Steenamaroo
...
hi all.
i'm putting this in mods cos it's kinda mod related. Some of you will have heard this before (thanks for the advice).
sorry if this is long and drawn out, but i'm really stumped.
Problem is, i modded my mk219 grills as per www.webforni.com/steen/photos4.html
everything about the mics was fine on my desktop pc/003 setup. no buzz no hum...100%
but then i bought an mbox 2 for my laptop and discovered the the mk219s constantly buzz at 60hz unless i do one of the following.
1 wrap the grills in foil.
2 ground the laptop, by pluggin in a grounded unit (ie audio jack to guitar amp, or firewire lead to 003)
3 run on battery power (although a slight buzz remains)
none of my other mics buzz at all,,ever.......
unsure of whether the issue was bad mics or bad ground, i had the following thought process.
i took an mxl 990 and removed the grill, then plugged it into the laptop/mbox.
obviously it gave the same buzz as the oktavas.
then i grounded the laptop and the buzz went away.
so you'd think that was just proof that the oktava grills need fixing?
but then i plugged the grill-less mxl into my desktop setup and it gave the same buzz, whereas the oktavas didn't
my oktava grills read really really low resistance to the mic body/pin1 no matter what way i test them, and they're a really clean job, so i'm tryin to avoid taking them apart again.
i did a lot of reading about laptop power supplies and it seems that they are problematic; especially dells.
i've read of many people needing power conditioners and di boxes and all sorts,
*and even one guy who suggested grounding the laptop by plugging it into a grounded device (like i tried over firewire to 003)*
the chassis of the laptop and mbox reads -0.28v with reference to mains ground, which i figure to be the cause of the problem, and yeah sure, i could just mains ground the laptop and be done with this,,,,
but the fear was the i'd just be masking a problem with the oktava grills, and maybe do damage later on down the road?
as i mentioned, the problem ALMOST goes away on battery power, but there is still a slight 60hz buzz.
on battery power, the chassis of mbox and laptop reads a much lower negative voltage with reference to mains earth, but still a voltage.
manual grounding still solves the problem on battery power, as does wrapping the grills in foil.
does anyone have any experience, or light they can shed on this.
all i wanted was a portable setup to do a bit of recording on the go, but this is taking the piss a bit!! lol
thanks in advance guys.........
i'm putting this in mods cos it's kinda mod related. Some of you will have heard this before (thanks for the advice).
sorry if this is long and drawn out, but i'm really stumped.
Problem is, i modded my mk219 grills as per www.webforni.com/steen/photos4.html
everything about the mics was fine on my desktop pc/003 setup. no buzz no hum...100%
but then i bought an mbox 2 for my laptop and discovered the the mk219s constantly buzz at 60hz unless i do one of the following.
1 wrap the grills in foil.
2 ground the laptop, by pluggin in a grounded unit (ie audio jack to guitar amp, or firewire lead to 003)
3 run on battery power (although a slight buzz remains)
none of my other mics buzz at all,,ever.......
unsure of whether the issue was bad mics or bad ground, i had the following thought process.
i took an mxl 990 and removed the grill, then plugged it into the laptop/mbox.
obviously it gave the same buzz as the oktavas.
then i grounded the laptop and the buzz went away.
so you'd think that was just proof that the oktava grills need fixing?
but then i plugged the grill-less mxl into my desktop setup and it gave the same buzz, whereas the oktavas didn't
my oktava grills read really really low resistance to the mic body/pin1 no matter what way i test them, and they're a really clean job, so i'm tryin to avoid taking them apart again.
i did a lot of reading about laptop power supplies and it seems that they are problematic; especially dells.
i've read of many people needing power conditioners and di boxes and all sorts,
*and even one guy who suggested grounding the laptop by plugging it into a grounded device (like i tried over firewire to 003)*
the chassis of the laptop and mbox reads -0.28v with reference to mains ground, which i figure to be the cause of the problem, and yeah sure, i could just mains ground the laptop and be done with this,,,,
but the fear was the i'd just be masking a problem with the oktava grills, and maybe do damage later on down the road?
as i mentioned, the problem ALMOST goes away on battery power, but there is still a slight 60hz buzz.
on battery power, the chassis of mbox and laptop reads a much lower negative voltage with reference to mains earth, but still a voltage.
manual grounding still solves the problem on battery power, as does wrapping the grills in foil.
does anyone have any experience, or light they can shed on this.
all i wanted was a portable setup to do a bit of recording on the go, but this is taking the piss a bit!! lol
thanks in advance guys.........