A lot of "how to" questions...

[Kramerguy]

Hi folks,

 

Usually I'm in the political forums calling people names (har har) but I've recently bought a bunch of new equipment and am having major issues with use and settings.

 

15 years ago, I had a basic 4-track cassette recorder, a guitar (kramer!), a quadraverb, a wah-wah pedal, a $5 bass guitar, and the original dr. rythym drum machine. That was it. For what it was worth I was able to get a pretty clean recording sound (note: had to plug direct because I was in an apartment and neighbors would call police if we farted too loud).

 

I took a backseat for years and gave up most of that equipment. What I bought the other day (mindful- limited budget): The Dr Rythym dr-3, tascam 8 track digital recorder (HDD), fender jazz bass guitar, epiphone dot guitar, yamaha e303 keyboard, and I still have a quadraverb (lol), and a digitech multi effects pedal.

 

My problem starts with being in an apartment and having a young child- I cannot plug thru an amp and mic it for recording, so I direct connect thru the effects and into the recorder.

 

heres the list of issues:

1. I get horrendus buzzing when playing any of the guitars, even if I plug direct w/o any effects. Is this electrical interference?? Will the monster powerstrip with the power filtering resolve the issue?

 

2. Before, I was able to plug direct and get a nice sound, but cannot remember exact configurations. Now, outside of clean guitar, any distortion added just makes the sound choppy and messy. I can't find a way to get "clean distortion" and adding any distortion adds greatly to problem #1.

 

Is there any way to plug direct into a mixer/recorder and sound at least close to the same quality as "live" from an amp, even a cheap one??

 

3. The dr. rythym machine has tons of presets with bass lines included. Some presets allow you to remove the bass and others don't. The bass lines suck and the learning curve is way too steep, not very user friendly. Does anyone know of a good website that explains how to use it in simple terms?

 

Thanks for any help!

[The Byre]

1. Don't use stereo cable for guitar as the shield is tapped off where the return current toung in the jack socket would normally be. It is done that way because effect pedals use a short circuit between the shield toung and the return toung to switch on and off. Either that, or the shield is broken or detached on one of your cables or in the guitar.

 

BTW, it is most unlikely that a Monster anything will solve this. There is a fault and it needs to be corrected.

 

2. Get the Pod. It is the only amp simulator that really sounds very close to the real thing. You can get older models on eBay. New they cost about $250-300. The latest model has a wah pedal that is really, really good.

 

3. Sorry, no idea!

[Billster]

I don't know about #3, but the first two are most likely a grounding issue with your electricity, and after that, an issue with impedance matching when you plug your guitar into the recorder.

[blackpig]

The buzz is more than likely a bad lead or bad shielding in the guitar. It could be just a bad solder joint. Have you tried plugging the guitar into an amp?

[gatorwing]

If you buy a Monster noise filter at Circuit City and it doesn't help, it should be a very easy return. So it doesn't hurt to try it.

[motord]

What do the meters look like when you play the guitar through the Tascam?

 

You might just be frying the input, which is sure to sound like {censored}e.

 

Where are your trims set? Try bringing them down, if you haven't already.

[Kramerguy]

I tried several different cables and 3 different guitars, and it's the same on all of them. I'm convinced that it's a electrical issue (bought all new cables recently). There's always been buzzing, even thru the amp, although with the amp, it's not nearly as annoying, probably because I'm not actually trying to record clean.

 

I will check out the pod, thanks for that idea.

 

The trims are set properly. I've tried going down a bit and jacking up the master or headphones volume, but in the end, it still comes out the same.

 

I might try the monster just because I sell tv's and see a majordifference in the picture quality when the interference is filtered out of the power, so I would guess sound is also affected the same way.

 

Also notable is the buzzing can get better or worse depending on what direction I'm facing. I've had that problem before but always found a 'quiet corner' to move to to resolve it. Now, I don't have much chioce as to where my equip. is set up.

 

Thanks for the ideas, keep em coming if you guys come up with anything else, please

[gatorwing]

If you do use a monster product, I suggest using one that has the Stage 2 filter rather than just Stage 1.

[Kramerguy]

My limited resources may already be compromised into using the only one I can afford, if I can even afford it

[The Byre]

 

Originally posted by Diatribe Also notable is the buzzing can get better or worse depending on what direction I'm facing. I've had that problem before but always found a 'quiet corner' to move to to resolve it. Now, I don't have much chioce as to where my equip. is set up.

 

 

That's the remark that makes me go Aha!

