Why is turning my light OFF causing interference?

Basilosauridae

Basilosauridae

Member


I'm fully stumped on this one.

I noticed my interface was making a clicking noise (not what you hear here, just a little blip noise) and my cord management isn't the best so I untangled all my cords and got them all straightened out and separated from each other. The clicking went away but this awful static interference started. I think its coming from the XLR cable because it changes when I mess with the cord. so I messed with the cord a bit and got it to stop and made a mental note to buy a replacement but I was going to try to get through my recording session tonight.

So, I got everything to sound normal and then I went to turn my lights off to start recording and now THIS is happening. I've never had this happen before, I always turn my lights off to record. I'm not doing anything different than I was other than untangling all my cords. The light in question is an overhead light built into the ceiling. The switch is about a foot from my microphone (and always has been). I could maybe understand turning a light ON causing some interference (though no idea why it would start now) but the fact that I'm turning the light OFF is even more puzzling.

Any help is appreciated.
 
Update: it ended up being an issue so I ran to Sam Ash and got a new cord which has fixed it, but I'm still super curious what was going on there?
 
If you've got a basic volt-ohm meter, you can check to see if you've lost continuity of the shield, or if wires have been twisted inside and touching. I've had that happen before.
 
Open the XLR connectors up - most cable faults are visible to the eye. Grounds go all around your home - sometimes things like audio cables actually reveal electrical problems that can be causing the house grounds to carry fault current. Turning the light off could change the paths - making one 'float' changing the ground currents - which with a dodgy cable could get back into the sensitive electronics. The new cable fixes the audio, but the problem could still be there.
 
This is directly caused by Alternating Current. You need to wire it for DC. Haha...ha

Surge protectors might help with the floats. Possibly adding a variac to the source, could help too. They are conditioners that are made to feed a constant power to the components. Vibrational feeders.
 
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If your studio is correctly connect to your power, it will be safe and quiet. Hums, buzzes and tingles are faults - usually in the power wiring. None of my cabling is neat and tidy - all kinds of adaptors and untidiness and the system is quiet and hum free. We spend lots of time avoiding noise and hums that are there because the ground is poor or simply badly installed, or a bit of faulty kit is impacting the entire system. Modern homes and business premises tend to have the neutral conductor bonded to the ground at one point. People often add extra grounds thinking this is good when it actually allows AC waveforms to enter the ground system and find their way to the sensitive audio equipment. Proper planning and adherence to local regulations is not just for safety, but safety virtually ensures quiet audio.
 
Just a few observations? Turning kit OFF often causes a bigger EM pulse than turning it on. Virtually all modern mains powered electronics have an X rated capacitor across the live and neutral. This is usually post the mains switch (but not always) Thus at the instant of switch off it will discharge a remnant voltage* into the rest of the wiring and all will resonate at some radio frequency.

Mains earths. Most UK homes are served by and armored cable coming in underground. As Rob said, it is normal to bond the neutral to said armor at house entry (meter point) and thus a fantastically good earth is formed and one moreover that is also shielded by a mtre or so of Mother Earth! Add to that at your peril.

Again, in UK lighting is served by an entirely separate circuit wired
in 6A twin and earth. That goes right back to the consumer unit. Power is in at least two 'rings' in a house. One lower, one upper floor. If I was building a studio in a new house I would have a separate 'technical" ring but EARTHS would still all collect at the main consumer unit. Thus, 'crap' on one circuit is unlikely to cross to another*.

I would avoid mains 'filters surge suppressors' and their ilk like Cov-19. IF you have really dirty, bouncy,bouncy mains not a lot you can do save power audio kit from a good quality Continuous Converting UPS which will deliver regulated 115/230 volts. Cost thee limbs mind.

Yes! I KNOW it is AC but at the instant of disconnection the cap will retain the voltage at THAT point in the waveform. Also I am not, nor have ever been a qualified electrician so regs will certainly have changed since I knew the bits I did know!

