Buzzing / Humming Problem

D

Druminman68

New member
Im having a bad problem with a buzz/hum in my studio. The studio is in the basement of my house. The problem comes only on guitars and amps and through P.A.monitor speakers if i set up for band rehearsal ( not my studio reference speakers).Microphones are not affected I can record live accoustic drum tracks and vocal tracks all day long and it does not affect my computer or my firewire mixing console. At first i thought it was electrical because the house was built in the late 60s. I had an electrician here all day. We tried it from almost every outlet in the house. Checked for proper grounding. Even ran a new line with a new outlet from the breaker box, shut all the other breakers off everything in the house was dead except the new line Still had the buzz. Took the guitar and amp to the neighbors house and plugged it in still had the buzz. We have a city power substation about a half mile behind us and a lot of power lines running beside the house. Im wondering if im getting some sort of outside interference from that that is drawn or magnitized to guitar pickups and speakers. Has anyone heard or had this problem before. HELP PLEASE!!! Thanks!!!
 
If you have powerlines running right along side your house, and this hum is only apparent on the guitars, and amps (tube, I presume?) you may very well be picking up electro-magnetic interference (EMI) from the powerlines.

I remember in High School, we took a field trip for science class, early one evening, to an access road running along some local powerlines. The teacher took two fluorescent light bulbs and held them up over his head, and they lit up, quite visibly, in the twilight, from the induced current!!!

If the neighbor is near these same lines, then the problem would exist there as well (as you stated)

The next test would be to take your rig to a location as far away from those (or any other) high-voltage powerlines as possible, and check for the hum. If it's still there, then you may have cabling or hardware (amp/guitar shielding) issues which you can isolate by substituting one element at a time.

However, if the hum is gone at that location, but then returns when you get back home, it could very well be EMI.

Sadly, that is very hard to address, as it requires shielding everything.

Studios in urban locations where EMI can be an insufferable issue, will use a Faraday cage built into the actual construction of the physical workspace.

Try to determine whether the problem is equipment or location oriented, and then take it from there. If it's the location, you'll need to do some research on shielding and preventing EMI, then start applying those techniques to the simplest elements in the effected recording chain first (cables, guitar pickup cavities, tube amp chassis....) Go one step at a time, and check the results. You may get lucky and find a few basic components that were particularly sensitive, once they are addressed, the hum may drop down to an acceptable level, and you can get back to the important stuff.... like making music!!

Hope this helps a little! Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
 
Thanks so much for the help. Yes i believe my problem is caused from EMI. It makes perfect sense. Have to do some research and decide what route to go.
 
I had this many years ago when my studio was next to a phone exchange, the solution was to line the room with a grounded mesh screen, not as hard as it seems. You effectively are building a Faraday cage.

Alan.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top