 

It's a sharp, 'edgy' buzzing, isn't it? Thought so! Not like the low sound of mains hum at 60Hz - well, that sounds to me like the sound of an unchoked thyristor or something very similar.

 

A power conditioner may help a very small amount, but if you are able to alter the amount by turning your body, then it is radio interference - that is to say, the guitar is acting as a radio aerial and you are really going to have to deal with this one at source.

 

It could be something like a faulty mains connection somewhere, but my money would be on a lighting dimmer. Ask your neighbours if they use lighting dimmers, or perhaps you use one. The really cheap ones are not choked (a capacitor that filters off the spike in the mains that these things create) and some even do not switch off properly, so even when they seem to be off, they are still using some electricity and are sending that spike out as a radio signal.

 

If you have a portable radio with Long Wave receiver, see if you can pick up the interference on that thing as well on one of the unused LW bands. Then you can go hunting for the source.

 

But check the grounding of the guitar first by running a wire from all the metal parts of the guitar to something that is definitely 100% earthed such as a structural metal support in the building.

[The Byre]

P.S. I forgot to mention, it may also be strip (neon) lighting that is faulty.

 

Good luck BTW!

[MikeRivers]

 

Originally posted by Diatribe Also notable is the buzzing can get better or worse depending on what direction I'm facing. I've had that problem before but always found a 'quiet corner' to move to to resolve it.

This suggests a problem with your guitars, and it's not an unusual problem. Electomagnetic radiation is everywhere these days. It wasn't a problem when the biggest offender was the motor in your tape deck or power transformer in your mixer, but today we have computers, monitors, switching power suppllies, cell phones, cordless phones - all of that can cause a buzz like what you're hearing.

 

The real solution is to rewire your guitars and whatever you're plugging them into so that you have a balanced line between the guitar and the high gain input, and in fact some people have done that. Frankly, I don't know why all guitars aren't built that way today, other than tradition. It would be easy enough to build pickups with the two coil leads brought out to a TRS ("balanced") jack through a shielded cable, with the shield (only) tied to the pickup shield, strings, and other metal parts.

 

If you used a normal (unbalanced) cable to connect the guitar to a normal amplifier, you'd have the signal between the tip and sleeve where you expect it. Or if you had a balanced input, using a TRS cable would allow the shield to be separate and take advantage of common mode rejection of the input stage. Still, it would only solve the problem with noise pickup between the guitar and amplifier. A magnetic pickup, by nature, is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. Play too close to a wall wart and the pickup will pick up hum as well as the strings.

 

It's just the way things are. You have to find the EMI sources and figure out how to locate things so as to minimize the problem. Start by turning off your cell phone when you're recording.

 

Incidentally, there was a Les Paul model that had a low impedance balanced pickup and an XLR connector. It wasn't very popular because dealers didn't know how to hook it up to the amplifiers they had in stock.

[D Charles]

Every time I've had that problem it was flourscent lights or a dimmer, but that was ages ago. When I built my recording room I added two dedicated circuits for just that room. This really solved a lot of problems. You've probably got something on the same circuit you've got your audio stuff plugged into that's interfering. Plug all your stuff into a strip and get an extension cord and try different plugs around your place. Might sort you out.

[Kramerguy]

Thanks again for the replies!

 

I think it's definately a radio wave/interference issue, to which I've partially resolved by reconnecting my effects into the send/return, and partially by turning off all flourescent lights and shutting off my cellphone. The buzzing is still there, but less noticable and the noise gate filters out the rest well enough.

 

Next I will try to filter the power and rewire the guitars (I know stock wiring is {censored}.. just a PITA to rewire with my limited brain functionality)

[The Byre]

Yesterday the engineer working here came to me and said that there was a funny noise when he used both M149 mics. One on its own was fine, but two and they both make a buzzing noise.

 

It was not the mics because these are tube mics and they have a power supply and the buzzing happened without the mics being plugged in.

 

We tried a power conditioner and that helped by a very small amount.

 

I took the mics upstairs to the workshop and tested them and discovered that the PSUs were not earthed to the mic shield cable. There was infact a 0.01V difference in potential between earth and the shield. I connected the two and connected the PSUs together to make absolutely shure that this problem not only goes away, but stays away - and all was well.

 

But I had to smile and think of this thread that had just come up a day or two before!

 

Anyway, it was a good to be reminded of the importance of earthing everything that is metal for getting a good and quiet (i.e. no hums, buzzes and clicks) recording.

 

So get the multimeter out and check that the DC and AC voltages between the metal parts of the guitar and the chssis of the amps and all the shields on the various cables are 0V and not 0.01V or anything like that!