Power and noise

[iodine74]

How much does power supply affect noise in your chain, and what are the best remedies, particularly with wal-warts?

Was experimenting this AM with my chain, which currently goes bunch of dirt/ods/ -> UD Stomp -> Vox DelayLab -> Jam Man Stereo.   I've had suspicions about the UD and noise before, and a little with the delay lab.  I pulled both out of chain and there was pretty significant white noise difference.  Then I pulled out my LS-2 and put the UD in the loop and experimented.  Indeed a higher noise floor with it in the chain.  I guess it'd be considered hiss?  Sounded like a faint version of the white-noise they pump in at work to me.   Did the same with the DelayLab... same result.  

Is it a delay thing?  Is it because they use wall wart supplies (guess i should try batteries on the DelayLab).

If I had the wall warts going into some type of power condition would that help?  Recommendations?

The other pedals are using a one spot just plugged into a typical 6-outlet power strip.   Both wal-warts are in that strip as well.  Amp is on a different outlet.

[lefort_1]

You'd think that separate wall warts would be great for noise isolation, but it doesn't always work that way.Some are pretty cruddy at power regulation. To answer your first question: "a lot".

Anyway, There will be a certain noise floor created by any series of boosts/overdrives. Expect it...it goes with amplification and gain.

A quick thing to correct is to get all your electronic devices working on one circuit (ie on one circuitbreaker). You can introduce nasty noise problems when multiple circuits are present (debugged this in my BIL's practice space.)

The first thing  to test: the bigger, tail-end pedals without any of the OD's plugged in (including their power supply). The UD and the Delay lab should be fairly quiet.

Next, add back you ODs, one at a time.

 

Oh lawd...a one-spot...daisy-chained I guess...Make sure none of the digital pedals are on that daisy chain. IMO, digital pedals do not belong on daisy chains for power....you're just asking for trouble from those noisemakers.

 

[Player99]

Why is it that when I stack a couple of pedals the white noise is exponentially increased? I have a Barber Tone Pump (OD) and it has a small amount of white noise, and a Klon Klone that is set with the drive at zero (minor clean boost) and the two together are very SHHHSHHHSHHHSHY...

 

 

[iodine74]

lefort_1...  yeah I did what you described as part of my experimenting.  Let me make an important point here... I'm talking about noise without any of the dirt even being on, ie with all those 'normal' pedals bypassed, just having he UD and/or the Delay lab in the chain caused some extra hiss.

Guitar->Dirts/ODs & a some more (i'll list below) -> AC15 -- very tolerable

Guitar ->LS-2->(loop)UD Stomp(loop)->AC15 -- hiss/white noise with loop engaged

Guitar ->LS-2->(loop)Delay Lab(loop)->AC15 -- hiss/white noise with loop engaged

Guitar ->Dirtboard->LS-2->(loop)UD Stomp(loop)->AC15 -- hiss/white noise with loop engaged

Guitar ->LS-2->(loop)Dirtboard(loop)->AC15 -- Did this just to see how much having that dirthboard (or even parts of it in the chain affected noise floor) I could detect a teeny bit of noise with the board in the loop, but it was generally fine.

I have considered two other variables here 1) the fact that the LS-2 is active - could be noise there and 2) some of my cables could be introducing some of the noise.  Again though with that 'dirtboard' everything is still tolerable.

Now about that, "dirtboard".

Akai Intelliphase->ToneFactor Pulp Mill->ToneFactor Deluxe Cream Pie->Rat 2->Ibanez Swell Flanger->TF FuzzSaw->TF Huckleberry 2->DLS->SFT->DD30->TF Sugar Baby Trem->Ibanez Digital Delay->Eterna