(I would also like to point out as well that those poor buggers that lost power in the latest storm here would not have does so if the utility companies had put the supplies underground fekkin' YEARS ago. Would have cut shareholders fat profits mind!)

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
J

(I would also like to point out as well that those poor buggers that lost power in the latest storm here would not have does so if the utility companies had put the supplies underground fekkin' YEARS ago. Would have cut shareholders fat profits mind!)

Dave.
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Dave if you know anything about leccy which you do, then you would know the cost of underground cables which may be at more risk to disruption from water.

We get power cuts all the time because of storms here. You ride it and go with the flow. Buy a generator or do whatever.
 
Orson said:
Dave if you know anything about leccy which you do, then you would know the cost of underground cables which may be at more risk to disruption from water.

We get power cuts all the time because of storms here. You ride it and go with the flow. Buy a generator or do whatever.
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In my 76 years in Northampton I have know very few power cuts. We probably get less than an hour's outage in 5 years. Several years ago a part of the town flooded (came half way up the A45 about a click from me at NN5 5PF) Once the water had receded there was no damage to the underground cables AFAIK. Street light were back on anyway. If peeps have vulnerable, Mickey Mouse UG services there you go! There are simple, almost cost free measures that can be taken to keep power on during floods or at least mitigate the effect of the water afterwards. Put consumer units and outlets at about a mtr above floor level. Whomever had the idea of putting mains outlets at skirting board height did not have MY 76 yr old back!

Yes, putting 11kV services underground IS costly, about ten times more than poles but it should have been done years ago. Of course private companies won't spend the money. Generators? Heaven forfend! Can you imagine what 100,000 people plus firing up a genny each would do to the planet?

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
In my 76 years in Northampton I have know very few power cuts. We probably get less than an hour's outage in 5 years. Several years ago a part of the town flooded (came half way up the A45 about a click from me at NN5 5PF) Once the water had receded there was no damage to the underground cables AFAIK. Street light were back on anyway. If peeps have vulnerable, Mickey Mouse UG services there you go! There are simple, almost cost free measures that can be taken to keep power on during floods or at least mitigate the effect of the water afterwards. Put consumer units and outlets at about a mtr above floor level. Whomever had the idea of putting mains outlets at skirting board height did not have MY 76 yr old back!

Yes, putting 11kV services underground IS costly, about ten times more than poles but it should have been done years ago. Of course private companies won't spend the money. Generators? Heaven forfend! Can you imagine what 100,000 people plus firing up a genny each would do to the planet?

Dave.
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I dont know the answers to everybodys problems. But while the ground is flooded the cables are wet, so I imagine unsuable. We just had to buy an underground cable for our place. 100 yards worth which cost 2000 euro and that was just for a 230v supply from mains pole just for the cable.

If you live in a stormy area then expect power cuts. You cant blame someone else for you deciding to live there. As regards damaged supplies from storms, well that happens. Nobody has any control over the weather and receiving an electricity supply isn't a right. It is a service you pay for. If you aren't receiving it for a short while while its being repaired then I imagine you do not pay the small cost of that period?

Regards all those generators. They do no more or less damage than people taking their kids to school instead of walking or trips to whatever or holidays per year.

Not arguing just stating obvious.
 
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In my town, overhead supply areas are gradually dwindling, and of course all new property has underground 3 phase with T-offs to each house as single phase. By and large UK power outages are rare, unless you live in rural areas where wind and weather and trees are the usual problems. Generators in homes are extremely rare. I don't know anyone who owns one. Our regulations here (actually not laws, just standards) work because the testing regime that is law, uses the 'suggestions' as standards so if you have wired your own home with 100% safe, but non standard systems, you won't get your planning certificates, or be able to sell the house, or even get insurance. It's odd, but it works. I'm not an electrician, but have wired my own studios, and when I move, I'll have to take an insurance out to be able to sell the property to cover and issues discovered later. In work, I commonly deal with 125A three phase equipment - dimmer racks, distribution systems etc, yet I'm not allowed to put a new light switch in my home bathroom or kitchen! No wonder hums and buzzes inflict our studios when wiring has been installed randomly.
 
