Horrible high pitch and white noises

I

Ianuarius

New member
I recently bought Lexicon Alpha audio interface hoping that it would lower my noise floor. It didn't. Also it added another noise that I previously didn't have... this high pitch whining noise:

Maihinnousu - Lataa - Ianuarius - noise
(just push the play button near the bottom)

I've been searching some answers, but haven't got anything that worked so far. I tried running my laptop with battery, didn't work. I tried plugging my speakers to another power outlet from my laptop, didn't work. I tried to make sure my guitar cable or the usb cable of the interface don't cross with other cables, didn't work. I tried matching the sample rates, didn't work. Here are my settings in Reaper:

http://oi56.tinypic.com/2uh3h8z.jpg

I've got Windows 7 (64 bit) and ASIO4ALL 2.10 and Reaper 3.75 (64 bit).

I did download the drivers from Lexicon site and occasionally they work too (Alpha ASIO).

Could someone please PLEASE tell me if there's anything else to do but just throw the Lexicon Alpha to trash and return using the mic input.
 
Are you using balanced cables for monitors connected to the 1/4" line outs of the Alpha? I had a similar noise once, caused by unbalanced monitor cables. Just throwing it out there...
 
Try plugging the Creative speakers power supply into a different outlet/circuit. I'm sure you know that using the headphone output to run your speakers is less than ideal.
 
jaygee said:
You might be getting an impedance mismatch between your headphone outputs and your speakers.
I wouldn't think that would be the cause of the noise, but who knows.

You might want to consider getting a rca to 1/8" stereo y-cable. Hosa 1/8 in. Stereo to Dual RCA Cable at zZounds
Click to expand...

It looks like your speakers already come with a 1/8" to rca adapter and it's made to connect into the rear of one of the speakers.
I would try that option and see if it helps.
 
Ok, I tried this:

1) unplug everything from my laptop
2) move the laptop to another table 15 feet away from the original spot
3) plugging the laptop to a completely different outlet on a different wall
4) plugging the Lexicon Alpha in with my guitar cable
5) recording tests in Reaper without audio monitoring

I still get the same noises. The Creative speakers weren't plugged in -- to the Alpha OR the laptop.
 
Ianuarius said:
Anyone know what could be going on?
Click to expand...

The noise sounds like it might be externally generated.
Hi-Z inputs like a guitar are very sensitive to external noises.

Possible causes:
Light dimmer switches, electric motors from fridges and air conditioners.
Sorry - Not much help, but you may want to try and see if they might be the culprit.
 
Just 2 posts ago I told that I had moved my laptop 15ft away from its oridinal position and still got the EXACT same noise when recording.

Of course might be that my whole appartment is full of some sort of external noise that I'm not aware of. My fridge is pretty noisy when it goes at it but realistically could it be the problem? The motor is not running all the time and it's pretty far away. I don't have dimmers or air conditioners.
 
Ianuarius said:
Just 2 posts ago I told that I had moved my laptop 15ft away from its oridinal position and still got the EXACT same noise when recording.

Of course might be that my whole appartment is full of some sort of external noise that I'm not aware of. My fridge is pretty noisy when it goes at it but realistically could it be the problem? The motor is not running all the time and it's pretty far away. I don't have dimmers or air conditioners.
Click to expand...

If the line AC is contaminated it wouldn't matter where you moved your laptop.
If you are still getting the noise when running on laptop batteries that would eliminate line AC noise as the culprit.
Try a different guitar cord and/or guitar.

Just tossing out ideas. Trying to debug via the internet can be difficult.
 
Tried running with battery - didn't work.
Tried a different guitar cord - didn't work.

I ain't got another guitar or laptop to test this shit with. On the other hand Reaper picks up the noise with just the cord plugged in so I'm betting it's not the guitar.
 
http://oi52.tinypic.com/20kokfp.jpg

There's a picture of the noise. The white circle highlighted part is the high pitch noise (exactly 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 KHz) and rest is just random buzz. I'm not playing anything at this point, just got the volume turned up with my guitar (and going thru some high gain amp modelling) and that's it.
 
Something to do with some kind of electrical disturbance entering the usb connection to the laptop? The motherboard could just be one that sucks for audio in that the arrangement of usb ports and what not aren't really designed with usb audio in mind?

I know that some firewire cards/ mobo combos can operate with electrical noise and buzz/ whine etc...you find yourself in the field of chipsets, drivers, bios, cmos before you can say 'fuck I hate computers'
 
Haha, well, I love computers, how cheap I can get them and the things I can make with them, but of course there's a downfall to that.
 
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