disabling/moving parts of computer to eliminate fuzz

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cello_pudding

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I used to have an emachine and it didn't have as much to offer. There was no firewire, limited usb, smart media, usb 2.0, not much ram or hd space...so my parents wanted it, and i got a different computer. the thing about the emachine that was GREAT was that it didn't have as much electricity running through it, so i could put my card all the way to the lowest level and then i could just turn the mixer a bit and get it to a decent level without being soft or clipping. when you looked your mic w/ no noise going to it, i could get the signal to be nill. PERFECT. basically i had the ideal s/n. anyways...with the new computer i get this without anything even plugged into my line in.

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could i disable or move things around so i don't have this problem?

i guess the noise is negligable, and an upgrade to some sort of m interface would do me good, but until then, i have to make things as good as i can get them
 
there is a reason for the extra noise. it seems to be the electricity flowing through the computer.

have you ever had aa power supply and a guitar chord close to eachother? it makes the amp buzz.

never mind...i'm just gonna deal with it instead of disabling stuff in my computer so that my computer doesn't put power to them to lessen the noise.
 
i know. i always ask strange questions. i don't think anyone understood what i was saying in that thread either. usually i can just search for simple questions. that's why i make threads for the weird ones.

think of it this way. you're playing guitar and you have a power line close to your chord. the electricity makes noise in the chord and you can hear that in the amp. what i want to do is make no current run to things around my guitar chord or somehow position it somewhere else int he room, away from the current so it doesn't make that fuzz. get it? room=my computer. amp=line in. electrical current to pedals/whatnot=electrical current to my firewire/smartmedia/usb/fan...

the only way to really find out is trial and error i guess. i'll guess that most people are using something a little more pro than their line in, and don't know the answer.

thanks for being a jerk though.
 
I don't think anyone's trying to be a jerk, the question isn't real clear.

Power cables and all other types of cables, including instrument cables shouldn't touch each other to minimize interference between the two.

Is that what you're looking for?
 
ez_willis said:
I don't think anyone's trying to be a jerk, the question isn't real clear.

Power cables and all other types of cables, including instrument cables shouldn't touch each other to minimize interference between the two.

Is that what you're looking for?
Click to expand...

I thought it was perfectly clear. The original poster has an absolutely absurd amount of electrical noise being induced into the audio path after switching computers, with all other factors presumably being equal. The question was how to solve the problem. And it is a problem. That's a -42dB noise floor. Ouch. I get better SNR from my belt sander. :D

When you're dealing with an internal sound card and general hiss, the problem is unlikely to be helped by any rerouting of cables, as hiss isn't significantly introduced in cables. (Yes, a little bit, but at the level shown on that VU meter snapshot, if it were coming into the signal chain as a result of poorly shielded cables, you'd have all sorts of other problems that would utterly dwarf the hiss....)

Long cables tend to result in general volume loss and reduction in certain frequencies (e.g. LF loss from a speaker cable that's too thin). They also tend to pick up hum, pops, chirps, and other very distinct noises. Hiss, by contrast, is much more likely to be caused by having to over-amplify an initially weak signal (or a signal weakened by running through a really, really long cable, but I doubt you have a microphone located three blocks down).

Here are a few things you can try:

1. If any of the problem is hum, consider ground bussing things with heavy gauge copper wire to a solid ground (e.g. the ground prong on a power plug).
2. Try to rule out a lousy power supply. If you have the old machine still, try switching power supplies and see if the problem goes away. All PSUs are not created equal. A low voltage supply rail might cause such a problem, I -think-. I doubt this is the problem, though.
3. If you changed from one sound card to another in the process, try switching back to the original sound card.
4. If you are having to add significantly higher gain to get output, either the new computer has a defective sound card or you've managed to partially break one of the cables that hooks up to it.
5. If you're using a cheap condenser mic, switch to a dynamic and see if the problem goes away.
 
YES!!!! that's what i'm talking about.^^^

i'm going home for thanksgiving to where the other computer is, and the other power chord is. i could make a switch, but i don't know if that's a help.

sadly, this isn't happening with a dynamic/condenser/anything plugged in. this without a single chord plugged into my line in. i've thought about sampling the fuzz and just letting a track of phase reveresed fuzz play for every track i record and bouncing everytime i have one complete "keeper" track. it won't work though, since the fuzz isn't 100% uniform.
 
Please please get it right. It's spelled c-o-r-d.
A chord is a grouping of musical notes. x.x
 
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