Minimizing Electrical Buzz/Noise

A

aram

New member
So I have decent experience, but one thing I always have trouble with is electrical buzz. Now, one of the problems I may be experiencing is poor electrical shielding because I am in a college dorm, or that my bass head, which I use for DI sound control (I do also have a DI box) could be overpowered when using it as a preamp for my dynamic microphones. The microphones I use are Nady dm70's, as being a college kid my budget isn't the most flexible. The buzz occurs when I turn the gain/volume up on the bass head enough to pick up a workable signal amount from a mic'd instrument, and sometimes going through my DI box with say just an electric bass. (bass-> bass head->DI->computer). Granted my setup is a little outdated, my DI is a tascam us200. So what I would like to know is if there are any tricks to minimize the buzz, without having to deal with electrical restructuring, as I can't in the dorm
 
You don't need to plug the mics into the bass amp, plug them straight into the Tascam - it is an audio interface, not a DI box.
Are you using a laptop? If so, try using it on battery power - some laptop power supplies are very noisy.
 
But without any sort of preamping, my microphones pick up the terrible buzz or just too much room noise, since they are dynamic, and kinda crappy. Is that really the end all answer?
 
The Tascam has preamps made specifically for microphones. Electronic noise levels should be insignificant. If you're getting room noise then you need at least one of: a quieter room, acoustic treatment, better mic placement technique.

You are using mic cables with XLR on both ends, right?

If all your stuff is plugged into one socket then it's unlikely to be a power problem, more likely an audio cable issue. A possible exception is that some laptops have power grounding issues that can let noise into the signal.
 
I only have one xlr-xlr cable, the rest are xlr-instrument, what is the issue that occurs there? and should my computer be plugged into the same socket as the Tascam and bass head? and does a power strip work to compensate the extra space needed?
 
IF you are doing as BSG says, running XLR-XLR cables into the AI then the only reason you would pickup high levels of hum is if there was a big mother substation transformer next door!

If that is not the case you have cabling issues.

Dave.
 
I've heard that if you stick a wire down your pants, it reduces humm and increases pleasure.
 
aram said:
I only have one xlr-xlr cable, the rest are xlr-instrument, what is the issue that occurs there? and should my computer be plugged into the same socket as the Tascam and bass head? and does a power strip work to compensate the extra space needed?
Click to expand...

XLR-instrument - assume you mean 1/4" TS - this is an unbalanced plug, you don't want to be using it for mics, its a possible noise source. It may also be bypassing the input device's mic preamp so you have to crank up the gain = more noise.
 
First, avoid running a microphone through a bass amp. Not the best preamp, considering you have good mike preamps in the Tascam. Second, using unbalanced cables can add interference. THIS VIDEO may help, even though the guy says he's going to get technical and then calls the insulators "lines" on the plugs...
 
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