Stopping guitar hum from a monitor....

[scottboyher]

I am getting a huge hum from my computer monitor. I know moving away from the monitor will help but sometimes in a small room it isn't possible. Plus sometimes you have to be by the mouse to punch in and out..


Any simple solutions for this problem?

 

[savageblues]

Scott,

Im no expert. This months Recording magazine has an article (written by Jon Bare). He makes many suggestions, some of which are

1. Humbucking pickups. Try these over single coils.
2. Try to reduce gain on stompboxes, or any gain devices.
3. Try turning off any unused pieces of equipment.
4. Neon lights, beer signs, dimmers, off.
5. check grounding scheme.

I doubt any of those things will work...but worth a try.

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Humbuckers kind of help, but pickup choice should be about tone!

I've been battling this for years and have it pretty well figured out.

1) Distance. If possible, put a good 10 horizontal feet between you and the monitor. This pretty much the end all solution unless you've got other problems!

2) Position. Sit in front of your monitor with your guitar and rotate around. Notice that when the guitar is approximately perpendicular to the monitor (90 degree angle), any noise all but disappears! With a little practice it's very easy to get used to keeping your guitar in this sweet noise free spot. It also might not hurt to experiment with the placement of your various stomp boxes and other gizmos...make sure they're not picking up any interference (which you probably already do if you've got boxes that pick up radio stations and what not).

3) Don't freak out too much about noise. Find a spot/position where it's not bad and play. In most cases a little bit of noise is no problem...all of your pedals and amps and whatnot are going to add a bunch of noise anyhow! Since you're obviously recording on a DAW, it's very easy to notch out rests manually without having to resort to something like a gate (ick).

4) As a last resort, use a smaller monitor for tracking. A little 14" will typically throw off a lot less nasty than a big 19". If all else fails and you just can't stand it, turn the monitor off while recording. Note that doing so will shorten the life of the monitor.

Slackmaster 2000