen the amount of noise. I tend to send that sort of thing up in Pod Farm all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animae Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Ok. Thank you for helping me man. I believe we found the cause of the noise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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