Ground Loop (Buzz) elimination?

M

MGR Pro

New member
Can anyone give me some advise on how to eliminate the buzz that is most likely caused by ground loop from my system. I'm using a Mackie D8B and several sound modules. The modules, a Korg Triton Rack, Roland XV-3080, Proteus 2000, Alesis DM Pro, and Kurzweil K2500 are, in their very nature, noisy. The combined is very loud. I've set the gain properly (signal to noise ratio) and hardly ever use them all at the same time. Still I get this aweful buzz through the monitors. I've ground lifted a few modules, but the problem persists. I'm just wondering how I can isolated and eliminate or reduce significantly this noise.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

MGR
 
Make sure they are all plugged into AC strips that originate from the same outlet. You should be able to power your entire studio off of a single 20amp circuit.
 
TexRoadkill said:
Make sure they are all plugged into AC strips that originate from the same outlet. You should be able to power your entire studio off of a single 20amp circuit.
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woah... I don't think that every plug needs to be off the same outlet (in fact I'm not even sure thats safe to chain power strips together to get enough plugs)...

as long as the outlets you are using are on the same circuit, you should be fine and there is no need to plug 20 things into one outlet if you have say 5 or 6 outlets on the same circuit.
 
Thanks a million

I forget to mention that I have everything (the whole studio setup) on furman power conditioners (5). The studio is on its own circuits.

After reading the article Monte suggested and trying a few things, I found the problem. The Roland XV-3080, once I added the adapter (ground lift), stopped buzzing altogether. I took the adapter off and suddenly all the other modules made noise again. Wierd, but the simplest solution worked.

I can't pretend that I understood all of that article, but it helped.

Thanks Guys.

MGR
 
jdechant said:


woah... I don't think that every plug needs to be off the same outlet (in fact I'm not even sure thats safe to chain power strips together to get enough plugs)...

as long as the outlets you are using are on the same circuit, you should be fine and there is no need to plug 20 things into one outlet if you have say 5 or 6 outlets on the same circuit.
Click to expand...

There is no danger if you're just running a bunch of synths and processors. They all have a pretty low draw and most powerstrips have internal fuses and breakers. If the wiring is new then different outlets on the same circuit should work but in a lot of older homes there can be ground shorts between outlets.

I would not recommend this for running a bunch of power amps or lights.
 
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