Same here Rob. But when you have just filled the freezer with hundreds of pounds/euro/dollars worth, then you dont want to open it to a soggy mush the next day. Your insurance will no doubt have an excess on that to make it worth not claiming.

I think a freezer is supposed to last 24 hours if you dont open it. But I have known things start to thaw long before that.

So plug the freezer into the genny if only to save it every hour or two. This affects no one as it isnt into the mains.

We have Atlantic storms here once per month and can sometimes get the worst of them. Trees are regularly cleared. It is usually the force of the wind taking the lines out.

Driving into town for some hot food will use more fuel than a generator occasionally on.
 
Orson said:
I dont know the answers to everybodys problems. But while the ground is flooded the cables are wet, so I imagine unsuable. We just had to buy an underground cable for our place. 100 yards worth which cost 2000 euro and that was just for a 230v supply from mains pole just for the cable.

If you live in a stormy area then expect power cuts. You cant blame someone else for you deciding to live there. As regards damaged supplies from storms, well that happens. Nobody has any control over the weather and receiving an electricity supply isn't a right. It is a service you pay for. If you aren't receiving it for a short while while its being repaired then I imagine you do not pay the small cost of that period?

Regards all those generators. They do no more or less damage than people taking their kids to school instead of walking or trips to whatever or holidays per year.

Not arguing just stating obvious.
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There are two different issues here. "overhead power" into peoples homes is in UK very rare now (was vulnerable to lightning?) The armored cables that go down OUR roads are well over engineered. I just see the one coming into my bungalow but it is some 35mm thick and terminates in a pitch, i.e. waterproof filled box. The ones in the road are even heavier. No way these Mothers will be bothered by a bit of water. We have also have telephone lines similarly buried and I can NEVER recall a "water" problem!

The 'storm' here was mainly very high winds which brought down the (I assume) 11kV poles. Obviously had the feeds been UG they would have survived.

With respect, "electricity" is not the same as a service you pay for like your car periodically or buying groceries (you can stock them up) Some ten years ago we did have a 30 hour outage during one of our coldest days in January. No heating in the house. fortunately we did have gas for cooking. That was a VERY miserable time for us in our 70s especially my wife whose health was beginning to decline.

I don't care what it cost to get those people a reliable supply. For most of my life electricity was nationalized. Now part of what I pay goes to rich and some obscenely rich people who mostly just stash it away in tax havens.

Oh! And don't get me started on the lazy, dangerous, selfish school runners!!

Dave.
 
The cultural differences between the US and UK are amazing.

For the most part, the US grid is above ground, but there are areas (downtown cities and certain suburbs) where underground wiring is used. In Fiona's case, she's in So California, so I don't know what the local regs are in her area. I'm guessing, tho, that she's in an apartment, so most of those options aren't available to her (backup generators, etc). I ended up running my computers off battery backup units, which include power supply filtering.

However, in this case, none of this seems to have mattered, since it was noise introduced by an apparently bad mic cable.
 
"Same here Rob. But when you have just filled the freezer with hundreds of pounds/euro/dollars worth, then you dont want to open it to a soggy mush the next day. Your insurance will no doubt have an excess on that to make it worth not claiming."

Must be a pretty crap freezer you have there Ors'! Ours will keep stuff safe for over 24 hours un plugged. Just open the door, get yer pizzas, and shut it PDQ!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
I don't care what it cost to get those people a reliable supply. For most of my life electricity was nationalized. Now part of what I pay goes to rich and some obscenely rich people who mostly just stash it away in tax havens.

Oh! And don't get me started on the lazy, dangerous, selfish school runners!!

