Help trouble-shooting buzzing noise from Technics turntable signal?

krm27

New member
I got a pair of Technics 1200 turntables that have been in storage, decided to finally incorporate them into my home studio. I'm having a buzzing / noise artifact from just ONE of the turntables, but not the other, which is weird because they are pretty much twins, bought at the same time, set up the same way.

My signal chain is this:

Both Technics -> audio cables -> Vestax mixer -> audio cables -> Y adapter (audio cables to 1/4" instrument male) -> M-Track Quad -> JBL studio monitors

Since one of the turntable signals does not have any humming / buzzing artifact, I guess the problem must be with the signal at or before the mixer. Adjusting the mixer settings did not help, so that leaves the turntable itself.

Does anyone know why a turntable would have a buzzing/humming artifact, so I know what to look for or what I can rule out? It does not sound like a bad needle/cartridge, but rather a more electronic hum/buzz, sort of like what you might get from turning on an amp with an instrument cable in it that is not hooked to anything.

Thanks,

Ken
 
Yup. Ground wires need to be in place and also check the wiring in the headshells to ensure that everything is connected there securely. Maybe also clean the contacts that connect the headshell to the tone arm.

Cheers! :)
 
First thing that comes to my mind is to swap cables at the mixer to see if the buzzing moves with the turntable or stays with the mixer.

You say this:
Adjusting the mixer settings did not help, so that leaves the turntable itself.

But you don't say if you swapped cables.

Oh, and are you sure you are using the correct Y adaptor. And why are you using a y adaptor anyway??
 
The first thing that comes to my mind would be to check and re-check that it's grounded properly...

It's been so long since I used them, I do not recall the turntables having grounding wires, but if so that could be it. I'll check on that.

First thing that comes to my mind is to swap cables at the mixer to see if the buzzing moves with the turntable or stays with the mixer.

You say this:


But you don't say if you swapped cables.

Oh, and are you sure you are using the correct Y adaptor. And why are you using a y adaptor anyway??


I did not swap the cables between the turntables and the mixer, I can try that, too, see if that switches the hum from one to the other turntable, in which case it's a cable problem.

I'm using the Y adapter because my mixer's output (and my turntable's output) are dual audio cables, and my audio interface only takes a 1/4" input (or a mic XLR, but that's not going to help). Actually, it occurred to me after starting this thread that maybe I could have used my mixer's headphone jack which is 1/4" to connect the mixer to the audio interface using a standard 1/4" cable. But I'm thinking I might have worse signal quality routing the headphone jack to my audio interface (?)

As for the contacts / headshell / etc., I suppose I might be able to just swap out the tone arms on the two turntables since they are identical, see if the noise moves from one to the other. Having two identical turntables does simplify troubleshooting to some extent.

Ken
 
I'm using the Y adapter because my mixer's output (and my turntable's output) are dual audio cables, and my audio interface only takes a 1/4" input (or a mic XLR, but that's not going to help). Actually, it occurred to me after starting this thread that maybe I could have used my mixer's headphone jack which is 1/4" to connect the mixer to the audio interface using a standard 1/4" cable. But I'm thinking I might have worse signal quality routing the headphone jack to my audio interface (?)

The Y adaptor is not the right approach. You want to go to two inputs on your M-Audio. The way you're doing it, you're taking a stereo signal and sending it mono to your audio interface. I'm guessing the Vestex has RCA jacks for outputs (Little red and white jacks). You need stereo RCA to 1/4" TS cables. You need to plug into two inputs on your M-Audio. It's possible the mis-wiring could be causing the hum problem.

You don't want to use the headphone jack either. It would yield the same result.
 
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