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i9300 + Audigy ZS + Mixer = TONS of line noise! Help!

post #1 of 7
4/15/05 at 2:37am
Thread Starter 
Hi all,

I'm relatively new to recording that is more advanced than, oh say, recording on a minidisc, so please bear with me.

I just got a Dell Inspiron 9300, and with it I got the Creative Audigy ZS PCMCIA card. I'm really digging the optical in/out with my stereo receiver set up. But here's the deal, I'm a musician, and I need to make recordings of recitals/lessons/concerts/demos fairly often, so I bought these items to record with:

http://www.behringer.com/B-2PRO/index.cfm?lang=ENG

http://www.behringer.com/UB1204FX/index.cfm?lang=ENG

I have a dual-1/4" male to dual-RCA cable running from the mixer to a RCA-to-1/8" stereo adapter, which is connected to the analog-in on the Audigy PCMCIA card.

I was using Sound Forge, and experienced a tremendous squeal and popping static on every recording I made. I found that when I plugged my headphones into the mixer's output, the sound was crystal clear, but when I plugged into the laptop's output, there was the noise. The noise was worse with the mic jack than with the line-in, so I was using line-in, and muted every other output. Still, I got the unwanted noise in the worst way.

I'm almost to the point of returning this stuff. I can't tell if the problem is software or hardware-related. This is a pretty good sound card, I don't see why it would do this poorly a job with recording. I am able to pass my MP3 player playback through the 9300 and into my receiver with no problem, so why's it giving me a hard time with the recording? What am I not doing properly?

Any ideas?

My tremendous thanks,

Odie
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post #2 of 7
4/15/05 at 10:18am
Try it on battery. If the noise goes away, then you have a floating ground or a ground loop problem. If that is the case the simplest and safest option is one of these (or similar) Audio Ground Isolator .
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post #3 of 7
4/15/05 at 9:02pm
Thread Starter 
Wow, I'm amazed. You're correct. The sound completely disappeared when I disconnected the AC power.

So, besides buying that thing from Crapshack (I try to avoid them if I can), what are my options as far as solving the problem?
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post #4 of 7
4/15/05 at 10:30pm
Group feedback loops are an inherent problem with many notebooks due to poor shileding with the battery supply. I'm an electronic musician and also use a notebook for most of my music composing and recording. It is not highly recommended, but what I do is use a three to two prong adapter from radio shack. This will eliminate the noise, but you now remove thee ground, which can be potentially dangerous is you have liquids around. But I've used this method with out any problems for two years now.

Most of my stuff involves using the notebook plugged in with ac. My HP's battery power life is poor and some of the music programs do not get very far cpu-wise with out thee computer plugged in.
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post #5 of 7
4/15/05 at 11:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Odie812
Wow, I'm amazed. You're correct. The sound completely disappeared when I disconnected the AC power.

So, besides buying that thing from Crapshack (I try to avoid them if I can), what are my options as far as solving the problem?
You could find one somewhere else. Here maybe. They are probably all made by the same Chinese Prison labor tho. Radioshack is just convenient.
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post #6 of 7
4/20/05 at 1:02am
Get a ground lift adapter, or wire one yourself if you are good at soldering. Not wiring the ground is potentially dangerous with more than just liquids, though most of the time you wont have a problem, it is a bad habit to get into and does put your equipment at more risk. I hate cruddyshack as well, look around as someone else stated youll find them all over the place really, and half of em all probably made by the same manufacturer. The better ones will run you some money(Optically isolated) but for most people the general ones will work well.


Seablade
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post #7 of 7
4/23/05 at 12:48pm
Thread Starter 
I ended up getting this isolator. It's a bit more expensive than most, but maybe that makes me feel like it's better. Who knows. Anyway, the female/male connectors will be much more usefull than the double male connectors that the other ones have.

I hope this works

Thanks everyone for your help.
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