Dave.
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I understand entirely Dave but that was then. This is now and the future.

Back then nationalised coal fed nationalised power and when the workers went on strike, they blackmailed the nation for more money..........repeatedly.

So workers wanting more and more cash or shareholders squirrelling away money equals the same result really. Just someone different to blame.

Now and the future is like this..........For every gallon of petrol and diesel burnt in those 35 million vehicles on your roads, the equivelent is going to be needed in electricity to drive the new electric cars. There is no spare electricity just hanging around waiting to be plugged into your car. It will have to come from new generation.

This means many new power stations everywhere. Wind is useless because it only provides when its windy. Solar only provides when its sunny. Coal, oil and gas is out. Which leaves you with wave power (unreliable) and nuclear (but not near me). And lots of them!! I gallon of petrol/diesel = approx 50kw. 50kw x on average 5 per week = 250kw x 35 million = a hell of a lot of extra killowatts needed every day. Billions of them!

So when you plug your guitar in one morning and it dies a death because everybody else is plugging in their new Tesla............You may be glad of that wind that used to blow your power lines down:-) But who will you blame?
 
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ecc83 said:
"Same here Rob. But when you have just filled the freezer with hundreds of pounds/euro/dollars worth, then you dont want to open it to a soggy mush the next day. Your insurance will no doubt have an excess on that to make it worth not claiming."

Must be a pretty crap freezer you have there Ors'! Ours will keep stuff safe for over 24 hours un plugged. Just open the door, get yer pizzas, and shut it PDQ!

Dave.
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Bread always goes softish. We have a thermometer which is minus 20. But after a few hours is creeping towards 0ish. You may be right Dave. Perhaps a new one.
 
Orson said:
Bread always goes softish. We have a thermometer which is minus 20. But after a few hours is creeping towards 0ish. You may be right Dave. Perhaps a new one.
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And my fridge freezer is over 40 years old and I bought it 'on the drip' from the then nationalized electricity board. I don't want to get into 'politics' but coal mining was a dangerous, shit job with a very low life expectancy when you were too knackered to do it anymore.

I am aware of the numbers re EVs but that cannot be allowed to happen on that scale. The elephant in the room about Global Warming measures is that there is NO WAY we can have the life we have now and keep under 1.5C (we in UK are actually well blessed for off shore wind power) We ALL have to eat less meat, travel a LOT less and stop consuming as if we had a spare earth.

We 'seem' to be on the cusp of practical fusion power? If that come about we can use the trillions of 'waste' H2 molecules to power planes. But NOT too many of them!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
And my fridge freezer is over 40 years old and I bought it 'on the drip' from the then nationalized electricity board. I don't want to get into 'politics' but coal mining was a dangerous, shit job with a very low life expectancy when you were too knackered to do it anymore.

I am aware of the numbers re EVs but that cannot be allowed to happen on that scale. The elephant in the room about Global Warming measures is that there is NO WAY we can have the life we have now and keep under 1.5C (we in UK are actually well blessed for off shore wind power) We ALL have to eat less meat, travel a LOT less and stop consuming as if we had a spare earth.

We 'seem' to be on the cusp of practical fusion power? If that come about we can use the trillions of 'waste' H2 molecules to power planes. But NOT too many of them!

Dave.
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You may not be aware on how all this will explode next year. You will see established car manufacturers going to the wall and Tesla and a host of Chinese companies taking over as they all plan to sell to the world after xmas such is the demand for EV.

And thats it.........the demand. People will buy these things but the supply of electricity cannot keep up. It will be quite interesting.:-)

Dont believe the hype about less meat. Farmers actually absorb co2 and produce oxygen. Townies just produce the problems. But its ok to blame the farmers whose only crime is to produce food for........you!!:LOL:

Well it was blowy here the past week but now there is no wind...........so stay at home. Unplug your guitar and freeze.:LOL:
 
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