Digital "Noise"

  • Thread starter Thread starter WFVoiceover
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W

WFVoiceover

New member
Hello

I am having a mind-numbing problem with my spoken word recording set-up.

For reference, I have a 27" iMac running Lion with Garageband and Audition CS6.
To record, I use a Rode NT1A and an Apogee Duet 2.

My headphones are Sennheiser 280Pro and monitors are M-Audio BX-5A.

There is a digital sounding noise coming through the monitors and the headphones. It is driving me nuts! All equipment is on the same circuit, have factory reset the Duet 2 and even swapped back to previous AV40 monitors......still the same.

Any guesses?
 
What is digital noise? Like white noise? Popping or clicking?
 
WF,
Do you have a good separation between your speaker/ headphone cables and the 120vAC power cables? Someone correct me if I am wrong: if the cables must cross each other, have them cross perpendicular.
Any fluorescent light fixtures close, or on same circuit?
Tried a different wall receptacle?
Dale
 
Hello again

To answer your questions, I think someone once described what I am hearing as "digital jitters" - it is hard to describe for me though. Kind of like the sound a fax machine makes when it operates. Various frequencies all sounding together.

Bizarre I know.

Have tried all the usual plug changes and cable checks. Still there.

W
 
Grasping here: I am at a loss WF, unless that big 27" is throwing off some mean RFI. Any way to move the components, away from each other, to maybe isolate the culprit?

Or- connect to a different computer to check to see if the Duet and/or Rode is injecting the noise?

Troubleshooting from Duet2 manual:
Symptom: The audio quality is compromised (distortion, choppy audio, "buzzy" audio).
Solution: There are several remedies for audio that is distorted, choppy or otherwise compromised:
1) Hotplug Duet
2) Toggle sample rate (in your DAW or, in the case of iTunes, Audio MIDI Setup)
3) Reload DAW driver (for example, in Logic choose Logic Pro > Preferences > Audio.
Click on the Devices tab, then the Core Audio tab. Uncheck Enabled, then re-check it.
4) In iTunes, stop then re-start audio playback.

Sample rates match in DAW and Duet?
 
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I've seen one other report of this problem with that particular audio interface on that particular size of iMac. The first thing I would do is to call up Apogee and see if it is a known problem with a hardware fix. If they say it's Apple's fault, contact AppleCare and tell them what's happening, and ask them to do an on-site repair visit to replace the power supply with the latest rev of that model's PSU. See if that cures the noise problem.

If neither of those things helps, then you might add a ground lift between the Apogee and your powered speakers, but contact Apogee first and chew them out. These sorts of problems really shouldn't happen on hardware that costs that much money per channel.
 
Thank you for your advice everyone.

I will contact Apogee and Apple and see what is up.

WF
 
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